ON AUGUST 9, I had the chance to travel with Edith Lopez-Tiempo, National Artist for Literature, and her family from Manila to our home province, Nueva Vizcaya.

The National Artist and her kin had traveled from Dumaguete City to Manila by plane, and I was one of those who fetched them from the airport to guide them to Cagayan Valley amid tropical storm Kiko.

It was an important mission: to take Tiempo back home, where Bayombong was set to give its daughter a tribute worthy of a true National Artist.

It was not easy, considering the health of the 90-year-old poet-fictionist-critic-teacher. One family member was alarmed by the reported landslide in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija.

There were suggestions of postponing the trip, but Tiempo was firm: ?Let me go. This is my last wish. If there?s someone who best knows me, it is myself.?

The six-hour trip became an occasion for nostalgic stories by the writer and her family. Lawyer Carmen ?Mameng? Magalona, the 85-year-old cousin of the writer, said the honoree was very much excited to be back in Bayombong.

On the foot of Bangan Hill, the young Edith would pick wild guava fruit. She would also bike from Bayombong to Bambang to bathe on the river.

Tiempo told her family: ?Let us go home to Bayombong and eat bisukol.? (Bisukol is Iluko for edible snails that used to be freely caught on the clear rivers and streams.)

Born April 22, 1919, in Bayombong, Tiempo was quite a traveler herself. Her family moved to Manila, then to Surigao and to Samar when she was still young.

With her beauty (she was crowned Ms Bayombong in 1930s), she also explored her chances in the movies, but didn?t continue since her family would not approve of it.

She turned to literature, became a writer-educator, and founded with her husband, the late Edilberto, the famous writer?s workshop based in Dumaguete City, the oldest of its kind in Asia.

In 1999, she was named National Artist for Literature.

Arrival

Tiempo and her family were warmly received by the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU) led by president Marilou G. Abon, the project director of the homecoming event ? Tribute to National Artist for Literature Edith Lopez-Tiempo, as initiated by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the UP Institute of Creative Writing (UPICW), in coordination with NVSU and the Bayombong local government.

Her relatives in Bayombong showed up to welcome Tiempo.

On August 10, Bayombong and Nueva Vizcaya paid tribute to her.

An exhibit of her publications was opened at the Nueva Vizcaya People?s Library and Museum.

Later, at the NVSU Guest House, a bust of her by sculptor Raul ?Tata? Funilas was unveiled by Abon and UPICW director Vim Nadera Jr.

Tiempo expressed her gratitude by singing some lines of a Gaddang song taught to her by her grandfather.

Lectures

To acquaint the people of Nueva Vizcaya with the literary works of Tiempo, a lecture-forum, ?Discovering/Uncovering/ Recovering the Charmer?s Box: A Conference on the National Artist Edith L. Tiempo,? was held at the NVSU mini-theater.

The forum was one of the most anticipated highlights of the three-day celebration. Educators and students from various schools, colleges and universities in the province filled the venue.

The lecturers said they considered themselves ?students? of Tiempo, having read and enjoyed her works through the years, or sat at one time or another in the Tiempo writing seminars.

Renowned literary critics shared their insights about the writings of Tiempo ? Oscar Campomanes (of Ateneo de Manila University and University of Santo Tomas Graduate School); Ralph Semino Galan (UST Faculty of Arts and Letters); Ferdinand Lopez (UST Faculty of Arts and Letters); John Jack Wigley (UST Faculty of Arts and Letters and Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences, also former acting director of the UST Publishing House); and Joselito Zulueta (UST Faculty of Arts and Letters and Inquirer art and books subsection editor).

Tiempo herself delivered a lecture in the afternoon ? a very insightful discourse on ?poetic content.?

Musical tribute

Later, NVSU and participating institutions staged a cultural presentation of dances and songs featuring the province?s indigenous dances and songs.

The NVSU Dance Troupe and the NVSU Chorale rendered mesmerizing numbers.

Also performing were the Solano band, headed by Vicente Lannu; and folk musician/conductor Francisco ?Ikko? Panganiban, who immersed the crowd in the richness of Gaddang culture when he led a rendition of ?Ope Mangke Wayi,? a popular Gaddang love and folk song.

The Gaddang music provided during the tribute was largely through the efforts of Mauricia Danguilan Borromeo, former dean of the UP College of Music and a relative of Tiempo.

Students of the Philippine Science High School (Cagayan Valley campus) did a dramatic performance of Tiempo?s novel ?The Alien Corn.? They were directed by Ann Richie Garcia- Balgos, who recently finished her MA in Educational Theater at New York University.

?Beautiful?

Tiempo was conferred the Gaddang name Casta, which means ?beautiful,? through a resolution from the NVSU and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)-Region 2.

It was announced that the municipality of Bayombong, through its municipal council, had passed a resolution declaring April 22 as Edith Lopez-Tiempo Day, a municipal holiday.

It is propitious that while artists and writers were protesting the latest batch of National Artists and accusing Malacañang of mocking the National Artist institution by its controversial choices, in Cagayan Valley people from all walks celebrated the life and work of Tiempo, whose literary and artistic accomplishments are indubitable.

Nueva Vizcaya, particularly Bayombong town and NVSU, gave all its best to top the National Artist?s wish to savor cherished edible snails.

Silently greeting her was the National Park Bangan Hill, where the bright lass Edith picked ripe guavas and played with the flowers that grew like carpet on the ground.