The White Horse of Alih

By: Emigdio “Mig” Alvarez Enriquez

A. Biography of the author

Emigdio Alvarez Enriquez was born on the year 1925. He is a Filipino by birth. He started writing

at the age of 20. He is a novelist, story writer, and playwright. Among his famous literary works

are: Blood on the Moon, A Tale of Two Houses, Cachil Kudarat (Sultan of Mindanao) or Cachil

Corrala, and Labaw, Donggon. All of this short stories won Palanca awards in the year

B. The Issue inside the story

• Psychological effect of man's alienation from the society where he is

• Racial Discrimination

• Traditions in religion

• Psychological impact of an individual’s experiences

• Quarrel between religions

• Discrimination based on religion

C. ELEMENTS OF STORY

• Setting

The story happened on July 4th in a city with a parade of people.

• Characters

➢ Alih- a Moro who plans for killing the people celebrating the Filipino- American Friendship

Day

➢ Omar- the older brother of Alih who dictates him on what to do in every aspects of his life

➢ Imam- the village priest who tried to dissuade the two brothers, he explain to them that the

prophets did not teach to do it

➢ Lucy - girl who lived in the reservation area where the Americans live

-she is the first girl Alih liked

➢ Fermina - a beautiful bar maid with a mole near her mouth

- Alih likes her so much but the woman doesn’t like him because of his impertinent manner

towards her.

The story happened on July 4th in a city with a parade of people. It was a happy day for

everybody because they are celebrating the big American Holiday. Among the crowd was Alih, a

Moro who was then looking for his brother, Omar. That day was intended for them to fulfill

their plan. Their plan is to kill these people.

So Alih waited for his brother, he went out of the crown and sat under the Balete tree. While he

was sitting and looking at the parade, he remembered his past, his childhood and his growing

years where he met the women whom he wished and longed for and he remembered his

mission. That is—to kill the people. But people can’t notice them as Moros because they were

in disguise.

When he saw a man riding a horse and controlling the crowd, he remembered how much he

longed for a horse for himself. He recalled when his brother punished him because he spent his

earnings just to ride in a merry – go- round. He wanted to ride on a wooden horse because he

saw the girl whom he liked most and her name was Lucy. Lucy was the girl who lived in the

reservation area where the Americans live. Moros were not allowed to enter that vicinity. But

because he needs to go to school, he cross the river and reached the reservation area. There he

saw the first girl he liked. Though, they were not given the chance to see and talk to each other

since then.

When he grew up, Omar told him about how the American soldiers killed their father without

any reason. Their father was known and respected in their village. With these, Omar taught him

to be brave and be able to fight against these people because he believes that only by killing

could they wash away their shame. He taught him words to live by and beliefs to be respected

and attained.

As he grew into a mature individual, he met another woman named Fermina. Fermina was a

beautiful bar maid with a mole near her mouth. He likes her so much but the woman doesn’t

like him because of his impertinent manner towards her. He was put to jail for six months

because of what he did.

Remembering all of these from his past, he thought of what Omar said about the promise of

their prophet to those who are faithful to him. That is to have a white horse ride to heaven and

as many hours as the number of infidel heads he could lay before Allah. But when he thought of

what their Imam said that white horse, as a reward for killing is an reference conjured by

fanatics in their attempt to give reason to their behavior. The prophet never taught them about

that because he was man of peace.

So back to reality, he continued searching for Omar into the crowd. Soon he saw a float with a

girl whom he thought of as Fermina. He went near the float and assisted the girl to go down to

the ground. As he was about to hold her completely, Omar came but to his surprise, he was

drunk and tipsy! All along, he realized that Omar had been drinking tuba. He knew that Omar

was afraid to kill that is why he drink tuba first before he go to the town.

Omar shouted and leap to the street, and then he gets his fatal blade from his pants.

The crowd screamed. Fear and panic seized everyone. Everyone is running and escaping from

Omar, even fermina jumped into the ground and run away but she got stocked from a bamboo

frame of the float because of her long flowing robe that hooked on the edge of the bamboo

frame. She tried to set her free but she saw Omar coming to her swinging his blade. Fermina

screamed and screamed because of fear.

The screams struck Alih because he saw that Fermina the girl he was love is in danger and get

his blade from his leg immediately and then he leaped to his brother Omar and hit its back by

his sharp blade repeatedly. Omar died.

The town spoke out about the strange tragedy for many days after. But nobody had known Alih,

and nobody could figure out why he turned against his brother.