Republic of the Philippines

North Eastern Mindanao State University

Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

EL 113
BSED English 2

About the author

Aida Rivera-Ford was born in Jolo, Sulu. She became the editor of the first two issues of Sands and
Coral, the literary magazine of Silliman University. In 1949, she graduated with an AB degree, major in
English, cum laude. In 1954, she obtained an MA in English Language and Literature at the University
of Michigan and won the prestigious Jules and Avery Hopwood for fiction.

She taught at the University of Mindanao and Ateneo de Davao University where
she was the Humanities Division Chairperson for 11 years. In 1980, she founded the first school of Fine
Arts in Mindanao –the Learning Center of the Arts, now known as the Ford Academy of the Arts.

In 1982, the city of Davao recognized her contributions to culture and the arts through Datu Bago
Award. In 1984, she was an awardee in the Phil. Government Parangal for Writers of the post-war
years. In 1991, she was a Gawad CCP awardee for the essay in English. In 1993, she was the
recipient of Outstanding Sillimanian Award for her contributions to literary arts and culture. In 1993, the
UP ICW named her National Fellow for Fiction. She became the director of two NCCA Mindanao-wide
Creative Writing Workshops and two UP National Writers Workshops. As of 1997, she was the
president of the Mindanao Foundation for Culture and the Arts.

LOVE IN THE CORNHUSKS

Aida L. Rivera

Tinang stopped before the Señora’s gate and adjusted the baby’s cap. The dogs that came to
bark at the gate were strange dogs, big-mouthed animals with a sense of superiority. They stuck their

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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

heads through the hogfence, lolling their tongues and straining. Suddenly, from the gumamela row, a
little black mongrel emerged and slithered through the fence with ease. It came to her, head down and
body quivering.

“Bantay. Ay, Bantay!” she exclaimed as the little dog laid its paws upon her shirt to sniff the
baby on her arm. The baby was afraid and cried. The big animals barked with displeasure.
Tito, the young master, had seen her and was calling to his mother. “Ma, it’s Tinang. Ma, Ma, it’s
Tinang.” He came running down to open the gate. “Aba, you are so tall now, Tito.”

He smiled his girl’s smile as he stood by, warding the dogs off. Tinang passed quickly up the
veranda stairs lined with ferns and many-colored bougainville. On landing, she paused to wipe her
shoes carefully. About her, the Señora’s white and lavender butterfly orchids fluttered delicately in the
sunshine. She noticed though that the purple waling-waling that had once been her task to shade from
the hot sun with banana leaves and to water with mixture of charcoal and eggs and water was not in
bloom.

“Is no one covering the waling-waling now?” Tinang asked. “It will die.”
“Oh, the maid will come to cover the orchids later.”
The Señora called from inside. “Tinang, let me see your baby. Is it a boy?”
“Yes, Ma,” Tito shouted from downstairs. “And the ears are huge!”
“What do you expect,” replied his mother; “the father is a Bagobo. Even Tinang looks like a
Bagobo now.”

Tinang laughed and felt warmness for her former mistress and the boy Tito. She sat
selfconsciously on the black narra sofa, for the first time a visitor. Her eyes clouded. The sight of the
Señora’s flaccidly plump figure, swathed in a loose waist-less housedress that came down to her
ankles, and the faint scent of agua de colonia blended with kitchen spice, seemed to her the essence of
the comfortable world, and she sighed thinking of the long walk home through the mud, the baby’s legs
straddled to her waist, and Inggo, her husband, waiting for her, his body stinking of tuba and sweat,
squatting on the floor, clad only in his foul undergarments.

“Ano, Tinang, is it not a good thing to be married?” the Señora asked, pitying Tinang because
her dress gave way at the placket and pressed at her swollen breasts. It was, as a matter of fact, a
dress she had given Tinang a long time ago.

“It is hard, Señora, very hard. Better that I were working here again.”

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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

“There!” the Señora said. “Didn’t I tell you what it would be like, huh? . . . that you would be a
slave to your husband and that you would work a baby eternally strapped to you. Are you not pregnant
again?”

Tinang squirmed at the Señora’s directness but admitted she was.

“Hala! You will have a dozen before long.” The Señora got up. “Come, I will give you some
dresses and an old blanket that you can cut into things for the baby.”
They went into a cluttered room which looked like a huge closet and as the Señora sorted out some
clothes, Tinang asked, “How is Señor?”

“Ay, he is always losing his temper over the tractor drivers. It is not the way it was when Amado
was here. You remember what a good driver he was. The tractors were always kept in working
condition. But now . . . I wonder why he left all of a sudden. He said he would be gone for only two days
. . . .”
“I don’t know,” Tinang said. The baby began to cry. Tinang shushed him with irritation.
“Oy, Tinang, come to the kitchen; your Bagobito is hungry.”

For the next hour, Tinang sat in the kitchen with an odd feeling; she watched the girl who was
now in possession of the kitchen work around with a handkerchief clutched I one hand. She had lipstick
on too, Tinang noted. the girl looked at her briefly but did not smile. She set down a can of evaporated
milk for the baby and served her coffee and cake. The Señora drank coffee with her and lectured about
keeping the baby’s stomach bound and training it to stay by itself so she could work. Finally, Tinang
brought up, haltingly, with phrases like “if it will not offend you” and “if you are not too busy” the purpose
of her visit–which was to ask Señora to be a madrina in baptism. The Señora readily assented and said
she would provide the baptismal clothes and the fee for the priest. It was time to go.

“When are you coming again, Tinang?” the Señore asked as Tinang got the baby ready. “Don’t
forget the bundle of clothes and . . . oh, Tinang, you better stop by the drugstore. They asked me once
whether you were still with us. You have a letter there and I was going to open it to see if there was bad
news but I thought you would be coming.”

A letter! Tinang’s heart beat violently. Somebody is dead; I know somebody is dead, she
thought. She crossed herself and after thanking the Señora profusely, she hurried down. The dogs
came forward and Tito had to restrain them. “Bring me some young corn next time, Tinang,” he called
after her.

Tinang waited a while at the drugstore which was also the post office of the barrio. Finally, the
man turned to her: “Mrs., do you want medicine for your baby or for yourself?”

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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

“No, I came for my letter. I was told I have a letter.” “And

what is your name, Mrs.?” He drawled.
“Constantina Tirol.”

The man pulled a box and slowly went through the pile of envelopes most of which were
scribbled in pencil, “Tirol, Tirol, Tirol. . . .” He finally pulled out a letter and handed it to her. She stared
at the unfamiliar scrawl. It was not from her sister and she could think of no one else who could write to
her.

Santa Maria, she thought; maybe something has happened to my sister.

“Do you want me to read it for you?”

“No, no.” She hurried from the drugstore, crushed that he should think her illiterate. With the
baby on one arm and the bundle of clothes on the other and the letter clutched in her hand she found
herself walking toward home.

The rains had made a deep slough of the clay road and Tinang followed the prints left by the
men and the carabaos that had gone before her to keep from sinking mud up to her knees. She was
deep in the road before she became conscious of her shoes. In horror, she saw that they were coated
with thick, black clay. Gingerly, she pulled off one shoe after the other with the hand still clutching to the
letter. When she had tied the shoes together with the laces and had slung them on an arm, the baby,
the bundle, and the letter were all smeared with mud.

There must be a place to put the baby down, she thought, desperate now about the letter. She
walked on until she spotted a corner of a field where cornhusks were scattered under a kamansitree.
She shoved together a pile of husks with her foot and laid the baby down upon it. With a sigh, she drew
the letter from the envelope. She stared at the letter which was written in English.

My dearest Tinay,

Hello, how is life getting along? Are you still in good condition? As for myself, the same as usual. But you’re far from my
side. It is not easy to be far from our lover.

Tinay, do you still love me? I hope your kind and generous heart will never fade. Someday or somehow I’ll be there again
to
fulfill our promise.
Many weeks and months have elapsed. Still I remember our bygone days. Especially when I was suffering with the heat
of the tractor under the heat of the sun. I was always in despair until I imagine your personal appearance coming forward bearing the
sweetest smile that enabled me to view the distant horizon.

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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

Tinay, I could not return because I found that my mother was very ill. That is why I was not able to take you as a
partner of life. Please respond to my missive at once so that I know whether you still love me or not. I hope you did not love
anybody except myself.

I think I am going beyond the limit of your leisure hours, so I close with best wishes to you, my friends Gonding, Sefarin,
Bondio, etc.

Yours forever,

Amado

P.S. My mother died last month.

Address your letter:
Mr. Amado Galauran
Binalunan, Cotabato

It was Tinang’s first love letter. A flush spread over her face and crept into her body. She read
the letter again. “It is not easy to be far from our lover. . . . I imagine your personal appearance coming
forward. . . . Someday, somehow I’ll be there to fulfill our promise. . . .” Tinang was intoxicated. She
pressed herself against the kamansi tree.

My lover is true to me. He never meant to desert me. Amado, she thought. Amado.

And she cried, remembering the young girl she was less than two years ago when she would
take food to Señor in the field and the laborers would eye her furtively. She thought herself above them
for she was always neat and clean in her hometown, before she went away to work, she had gone to
school and had reached sixth grade. Her skin, too, was not as dark as those of the girls who worked in
the fields weeding around the clumps of abaca. Her lower lip jutted out disdainfully when the farm
hands spoke to her with many flattering words. She laughed when a Bagobo with two hectares of land
asked her to marry him. It was only Amado, the tractor driver, who could look at her and make her
lower her eyes. He was very dark and wore filthy and torn clothes on the farm but on Saturdays when
he came up to the house for his week’s salary, his hair was slicked down and he would be dressed as
well as Mr. Jacinto, the schoolteacher. Once he told her he would study in the city night-schools and
take up mechanical engineering someday. He had not said much more to her but one afternoon when
she was bidden to take some bolts and tools to him in the field, a great excitement came over her. The
shadows moved fitfully in the bamboo groves she passed and the cool November air edged into her
nostrils sharply. He stood unmoving beside the tractor with tools and parts scattered on the ground
around him. His eyes were a black glow as he watched her draw near. When she held out the bolts, he
seized her wrist and said: “Come,” pulling her to the screen of trees beyond. She resisted but his arms
were strong. He embraced her roughly and awkwardly, and she trembled and gasped and clung to him.
...
A little green snake slithered languidly into the tall grass a few yards from the kamansi tree.
Tinang started violently and remembered her child. It lay motionless on the mat of husk. With a shriek
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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

she grabbed it wildly and hugged it close. The baby awoke from its sleep and cries lustily. Ave Maria
Santisima. Do not punish me, she prayed, searching the baby’s skin for marks. Among the cornhusks,
the letter fell unnoticed.

Activity 12: Love in the Cornhusks by Aida L. Rivera

Directions: After reading the short story, you are to make a short video analysis of Love in the
Cornhusks. Carefully read the questions/statements below and answer what is asked. In the
making of your video analysis, follow the guidelines below so you are guided.

Guide Questions:

1. After reading the sort story, discuss the relevance of the story’s title to the entirety of the
story.
a. What does the title say about the story?

The title reflects the genre of the story and it gives a hint of what will be the story
all about. As a reader, the title gives me an idea that the story is a kind of love
story where the love of the two lead characters begins in the cornhusks.

b. Why is it titled Love in the Cornhusk?

The story titled love in the cornhusks because Tinang remembered her lost love
when she read the letter amidst the cornhusks. And also it is in the cornhusks
where the love between tinay and Amado bloom.

c. By reading the title, what does it imply?

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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

The title implies what the story is about. It catches the reader's attention and
reflect the author’s perspective. And it cues readers into the themes of the story.

2. Describe the mood of the story from start to finish.

The mood of the story from start to finish is calm and kinda frustrated and sad. It is calm
because the words that the author used in the story are very simple. I notice that some
of the words used here are in Tagalog, like ano, hala and oy. And the story makes me
feel frustrated and sad at the same time because Tinang and Amado could make a
perfect couple, but because of the unexpected circumstances their love did not last for a
lifetime. Tinang married another guy whom she didn’t like because Amado was far away
from her. But when the time came that Amado and Tinang meet in the second time, they
wanted to continue their love, but the author ended the story where there’s no hint what
happens to the main character which makes me frustrated.

3. Describe Tinang’s character in the story.

Tinang in the story, when she was still young, she is a woman who is neat and clean,
who works in the service of a very rich family. She is envied and admired by other
laborers because of her complexion before marriage. But when she decided to get
married to a Bagobo man and didn’t wait for Amado’s return, she became unkempt and
tired-looking. And she has a baby who she always straddled to her hips and she also
bears another child. Nevertheless, Tinang’s character in the story is a courageous
woman who bravely faced her problems due to her past decisions and at the same time
she have a vulnerable side of a woman too.

4. What Filipino cultures (local colors) are mirrored in the story?

The statement, “ The rains had made her a deep slough of a clay road and Tinang followed the
prints left by men and the carabaos that had gone before her to keep from sinking in mud up to
her knees” It depicts the everyday living of the people in the story. The author also promotes the
customs of an ordinary Filipino. Where it is included in the story the use of Filipino words such
as “carabaos” “tuba” and “kamansi tree.” Tinang has a son and as stated in the story: “…the
baby’s legs straddled to her waist, and Inggo, her husband, waiting for her, his body stinking of
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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

tuba and sweat, squatting on the floor, clad only in his foul undergarments.” the statement
signifies the typical Filipino where they let the baby’s legs straddled to their waist and take care
of their husband who is fond of wearing undergarments only when they are at their respective
houses.

5. What realities about life are revealed by the characters and the happenings in the story?

The realities about life that are revealed by the characters and the happenings in the
story is how hard it can be if we make decisions without thinking if the effects of our
decisions is good or bad. Because the consequences of the decisions we made in the
past could possibly affect us in the present, and probably the future. And having a family
can worn you out, having a family as Señora said “Ano, Tinang, it is not a good thing to
be married?” this statement indicates the hardships that Tinang face when she got
married. Furthermore, the situation of Tinang shows the lifestyle of a woman in real life
context, if a woman belongs to unfortunate family, she carries out all kinds of work just
to have a better life.

6. After learning the message of the Tinang’s letter, what did you fell?

Excitement is what I feel after learning the message of Tinang’s letter. I was thinking
that maybe there’s still a chance that tinay and Amado could be together. And at the
same time, I feel so sorry because their supposed to be happy love story ended up
because of the disappearance of Amado wherein tinay don’t have any idea when will he
comes back and apparently, she married Inggo, a Bagobo man.

7. The author ended the story where the readers are left unresolved as to what happens to
the main character. If you were to make an ending, how would you like to end the story?

If I’m going to write an ending of the story, I will make sure that the story ended with a
resolve ending because I don’t want to leave my readers frustrated and bothered with
the ending. Though, I like the way how the author of the love in the cornhusks ended the
story.

Guidelines and Mechanics:

1. The video analysis should not be more that 8 minutes and not less than 4 minutes.
2. Audio should be audible; use of background music is discouraged.
3. Make sure that the background noise is minimized while recording the video.
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 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Formerly Surigao del Sur Stat e University
Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
Telefax No. 086 -214 -4221
086 - 214 -2723
www.sdssu.edu.p h

4. In the start of the video, don’t forget to introduce your name and the activity that you will
be doing, including the title of the short story that is analyzed.
5. Rename your video before submitting it. Use this format: Last name, First name, and
Middle initial.
6. As much as possible, avoid reading your notes, except when reading the guide questions.
7. This activity is due on May 10, 2022.
8. Submit your video through the link below. This link is also posted in the Google
Classroom.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q-xO_kOjL-7Mli3hhKTxaSUEppW_gq12?usp=sharing

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