Henry Raphael Buban

MA Creative Writing

Report on “Jakarta (pp 08-20)”, a travel essay on Martin Villanueva’s book A Pig Was Once
Killed in Our Garage

Analysis

a) What is the structure of the piece?

The travel essay is a straightforward piece about a young Villanueva fleeing Jakarta

amid civil unrest caused by the political crisis of then President Suharto in 1998.

Villanueva narrated the events as a young sixth grade Filipino boy who studies in an

international school and had parents who earned enough money to have their own

house help and family driver whilst living in the Indonesian capital. The travel piece did

discuss why Villanueva’s family was in the Indonesian capital at the time, and

established who he was in that country; a Filipino boy living in Indonesia who goes

home to the Philippines for annual Christmas vacations. Villanueva also used subtext in

the form of snippets of news to somehow situate the reader in the events of the

narrative. The use of the subtext will be further explained in the succeeding parts of the

report.

b) Did the writer create a narrator with a distinct voice and tone?

Yes, Villanueva created a narrator. He narrated it as his 12yo self remembering his days

in Jakarta and their actual plight to get home to the Philippines to avoid the civil unrest

in the Indonesian capital. I was able to determine that he used his 12yo self in narrating

the essay because the descriptions used in the narration were limited to that of an
 average sixth grade student. There are some instances, however, that the narrator

seems to be smarter than his actual age. It is uncertain if this was done on purpose or if

this an inconsistency with Villanueva’s writing. Villanueva also used subtext in the form

of news snippets. At first, I thought it was just lazy writing to use news snippets. The

subtext helped in situating the readers into what was happening then in Jakarta. But I

realised that Villanueva used the news snippets because some elements of the civil

unrest and the political crisis would be hard to fathom through the eyes of the child

narrator. By doing so, Villanueva was able to ensure that his essay had a crucial element

of travel writing: the balance between narration and exposition. He literally narrated the

events and supplied supporting statements from the news snippets to further explain

the situation that he was in. Given that this essay is part of a larger book, Villanueva

wrote it in a way that it feels like this essay is only the beginning of a whole other story.

But Villanueva was also able to give this essay a voice that could see it being a

standalone travel piece.

c) Are there characters? Are they constructed with care?

Villanueva did use characters in his narrative. They were mostly minor ones, and the

closest one that got to be major characters were his parents. In a way, the characters

were used to, for a lack of a better term, reinforce the essence of being a Filipino in

Villanueva’s life. The family had house help who took care of the young Villanueva,

which resulted in him being able to pick up Bahasa as a language. It’s common for kids

to pick up things distinct to those who take care of them; language is one of those. He

was also schooled with a curriculum which, as Villanueva describes it, prepared them
 from an inevitable college life abroad. It may not be a common Filipino thing, to be

studying in an international school, but as I said, Villanueva was born into a well-off

family. Any well off family, if given the chance, would like their kids to enrol in an

international school, because it is where they believe their kids will get the best

opportunities from. And then there’s his aunt who was living with them. It’s but

common for Filipinos to live with extended families. Villanueva used these characters to

subtly tell us that even if he is in Jakarta, he is still a Filipino.

d) Did the writer employ scene, summary (exposition), and description, or only one of the

above elements? What emotions did the work evoke and how? Does this piece have

emotional power?

Villanueva employed all three techniques for the piece. The travel piece is essentially

divided into four parts: back story, life in Jakarta, fleeing Indonesia, and the aftermath.

This is so it would be easier to explain how Villanueva employed these techniques in his

travel essay.

Back story:

Villanueva opened the chapter by situating the readers with the political crisis in

Indonesia back then. He did so using news snippets as subtext and by describing the fear

people had by citing how the daughter of her mother’s colleague was found

unconscious on the street. Villanueva was merely stating facts in this part and managed

to remain impartial in his narration and exposition. He also explains why his family was
in Indonesia as well, how his parents moved to Jakarta for work weeks after they got

married. One thing I appreciate in this part is his mention of the assassination of Ninoy

Aquino. It was done so subtly, and anyone who understands Philippine history would be

able to understand it. The mention of this event helped me as the reader to situate

myself in that time and sort of get into the mindset of his parents back in the day. It

should be noted that this part of the essay happened before Villanueva was born, which

could explain why the narrator here was the present Villanueva attempting to tell the

story of why his family lived in Indonesia.

Life in Jakarta:

Villanueva states that his father spent their first days just getting to know what it is

living in Jakarta. He noted that food was something they had to get used to since

Indonesian cuisine is known to be spicy. It was incredible how Villanueva was able to

explain this since this part of the narrative took place long before he was born. This is

also where the narrator, a remembering Villanueva in the present time, transitioned

into becoming the young sixth grade Villanueva that was the narrator for the most of

the essay. The remembering Villanueva does show a bit in further parts of the essay but

in a rather inconsistent manner. Again, it is not certain whether this was intended or

just a flaw in Villanueva’s narration. The inconsistency however did not greatly affect the

story, it probably is just something that over-reading tends to pick up. By the looks of

how Villanueva narrated his early days in Jakarta, it would seem that he was born into a

well-off family.

Fleeing Indonesia:
The physical journey of Villanueva was their plight back to the Philippines because of the

civil unrest in Jakarta. The narration of the physical travel was simple and it was, in my

opinion, narrated by the sixth grade Villanueva and not the present Villanueva. The

narration of the physical travel through the eyes of the child was executed well in that

Villanueva made the readers feel like they were actually fleeing alongside the family.

The young Villanueva always referred to his parents in terms of how to act in that

particular situation. He was able to make the text feel fast-paced to mimic what it

actually feels like to be fleeing a country. His description of how thieves took control of

the toll booths and how his father hid some of their money by strapping it to his legs

underneath his trousers was one of the things that sort of explain to the audience the

gravity of the situation he and his family were in. Villanueva was also able to point out a

difference in how he felt as they went through terminal 2 of Jakarta’s international

airport as they were fleeing compared to when they go through the airport when they

were on their annual Christmas vacation. This part was the most exciting among the

four parts in which I categorised the essay because this part was when the travel

actually occurred. And I believe that it was Villanueva’s intention all along to have this

part be narrated in a fast-paced style of narration because this is where the actual

struggle of the essay is. This was when Villanueva, in his mind, was debating if was

indeed his home.

Aftermath:

Villanueva wrote that after President Suharto stepped down, they flew back to Jakarta,

packed up their things, settled their affairs and let their house help and driver go. He
 was able to maintain that 12yo narrator up until this point. Villanueva also said that as

he grew up, Jakarta became a distant memory. He even stated that he started forgetting

Bahasa, the language he knew growing up. The description of the aftermath was a calm;

somber even. I believe this was the intention of Villanueva, to write this part, the

aftermath of their plight to the Philippines, in a somber mood. They’ve been through a

storm in their escape; and in a way most travels are like that. Any traveller would tell

you that the hardest part about traveling is the travel itself. Imagine being stuck to your

seat on a 12-hour flight with no means of entertaining yourself, not to mention the

hassle of dealing with airport security – immigration procedures, customs, etc… All you

want to do at that point is rest and prepare yourself for your next activity listed on your

vacation itinerary. In that somber period of rest after a long travel, reflections have been

made. This is what Villanueva did in the essay. He dragged his readers along a fast-

paced, mentally draining journey of escaping civil unrest and then he brings out his

realisations from said journey by way of the insight he wants the readers to remember

from his writing; which is further discussed in the evaluations part of this report.

e) How did the writer recreate the place he or she travelled to?

Since Villanueva’s travel was to the Philippines as they were escaping civil unrest in

Indonesia, he was able to recreate the Philippines to serve as his refuge instead rather

than just some holiday destination that they go to. The text, for the most part, took

place in Jakarta. It is where Villanueva was born and it is where he grew up in. He was in
 a not so common situation of being a Filipino that was born outside of the Philippines. In

legal sense, he was born an Indonesian with Filipino descent given that he was born in

Jakarta, as stated in the text. To a young Villanueva, the Philippines was just another

country they would go to for the holidays. But that changed when they had to escape

Jakarta and he had no other choice but to call the Philippines home. The essay ended

when Villanueva acknowledged that Jakarta was a haze for him, and clearly this thought

came to be years after they settled into the Philippines. I believe that Villanueva already

knew that he was a Filipino long before the civil unrest and he had only come to terms

with it when he was able to accept that even if he called Jakarta his home for over 12

years, he could leave it and still be himself. And I think that realisation only came to him

once he was settled in the Philippines. As for Jakarta, I think most of the subtext gave

the readers clear details on the city itself. Although, Villanueva did shed light into what

was life for a middle-class or well-off Filipino person living in Indonesia. By way of

narrating his experiences growing up as one in the Indonesian capital.

Evaluation

a) Did these strategies or techniques work effectively toward what seems to be the goal

or/objective of the writing project, or have they somehow impeded or compromised the

goals?

Yes, they did help in attaining the goal of the essay. Again, a travel essay needs to have a

balance between narration and exposition, and Villanueva literally did that by using

subtext in the form of news snippets to help the readers situate themselves in
 Villanueva’s ordeal. His use of his remembering self and the 12yo narrator was also able

to evoke different situations suited for the different scenes he was narrating. And in a

way, the transition from remembering self to the 12yo narrator may signify that

Villanueva was acknowledging that his 12yo self was the right narrator for that part of

the story, which could mean that Villanueva has already accepted that his 12yo self, the

same 12yo who accepted that they will never be able to call Jakarta their home again,

was indeed the one who helped Villanueva became the person who he is today.

b) Is there another journey going on- a journey other than the physical movement in

space? Is there an inner purpose, a question that he/she might be trying to explore?

I think Villanueva’s inner journey is finding out who he really is and accepting that after

their plight, he will not be able to call Jakarta his home anymore. As a kid who grew up

in a particular area, we’ve always considered that place our home. This is true for most

Filipinos who were born overseas. On one hand, Villanueva was a Filipino living in

Jakarta. His classmates, though foreigners themselves, were also part Filipino. He grew

up among the Filipino community in Jakarta, even played in the Embassy during fiestas.

So every aspect of Villanueva’s life made him to be a Filipino. But the mere fact that he

grew up in Jakarta made him feel at home there. He even learned Bahasa because their

house help spoke Bahasa. Sting’s Englishman in New York is a play on words on what

Villanueva is to Indonesia: A Filipino in Jakarta. Metaphorically, Villanueva was a legal

alien in Jakarta. This is not to say that he did not feel at home there; of course he did.

But the fact remains that he was a non-Indonesian person who called Jakarta his home.
 And indeed, anyone can call Jakarta their home. I guess for Villanueva, after their

escape, he was able to let go of Jakarta to be in the Philippines. And this was evident in

how he stated that he started to forget how to speak Bahasa. In that statement, he as

finally able to let go of Jakarta being his home because he was losing the ability to speak

the place’s language. At that moment, he understood that being home is where he was

able to freely be himself.

c) Does the account of the writer’s travels offer any insight or discoveries that might be of

consequence or significance to others beside himself/herself?

A Pig Was Once Killed in our Garage tells the story of Martin Vilanueva’s understanding

of himself to create an ars poetica only to destroy it after. Jakarta was an important

travel essay in the book in that in discusses Villanueva’s earliest self: the boy who grew

up in Jakarta only to leave it permanently 12 years later. This essay, as part of the book,

provides two significant details for the overall goal of the book; understanding his

identity as a Filipino by looking into his rather unconventional childhood and his first

glance at bad poetry from his teacher. But as a standalone piece of travel literature, it

looks into his concept of identity and home. Villanueva was born in Jakarta and grew up

there as well. It is safe to say that he was born into a privileged family. Both of his

parents worked and he was left in the house in the care of their help. His family could

afford education at an international school, and they were able to go on annual

vacations to the Philippines. He even stated that he would spend fiestas playing with

other kids at the Embassy. These all point to Villanueva being a Filipino who just
 happens to call Jakarta his home. He even said so himself, that he spoke Bahasa, and

that during one of their trips to the Philippines, he told his father that he just wont

speak at all if people in the Philippines could not understand Bahasa. This would all

change when the family has to flee Jakarta amid the unrest. The main struggle of the

essay, I think, is how the 12yo Villanueva was coming to terms with their plight. He

mentions that while waiting tirelessly at the airport for days, he acknowledges that they

would never return to Jakarta as residents anymore. Towards the end of the chapter, he

even mentioned that he started to forget how to speak Bahasa, the language of

Indonesia. I think that was a very powerful statement made by Villanueva in order to

show his readers that he, a boy who lived his whole life in Jakarta, will never call

Indonesia his home again. Villanueva’s message in his essay, at least according to my

reading, is that home is not a set place but rather it was a place where a person can

freely be himself in. Villanueva felt that Jakarta was his childhood home because he

experienced being Filipino all his life in Jakarta through the Filipino community in

Jakarta. And when the civil unrest came upon Jakarta, he knew it was inevitable that he

cannot freely be a Filipino anymore there and accepted the fact that he will no longer

return to Jakarta anymore as the place where his home is at.

d) Would you consider this a good example of travel literature?

Pico Iyer mentioned in his essay Why We Travel that “All the great travel books are love

stories, by some reckoning-and all good trips are, like love, about being carried out of

yourself and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder”. And in a sense, that’s what I
felt as the reader when I read this essay: I was carried out of myself and into the midst

of the terror and wonder that comes when fleeing a country. It wasn’t just some

narrative that merely stated that the family was able to escape the unrest and made it

to safety, no. Villanueva, in his fast-paced narration of how they went to Jakarta’s

international airport, how they sped fast thieves who took control of the toll booths,

how they spent tireless days in the airport waiting for a Philippine Airlines flight back to

Manila was so spectacular that the message of “home is a place where a person can

freely be himself in” embedded itself amongst that mini adrenaline rush you get when

you read his narration. So yes, I consider this a good travel essay.