What Is Maruja? (post 1)
They call me maruja. I was baptized by that name when I was a college freshman. During my apprenticeship at a theater organization, the senior members--by the "seniority" power vested upon them--began calling all new male members, gay or otherwise, with female names. Some guy was called Wynona, another was named Jaya, while I got the name maruja (muh-ROO-ha).
It's based from an old Filipino movie "Gumising Ka, Maruja" (which translates to "Wake Up, Maruja"), about a woman reincarnated after a hundred years searching for her one true love. As I think about it now, perhaps I was fated to be called as such, since I had a searching of my own. More of that in the coming posts.
The name was stuck to me for years. I was sort of popular (or sort of infamous) along the university hallways, to the point that some students thought that maruja is my real name. I considered it as my lucky charm, as I used it as my pen name for my first stage play. It won third place, the only awardee from the play category during the 1997 university literary competition.
I still use it until now, whenever I interact with the people belonging to the sub-branch of the society tree called fashionistas. Call it a screen name for an aspiring social climber, I don't care.
It's based from an old Filipino movie "Gumising Ka, Maruja" (which translates to "Wake Up, Maruja"), about a woman reincarnated after a hundred years searching for her one true love. As I think about it now, perhaps I was fated to be called as such, since I had a searching of my own. More of that in the coming posts.
The name was stuck to me for years. I was sort of popular (or sort of infamous) along the university hallways, to the point that some students thought that maruja is my real name. I considered it as my lucky charm, as I used it as my pen name for my first stage play. It won third place, the only awardee from the play category during the 1997 university literary competition.
I still use it until now, whenever I interact with the people belonging to the sub-branch of the society tree called fashionistas. Call it a screen name for an aspiring social climber, I don't care.
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