Thoughts of death drives young writer to pen winning pieces
By Juan Escandor Jr.
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IRIGA CITY — This young Bicolano writer is preoccupied with death but he said that this unusual thought that lingers in his mind drives him to write literary pieces, which eventually earned awards and recognitions. Kristian Sendon Cordero, 23, poet and fictionist, confessed he feels he’ll die at the age of 40, and assuming he has some 17 years more to live, he wanted to be more productive by creating works that would contribute to Bicol literature.
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Awards
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Cordero’s short story entitled “Langaw” won second prize in the category of short fiction in Filipino in this year’s Palanca Award. It is a dark tale of a poor, abused girl whose sufferings ended tragically by the railroad where she died after being raped by several men.
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He said he wanted to make a statement on violence against women to make people aware of the creeping problem that victimized many helpless girls and women.
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“I cannot forget my aunt who died a violent death in the hands of her husband,” Cordero said. .
He said he originally planned the piece he submitted to Palanca as a poem. But he said he realized it would be better in short story form.
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Cordero said his first draft was in the Rinconada dialect which he did three years ago. Then he revised it three times and translated the short story to Filipino and submitted the piece in the most prestigious literary competition.
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In the past years, the young writer has also won prizes for the poems he submitted to Homelife Magazine’s annual competition. He hit the grand prize in 2004 and placed second prize in 1999 and 2005, respectively.
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“The recognition I received from the Homelife Magazine gave me the affirmation that I can write so I decided to tread the literary path,” Cordero recalled.
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Born to humble parents who have worked abroad to provide them their needs, he and two other younger siblings were left under the care of his maternal grandmother Natividad Sendon. He is the eldest, his sister Filipinas, 21, the second eldest and his brother Bhasier, 20, the youngest.
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At present his mother Ofelia Sendon, a native of this city, has now stayed home for good, while his father Alejandro Cordero from Candaba, Pampanga, continues to work abroad.
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Influence
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“My grandmother Natividad Sendon is a folk healer or parasantigwar. She performs santigwar on people believed under the spell of supernatural beings like engkanto, tawong lipod or maligno,” Cordero revealed. Santigwar, he said, is a folk healing practice and ritual reminiscent of pagan and animistic culture.
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He said that his grandmother, being a parasantigwar, has mercury in her body that the latter believes protects her from bad spirits and forces of darkness.
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Cordero said his grandmother has the greatest influence in his work. She admires her as a woman with a strong character who overcame her own adversities, being the wife of a womanizer husband.
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He said that his grandmother’s character and rituals somehow find their way in his works as he gives importance on her folk rituals that defines the ancient Bicolano natives.
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In his younger years, he said he enjoyed accompanying his grandmother in many of her visits to pilgrimage sites in Tiwi, Albay or Hinulid, Calabanga where she was supposed to recharge her healing power.
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When he was still a kid, he said, he had a fantastic perception that priests and movie stars live forever. So he said, his ambition then was to become one of them, until he grew up and found out that they also die.
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Cordero is outwardly pleasant with his boyish smile despite his preoccupation with death that won’t leave his thoughts and influences his literary pieces he had written.
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He has two books to his name, “Mga Tulang Tulala: Piling Tulang Filipino, Bikol at Rinconada (the spoken dialect in the third district of Camarines Sur) published in 2004 and “Santigwar” (2006). The two books of poems were all published by the Goldprint Publishing House in Naga City.
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