Journey to SELF

In a world of luxury and comfort, where cable TV, the Internet, Hollywood movies, European fashion and showbiz gossip take over our daily lives, sometimes it is necessary to disconnect ourselves from our comfort zones, and go through a journey of self-discovery.

Once in a while, an event happens in our lives that touches us deeply and changes us forever. Deep in the forests of Oriental Mindoro, the transformation comes easily.

Beneath the soaring trees, steep trails and rocky rivers, one finds several Mangyan communities who, unexpectedly, will open your eyes to many things.

The Mangyans are the ancient and original inhabitants of Mindoro driven into the mountains to avoid religious conversion by the Spaniards, raids by Moro pirates and the influx of migrants. Today, they number about 100,000 or ten percent of Mindoro’s population.

Anthropologists have classified the Mangyans into major groups according to location. The Alangan, Iraya and Tadyawan tribes live in the northern part, while the Bangon, Buhid, Tau-Buid, Hanunoo and Ratagnon tribes dwell in the southern part.

To this day, the Mangyans are treated as inferior human beings and considered uncivilized. Their lack of knowledge of the law puts them at a disadvantage in their fight to retain ancestral lands.

The stillness of the forest complements the Mangyans’ silent lives, occasionally interrupted by visiting tourists in search of naked savages, a result of ill-conceived notions that arise from the pejoration of the word tribe. However, there are some who trek to their bucolic paradise and find appreciation in the Mangyans and work at preserving their heritage.

One of them is Quint Delgado Fansler, President of the Mangyan Heritage Center (mhc), an organization that unstintingly works at raising people’s awareness about the Mangyans.

Together with colleagues from the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (citem), I recently traveled to Oriental Mindoro with Quint to visit three of the Mangyan villages.

Quint possesses an unmistakable charm that draws the Mangyans, or anyone, closer to him. Although his compassion for these indigenous peoples is palpable, at first glance it was quite difficult to imagine a well-to-do Filipino-American like him living in the boondocks for two years. But it doesn’t take long for the answer to hit you right in the face.

Quint is a person completely devoid of pretensions. In Mindoro, he negotiated his way through ravaging waters with great ease, comfortably walked around in his slippers, and rejoiced at the fact that he didn’t have to wear fancy clothes.

After graduating from Georgetown University in 1998, Quint joined the Ateneo de Manila’s Jesuit Volunteer Program (jvp). "I didn’t know I was going to be involved with a media ngo in Oriental Mindoro until the week before I left," he recalls.

He was tasked to work on a Mangyan Awareness Program with the Mangyan Mission, a church-based organization led by Fr. Ewald Dinter, svd, that assists tribal communities in affirming their cultural identity while helping them adapt to the modern world.

Quint developed a friendship with Fr. Dinter (whom he and the Mangyans fondly call Amang), and soon joined him on visits to different Mangyan communities. Not long after, Quint met Antoon Postma, a Dutch man who has lived with the Mangyans for 40 years. "I had already read a lot of his work and was very excited and anxious to meet him," he says. "Towards the end of my jvp year I found myself taking on any project that dealt with the Mangyans. I grabbed every opportunity to make trips to any of the villages. Before I knew it, I was making those trips alone, venturing further and further into the mountains, and working on projects that had less and less to do with the media ngo I was initially assigned to."

At this stage, Quint realized that there was something–what, he couldn’t explain–about the Mangyans that struck a chord in him. He was certain though that this was eventually going to alter the course of his life.

"My jvp program ended in May 1999 and I decided to stay on in Mindoro. By then I had spent enough time with the Mangyans to really see the beauty of their culture and notice the intricate differences as well as similarities between them," he enthuses.

Quint tells me of his years spent out of the country–the indepen-dence, intellectual challenge and the high standards set for everything. He immensely enjoyed all these. But at the end of the day, he was still in search for meaning, something that would feed his hungry soul. "Somehow, deep in the forests, I found out who I am," he thoughtfully shares.

Inspired by and with help from Dinter and Postma, Quint established mhc in 2000. "The center was put up to change the negative perception held by many lowland Mindorenos of their Mangyan neighbors."

MHC is first and foremost a library and research center. Currently, it has over 1,000 theses, studies and journals on the Mangyans which include those of noted anthropologists Harold Conklin, Volker Schults and Masaru Miyamoto, photographs, artifacts and copies of documents of Mangyan encounters dating back to 1570.

Evidently, the task of gathering all these references ad relics has been daunting. But Quint feels that there is still so much he can do for the Mangyans. "As a Filipino, I believe the cultural heritage of the Mangyans is worth preserving and celebrating. Indigenous groups like them represent the closest thing to being a Filipino."

To celebrate their heritage, Quint, through the mhc and help from the Mangyan Mission, is putting up an exhibit called Mangyans of Mindoro: Myth and Meaning. The exhibit will be held in coordination with Manila F.A.M.E. International’s Cultural Heritage Program organized by citem.

"Myth and Meaning will feature beautiful poems and incredible photographs we have documented through the years as well as new ones," excitedly shares Quint. "It will also showcase crafts made by the Mangyans."

Amazingly, in between hectic preparations for the exhibit, Quint still manages to attend to another job as a consultant to a government agency to develop plans for SMEs.

But there is no doubt that helping the Mangyans is Quint’s passion. In the dark of night, deep in the forests of Mindoro, we talked about the extraordinary people with whom we were going to spend the night in the mountains. It was in this same forest that Quint found himself. Remarkably enough, so did I.

The Mangyan Heritage Center wishes to acknowledge the Mangyan Mission, Phinma Foundation, Ala-ala Foundation and the Toyota Foundation for the invaluable support they have extended in mounting the exhibit.

"Mangyans: Myth and Meaning" can be viewed at the World Trade Center (Gil Puyat Ave. cor Roxas Blvd.) during the Manila F.A.M.E. International, open to the public on Oct. 26

Vist the mhc at Bishop Finnemann Compound, Calero, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, tel. (043) 288-5318, email [email protected] or visit www.mangyan.org.