Philippine E-Journals

The Color of Fear: Armida's Story

Ester Vallado Daroy

Discipline: Cultural Studies

 

Abstract:

 

This was Quiapo of the late sixties, the long line of jeepneys and buses still clogging Quezon boulevard, this day Monday had more than the usual crowd, the stores still bearing the trappings of the past season which lasts till the Three Kings have had their day. It was already three in the afternoon and soon I regretted coming to this Quiapo store to claim my wall clock for now I remembered it was the first Monday of the year and people in droves come out to see the Black Nazarene but where I was I could see only the trees at the edge of the crowd which included the barefoot shirtless men with only a white towel across a shoulder and some women and children dressed in dark maroon gowns tied with yellow twine around their waists. It was a great deal better to see the forest on TV, black heads bobbing and moving towards somewhere and above these swaying black heads was the Black wood.