It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of Mrs. Marialita Tamanio-Yraola (October 22, 1944 – June 7, 2018). Her contribution to the U.P Center of Ethnomusicology is invaluable; the relationships and memories she built- indelible and unforgettable. Mrs. Yraola is among the pillars that helped build the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. She started as a research assistant of the UP College of Music Department of Music Research in 1969, and was one of Dr. Jose Maceda’s first research assistants in the monumental “Ethnomusicological Survey of the Philippines”. Having lived a prolific life of research, she has conducted field work among the Ayta Magbukun, Bontok, Ifugao, Bukidnon, Mansaka, Mandaya, and other ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines.
Though she briefly moved to Bataan for five years to join her family, she worked again as a researcher for Dr. Jose Maceda’s grants such as Ford Foundation, UP, CCP, and Toyota Foundation. Later on, she became a University Researcher/ University Extension Specialist at UP Diliman Office of the Chancellor. In June 1998, she became a Senior Researcher for the Philippine Folklife for American Folklife Festival at the Smithsonian Institute.
(The video above, The Yraola Kundiman, was an interview with Marialita Tamanio Yraola aired in DZUP’s Tunog at Tinig on 24 October 2012. It illustrates her experiences during her work as an ethnomusicologist during her field research in Bataan in 1970. Video from the YouTube channel of daughter, Ms. Dayang Yraola)
A significant part of her life was devoted to the UP Center for Ethnomusicology, where she is still fondly called ‘Mama Lita’ by its personnel until today. She was an Advisory Board Member of the Center and helped draft the nomination of the Jose Maceda Collection to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. She was also involved in the technical planning meetings for the Jose Maceda Collection Digitization projects and was part of the Laon-Laon Network and Forum held in Manila (2008) and Cambodia (2009).
