CB Mako: Telefono
Mr Bear reading CB Mako’s ‘Telefono’
Comadre, my beloved iho has an ugly new
girlfriend. Que horror! Her nose so pango,
her skin so itim, so dark! Why didn't he
pick someone mestiza like us?
And she is so short! Pandak and mataba! I
have had prettier katulongs than her.
Hadn’t we already matched my son to
your daughter, Miya? With our American
and Spanish bloodlines our future apo
would be beautiful, so puro! Ay, Diyos mio,
what should I do? They will have ugly
babies. My apos will be ugly! I need to
pray a novena to Nuestra Señora De
Guadalupe. Please say a rosary for your
handsome godson. The impertinent
maldita, punyeta. I’ve got to go, comadre.
The block rosary Blessed Virgin Mary is
here. We have guests coming.
Glossary
Apos – grandchildren
Ay Diyos Mio – Oh my God
Block Rosary - The Block Rosary is a devotion wherein animage or statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary visits the home of each family for aweek or so. It encourages the family to pray the Rosary everyday not only fortheir own intentions but for the intentions of the whole community.
Comadre – son’s godmother
Iho – Son/Male child
Itim – Black
Katulongs – domestic helpers
Maldita – a woman with attitude, as opposed to the stereotypically modest Filipina who’s always thinking of others ahead of herself. Possible translations in English: snob, aloof, cruel, sharp-tongued, rude, mean, bitchy,self-centered
Mataba – fat
Mestiza – female of mixed native and foreign descent.
Nuestra Señora De Guadalupe – Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a venerated image enshrined within the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City
Pandak – short in stature
Pango – a flat nose
Punyeta – profanity expressed in anger, borrowed from the Spanish word puñeta or ‘wank’
Que Horror – How awful
CB Mako is a West Writers Group member and a perpetual art student at Footscray Community Arts Centre. CB Mako has performed as an artist and panellist at the Emerging Writers Festival, Digital Writers Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, and Melbourne Writers Festival. Winner of the Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition (non-fiction), CB Mako has been published in The Suburban Review, The Lifted Brow, The Victorian Writer, Pencilled In, Peril Magazine, Mascara Literary Review, Writers Victoria, Writers Bloc, Djed Press, and Wild Tongue Zine. She is @cubbieberry on Twitter and @cb.mako on Instagram. Her website is https://mercurialmum.wordpress.com