Thanks, Cebu media

RAYMUND FERNANDEZ

Kinutil takes this opportunity to thank Cebu media for its help in announcing to the public the book “Kamingaw: An Impressionist Portrait of the Bisaya Painter Martino A. Abellana.” This book is published by the University of San Carlos Press and uses as one major source the research project “Chronicling the Art of Martino A. Abellana.”

This, so far, unpublished research was done circa 1991–1992 by Estela Ocampo-Fernandez, Ma. Christina Martinez-Juan, Jovi Juan and this writer, Raymund L. Fernandez way back when they were all young literature and art teachers.

The research project was funded by the University of the Philippines. The researchers were members of the faculty of what was in the ’90s the Humanities Division under which the fine arts program belonged.

Thus, the book “Kamingaw” is the result of the combined achievements of two Cebu universities, the University of San Carlos and the University of the Philippines Cebu.

It represents an achievement along the tradition of universities actively participating in the growth both of local as well as the national culture. The book itself contains a list of all whom the author thanks for the book.

He failed to include in the listing Cebu media. And he should have because it was under the auspices of media that he grew to become a writer.

The book itself mentions how many of Cebu’s writers start out writing news, features and columns published in Cebu community newspapers. It is a tradition which persists to this day. Media was where local writers could see their works printed.

There were, of course, the national dailies, magazines like the Free Press, Bisaya, Graphics, etc. But the idea of submitting manuscripts to these outlets seemed like a daunting task for most young writers of the ’70s and ’80s.

Local community outlets certainly contributed much to encouraging the development of the writing craft among young people.

This author is often asked this question: Are you a visual artist who writes or a writer who does visual arts?

This is a difficult question for me to answer. And mainly because I never really had to choose between writing and doing art. I believe these are crafts that “draw from the same well” inside us. I still remember my mother, Consuelo Lozada-Fernandez, teaching me how to write the letters of the alphabet. She taught me how to read and gave a good example of the pleasures one derives from it.

She read all the time. When I was a child, it was common family practice to troop to the Dumanjug Municipal Library where we borrowed books and regular journals like Reader’s Digest.

It was my mother who asked me to write letters for her to my siblings Margie and Gerry when they immigrated to the United States. For doing this, I got first pick of T-shirts, shoes, art supplies, food and books that they sent home regularly. There was never a time when I doubted the possible benefits I could derive from knowing how to write.

After I graduated college, my mother asked me to get a “real” job. My sister and second mother, Gingging, put me in touch with her writer friends, especially Atty. Manuel Satorre and Resil Mojares. Later, there would be Cookie Newman, Erma Cuizon and others who were editors of local publications and weekly magazines. In this sense, I can truly say I was formed as a writer by editor who taught, it is not entirely about writing. It’s all about editing, editing, editing.

I became a painter and sculptor also in due course. I believe I became better at these because I understood in the most immediate and practical sense the usefulness and pleasure of reading and writing. Reading and writing are the very heart of media. Thank you, Cebu media.