Mañanita

CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO

I turned 32 on a Monday wishing that I was back in the little village called Libas in Merida, Leyte so I can have the traditional mañanita that I grew up accustomed since I was nine years old.

After moving to Leyte from Cebu in the mid-90s, I learned to appreciate the rural traditions of the barangay where I spent seven years of my life, practically my awkward teenage years.

In Libas, my siblings and I became active choir members, acolytes and lectors. In this small group, my mother developed friendships with our neighbors, who are also relatives.

There was Mama Marissa and Papa Nanny, technically my father’s aunt and uncle; there was Tiyo Longlong and Auntie Virgie who were always soft-spoken; and Tiya Lorna who lives in a house beside ours with her children.

I still vividly remember their faces, the birthdays and fiestas we celebrated and the songs we sang together.

Our small chapel’s patron saint is Señor Santo Niño so I spent my teenage years dancing Sinulog and singing songs to the Holy Child with my relatives, Mommy’s friends and children my age.

When someone celebrates a birthday, it is expected that friends will go to the birthday celebratant’s house at the crack of dawn to sing birthday songs. It is supposed to be a surprise to the celebrant but in Libas, it is widely practiced that the celebrant would be up as early as 3 a.m. to prepare food and drinks consisting of puto maya, puto cheese, sikwate, budbud and corn coffee.

My mother, Maria Elena, would go all out on this day.

Aside from the usual kakanin spread, she would prepare Brazo de Mercedes and different types of cakes. There are options for those who want to have a heavy breakfast of rice, eggs and dried fish but traditionally, the early morning feast is just painit delicacies, which literally means “to warm the stomach.” It is the prelude to a loaded and solid breakfast feast and later in the day, a birthday feast that consists of more than 10 dishes of pork, pancit and chicken.

We call it mañanita but in Mexico and other Latin American countries it is actually “Las mañanitas” or birthday songs sang to awaken the celebrant or before eating a cake.

How I loved hearing the strumming of the guitar, usually by Manoy Tonyo, as my Mom’s friends sang birthday songs in Visayan and English. The repertoire usually concludes with the usual “Happy Birthday” song. It is a wonderful way to wake up in the morning in the company of people who wish nothing but the best for a person.

A song that I still remember and hold close to my heart has these lyrics:

Today is your birthday/ Your most special day/ You must be happy more than yesterday/ Forget all your sorrows/ It’s time to rejoice/ Today is your birthday/ Your most awaited day

You know how it is when you are so used to something that you tend to take it for granted? That was me towards mañanita.

I only longed for it when I left home to study at the University of the Philippines Cebu College. My college classmates and I did a mañanita though for our friend who lived at the UP Cebu dorm, which our late UP professor Mike Mende described as songs sang by “squeaking voices.”

That was in 2004.

It has been 14 years of no mañanita — and I miss it. I guess I feel the nostalgia because I realize that my age, 32, is now a number that cannot be found in the calendar. I feel that I should sing more and spend more time with family and friends.

I wish my friends sang for me. Since nobody did, I chose to do it to another person who turned 51, four days after my birthday. The mañanita will happen tomorrow morning. No worries, she will not be able to read this.

I made sure of that. My mother, Maria Elena, is now 51 years old and I cannot wait to sing and cook for her over the weekend.

Now let us hope I can convince my siblings and cousins to wake up at 3 a.m. for Mom’s mañanita.