Cuyonon aco :)

This feature by Living Asia exposed how rich Palawan culture was, especially Cuyonon. It showcased its richness on music and dances, but it also mentioned about the fading language of Cuyonon. This is really a must-watch :)

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I am a full-blooded Cuyonon since my parents are both natives of Cuyo, and I also spent my childhood and teenage days there for before going to Manila for college. I've been a fluent speaker of Cuyonon (and even Agutaynen, another dialect in an island-municipality) for years already. Before I left Cuyo, I already observed that there are some kids who aren't speaking our native tongue. Some of them speaks Tagalog, and worse, combining Tagalog and Cuyonon, which really sounds awful. I'm not saying that speaking Tagalog is wrong or what, but what I'm saying is we must speak our dialect when we are talking to our fellow Cuyonon. In that way, we're preserving our language that is becoming extinct already. There are some places in Palawan where Cuyonon language was completely lost, and it was just in Cuyo that you'll find a large number of people speaking it fluently and naturally.

In relation to language, another way of conveying it is through music. I think every kid in our island knows more than one folk song. Some of them are King King, Petrona Pipay Dolores, Layang Pasyak, and the ever-popular Ploning. I grew up listening to those songs since Lola really loves them. I remember an instance (I was 5 then) when we had an everyday lecture about those folk songs. My love for those were nurtured come elementary because of some school activities, then later on in high school when I joined PSU-PCAT's Rondalla which usually performs in different cultural presentations.

I'm really happy when I learned that last October, a seminar workshop on Cuyono folk dances and musical instruments (tipano, guitar, banduria, bass, violin) was held. Though I was a bit envy because there was nothing like that during our time. I learned how to play banduria through self-study. Huhu, I really wanted to learn how to play the violin!  We're just quite lucky in our school since we're the only one which has a Rondalla band. Kudos to  the members of the Culture and Arts Guild for putting up an event like that. :)

In one part of the video, it featured on the different dances. The popular one was the Pinundo-Pundo. The two elders are so cute while performing it. :) It is usually done during the weddings. Haha, how I wish it was also done in real weddings until now. During my childhood days, there were groups of teenagers or not-so teenagers anymore who goes house to house and performs Sambali. Its steps were quite similar to Pinundo-Pundo, but the difference was that they sing a certain song while dancing. Another thing that you would easily recognize in them are their sash which indicates their names. But the usual one you'll see is Ploning. I think, some of their "names" in the sash are derived from the characters in some Cuyonon folk songs :)

Even though I'm away for 5 years already, I never ever forget anything about Cuyo. I'm really proud to be a Cuyonon (though some of my friends were teasing me for being proud of it). I want to help preserve our culture in my own little ways. :) I think this is a way of giving back to my hometown that nurtured me, and whose values made me to be the individual that I am now. :)

Estraviva!