A book of short stories by Bienvenido Santos

Summary and Comments by

Celeste Marie Del Mar Bermejo

Life and Background of the Author

Personal Background

Born: March 22, 1911

Birthplace: Manila, Philippines

A novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist, Santos’s early writers were in the
English language he learned at school, Tondo (the language of his mother’s songs at
home), and Tagalog (the native language of the Philippines). In 1932, he eared a B.A.
from the University of Philippines. Under the Philippine Pensionado program (a
continuation of the U.S. one begun in 1903), Santos came to the University of Illinois
for a master’s degree in English. Later he studied at Harvard, Columbia, and, as a
Rockefeller Foundation fellow, at the University of Iowa. His first two novels, Villa
Magdalena and The Volcano, were published in the Philippines in 1965. Santos
became an American citizen in 1976. One year later, the Marcos regime banned his
novel about government corruption, The Praying Man, and he and his wife remained
in San Francisco. Scent of Apples (1980), his only book to be published in the United
States, won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He
wrote more than a dozen books about exiles in both of his adopted countries,
including the short story collections including You Lovely People (1955) and Brother,
My Brother (1960).

Died: January 7, 1996

His Works

Novels: The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor, The Praying Man,
The Volcano, Villa Magdalena, What the Hell For You Left Your Heart in San
Francisco

Short Story Collections: Brother, My Brother, Dwell in the Wilderness: Selected

Short Stories, Scent of Apples, The Day the Dancers Came, You Lovely People

Poetry: Distances: In Time, The Wounded Stag: 54 Poems

Autobiographies: Memory’s Fictions: A Personal History, Postscript to a Saintly

Life, Letters: Book 1, Letters: Book 2

The Day the Dancers Came

Summary

Fil and Tony were both old Filipino men living in Chicago ever since World War II
ended. Fil described himself as an ugly old man and described Tony as a good-
looking gentleman that looked younger than he really was.

The story was basically about how a group of Philippine dancers were arriving in
Chicago that day and Fil thought that it would be an excellent idea if he took the
dancers around the city, showed them the sights and invite them back to his place for
some adobo and chicken relleno. For the first part of the story, Fil constantly talked
about the dancers to his friend and roommate Tony. Fil and Tony have been friends
pretty much ever since they moved to the US and the entire time, Tony had been
suffering from a disease that frustrated many doctors in which caused gradual peeling
all over his body.

When Tony left for the doctor, Fil left a little later to meet the dancers at the hotel.
When he got there and saw all the dancers, he completely forgot what he wanted to
say and lost all train of thought. So when he finally managed to gather up all the
confidence he had left to invite them to his house, they would just move away or say,
"No, thanks, we’re too busy." Later that night, he ended up going to the show alone
since Tony hadn’t yet returned from the doctor. Despite the disappointment he had
earlier that day, Fil contemplated that if he would just record the show on his tape
recorder, he would have the sounds with him to help him remember the dancers, the
show and bring back past memories.

When he got home, he noticed that Tony was back. Tony commented that the dancers
weren’t with him and that he knew they never would’ve came home him in the first
place. Fil then started to listen to his tape recorder and his failure from earlier that
day no longer mattered to him because his recording had brought him a certain
feeling and it just filled him up with different memories and emotions. While he
listened, Tony was yelling from his room telling him to shut his recorder off. When he
asked Tony what the doctors had to say, Tony wouldn’t answer. Tony then asked what
the dancers were like and Fil told him that they were really beautiful, young and
graceful. He heard Tony let out a sigh but as he looked down to the tape recorder he
held in his hands, he noticed that the spools were spinning and he finally realized that
he had pressed erase. When he tried to play it back, there was nothing except for a
screaming part of the finale with drums and the tolling of the bell. When he looked
outside, it was already morning.

Commentary

The story was somewhat difficult to read since the grammar and usage seemed
awkward and incorrect. While reading, I often found myself rereading the material
just to get a grasp of what the author was trying to convey. The things that I liked
about this first story, however, was how the author accurately portrayed Filipinos in
America, especially in the way they talk to each other. For example, "…A medium
bomb marked Chicago and this whole dump is tapus, finished!!!"
In the story, the dancers consumed Fil’s mind and he failed to realize that his friend,
Tony, was actually dying. In the end, he lost everything—the memories and the feeling
of happiness the tape recording gave him and his friend. When Fil replayed his tape
recorder and he heard nothing except for the screaming part of the finale, I believed it
marked the moment of death for his friend.

Theme: Spend your time by cherishing the moments you have now rather than spend
it looking back on past memories. You’ll never know when death catches up with you.

Literary Devices:

Foreshadowing – When Tony and Fil talked in the beginning, they mentioned death
quite often, in a way it foreshadowed Tony’s demise in the end of the story.

Symbolism – Fil becomes excited in the beginning of the story because the dancers
are going to be able to see the snow, but now being a universal symbol of coldness
and death, the dancers have no wish to actually see it, leaving it to Tony to taste death
before his time.

As the tape was getting erased, the spools were spinning faster as it got closer to the
end of the tape just like Tony’s life was quickly unraveling as it got closer to his death.

Glossary

 Adobo: a Filipino pork/chicken dish marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, pepper

 Kundiman: style of singing native songs, usually Tagalog songs

 Tinia Flava: a skin disease common among adolescents in Philippines

Questions and Answers

1) Why was Fil so interested in spending time with the dancers?

He felt that being able to spend time with the dancers would bring him memories of
the Philippines. Also, the dancers would appreciate the things he was doing for them
and remember Chicago a certain way because of him.

2) What disease was Tony suffering from?

Tony suffered from a disease that frustrated doctors. It caused gradual peeling all
over his body.

3) Define the literary term foreshadowing and give an example of when it was used in
the story.

Foreshadowing is the organization and presentation of events and scenes in a work of

fiction or drama so that the reader or observer is prepared to some degree for what
occurs later in the work. An example of this literary technique is when Tony and Fil
talked in the beginning and they were mentioning death quite often, in a way it
foreshadowed Tony’s demise at the end of the story.