I’m not the type of person who reads a lot because I prefer watching. Whenever I start reading a book, a few sentences already makes me fall asleep. Although this is true, I know that I could never escape from reading because of my literature class. Through this class I got to read different stories like Green Sanctuary.

 

A sanctuary is simply means a place where you can find peace, protection and safety. It is also considered as consecrated place such as church, synagogue etc. and where religious services are held. I believe that people have their own idea about sanctuary and how they make it significant to them. For me, being with my friends is what makes me feel safe and at peace. Being with them is where I can find my sanctuary.
Antonio Reyes Enriquez was born in Barangay Labuan, Zamboanga city in 1936. Currently he and his wife, with their five grandchildren were living in Cagayan de Oro City but then he died at the age of 78 in 2014. He is a Filipino author of many different interesting books of short stories and novels and one of those is the Green Sanctuary. He has been published in his homeland, the Philippines and abroad. His short stories were also translated in Korean and German. He was educated at a local Jesuit school in Zamboanga. Antonio went to a university in Manila because his parents wanted him there to study medicine. Maybe because of not being satisfied on his field, he returned to Zamboanga City without a college degree after several years. Later on Antonio decided to do various jobs like writing a newspapers and magazines. Antonio also joined a surveying company in Cotabato where his experience provided him settings and characters for his novel Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh. He graduated with liberal degree in creative writing it was also because of winning a writing fellowship award.
Green Sanctuary is about the culture and behavior of the Moros in Mindanao. Mindanao is the third largest city in the Philipppines known as the land of promise because of rich biodiversity and natural resources. The land holds an incredible wealth from nature, but also has dark moments of truth. As observed, every traveler who wants to explore Mindanao would ask about safety. Is it safe in Mindanao? Well the main problems are in Zamboanga, where there are bombings and kidnappings somewhat regularly. Although it describes to be harmful for people, of course there are many positive things you should know and could do in Mindanao.
The cultural value that you could find in the literary piece is that you should respect people’s lives. You should never use your power to control one’s life and never accuse people without justifying their actions.
Based on what I understand about the story, Green sanctuary is about one place in Mindanao called Pikit in Cotabato where Moros are living. People there say that visitors or tourists that would plan to pass and stop in Pikit will definitely shot by the Moros. Bangsamoro people or Moros are the Muslim population of the Philippines, forming the non-Catholic group in the country. Based on the story there was a datu who ruled the said entire place. He was extremely mischievous that he could kill whoever disobeyed him. Every early evening, sari-sari stores were already closed and no one were staying outside because Datu Mantel were about to go around the whole place. One night there was an innocent drunkard walking and Datu Mantel suddenly shot and killed the drunkard. He also promoted himself to be the chief of the place. There was also an incident where Datu Mantel was watching FPJ’s movie in a cinema house. The movie has a scene where Moros were being killed by FPJ, by that he got angry and suddenly shot the screen, and because of what happened the cinema house didn’t ever show FPJ’s movies ever again.

 

Green sanctuary is about cultural and social literary work therefore the literary approaches that I think are applicable in this story are historical criticism, sociological criticism and Marxist criticism. Historical criticism because seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it. We learned about the culture and behavior of the people in the story. A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers. I chose sociological criticism because this approach is exploring the relationship between the author and society. Sometimes it examines the artist’s society to better understand the author’s literary works; other times, it may examine the representation of such societal elements within the literature itself. Marxism is also applicable because it focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often emphasizing the ideological content of literature. It emphasizes the power of the Datu Mantel and his behavior for being a datu.

 

What I only like about the story is that how realistic it was and how brave the author was for showcasing his experiences in Mindanao. What I didn’t like about the story was the culture and the behavior of the Moros and Datu Mantel because obviously, his behavior was really bad and unforgiving.

 
I would like to recommend this book for those people who are curious about the culture of Moros and want to learn more about Mindanao. For me, I would rate this book as 8 out of 10 because although this book is saddening about the reality of what is happening in Mindanao, it still reminds you that you should be careful of places and people around you. Through this book you could also learn to not abuse your power especially for harming and killing other people. You should learn to respect and accept people’s lives and be a good leader for your people.

 

Source: http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/spring97/litcrit.html
https://www.zamboanga.com/Literature/Laureates_AR_Enriquez_bio1.htm

Antonio Reyes Enriquez – A Filipino Contemporay artist from Mindanao