It started with an Instagram art challenge led by a group of Filipino Americans: Each day of the month, the artists would draw and post their representation of a Pinoy cultural staple. Although not an illustrator, writer Rachell Abalos saw the prompt “nipa hut” and that sparked the beginnings of “Our Nipa Hut: A Story of The Philippines,” a picture book that depicts a family weathering a tropical storm in their traditional Filipino dwelling.
An author of short stories, or microfictions, Abalos was reminded of her childhood through the process of publishing this new release. The writer was born in the United States but was raised in the Philippines from the ages of 3 to 7. While she never lived in a nipa hut, she saw them in the countryside and realized that the children’s song “Bahay Kubo” is about that indigenous house type.
Bahay-kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari
Singkamas at talong
Sigarilyas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani
Kundol, patola, upo’t kalabasa
At tsaka mayro’n pang
Labanos, mustasa
Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
Sa paligid-ligid ay puno ng linga
Nipa hut, even though it is small
The plants it houses are varied.
Turnip and eggplant,
Winged bean and peanut,
String bean, hyacinth bean, lima,
Winter melon, sponge gourd squash, pumpkin
And there’s also
Radish, mustard,
Onion, tomato, garlic, and ginger,
And sesame seeds are everywhere
“My grandma inspired this story because she sang the bahay kubo song to me everyday. It turns out my grandfather had built three bahay kubo and that brought back a lot of memories from my childhood,” Abalos shares. “Remembering things from when I was in the Philippines and [thinking], ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe that was nipa hut all this time.’ Because to us, it was just a home, because my family is from that area, from the province of Zambales.”
The song names the vegetables that often surround the nipa hut. Perhaps if more Americans…
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