CNF Online Journal 2: Wilfredo Pascual’s Animalia

Chelsea Elizabeth Naredo
2 min readJul 5, 2021

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There are certain events in our lives that play a big role in our growth, realizations, and discoveries. We tend to look back at these moments in order to create a point of familiarity when we lose our way at some point in our lives. Wilfredo Pascual’s Animalia shows us a collection of his life’s stories through his experiences with other species; of killing bats at 12 years old and the unforgettable meal of transgendered tilapia that he shared while coming to terms with his preferences, to a turtle’s ability of finding their way home. These personal experiences are those that played a crucial role in his self-discovery and realizations in different stages of his life, and how they might give us an idea of what we can learn from these experiences as well.

Since this essay is written in first person, there is a certain familiarity that surrounds the way it is conveyed to the reader. Pascual’s approach in writing is objective, he did not make use of any emotive words to describe his own feelings and experiences. Despite this, the stories did not lack in description, giving us a vivid image of what had occurred in that exact moment, as if we were in the same room, the same environment when these things happened for the first time.

Reading this made me feel emotional, in some way. Some of the stories were morbid in my eyes, especially talking about the bats that they killed when he was young. That first one really stuck to me, which is why I think it is an effective story to have told at the beginning. It talked of how a creature attempts to find its way in the world, and how they ought to do so will depend on the only way that they know how. These stories give a sense of nostalgia, of how we learn from every memory that has an effect on us, and it teaches us things that no other experience will be able to exactly convey.

I remember one of them opened its mouth again and again and I knew it wasn’t snarling. It was making sounds, yelling, shouting, and listening to echoes because it knew no other way to find its place in this world.

The story also talks of family, of confusion and irresponsibility, and how being able to travel from one place to another shows you lessons that you might be able to learn from the one you visited before. Animalia compares the experiences of animals to those of us humans, and how we can learn a thing or two from how they live, die, or simply exist. How these animals, although just elements in the stories of humans, are elements that symbolized familiarity, realizations, and sometimes even turning points that can change the way a person views the world.

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Chelsea Elizabeth Naredo
Chelsea Elizabeth Naredo

Written by Chelsea Elizabeth Naredo

Unti-unting humahakbang papalayo sa mundong nakasanayan.

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