International Women's Day March 8, 2024: Apo Baket - Keeper of Time-Honored Tradition and Values (SV2W Series)*

International Women's Day March 8, 2024

Apo Baket'

 Keeper of Time-Honored Tradition and Values

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Life size concrete icon of an old woman, keeper of time-honored traditional values, enshrined at San Vicente Botanical Garden under the care of the author. San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.  Sculptured by Francisco "Boy" Peralta, and restored by Bhoy Adora.  

She is mother, grandmother, guardian, of countless children through generations throughout the world, teaching them the true values of growing up, to adapt to the ever changing environment, save those values that must not change.

She leads the community, church, school, in fact all facets of life, side by side with men, and behind their struggle, in the likes of Tandang Sora, Fe del Mundo, Gabriella Silang, Leona Florentino, along with Florence Nightingale, Saint Mother Teresa. 

She is the ever-loving mother in the Pieta, symbol of universal love and compassion, dedication, and asceticism on the highest level; the ever-loving partner in marital life vowed "till death do us part," core of the family as the primordial social institution. 

She is the widow of honored men in the battlefield, or by circumstances beyond her control, accepting such fate and bravely taking over the responsibility not only for her own sake, but for those under her care, and society itself.  

She keeps the kitchen of old alive and invitingly delectable as ever - pinakbet, kare-kare, ginatan, sinigang, bulalo, la-ing, papaitan, kilawin, surpassing fast foods, extravagantly labelled foods, culinary preparations lavishly advertised.  

She is the storyteller Lola Basyang, pen name of Severino Reyes, around her, children gather to listen to folktales and make-believe stories, including versions of stories from the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, and Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. 

She is the mother or grandmother of overseas workers who leave behind their families to secure a better socio-economic status of their families; and under her care their children grow up properly in spite of the absence of father and mother.

She is the yaya, the traditional nanny, who other than taking care of the nursery and growing children, does varied household chores - cooking, cleaning, laundry, errand, marketing, making housekeeping light on the part of parents and children as well. 

She is the weaver of abel (Ilocano blanket), and many household items made of pandan, buri, and tikiw; maker of the finest dress and formal wears made of pina; maker of fine pottery and china wares; and keeper of the old aparador of antiques and memoirs. 

She is the grandmother in Johanna Spyri's novel Heidi; Madame Curie, greatest woman scientist; Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein, world's scariest bedtime story; Florence Nightingale, the Lady with a Lamp who kept vigil on the sick in the wee hours.   

She is Basang, my auntie-yaya from the time my mother died when I was only two until I went to Manila for college; Lola Usta who painstakingly  applied all local remedies to revive me born a blue baby amidst extreme danger of  WW II breaking out.  

She is the First Lady of a president of state; queen beside a king, or head of state; saint of the church; on the other hand, victim at the gallows; maligned old woman,  the butt of jokes and unkind stories, yet she stands her ground brave and perseverant as the world goes round.  ~

 

Restoration by local sculptor, Bhoy Adora, of the icon originally an unfinished work of the late Francisco "Boy" Peralta, also a native of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

*In celebration of International Women's Day March 8, 2024