Vanguard of the East

The term “vanguard of the east” was used by Opus Dei founder St. Josemaría Escrivá in reply to the message of the first Filipino girls who attended the UNIV* in Rome in 1974. He said, “…you Filipinos are the vanguards of Christ in the East. With that charming little face, you have all the non-Christian peoples open to you. You have to bring Christ to all those people over there! May you be holy!”

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo would later recall in 1976, “Every time the Founder of Opus Dei met up with Filipinos, he often told them very affectionately, ‘You who are the vanguards of the Catholic Church throughout the East, you are welcome and well received everywhere. You are like a miracle of God there in the East, a nation that is so Catholic, with so much devotion to the Blessed Virgin, with so much love for Our Lord in the Eucharist.’”

Thus, there is no other fitting title for the first book that chronicles the expansion of Opus Dei in the Philippines than this oft-quoted phrase from the Founder’s lips. Written by Ana Labrada, one of the first few Spanish women who moved to live in the Philippines, the first edition of the book came out in Spanish, entitled La Vanguardia del Oriente. The English translation (The Vanguard of the East) was launched in UA&P on April 29, 2017.

Following are excerpts from the speech delivered by Professor Daisy Lopez, who translated the work from Spanish to English.

It is my great pleasure to attend today’s launching ceremony for the new edition (an English translation) of the book La Vanguardia del Oriente (“The Vanguard of the East”).

As a literature professor, please allow me to begin with an appraisal, an assessment, of the literary value of the book.

Ana Labrada’s work fits perfectly well within the current trend of nonfiction writing. As we know, today’s authors no longer need to imagine a certain set of characters, give them their fictitious names, put them in a specific place or setting, and whip up a plot or story line. Current literary trends take the reader by the hand and make him or her connect with a different world, but one that is real nonetheless, not fiction. Hence the proliferation of diaries, memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. How many memoirs of celebrities, personages from the world of entertainment, of sports, science, and politics have been published in recent years! I have just read that former US President Barack Obama, shortly after leaving the White House, signed a $60 million contract with Penguin Random House for his autobiography. People writing their own life story is a fad, and it sells because people love to read memoirs.

Nonfiction writing can also come in the form of letters. Called “epistolary narrative,” it is a literary work based on an exchange of correspondence.

And of late, travelogues—which are not mere travel guides, but rather are experiential in nature, first-hand accounts of places visited, and thus legit nonfiction literature—have flooded the market.

La Vanguardia del Oriente is all these genres of nonfiction writing rolled into one, as it is a memoir, an autobiography (although I am most certain the author will not want to call it such), a rare and marvelous example of epistolary narrative, and a travelogue, although the author was not just passing through, but was here to stay for many years.

As we read La Vanguardia del Oriente, we delight in how the author was able to plasmar en papel, set down her thoughts on paper, and to record her first impressions of Manila: her first-day experience with traffic, which she describes thus: “Cars would overtake on the left and on the right, constantly swerving and changing lanes, zigzagging through the streets like impulsive waves.”  She also narrates the first time she heard a butiki, a bit disconcerted as to where the strange “tik-tik” noise was coming from; her first glimpse and taste of the halo-halo; her initiation to the concept of suki (which by the way is untranslatable); her having a field day with the humorous names of establishments (such as, a tailor shop called “Elizabeth Tayloring,” or a restaurant called “CleoPata” whose specialty is, you guessed it right, the crispy pata); the equally humorous signs on jeepneys, such as “God knows Hudas (who does) not pay”; the book is packed with many more great stories that are irresistibly charming.

A word about the book’s historical value: Through the letters, which make up the thread of the narration, La Vanguardia del Oriente brings to life an entire era corresponding to the period of the late 60s, on to the 70s, and the early 80s in the Philippines. Reading the book, we are made to connect with historical events, for example, the 1968 earthquake, which toppled the Ruby Tower. We are transported to the First Quarter Storm, a period of unrest in the Philippines, marred by a series of heavy demonstrations, protests, and marches against the government during the first quarter of 1970, which eventually led to the martial law declaration. We also get to read about other historical occurrences such as the EDSA Revolution and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

Worthy of mention, of course, is the wealth of details pertaining to the history of Opus Dei in the Philippines. The blessing of the trip of the three women who started the apostolic work in the Philippines, from the Founder of Opus Dei himself. The first members of the Work (as Opus Dei is called familiarly), both in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, each one with a marvelous story to tell. The scarcity of means during the first years and how people tried to make ends meet. The first seminars (called annual courses) in Batangas or in Baguio. The visit of St. John Paul II to the Philippines and how some members of Opus Dei managed to wheedle their way into working at the Nunciature where the Holy Father was housed. The initial apostolic trips to Cebu, Iloilo, and Bacolod. Beautiful heartwarming accounts, which, were it not for the book, we could just take for granted or simply forget in the turn of five decades.

This volume not only provides a close-up of the great narrator that is Ana Labrada, in all her terrific wit and penchant for detail; it also chronicles a big chunk of the history of the country and the history of Opus Dei in this part of the world.

As a translator, I consider it a great honor to have worked with Ana Labrada. How did it all start? Last year, in May 2016, when I thought I was going on sabbatical beginning August 2016, it occurred to me that I could offer to translate her book into English. For some reason, my sabbatical was revoked, and so, instead of full-time dedication, I had to juggle the teaching plus all the other workload at university and the translation. Despite and against all odds, I finished the translation in five months. Do I consider it a feat? Initially, yes. But I know that my five months cannot compare with the long journey of twenty-five years, more or less, that the book was “in the making.”

As a translator who is used to rendering from Spanish into English or vice versa hundreds of documents from birth certificates to death certificates, and everything else in between—academic records, report cards, transcript of records, diplomas, marriage contracts, land titles—I came across more or less the usual inevitable difficulties or challenges… but of a different type. In translating land titles, for example, I just have to make sure I copy the facts right: to write “Angono” and not “Agoo”; to write 235 sq. m. and not 325 sq. m. With this book project, I felt a different sense of responsibility to deliver well. Looking for the right lexicon, or word, was a constant challenge. I wish to share with you just two of these many challenges:

Santificación del trabajo = sanctification of work
Tarea profesional  = professional work
Labor apostólica = apostolic work
La Obra de Dios = Work of God

So trabajo, tarea, labor, obra…all are translated as “work.”

Another big challenge was the very title of the book: La Vanguardia del Oriente  is translated as The Vanguard of the East. How Oriente became East, instead of Orient, has a fairly long discussion behind it, which we will no longer discuss here.

Like all translators, I was always careful every step of the way to do justice to the original text (or source text), keeping to the tone, the tonality, the tenor, the beat of the language; in translation theory, this is called the “proper register,” to produce the translation into the target language, English. Luckily, I had the advantage of knowing Ana and the spirit of Opus Dei, so that a concept being lost in translation was kept at bay. Hopefully.

All told, among us in the circle of translators, there is an aggressive group that purports a certain stand: they say that the translation output is as important as the original work. In fact, it is like giving birth to a new work in itself. But I’d say: not so in the case of La Vanguardia del Oriente. As a translator, I am nobody. I am just the person who rendered Ana Labrada’s book from Spanish into English, and it is she and her book (what is contained in her book) who/which we celebrate today. And I can say with all certainty that as to translators, there are many of us. But as to the author of La Vanguardia del Oriente, there is only one.

 

Ana Labrada moved to the Philippines in 1968. She is an expert in home and food management, hotel administration, and home economics. She has written several publications on her specialization and has designed and delivered numerous training programs at professional training centers for women in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Nigeria.

Daisy Lopez is a full professor at the Department of European Languages, College of Arts and Letters, U.P. Diliman. She teaches Spanish and Italian languages and is a sought-after simultaneous interpreter during international conferences. Professor Lopez is an accomplished writer and poet, and has become a language coach on several films.

UNIV Congress, which started in 1968, is an annual gathering in Rome organized by the Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria (ICU). It takes place during Holy Week, and several thousands of university students from five continents participate in it. UNIV encourages students to know and participate in projects and social initiatives that have deep social impact, and that have a common desire to promote and serve the human person.