| カピリ・ ホセ Jose Wendell Capili |
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|---|---|
| Born | Manila, Philippines |
| Education | University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines, University of Tokyo (東京大学), University of Cambridge, Australian National University |
| Occupation | Professor of creative writing and comparative literature at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Poet, Author |
José Wendell Capili (カピリ・ホセ José Wendell Capili) is a writer and academic from the Philippines. He earned degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines, University of Tokyo (東京大学), University of Cambridge and Australian National University. He is a Professor of creative writing and comparative literature at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, where he was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. His creative and scholarly works were published in East and Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.[1]
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Despite Capili's lean output, his poems received some critical attention.[2] Says Al Camus Palomar of the University of Oklahoma, "Edith L. Tiempo, Rene Amper, Peter Bacho, Jose Capili, Maria Carino, and the incomparable Fatima Lim-Wilson are included to remind us all of what reading good poetry, feels like. And read Luis Cabalquinto, Jose Capili, and Ricardo de Ungria carefully. You will be immensely rewarded if you do".[3] A.R.D.S. Bordado said that Capili’s “The Great Australian Landscape” and “Gorilla Bay” show the Filipino sensibility imbibing foreign geography. The latter poem describes the beauty of the bay: “Gastropods on a drift/ conceive enclosures of/ bubbles shimmering forth,/ polished and white among/ rocks, splashing as spring/ time turns supremely aqua/ marine, even less torrential.”[4] Of "Baguio: The Demise", Ralph Semino Galan of the University of Santo Tomas writes how Capili utilizes the aftermath of another disaster, the gutted down remains of the Pines Hotel that burned down in 1984, as one of the objective correlatives (“the turn and flow of stones/ we perceived from childhood/ as walls, doors and ceilings/”) to express the emotional vacuity the personae in his elegiac poem are experiencing years after their major romantic breakup. For Galan, Capili is able to obfuscate the obvious intensity of the emotions that are being stirred by the reunion, for he makes the ex-lovers focus on the physical landscape, rather than the inner turmoil they are feeling in each other’s formerly familiar presence: “the rustle of leaves/ behaving like music,” “the landscape of cones/ falling on mountain sleeves,” “pure hemp and other bell-shaped/ things awakening from/ a sudden gush of the wind”.[5]
In 2001, Capili was commissioned by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (Philippines) to interview National Artist Napoleón Abueva, the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture". Capili's interview revealed Abueva's deeper insights about life and art, especially in connection with World War II. Says Abueva: "We sought the remains of our parents from a field of corpses and items belonging to the members of the resistance group. It was painful for me and my siblings to unearth the soiled white shirt with blue stripes, which belonged to my father. We also found a piece of my mother’s dress as well as her rosary. Later, we found my parents’ bodies and we buried them. It was very painful. As an artist, these experiences taught me to see life in a different way. More specifically, I tried my best to look for new ways of expressing ideas as a way of dealing with the pain".[6]
Capili worked on a research project involving Southeast Asian diaspora writers in Australia[7] at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.[8] In 2004, he was one of fifteen postgraduate scholars from universities across Australia and New Zealand chosen by La Trobe University to read papers during the Australian Perspectives Conference in suburban Melbourne.[9] Professor Robert Manne delivered the keynote presentation. In 2005, he was a Visiting Scholar at the National University of Singapore, University of Sydney, Westerly Centre[10] of the University of Western Australia;[11] University of Melbourne; and the University of Queensland.[12] These brought about the publication of From the Editors: Migrant Communities and Emerging Australian Literature (2007) and Salu-Salo: In Conversation with Filipinos (2008). But critic Michael Jacklin of the University of Wollongong, in The Transnational Turn in Australian Literary Studies, commented that while publications on Southeast Asian diaspora writers and every other cultural group that has settled in Australia could be provided for the transnational dimensions of Vietnamese-Australian, Lao-Australian or Philippine-Australian writing, such work frequently remains undocumented by literature infrastructure. "Literary cultures across Australia will not appreciate works by community-based Southeast Asian diaspora writers", Capili noted[13]. As Jacklin observes, "Cheeseman and Capili’s book is yet to appear in Library Australia’s listings; it does appear in the Blacktown City Libraries catalogue".[14] Similarly, AusLit, the Australian Literature Resource, cited Capili's 'Southeast Asian diaspora writers in Australia and the consequence of community-based initiatives', in which he notes the difficulty of finding an audience for community-based Southeast Asian writers in Australia.[15]
In The Politics of Identity and Mimetic Constructions in the Philippine Transnational Experience, Sharon Orig noted that Capili's early work on displacement and reterritorialization in Philippine expatriate poetry in the United States (1993) "expounds on 'de-territorialization' as a 'displacement,' 'dislocation,' or simply a feeling of 'not being home'".[16] Capili's interest in migration studies is more evident in Immigrant themes in Japanese-American and Filipino-American poetry (1995)[17] and The Relocalisation of Japanese Immigrants in Davao, Southern Philippines (1996).[18] Arnold Molina Azurin, in The Japanese in our Midst: An Exploratory Analysis of the Experiences of Japanese Migrants/Settlers in the Philippines, and Shun Ohno (大野 俊), in Rethinking Okinawan Diasporas in 'Davaokuo (｢ダバオ国｣の沖縄人社会再考 －本土日本人、フィリピン人との関係を中心に－),[19] noted how Capili described Japan as dura virum nutrix (a hard nurse of men) due to that country's open and shifting hierarchy. Ultimately, for Azurin, Capili suggests that wealth, not blood, was the greater recipient of position [of privilege], and wealth could be created by (war-making) skill or fraud. "It was a situation where money and contracts, not blood and status, ruled", Capili asserts.[20] Azurin comments: "And then, with direct reference to the dire situation in the early 1900s among the common folk in Japan, he (Capili) suggests that 'Japanese emigrants decided to establish settlements in Davao because…[by his own sweat] a person can move up fairly quickly, certainly within a lifetime'".[21]
Aside from creative writing and comparative migration studies, Capili also discussed aspects of popular culture in the Philippines. In Originality in the Postcolony: Choreographing the Neoethnic Body of Philippine Ballet, critic Sally A. Ness of the University of California, Riverside noted how Capili identified Agnes Locsin's neoethnic choreographies as a prestigious and technically effective site for what Locsin calls "Filipinization", and on more than one level "the state of the art" in an internationally-oriented project of cultural nationalism. Says Ness: "Capili recognized this function of Locsin's work, when Ms. Locsin's neoethnic ballet Babalyan was awarded the prestigious Prince Norihito Takamado Award from Japan's Imperial Family in 1994. 'Once and for all', Capili wrote, in a feature article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 'Locsin asserted the fact that we are not a nation of domestics and prostitutes'.[22]
In Who's Afraid of The Kayumanggi?,[23] Stephanie Dychiu implied that openness to a non-white paradigm[24] can be attributed to what Capili described as key incidents in history: "The emergence of the African-American and Asian-American movement; the liberation of colonized countries in Asia and Africa after World War II; the emergence of non-white artists in mainstream cultures, as exemplified by the domination of Motown music during the 1960s and 1970s; the emergence of colored supermodels like Anna Bayle, Naomi Campbell, and others—these are circumstances that were not there before World War II..."[25]
In Barry Cyrus Viloria's Brand X, Brand Y, Brand RP, Capili reacts to the sudden rise of "branded nationalism" (e.g., Philippine map sewn on commercially-produced shirts): "self-expression can be achieved in many ways [and these] clothes can be very strong statements". Entrepreneurs behind this "branding" may have the most immaculate intentions. If they, Capili adds, have made sure that these "emblems and colors are utilized to achieve a particular effect on citizens," then they’re moving towards nationalistic. Unfortunately, when mass production and free market saw an opportunity, the event became a fad.[26]
Following widespread public outrage over Miss Universe 2010 runner-up Venus Raj's response to actor William Baldwin's question during the pageant's live telecast,[27] broadcast journalist Mario Dumaual of ABS-CBN's TV Patrol reported that for Capili and Miss Universe 1969 Gloria Diaz, Philippine delegates should be allowed to speak in their native tongue.[28] Says Capili: "Filipinos should speak in the language they are comfortable with...(Raj) should've been allowed to speak in Bicolano, but not because she's unintelligent or incapable of speaking in English. Look at Miss Mexico. She can speak in English but she had an interpreter for the question and answer portion. She had an opportunity to think about her answer twice or thrice".[29]
In an interview with Sam L. Marcelo of BusinessWorld during the 60th Palanca Awards (2010), Capili also commented on the propensity of young Filipino writers to challenge form. For Capili, the aesthetics of the present generation are different owing to the influence of the Internet. Whereas writers in the old days emphasized formalism, writers today draw strength from mainstream literary tradition as well as indigenous and emerging or experimental culture.[30]
Spanish novelist and screenwriter Ignacio Martinez de Pison's La Filipinas de Amparo Muñoz (The Philippines of Amparo Muñoz, 2011), published in El País, referred to Capili's third book, Mabuhay to Beauty (2003), as a starting point to help explain the iconic nature of beauty pageants and luminaries like Miss Universe 1974 Amparo Muñoz in the Philippines.[31]
Capili's works were read and featured during the British Council Seminar on Contemporary Literature[32] (Downing College, University of Cambridge, 2000), the Hong Kong International Literary Festival (University of Hong Kong, 2000),[33] the Sydney Writers' Festival[34] (2007,[35] 2008[36]) and the 76th International PEN Congress[37] (Tokyo, Japan, 2010).
In 2008, Capili became Nestle Philippines' Laki sa Gatas[38] advocate for Bear BrandMilk.[39] He joined the product's other television, radio and print campaign endorsers, Batangas Governor and actress Vilma Santos, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, Miss International 2006 Precious Lara Quigaman, actor Marvin Agustin, singer Regine Velasquez, comedian Michael V. and actress Eugene Domingo. Says BusinessWorld columnist Nanette Franco-Diyco, "With all these very well-chosen endorsers partnering with Nestléin this much-needed educational campaign targeted at the D and E socioeconomic groups, important health benefits may indeed be obtainable".[40]
In 2010, after newly posted Chilean Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Roberto Mayorga launched "Chile: Odes from the Philippines-A Poetry Contest for Filipino Students" to commemorate the Bicentenary of Independence of the Republic of Chile, and to celebrate the rescue of 33 Chileans in San Jose Mines, Capili says, "it's a way for Filipino students to connect with Chile...Chile may be geographically remote, but the situation of the miners is not far from our OFWs (overseas foreign workers)." For Capili, poetry may capture a limited number of people, but these are people who can preserve the memories and the close ties, adding that it is a way of nurturing cultural literacy.[41]
During the 150th Rizal Anniversary Conference on Nation and Culture (2011) convened by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Capili pointed out that funding aside, the biggest problem of establishing a Department of Culture in the Philippines was one of leadership. "Who’s going to head it?", Capili asked. [42]
While promoting the Philippines as a university destination to secondary students in Hong Kong, Capili commented that courses in top Philippnes universities, especially in the arts and social sciences, enable students to be more creative by thinking "outside the box". At the University of the Philippines, "students and faculty members enjoy academic freedom, which is not (being) underscored in many schools and universities in the region,” Capili added.[43]
The budget of Philippine state colleges and universities (SUCs) has been cut due to the dwindling national government budget. Capili reacted to suggestions that SUCs should look for other sources of income externally, like leasing land and other services to private companies, or selling products and technology. Capili stressed, "it is not the mandate of the university to make money. Our job is to educate and train students." Capili added that SUCs should not spend so much time and energy raising funds, so he is appealing to the government to prioritize education.[44]
Aside from teaching and writing, Capili continues to work as a university administrator. The Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines approved the appointment of Capili as Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs[45] and Director of the Office of Alumni Relations.[46] He was also the Director of the UP System Information Office (2009–2011).[47]
A Madness of Birds, (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1998)
Bloom and Memory, (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2002)
(as editor) Mabuhay to Beauty!, (Quezon City: Milflores Publishing, 2003)
(as editor) From the Editors: Migrant Communities and Emerging Australian Literature, (Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia: Casula Powerhouse, 2007)
(as co-editor, with John Cheeseman) Salu-Salo: In Conversation with Filipinos, (Blacktown and Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia: Blacktown Arts Centre and Casula Powerhouse, 2008)
(translated and edited with John Jack Wigley) Lupito and the Circus Village (translation of Si Lupito at ang Barrio Sirkero written by Rowald Almazar, artworks by Jose Santos III), (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2008)
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