Ever performed Kapampangan stuff in your school?

When I was a kid (1990 up), I, together with my classmates, never got the chance to perform anything Kapampangan, especially because performances always employed the use of recorded music.

I remember as a pre-schooler that what we used to sing were Jose Mari Chan's English Christmas songs such as Christmas in our Hearts and other Jackson 5 Yuletide classics. Not to mention, the popular Tagalog Christmas songs. Then, our commencement exercises for Pre-school employed Ako'y Munting Tinig (I Am But A Small Voice) as our graduation song.

Came Elementary, we became more exposed to what the Western recording industry could offer. Calisthenics were done using Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and other foreigners' music. During Linggo ng Wika, of course, Kapampangan was nowhere to be found, as all the performances came in Tagalog recordings too.

With no Kapampangan poems or declamation pieces, teachers and students rode with the flow of celebrating Wika instead of Amanu. Our graduation song, then, was in English: If We Hold On by Diana Ross.

It's the same bubble when I got into High School at Chevalier School (CS). Even though CS played folk songs every morning at the gymnasium, we would only hear Tagalog songs such as Ang Mga Ibon... and Magtanim Ay 'Di Biro.

Rock shows featured student bands performing Tagalog and English rock songs - all covers - since they couldn't cover any Kapampangan rock song (or were not innovative enough to think of making Kapampangan music). Film screenings never featured anything Kapampangan, since all local films during that time have been always in Tagalog.

But now that Kapampangan is starting to invade the media of film, record, publishing, and Internet, it is now highly possible for younger students and teachers to perform homegrown music and adapt Kapampangan pieces for contests. This is one example, where kids from a school in Sindalan, San Fernando City perform ArtiSta. Rita's rendition of Ing Malsinta/Beria.

Alben keni.

Funny how all these happened when our schools kept insisting Rizal's famous quote: Ang 'di magmahal sa sariling wika mas masahol pa sa malansang isda.

To the Kapampangan artists, especially those involved in verbal art, just continue producing superb Kapampangan material. They will someday be utilized by teachers for their instructional businesses and other extracurricular activities. This, if ever, will be another step in fortifying our native culture in our own land.

Someday, I hope graduation songs, Christmas songs, and even Alma Mater songs would employ the Amanung Sisuan.

Lyrics to Ing Malsinta and Beria

Ing Malsinta

Lalaki:
O ba't mo ketang Sabadu
Migpasyal ku keta kekayu
Inyang abatiauan mu ku
Pepatagal mu kung asu

Babai:
Inya pin pepatagal da ka
Karetang asung de familia
Ban kanita makilala
Ing tune mung pamalsinta

Beria

Lalaki:
Beria ku, bandi ku
Moderna ning pusu ku
Mate ku, makananu
Nanung iyambag mu kanaku

Babai:
Pagaua ra kang kabaung
Karetang manibe rutung
Ba'ra kang e ayaun
Ding bulati lalam gabun

Sali kung samientu
Para kng kutkutan mu
At ban nang siguradu
Padobli ke pang kandadu