ILIW: LONGING AND BELONGING IN ILOKANO NARRATIVES OF DISPLACEMENTS

Abstract

The Ilocanos take up a vast number of settlers in the US more than some other ethnic groups in the Philippines. Aside from overseas migration, the Ilocanos also have interprovincial mobility which resulted to the spread of Ilocanos in Northern and Central Luzon as well as some parts of Visayas and Mindanao. The interprovincial and inter-country mobility of the Ilocanos resulted in to a diaspora which in turn produced diasporic narratives. This paper focuses on the rediscovery and the re-imagination of Ilocano diaspora experience to show the concept of home, the imaginings of home as shaped by nostalgia, and the formation of identity, and the efforts of self-representation which create and recreate continuously the Ilocanos. Specifically, the paper examines the writings from the diaspora in the in the two winners of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in short fiction in Ilokano namely: Puon (Roots) by Lorenzo G. Tabin, first prize 2002 and Dadapilan (Brotherhood) by Noli S. Dumlao, first prize 2007. Ilokano narratives are gripped with nostalgia and longing to be attached to the homeland. The construction of identity is in consonance with the “Ilocanoness” with the “Ilocandia” as a locus of reference.