BALETE BANWA KO

Balete Banwa Ko by Cip Lachica is a mural-like oil painting in 1.47 m x 3.14 m canvass completed on August 2009.

The Boatman and the Fisherfolks

Mayor Noemi Calizo-Cordero has commissioned the Baleten-on artist to come up with something that would depict a Baleten-on panorama. The result was this transcendental realism on the historicity of the Baleten-on people. In the tradition of Amorsolo, Cip manages to catch the gentle breeze and the sunlight as he portrays a pristine clear Jal-o River that was full of life. Then he shows us a boatman (please take note of his talibong—a locally soldered sword—proudly displayed in his hip) and his wife coming off Balete, Banwa Ko: Cip Lachica’s Transcendent Realism on the Baleten-on Historicity from the mountains and hills of Oquendo, Guanko and Cortes with their produce. They are the so-called “taga-ilaya” juxtaposing (read: set to doing barter trade) with the fishermen from the swamps of Calizo and Aranas the “taga-ilawod”. The topography and the structures in the background manage to assert the paradigm of historicity as the Baleten-ons consciously define their role in the globalization of their once sleepy town by the Jal-o River.

The Reapers

The Balete Tree, from which the village by the river of Jal-o was named after, remains sturdy and tall sheltering life from the elements. It takes the center stage and acts as the balancing and unifying object of the composition. In it stands the Archangel Rafael, patron of the Baleten-on people, the stranger who looks over them, healer of their blindness and other malaise, their companion in their journey, their advocate before the Most High. Finally, in his attempt to transcend realism without taking away from the players their active involvement in defining the history of Balete, he introduces us to a dove pinching a bunch of aural ivory lassos spreading across the whole canvass. Peace and unity, it tries to convey; it supposes the future each and every Baleten-on has to strive after. We are to understand our past, to be at peace with the present and hopeful we ought to be for an integrated better Balete in the future.

The obra as it hangs on the wall of the lobby of the Balete Town Hall

Source: a. dela cruz @ scribd.com