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Pio
A. Cabajar
Pio A. Cabajar (later, Piux Kabahar) was born
in San Nicolas on October 11, 1892. He was the son of musician Justo Cabajar, a
revolutionary who fought both in the anti-Spanish revolution and anti-American war.
Though he briefly worked as a teacher and
later, secretary of the then Cebu Municipal Board. Piux was mostly a full-time artist and
entertainer. A man of many gifts, he was a journalist (editor or staffer of more than 20
different prewar Cebuano periodicals), a composer of songs (which have become local
classics, like Wasaywasay), and a popular director, actor, and comedian of the Cebuano
stage.
He was, first and foremost, a playwright.
Between 1916 and 1940, he wrote at least 35 plays, including Luha sa Inahan, Pahiyum,
Fifi, and Rosas Pangdan. He also had the distinction of directing the first Cebuano
“talking” movie, the screenplay of which he wrote based on his own play,
Bertoldo-Balodoy. The movie premiered at Vision Theater in 1940.
He was a tireless man of the theater,
performing not only in local playhouses but leading itinerant drama troupes that performed
in neighbor provinces.
Though Piux lived until the ripe age of 28,
the era that defined him was the prewar period, a time when Cebuano stage personalities
– like Concepcion Canenea, Antonio Kiyamko, Isidora Silloria, Fernando Alfon, and
others – had the popularity of movie stars today.
One of the most important figures in the
making of Cebuano popular culture.
- Ybarra
Note: Piux Kabajar is a branch of the Cabase Family Tree,
uncle to the Cabase Brothers: Siux (Tikoy), Narding, and Manny Cabase - father of Amapola. |