October 10 will be marked red in the calendar as this blog is officially started this date.
This site is called Ilocano Pride as it will tackle how proud the Ilocanos are with their pagka-Ilokano. It will contain different topics that will show the Ilocano ancestry, culture, language and most of all the people. Great Ilocanos in the past and at present will be showcased, history, present and future events and everything that will relate to this blog theme will be rendered.
Yes, Ilocano Pride, but why not the language itself will be used in this site? Simply because this site is not only for Ilocanos but for everybody who will visit this site. Anyone who is not Ilocano will learn how proud is the Ilocano race. For the Ilocanos, it will teach them more why they should be always keep the flame of this Ilocano pride.
Dear Ilocano Pride blogger,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog. It has been very helpful.
I am an Ilocana by blood. My mother hails from Ilocos Norte, my father from La Union whose mother is a member of the Bago tribe. My first language is Ilocano followed by English then Tagalog. I was born in Ilocos Norte, raised in Northeast Luzon (Isabela) for the first 16 years of my life and has been living in the megacity of Manila since then.
Sadly, I know very little of the history of the Ilocanos. Having been away from home for a long time, I have quite forgotten what being Ilocano is like. Living in a city like this away from my family can change a person radically, greatly. I can't even manage to speak Ilocano fluently nowadays. And I have forgotten most of our traditional beliefs, no matter how ridiculous some of them in this age are, and the stories of the old folks that I heard from my grandfather when I was a toddler.
What piqued my interest to google for cultural & historical sites about the Ilokanos is this surge of a deep need to search for my roots. The best way to do it of course is to go home and have extended visits to my grandparents' homes. But time has been a scarce commodity for me lately. Yet it seems that I have lost something vital along the way for having forgotten who the Ilocanos are, for having forgotten who I am.
Yours is the first blog I stumbled upon and I was pleasantly surprised that I have much to be proud of among the Ilocanos. The Ilocanos are certainly not known for their beauty, though they are beautiful, nor for ostentatious wealth. It seems that the Ilokanos stand out for their wanderlust, courage, leadership, humility, industry, and prudence. It gives me hope that perhaps these increasingly rare admirable character traits still flow in my blood, latent and awaiting to be awaken.
Thank you once more. I hope you continue to blog about this proud and hard-working race.
Best,
M