Unending search for answers

NOCHE Buena is a high that crash-lands the next morning. Hangover, indigestion, lack of sleep, thoughtless gifts or, worse, thoughtful ones that likewise end up recycled over the next year. One reliable economic indicator for me was the number and quality of presents waiting under the Christmas tree. We would also post Christmas cards on the wall and cringe at the number of fruit cakes we had to recycle. In recent years, fruitcakes have become extinct. I didn't receive a single fruitcake this year. Christmas cards were not enough to fill our glass sliding doors.

First I blamed the economy. Then I asked the family if I needed underarm deodorant or mouthwash. There is less cheer this year. Candles, incense and homemade soaps replaced fruit cakes last year. This year there was none. The lack of Christmas cards can be blamed on e-mail and texting. Snail mail is definitely out. We weren't even advised to post letters and parcels early and beat the so-called Christmas rush. No matter how bleak the Christmas tree was this year, I still look forward to New Year's Eve and the carnival we call an election next year.

On the threshold of a new year, I hope I can find answers to some questions that have been brought up during the year like: How come there is no lumpiang Shanghai in Shanghai? How come there is no pancit Canton in Canton? No Bangkok santol in Bangkok? No Vienna sausage in Vienna? No longanisang Macao in Macao? No arroz a la Cubana in Havana? How come the tacos we know and enjoy here is not the same as those served in Mexico? How come what we know as "Spanish sardines" are not quite the same as sardines from Spain? While we are on the subject of canned sardines, have you ever noticed that one of the traditional brands from Portugal sold locally is called "Mabuti"? Perhaps the distributors give us brands that are traditional. For example, queso de bola is actually edam cheese from Holland, but when abroad I have never encountered the familiar trademarks -- Pato and Piña (they come with the appropriate drawing) -- that to Filipinos are sure indicators of Christmas as Santa Claus. Come to think of it, if Santa Claus was a 19th century invention made popular by greeting cards and Coca-Cola in the 20th century, who was the Christmas icon in the Philippines during the Spanish period?

So many questions, so little time. While we are on the subject of food, how come we have some disgusting names for certain food? The best example is the sticky sweetened coconut snack popular in Baguio. It's a small piece packaged inside a wooden container and sealed with red tape. In polite terms, it is known as matamis na bao but its popular (or should I say vulgar) name is kulangot because it does resemble snot. Sometimes racism rears its head and it is called kulangot ng Intsik. Why it isn't called kulangot ng Igorot escapes me.

Then there is the dried mushroom called tengang daga because it does resemble rat ears. Surely there is a more appetizing term for the same mushroom.

Then there is the sweet puff snack covered with ground peanut known in Tagalog as linga. In Pampanga it is known as taklang pusa (cat droppings). In some places, I have heard the side dish of fermented rice or buro called, as it looks, sukang pusa (cat vomit).

So much for food. I also have a long wish list of things I hope to find one day. Foremost is the long lost monograph Jose Rizal wrote on the mali-mali or sakit latar in Malay. Was this merely descriptive, or did he suggest a cure?

I also dream of finding the long lost letters of Suzanne Jacoby to the national hero that were extant in the National Library before the war but were suspiciously left out of the six-volume compilation of Rizal's correspondence or the Epistolario Rizalino. Then I wonder what Rizal wanted for Christmas in 1996 aside from getting cleared of rebellion charges.

There are so many questions that have not been given corresponding answers. Some of these questions have been posed by Benedict Anderson well over 13 years ago, the most intriguing being: Did Andres Bonifacio dream in color? Or what is the Filipino word for orgasm?

In the unending search for answers, I have learned that more often than not, the process is more rewarding than the answer itself. That is, if I find the answer at all.

Reading up 19th-century accounts for Christmas columns, I came across part of a letter Marcelo H. del Pilar wrote in Madrid in 1890. It was addressed to his wife Tsanay and approximates the experience of thousands of expatriate Filipinos today. I did not translate it from the original Tagalog and share it in the spirit of the season:

"Ngayon ay Pasco tila nakikinita ko ang saya ninyo rian. Ako'y hindi lubhang malumbay sa Pascong ito na para ng isang taong halos lahat ng taong nahihiga sa sakit. Ngayon ay mabuti ang panahon, ang lamig ay hindi lubhang masasal, kagabi ay nagtipin kami nila Rizal, marami kaming taga riang nag noche buena, ang mesa naming kinanan ay ang kaliwang kamay ng bawat isa, at ang kanan ang pansubo: ang kinain namin ay kanin, pavo, lechong may salsang para ng salsa rian, sapagkat ang nangusina ay Filipino. Nang maghiwahiwalay kami ay a las cinco na ng umaga. Ako'y hapong-hapo na kaya hindi ako palalauig."

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu