My first
encounter with the mythical Adarna bird happened during my freshman year in
high school. Back then, it was an academic requirement to study corrido [a
popular narrative song and poetry that forms a ballad.] as part of Philippine
literature. Ibong Adarna is a 16th century Filipino epic poem about
an eponymous magical bird. The story is commonly attributed to the Filipino
poet Jose de la Cruz, better known as “Huseng Sisiw.” However, to this day, the
exact authorship is disputed because another legend says it was brought to the
Philippines by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565.
