Karl Gaspar’s ‘Buhi sa Kanunay’ book launched in Davao City
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 December) – Prolific Mindanawon writer Bro. Karl M. Gaspar, CsSR, who has written at least 34 books in the last four decades, launched his latest, Buhi sa Kanunay (Forever Alive) Celebrating Friendships through Time, here on Saturday, November 30, attended by around 100 individuals representing different age spectrums from various organizations in Mindanao and other parts of the country.
A book of eulogies and tributes, Buhi sa Kanunay contains 43 stories, mostly Mindanawons, of individuals who have touched his and the lives of others.
Most of the individuals included in the book have passed on, including Marawi Bishop Bienvenido “Tatay Bido” Tudtud, columnists Alex Orcullo of Davao and Conrado de Quiros; Redemptorist priests Rudy Romano, the desaparecido, and Amado “Picx” Picardal who helped document the Davao Death Squad killings; Senator Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno and a Mrs. Tolentino, the author’s Grade 3 teacher at the Digos Central Elementary School when he was nine years old.
Mrs. Tolentino, whose first name the author could no longer recall, is Gaspar’s first story for Part 1 or the Eulogies and Remembrances. He described her as “one of the many teachers who have contributed to my growth as a human being, perhaps the first one who opened my mind to the wonders of education and made me appreciate the learning process.
Part 2 or Ode to Friendship, which is about his friends who are still alive, opens with his “Best Friends Forever” Norma Javellana and Jeanette “Jet” Birondo-Goddard, now in their 70s like the author (he is 77), who served as emcees during the book launch at The BauHaus here. They have been friends for 61 years now, since first year college.
Buhi sa Kanunay is a love song with its lyrics responding to anyone’s yearning for a love that lasts forever. Its music is so haunting, combining the strains of kundiman and Bisaya love songs which is easy to learn and stays firmly in the mind, according to the 411-page book.
Written by Justino Romea, a Boholano, some lyrics of the song go like these:
“Buhi sa kanunay g di ko hikalimtan
Ang gugma’ng gibati ko
Nga ania ning dughan
Gugma kining way pagkalaya”
(Forever alive and unforgettable
My love that I feel for you
Ensconced in my heart
It is a love that will not fade)
The book launch here was the third. The first was online last November 16 for friends and readers around the world, and the second in Cebu where Gaspar is based, on November 23.
Many of Gaspar’s eulogies were published in “A Sojourner’s View,” his column in MindaNews, which is keeping an archive of its contents accumulated since 2001 or 23 years of covering Mindanao’s different faces and facets.
Karl talks about friendship at the launch of his latest book, ‘Buhi sa Kanunay’ (Forever Alive) Celebrating Friendships through Time, in Davao City on Saturday, 30 November 2024. MindaNews photo by BONG SARMIENTO
“I was able to access all that I had written (on) eulogies and I realized that it was quite a big number already. And to supplement it, I said, maybe I can write remembrances to people who have passed away (whom) I never had the chance to either write a eulogy or to deliver the elegy during their funeral,” he said in his talk before the book signing.
Gaspar, who was detained during martial law under Marcos Sr., said he added Part 2 for friends who are still alive since if all of the book contents would just be about eulogies and remembrances, as his editor-friend Vicky Cruz commented, “it would be depressing.”
He said he is grateful for the gift of friendship.
“Somehow God has gifted me with the ability to make friends and to make them last a long time,” he told the crowd, his friends who were present nodding in agreement.
But even after death, friendships do not end, Gaspar stressed.
“They continue to haunt you, make you feel that they are still present in your life and so on. Writing eulogies and now reading them certainly make us realize that they never really went away. They have never departed from you. Every now and then we think of them,” he said.
Out of the 34 books that Gaspar has written so far (including novels in Cebuano) since 1984, 15 titles are cited in Buhi sa Kanunay, including How Long: Prison Reflections of Karl Gaspar (1984), The Masses are Messiah: Contemplating the Filipino Soul (2010), and a Hundred Years of Gratitude (2017).
Redemptorist Paolo Batller read the book review written by Dr. Jose Jowel Canuday.
The Kaliwat Performing Artists Collective welcomed the crowd with Mindanawon songs and dances. Tagakaolu anthropologist Matet Gonzalo did the opening prayer while the Davao-Redemptorist Theologians sang during the opening and before Gaspar spoke, sang the Beatles’ “With a little help from my friends.” (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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