San Vicente Ilocos Sur to the World Series
Renaissance Man: Fredelito L Lazo
Story teller, teacher, public servant, rolled in one
Dr Abe V Rotor
Classmate in elementary at San Vicente Central School (now San Vicente Integrated School 1952-57); high school at the Colegio de la Immaculada Concepcion (CIC, now Divine Word College of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, 1958-1961)
Three-in-one is a rare phenomenon in a person: multi-awarded literary writer and playwright, dynamic teacher, and dutiful public servant.
We don't have to go far to find that person; he is here, a native of a relatively small town - San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, a hike west of Vigan, the provincial capital. He is indigenous, a true Ilocano, in his everyday dealings with the public as provincial secretary; in his literary compositions of short stories and stage plays about local people, places and events; and in his methodology of instruction as a high school teacher.
Fredelito L Lazo
Lito, as we, his classmates in elementary and high school, call him, is the silent type of a person, nonetheless friendly and helpful. They say that it is in solace that one draws out creative thoughts, soaring into the depths only the imagination can reach. It is also a retrospection for memories come afresh and alive. In both cases creativity flourishes in dichotomy with the faculty of reason, converging into the making of a masterpiece.
Creativity is a gift. But more than that, it is a gift well earned. And it has a price - and a prize as well. Indeed, this is life's mystery. A painful experience becomes a story of courage, tragedy turns to victory, loneliness leads to a soulful communion with the Creator. Doubt traces an untrodden path. "Sweet is sweeter after pain," said our English teacher, Mrs Socorro Villamor. She would recite William Cullen Bryant's
To a Waterfowl. And she would ask us to memorize this chosen stanza.
"He who, from zone to zone,Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,In the long way that I must tread alone,Will lead my steps aright. "
Lito would recite the stanza, and each of us in class would do the same. We compared the theme with that of Percy Shelly's To a Skylark. They are prayers, and the message is one - that throughout our life wherever we go God is going to be with us, guiding us down the right path.
In our age of electronics, I would liken Lito to the brave warrior in A Never Ending Story, for Lito has gone through difficult stages of life and even reached the "edge of Fantasia," where reality and fantasy divide, where the greatest enemy is oneself. But it is by overcoming this enemy that we truly earn a place on the highest rung of the Maslow's Ladder, that of self-actualization. It is through this rough and thorny road that made Lito win literary awards, four in short stories published in Bannawag, the leading Ilokano weekly magazine. It is through this experience that he earned a respectable position in the local government, and for becoming an effective mentor.
These are but the later chapters of life. The Second World War erupted as he came into this world, a war baby, and when peace finally returned after four tumultuous years, the task of rehabilitation denied him, like many of us kids in his time, the comforts of childhood, but instead tempered him to face the realities of life - an initiation to Robert Frost's famous line, "And miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep."
Three institutions Lito worked with and served the people - old and young alike, in the true spirit of an Ilocano: Ilocos Sur National High School; Benito Soliven Academy, Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur; and the Provincial Capitol of Ilocos Sur.
The plot of Lito's personal life is the basis of many of his stories and stage plays (zarzuela), the original people's telenobela of today. His writings and plays reflect him as a disciple of positivism, an ability to hold back the dark side, and instead project the bright one. It projects the heroes in Ernest Hemingway's stories, and the adventurous kids of Mark Twain. It is the determination in treasure hunting in Robert Louis
Stevenson stories, and the drummer boy who never learned to beat the sound of retreat.
Writers take us to the realm of detachment and contemplation, a characteristic of the great writers such as Russian short story writer, Anton Chekov, who is immortalized in a statue in Kiev, Ukraine, and that of sculptor Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. Well, we all experience such moment, but there are those who are sensitive in capturing a fleeting idea - Carpe diem, in The Dead Poet Society. From a writer this "spark of genius" grows into a literary flame. Call it in other terms - expression, awakening, erudition - or institutional titles like Dawn, Arise, Eureka!
Imagine how an artist would teach the varied subjects in high school. Literature, humanities and English would be fine, but how about the other subjects? There is no conflict about that. Experts say, generalization now; specialization later. But today, there's a growing demand for the return of Liberal Arts - a revival of a balanced left and right brain tandem. It is a global renaissance in education. This is where Lito the teacher, has advantage over teachers in general. Liberal art is putting values in education, values that make the student not just a learned biological being, but as an enlightened member of humanity with the finest in character towards himself, his fellowmen, Nature, and his Creator.
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Today, there's a growing trend to return to Liberal Arts - a revival of a balanced left and right brain tandem, the key to the wholeness of the human being. It is a global renaissance in education.
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We can't help but go back to the wisdom the Greeks handed to the whole world: Philosophy is traced to Socrates, idealism to Plato, and naturalism to Aristotle. Then there is a truth- searching Diogenes, a serendipitous Archimedes, a master story teller Homer, and a great warrior laying the cornerstone of global order, Alexander. Finally, there is the Academia, the forerunner of the university, the seat of wisdom.
The relevance of this citation is far-reaching, but it is reflected in the life and works of Lito. Lito is an idealist, and yet real, for how can one serve the public sans the Grecian touch? To teach without mythology? It is said that "legends make us heroes, and myths gives us wings." How can we reach out for the grass roots, without popular drama, something the masses can identify themselves to be a part of a drama - on or off the stage - in Shakespeare's adage, "The world is a stage and every one of us has a role to play."
But Lito has yet to hurdle another test - that of the infirmities of old age, romantically the golden years. Following his retirement he has never truly stopped. On his study table await stories and plays to write and complete. A loving wife guides him in his walk. With five successful children, and grandchildren, his mailbox and e-mail, are never wanting of good cheer. The community holds high esteem of him. His students have become teachers like him, public servants, and writers, albeit other careers. "Once a teacher, always a teacher," but to Lito, "a teacher builds teachers." It is passing on the torch of wisdom and character.
We can't help but go back to the wisdom the Greeks handed to the whole world: Philosophy is traced to Socrates, idealism to Plato, and naturalism to Aristotle. Then there is a truth- searching Diogenes, a serendipitous Archimedes, a master story teller Homer, and a great warrior laying the cornerstone of global order, Alexander. Finally, there is the Academia, the forerunner of the university, the seat of wisdom.
The relevance of this citation is far-reaching, but it is reflected in the life and works of Lito. Lito is an idealist, and yet real, for how can one serve the public sans the Grecian touch? To teach without mythology? It is said that "legends make us heroes, and myths gives us wings." How can we reach out for the grass roots, without popular drama, something the masses can identify themselves to be a part of a drama - on or off the stage - in Shakespeare's adage, "The world is a stage and every one of us has a role to play."
But Lito has yet to hurdle another test - that of the infirmities of old age, romantically the golden years. Following his retirement he has never truly stopped. On his study table await stories and plays to write and complete. A loving wife guides him in his walk. With five successful children, and grandchildren, his mailbox and e-mail, are never wanting of good cheer. The community holds high esteem of him. His students have become teachers like him, public servants, and writers, albeit other careers. "Once a teacher, always a teacher," but to Lito, "a teacher builds teachers." It is passing on the torch of wisdom and character.
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