SIX DECADES OF queenship over the royal domination of the plebeian show business where toilers are still subjugated and exploited made Nora Aunor the most passive yet active authority to rule this segment of society.
Nora Aunor was the quintessential oxymoron of the lot.
She was —in the words of her friend and fellow National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricardo Lee, also known as Ricky Lee, in his eulogy at the state funeral held at the Metropolitan Theater befitting her —a contradiction.
Since she was introduced in pop culture of television by singing and the movies by acting, however, mediocre in the beginning, and molded by themselves as the everyman of the bakya crowd—the masses, her hordes of fans pinned their hopes on her not only as a mirror or a symbol of their harsh realities, dreams and aspirations as well of a better life but as a liberator from their chains of oppression, consciously or unconsciously.
INSPIRATION TO ACTION
The long queues of Noranian mourners under the heat of a summer sun outside the Heritage Park and Crematorium in Taguig City where Nora’s remains laid in state, was testament that the actress was beyond loved—inspiration to action.
At 71, Nora died of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
In life as in death, Nora represented or even shared the lowly and marginalized life of the poor she once lived in Iriga City as a water vendor along rail tracks in her rugged or ragged clothes at the same time blended with the glitz and glam in fancy garbs of the world of make-believe.
In her Superstar status commanding high asking price in media work and eventually accumulating wealth, she became rich but acted a pauper yet a generous giver of money and material things to everyone on the set.
‘[S]he could have bequeathed a more compelling and lasting legacy in her active participation as a leader of social change in real time and not only in reel world.’
MILITANCY NOT SUSTAINED
Nora should have been a leader, to fight for workers’ economic rights or for herself as a source of production, being an actor, at the Film Academy of the Philippines’ Actors Guild or the Philippine Motion Pictures Producers Association (PMPPA) or its other group, the independent film producers as a producer and a capitalist.
She could learn the ropes of intensive and extensive leadership along the way, anyway.
She could have asserted her capacity as a powerful person, actor and producer but she chose to just be a follower.
Progressive groups such as Migrante or Gabriela had already tapped her to their ranks occupying the frontline in the struggle against social injustice and upholding other causes for the good of the majority not excluding showbiz as an organic warm body in organizing and carrying out protest movements.
Sadly, her militancy wasn’t sustained.
She, too, could lead and organize peaceful dialogues between the conflicting interests among investors and artists as employees, workforce or laborers; rallies and mass actions to speak up and to work for the betterment of showbiz, the most legitimate means in achieving common goals for the welfare of the industry.
A RELUCTANT LEADER
When preceding fellow National Artist for Film Lino Brocka led the formation of the Katipunan ng mga Manggagawa ng Pelikulang Pilipino (KMPP), a film workers org to promote the interests of the movie stars and creatives as workers nearing mid-80s, it was Vilma Santos instead who showed up in the frontline.
Nora was the reluctant leader, indeed.
The emergence of independent filmmaking gave Nora the impetus to join its moviemakers if not to solely spearhead the school where she also excelled.
She could again lead the pack not only as a figurehead but a doer largely to work side-by-side with the big and moneyed studios.
But she remained in the sidelights thrusted instead the spotlights in her receiving acting honors.
LASTING LEGACY
Nora had done a lot for the business and arts of filmdom, no doubt, but she could have bequeathed a more compelling and lasting legacy in her active participation as a leader of social change in real time and not only in reel world.
Hoping a new Nora Aunor to emerge from an upcoming generation or is she simply wandering around the periphery of showbiz?
Will the next Nora Aunor please stand up?