Kenkoy Poster

By: Sari Bustamante

My Item is an original Kenkoy poster drawn by Tony Velasquez. It is dated October 8 1982 and it was his birthday gift for his wife Pilar. It is a significant family heirloom because it was given to us by Pilar herself before she passed away. But who is Tony Velasquez anyway? And who is Kenkoy?

Tony Velasquez is considered the father of Filipino comics. According to Dennis Villegas from the website Lambiek, Tony founded Filipino komiks in 1947, the comic book that started the comic industry in the Philippines. He was best known for the comic character “Kenkoy”, who became so popular that the term kenkoy entered the Filipino language to mean a joker, jester, or a hilarious person. Upon Tony Velasquez’ death in 1997, he was already recognized as the "Father of the Philippine Komiks".

My maternal great grandmother, Rita, is the sister of Tony Velasquez’ wife, Pilar. This is why our family is very familiar with Kenkoy. My great grandmother said that there were even some comic strips where the characters were named after my lola and her siblings. “Ate,” whom Pilar was fondly called by our family, kept each comic strip as a souvenir to remember the works of Mr. Velasquez. She was very generous in sharing her husband’s work with us. These were the mementos that she wanted to leave us with.

Ate passed away peacefully in her sleep last November, 11, 2013. This heirloom is important because it is one of his well preserved works that we were lucky enough to keep. It is as if we have a part of the history of Philippine art in our home. It’ll always remind us of the time when comics in newspapers and magazines were things looked forward to for entertainment.

This heirloom is not only an important Philippine history, it is also a way to remember Mr. Velasquez and Ate Pilar who are special members of our family. This shows that we really need to appreciate the things handed down to us. Because there is always a story behind it.