Last year (2013) GM Crispulo Atillo announced his "Successors-Disciples" and I posted a blog statement praising his public statement because he has eliminated for the most part any need for argumentation after he passes on. His announcement really was very forthcoming and progressive
in terms of the usual bickering that follows the death of a system founder and/or Grand Master.
Of particular interest to me was the fact that GM Tom Bolden, GM Douglas Pierre and Master Peter Vargas were named to the highest level of succession as "Successors-Disciples". Since these three people have trained in Modern Arnis with GM Bolden and GM Pierre have earned lakan level ranking directly from the late Professor Presas, the designation by GM Atillo moves these men closer to the actual roots of Modern Arnis, through the Saavedra-Balintawak lineage. In spite of the efforts of some people both inside and outside of Modern Arnis as well as Balintawak Eskrima to discredit GM Crispulo Atillo as a major player in the art of Balintawak, the basic evidence supports his claims of being involved in the Balintawak System beginning in the 1950's. And tray as they may, no one has been able to show definitively that the art known as Balintawak is not a logical extention of the "corto linear" eskrima style that was developed and practiced by GGM Lorenzo Saavedra and his 3 nephews, Teodoro "Doring" Saavedra, Fredrico Saavedra and Venancio Saavedra Bacon. At one point in time, Teodoro Saavedra, was the instructor for Venancio Bacon, Vincente Atillo, Delfin Lopez, Timeteo Maranga and some 23 other people who eventually worked together to form the
Balintawak Self Defense Club in 1952. There is no doubt that Bacon the principal instructor of the newly formed BSDC and every agrees that the new club was named after the street on which the new club house was located. The one seldom asked and never answered question is where did GM Bacon get the information that he used to establish the new Balintawak System?
As with so many situations involving conflicting groups of people involved in a similar organization
the truth is often right in front of them and obviously hiding in plain sight. The plain and simple truth is that Venacion Saavedraa Bacon had only trained in one system, the Saavedra Escrima or Corto Linear system under Lorenzo and Teodoro Saavedra. He took that information and training from the Saavedra's through the Doce Pares Club to his new BSDC organization in 1952. GM Vincente Atillo taught the Saavedra Eskrima System to his son and they were members of the BSDC from it's inception. There is a very clear ancd compelling reason why we can not find a significant difference between the eskrima that GM Crispulo Atillo teaches and the art that GM Bobby Taboada teaches, along with the art of GM Bob Silver Tabimaina, or GM Nick Elizar. They are all engaged in teaching Balintawak. They all have the same core foundation and they have added other elements that best suited them as individuals. The Atillo detractors have to engage in tautologies to make their charges sound reasonable but when pushed with empirical evidence they fall back to allegations that the Saavedra system has nothing to do with Balintawak, therefore GM Atillo, should have refered to his system as Savvedra Eskrima.
Given what I have been able to find through my research efforts, I am very comfortable with the idea that the Atillo System is the Saavedra and Balintawak Systems are essentially the same with some new and very logical adaptations added by a number of senior people including GGM Bacon. My research results have convinced to amend my original flow chart to include the Saavedra-Atillo connections to Modern Arnis and Professor Remy Presas. The chart is reproduced below.
I understand that there will be some people who disagree with me and I fully respect their right to do so. My only stipulation is that they will have to give me a documentable set of alternatives, not merely someone's word of mouth accounts. As a sociologist as well as a martial artist, I want to see empirical documentation before I alter my flow chart again.
Respectfully yours,
Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
GM & Datu,
Independent Escrima-Kenpo-Arnis Associates
Martial Arts Lineage of Remy Amador Presas
Leon B. Presas
Traditional Arnis
Espada y Daga
|
Remy Amador Presas
Founder & GM Modern Arnis
Lorenzo Saavedra
Founder & GM - Saavedra Eskrima
|
Teodoro Saavedra
|
Venancio Saavedra Bacon - Timeteo Maranga - Vincente Atillo
|
Crispulo Atillo
|
Arnulfo Mongcal
|
Remy Amador Presas
Founder & GM Modern Arnis
Venancio Saavedra Bacon
Grand Master & Co-Founder Balintawak Eskrima
|
Timeteo Maranga - Vincente Atillo w/ Crispulo Atillo
| |
Arnulfo Mongcal
|
Remy Amador Presas
Founder & GM Modern Arnis
Martial Arts Lineage of Dr. Jerome Barber
Modern Arnis Lineage:
Remy Amador Presas
Founder & GM Modern Arnis
|
Donald F. Zanghi
|
Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
Kepno Karate Lineage:
Hoon Chow
(Hung Gar) James Mitose
| (Kosho Ryu Kenpo)
| |
William K. S. Chow (Chinese Kenpo)
|
Adriano Emperado (Chinese Kenpo, Eskrima, Kajukenbo)
| |
Marino Tiwanak Edmund Parker, Sr.
(Kajukenbo, CHA-3 Kenpo) (Chinese Kenpo, American Kenpo)
| |
Florentino Pancipanci Al & Jim Tracy
(CHA-3 Kenpo, Pancipanci Eskrima) (Tracy System Kenpo)
| / |
Tom Bolden Ernest McPeek Donald F. Zanghi
(CHA-3 Kenpo) (Tracy System Kenpo) (Tracy System Kenpo)
(Pancipanci Eskrima) (Modern Arnis)
|_____________________________________ |___________________|
|
Jerome Barber, Ed. D.
|
Tim Kashino - Richard Curren - Tom Verga - Paul R. Martin - Kenneth Q. Boehm,
Debra S. Moore - Keith Roosa - James "Buddy" Antonio, Frank Heinan,
Kathleen Geiger - Frankie Heinan - Stephanie Heinan,
Mary Altair - Keri Marotti, Michael Zelli
(Certified Black Belt Instructors - IEKA)
Stephanie Heinan, Michael Zelli
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Poem: The Hangman
A facebook friend referenced this poem earlier today and after looking it up and reading it, I was very impressed with the concept and moral character contained therein. I have posted it on a couple of sites that I frequent and asked for some feedback. I hope to hear from you guys as well.
JB
_______________________________________________
The Hangman
Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime,
That Hangman judged with the yellow twist
Of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead;
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raise the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief.
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down,
On roof and street in our quiet town
And, stark and black in the morning air,
The gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike,
And his air so knowing and businesslike.
And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done,
Yesterday, with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed:
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch the rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried, "Murderer!" One cried,
"Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"With him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm,
And we shrank back in quick alarm,
And we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of fear of his hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise,
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took — we had all heard tell —
Was a usurer and infidel,
And: "What," said the Hangman, "have you to
do,
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out: "Is this one he,
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
To try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched out comfort hard and long;
And "What concern," he gave us back,
"Have you for the doomed - the doomed and black?"
The fifth.The sixth. And we cried again:
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said, "that we hangmen
know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score;
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide,
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came
And called in the empty streets my name -
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall
And thought: "There is no one left at all,
For hanging, and so he calls to me
to help pull down the gallows-tree."
And I went out with right good hope
to the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down,
To the courthouse square through the silent town,
and supple and stretched in his busy hand,
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap
And it sprang down with a ready snap—
And then with a smile of awful command,
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then.
"That your scaffold was built for other men.
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye:
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said,
"Not I. For I answered straight and I told you true:
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
"For who has served me more faithfully
Than you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others that might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered; and amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me;
"First the alien, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky,
None had stood so alone as I -
And the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there
Cried "Stay" for me in the empty square.
—Maurice Ogden (1951)
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