How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife

Manuel E. Arguilla

Objectives:
At the end of the report, the class will be able to:
1. know the author’s background
2. take note of modern and rural landscape as illustrated in the short
story
3. single out the cultural significations embedded in the short story

The Author
Manuel Estabillo Arguilla (1911 – 1944) was an Ilokano writer in English,
patriot, and martyr. He is known for his widely anthologized short story How My
Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Short Stories. The main story in the
collection, How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife, won first prize in the
Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940.
Most of Arguilla's stories depict scenes in Barrio Nagrebcan, Bauang, La
Union where he was born. His bond with his birthplace, forged by his dealings
with the peasant folk of Ilocos, remained strong even after he moved
to Manila where he studied at the University of the Philippines where he finished
BS Education in 1933 and where he became a member and later the president of the
U.P. Writer's Club and editor of the university's Literary Apprentice.
He married Lydia Villanueva, another talented writer in English, and they
lived in Ermita, Manila.
He became a creative writing teacher at the University of Manila and later
worked at the Bureau of Public Welfare as managing editor of the bureau's
publication Welfare Advocate until 1943. He was later appointed to the Board of
Censors. He secretly organized a guerrilla intelligence unit against the
Japanese.
In October 1944, he was captured, tortured and executed by the Japanese
army at Fort Santiago.

The Short Story

Characters
1. Baldo - younger brother of Leon. He fetched Leon and Maria from the road
to their home in Nagrebcan.
2. Leon (or Noel) - older brother of Baldo who studied in Manila where he
met his wife
3. Maria - the beautiful and stunning wife of Leon from (Ermita) Manila
4. Labang - the bull whom Baldo considers as his pet

Plot
1. Baldo meets his brother Leon’s wife for the first time.

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 Baldo fetches his brother Leon and Maria, and takes them home. They do not
pass through the usual route, the camino real. Instead, they take a shortcut
through a field (waig) as was ordered by their father.
Seeing his brother's wife, Baldo is easily taken away by the beauty of the
woman from city. (Her nails are long. She wears high heels and skirt. She has a
small dimple on her right cheek. She is fragrant like a morning when papayas are
in bloom.)

2. They journey home with conversation and a song.

Along their way home, Maria discovers the peculiarities of the life in
Nagrebcan (sounds of Labang and insects; clean air – free of dust and smoke) as
opposed to their life in the city where she met and fell in love with Leon.
Baldo notices that both his brother and Maria are enjoying what they see.
Leon points on the stars and asks if Maria if she had seen such from Ermita. The
brothers sing “Sky Sown with Stars” which their father taught them when they were
still young; Maria sings with them.

3. Leon asks Maria if she is anxious as they near home, bringing about
Baldo’s own reaction about how the family will welcome Leon and his wife.

The idea of meeting with Leon's parents for the first time made Maria a bit
anxious. This is true for Leon as well. The first words that fell on Leon’s lips
when they arrived home were, “Father – where is he?”.

4. Baldo attends to his father's request while the family talks.

Father asks about what transpired while they journey home. When the couple
entered the room, father sent Baldo to tend Labang. He left his father, now with
Leon and Maria.

Comments/Analysis

How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife is a story about an occasion that
would be a big day in the life of any family, the day one of the sons of the
family brings hope the woman he intends to marry. The story is told in the
first person by Leon's younger brother.
This interesting story tells about a woman’s struggle as she tries to gain
the worthiness needed to be accepted by her husband’s family. The story is set in
Nacreban, where the husband lives.
In the story, Leon and Maria, the wife, face many challenges along the way,
including the passing in the so-called “Waig” instead of the “Camino Real” or the
paved road. But in the end of the story, both lovers overcome these trials when
they reached Leon’s family house.

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 As a reader, this story shows how true love can surmount all challenges. And
as in the case for some women, this story shows how to adjust to their husbands’
rural lifestyle.
As one of the many stories, this story is very unique because it accurately
describes Maria’s ways of adjusting to Leon’s hometown. It also has a very
powerful impact on the essences of love because it shows that a person from
the urban area can be somehow compatible with a partner from the rural area.
Reading the story would somehow make one feel Manuel Arguilla's great love
of Nagrebcan. He takes the time to note the shape of clouds, the sounds made by
the rolling wheels or even the rope near the neck of the bull Labang, and even
the scent of the air. It is as if Arguilla transports you right there, among
Maria and the two brothers.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Arguilla
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=How_My_Brother_Leon_Brought_
Home_A_Wife
http://www.blurtit.com/q7203086.html
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Literature/Short%20Stories/How%20My
%20Brother%20Leon%20Brought%20Home%20A%20Wife.htm

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