TAPATAN

“TAPATAN”
Dec. 1, 1993 – 10:00 p.m.

A while ago, an artist friend of mine, Henry Braulio gifted me with a painting (oil on canvass) of TAPATAN,the brook at the back of our house in Alfonso, Cavite. It is just behind the Sacred Heart School of Cavite (formerly Cavite Highland Institute where I finished my high school in 1952).

It is called Tapatan (straight passageway) because it is used to be the shortcut (meaning, straightway) from Alfonso to Mendez. Immediately upon receiving the gift, nostalgic memories came in procession back to my mind.

Most of my childhood was spent in that brook together with my playmates. It was where we used to take a bath, wash our clothes and went picnicking during summer time when the flow of water was obstructed by piles and piles of stones and woods to create artificial (or is it natural) swimming pool. In that kind of pool I learned how to swim, to catch frogs and small fishes. With other children we played a lot in that summer pool.

During the Japanese Occupation, people of Alfonso, together with some evacuees from other places used the riverbank as temporary hiding place for safety purposes. It was then like a Barrio Fiesta with every family having a makeshift stall very similar to the Barrio 'tiangge'.

It was also the brook (we call river) where Padre Luis MOjica , according to old folks, used to pass even when it was flooded. Padre Luis possessed anting-anting (amulet) that allowed him to walk on water by just waving a white handkerchief and throwing 'talupak' (the base of a dried palm leaf).

I remember how almost all the boys crowded the riverbank when some American evacuees took their bath in their bathing suits. During the Feast of St. John the Baptist every June 24th of the year Ilog Tapatan was full of picnickers. There was no available transportation then that families just gather in nearby brooks like Tapatan to spend their recreational activities.

Henry’s painting captured the beauty, the serenity and even the mystery of Tapatan. The predominantly green shade is very relaxing, as if possessing a strong healing vibration that rejuvenates the onlookers.

It was made alive by the presence of an old woman washing clothes. It used to be crowded with other “maglalaba” (laundry women) especially during Saturdays. Gone are those days and gone are the noises of the playing children.

There are now signs of pollution. Garbage is beginning to pile up on every side of the pathway to the brook. Even the water is no longer crystal clear. Floating on it are plastic containers and other rotting trash.

For posterity, Henry Braulio was able to put on canvass the original mystery of Ilog Tapatan. I will cherish his gift forever.