Partas Transportation Co., Inc.

A Partas bus en route to Bangued, Abra, pauses at a rest stop.
Slogan	“We take pride in our courteous and safe drivers.”
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Service type	Provincial Operation
Fleet	300+ vehicles (MAN, Hino, Nissan Diesel, Mitsubishi Fuso, Golden Dragon, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai), Yutong, Higer, plus one Neoplan Skyliner "Skybus"
Operator	Partas Transportation Co., Inc.

Partas Transportation Co., Inc. is a bus transportation company in the Philippines. It operates a 24/7 service for passengers and freight (known as "waybill") between Metro Manila and northwest Luzon (the Ilocos corridor), with services also running to Baguio City and the Central Luzon plains (Pampanga and Nueva Ecija provinces).

Aside from transportation by bus, Partas also provides limousine service for celebrities and distinguished persons visiting the province of Ilocos Sur.

Etymology[link]

The name "Partas" was derived from the term "SATRAP", an ancient Persian word for "governor" (since Chavit Singson, the owner, served as governor of Ilocos Sur for many years), spelled in reverse,. ("Satrap" also refers to the name of the construction business owned and managed by Partas' owner/operator). "Partas" also sounds like "pardas," an Ilocano term for "being fast" or "speed."

History[link]

Partas traces back its humble beginnings to 1992, a time when Philippine Rabbit and rival Farinas Transit ruled the Ilocos routes; and with millionaire Santiago Rondaris' Times Transit shut down for good due to labor disputes (which later became Dominion Bus Lines); and St. Joseph is sidelined by hard times. Even as a new player in the industry back then, Partas has attracted the riding public with its state-of-the-art buses powered by Nissan Diesel and MAN engines; with the distinctive blue and white livery, and the Roadrunner character from Looney Tunes, their standard emblem, adorning the front and sides of their buses.

Being able to provide safe, fast, and comfortable travel experience for its patrons was Partas' way to winning the choice of many commuters. The company has also seriously enforced cleanliness and good maintenance of its fleet.

Partas is one of two bus companies in the Ilocos Region to have ever fielded a double-decker bus (the other being Farinas).

The principal provincial terminals are at Laoag City (Ilocos Norte), Vigan City (Ilocos Sur), Bangued,(Abra), Baguio City (Benguet) and San Fernando (La Union).

A limited service operates through the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), located within the Clark Special Economic Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga.

In Metro Manila, the main hub is at Cubao, Quezon City, which deploys trips to majority of its provincial destinations, except for Baguio City. In addition, trips to Clarkfield, Pampanga are available only through Cubao terminal.

Trips to and from Baguio City (as well as Laoag City and Bangued, Abra) are available via their terminal in Pasay City.

The latest terminal within Metro Manila was opened in Sampaloc district of Manila City. This terminal principally caters to students in Manila's University Belt who hail from Laoag City and Bangued, Abra.

Partas also has inter-provincial trips, running between Baguio City and Vigan City; and Laoag City and Bangued, Abra. Just recently, Partas has started servicing its newest line, which runs from San Jose City in Nueva Ecija up to City of San Fernando, Pampanga, passing through Cabanatuan City, Gapan City and Olongapo City in Zambales.

In April 17,2011 actor AJ Perez was killed when his ABS CBN service van crashed on a Partas Bus along MacArthur Highway in Barangay San Julian, Paniqui, Tarlac While his driver tried to Overtake a trailer truck.

Fleet[link]

As of today, Partas is fielding more or less 300 buses. The expansion of its fleet will be highly anticipated because 100 buses will be added. The reason behind this is that they will be expanding their proximal destination to General Santos City. These buses are an assortment -- from locally made ones to imports. The locals are built by Almazora Motors, Pilipinas Hino, and Del Monte Motorworks, while the imported ones are Golden Dragon and Yutong buses from China, and Universal Space Luxury buses from the Korean manufacturer Hyundai. The management ordered 20 of these and 2 of them are presently on service These buses are equipped with engines built by MAN SE, Hino Motors, Cummins, Nissan Diesel, Mitsubishi Fuso, and Mercedes-Benz. Just recently, they started to field Yutong buses with a new livery.

Their new buses sport either white livery with red, dark blue and sky blue stripes (Golden Dragon Buses), an image of a running Roadrunner character displayed throughout the length of the bus (some Golden Dragon buses), white with blue lettering and the Roadrunner character (Hyundai buses), or red, blue and white-colored buses (Mercedes-Benz). There is one Golden Dragon bus, with body number 81538, sporting a silver livery with red, dark blue and sky blue stripes. It is considered to be the first Golden Dragon bus in the fleet and the first Chinese-branded bus in the Philippines when it was introduced back in 2004. The Roadrunner character is displayed in almost all of their buses.^[1]

On July 2010, a new livery has been unveiled. The first four buses with this new design are bus numbers 81048, 81068 ,81378 and 81388 providing more interest to target customers for their new interior which were once a bit old among the fleet.

Fare Classes[link]

Partas has employed various fare classes, which are sequenced below from the least to the most priced, yet all are air conditioned

• Ordinary (first generation buses)
• Regular (second-generation buses)
• First Class (newest bus units to date)
• Deluxe (28 or 31-seater buses)

Destinations[link]

Metro Manila

• • Cubao, Quezon City
  • Pasay City
  • Sampaloc, Manila

Provincial

• • Angeles City, Pampanga - Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark Freeport Zone
  • Baguio City, Benguet
  • Bangued, Abra
  • Candon City, Ilocos Sur
  • Carmen, Pangasinan
  • San Fernando City, La Union
  • Sison, Pangasinan
  • Tarlac City, Tarlac
  • Urdaneta City, Pangasinan
  • Vigan City, Ilocos Sur
  • Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
  • Tuguegarao City, Cagayan

References[link]

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Julio Florencio Cortázar
Cortázar photographed by Sara Facio, in 1967.
Born	August 26, 1914 Argentina Embassy in Ixelles, Belgium
Died	12 February 1984(1984-02-12) (aged 69) Paris, France
Pen name	Julio Denis (in his first two books)
Occupation	Writer, Translator, Novelist
Nationality	Argentine
Genres	Novel, story, poetry, prose poem, short story
Literary movement	Magic realism
Notable work(s)	Hopscotch Blow-up and Other Stories
Influences Jules Verne, James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust, Tristan Tzara, Nouveau Roman, José Lezama Lima, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Edgar Allan Poe
Influenced Thomas Pynchon, Georges Perec, Roberto Bolaño, Giannina Braschi, David Foster Wallace

Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar^[1] (August 26, 1914 – February 12, 1984), was an Argentine Novelist, Short Story Writer and Essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe, he has also been hailed a "A Modern Master of the Short Story".

Early life[link]

Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and María Herminia Descotte, moved from Argentina in 1913 to Brussels, Belgium, where Cortázar was born on August 26, 1914.^[2] At the time of his birth Belgium was occupied by the German troops of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Zürich where María Herminia's parents, Victoria Gabel and Louis Descotte (a French National) were waiting in neutral territory. The family group spent the next two years in Switzerland, first in Zurich, then in Geneva, before moving for a short period to Barcelona. The Cortázars settled in Buenos Aires by the end of 1919.^[3]

Once in Argentina, his parents divorced a few years later.^[2] Cortázar spent most of his childhood in Banfield, a suburb south of Buenos Aires, with his mother and younger sister. The home in Banfield, with its back yard, was a source of inspiration for some of his stories.^[4] Despite this, in a letter to Graciela M. de Solá on December 4, 1963 he described this period of his life as "full of servitude, excessive touchiness, terrible and frequent sadness." He was a sickly child and spent much of his childhood in bed reading.^[5] His mother selected what he read^{[citation needed]}, introducing her son most notably to the works of Jules Verne, whom Cortázar admired for the rest of his life. In the magazine Plural (issue 44, Mexico City, May 1975) he wrote: "I spent my childhood in a haze full of goblins and elves, with a sense of space and time that was different from everybody else's."

Education and teaching career[link]

Cortázar obtained a degree as an elementary school teacher at the age of 18. He would later pursue higher education in philosophy and languages, although he never graduated from University of Buenos Aires. According to biographer Montes-Bradley, Cortázar taught in at least two high schools in Buenos Aires Province, one in the city of Chivilcoy, the other in Bolivar. In 1938 he self-published a volume of sonnets under the pseudonym Julio Denis.^[6] He later repudiated this volume. In a 1977 interview for Spanish television he stated that publishing that book was his only transgression to the principle of not publishing any books until he was convinced that what was written in them was what he meant to say.^[7] In 1944 he became professor of French literature at the National University of Cuyo. In 1949 he published a play, Los Reyes (The Kings), based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Years in France[link]

In 1951, Cortázar, who was opposed to the government of Juan Domingo Perón,^[2] emigrated to France, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. From 1952 onwards, he worked for UNESCO as a translator. The projects he worked on included Spanish renderings of Robinson Crusoe, Marguerite Yourcenar's novel Mémoires d'Hadrien, and stories by Edgar Allan Poe. He also came under the influence of the works of Alfred Jarry and the Comte de Lautréamont, and wrote most of his major works in Paris. In later years he became actively engaged in opposing abuses of human rights in Latin America, and was a supporter of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.

Cortázar was married three times, to Aurora Bernárdez, to Ugnė Karvelis, and finally to Carol Dunlop. He died in Paris in 1984 and is interred in the Cimetière de Montparnasse, next to Carol Dunlop. The cause of his death was reported to be leukemia.

Work and legacy[link]

Cortázar wrote numerous short stories, collected in such volumes as Bestiario (1951), Final del juego (1956), and Las armas secretas (1959). English translations by Paul Blackburn of stories selected from these volumes were published as Blow-up and Other Stories by Pantheon Books (1967). The title of this collection refers to Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup (1967), which was inspired by Cortázar's story "Las Babas del Diablo" (literally, "The Droolings of the Devil", an Argentine expression for the long threads some spiders and insects leave hanging between the trees), which was in turn based on a photograph taken by Chilean photographer Sergio Larraín during a shoot outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.^[8] Puerto Rican novelist Giannina Braschi used Cortázar's story as a springboard for the chapter called "Blow-up" in her bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), which features scenes with Cortázar's characters La Maga and Rocamadour. Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño claimed Cortázar as a key influence on his novel The Savage Detectives: "To say that I'm permanently indebted to the work of Borges and Cortázar is obvious."^[9] Cortázar's story "La Autopista del Sur" ("The Southern Thruway") influenced another film of the 1960s, Jean-Luc Godard's Week End (1967).^[10]

Cortázar also published several novels, including Los premios (The Winners, 1960), Hopscotch (Rayuela, 1963), 62: A Model Kit (62 Modelo para Armar, 1968), and Libro de Manuel (A Manual for Manuel, 1973). Except for Los premios, which was translated by Elaine Kerrigan, the novels have been translated into English by Gregory Rabassa. The open-ended structure of Hopscotch, which invites the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear mode of reading, has been praised by other Latin American writers, including José Lezama Lima, Giannina Braschi, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Cortázar's use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness owes much to James Joyce and other modernists, but his main influences were Surrealism, the French Nouveau roman and the improvisatory aesthetic of jazz. This last interest is reflected in the notable story "El perseguidor" ("The Pursuer"), which Cortázar based on the life of the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker.^[11] Cortázar also mentions Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet several times in Hopscotch.^[12] Cortázar's first wife, Aurora Bernárdez, translated Durrell into Spanish while Cortázar was writing the novel.

Cortázar also published poetry, drama, and various works of non-fiction. He also translated Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket into Spanish as Narracion de Arthur Gordon Pym. One of his last works was a collaboration with his third wife, Carol Dunlop, The Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, which relates, partly in mock-heroic style, the couple's extended expedition along the autoroute from Paris to Marseille in a Volkswagen camper nicknamed Fafner.

In Buenos Aires, a school, a public library, and a square in the neighbourhood of Palermo carry Cortázar's name. The square is particularly well known as the centre of a trendy and bohemian area with an important nightlife (sometimes referred to as "Plaza Serrano" or "Palermo Soho").

Duke University Press published a literary journal called Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, named after Cortázar's novel.

Cortázar is mentioned and spoken highly of in Rabih Alameddine's novel, Koolaids: The Art of War, which was published in 1998.

Books[link]

• Axolotl
• Presencia (1938)
• Los reyes (1949)
• El examen (1950, first published in 1985)
• Bestiario (1951)
• Final del juego (1956)
• Las armas secretas (1959)
• Los premios (The Winners) (1960)
• Historias de cronopios y de famas (1962)
• Rayuela (Hopscotch) (1963)
• Todos los fuegos el fuego (1966)
• Blow-up and Other Stories (1968); originally published in Spanish as Ceremonias (Barcelona, Seix Barral), by which title it is widely known in Spanish literary circles, and in English (translated by Paul Blackburn) as End of the Game and Other Stories. A compilation of stories translated into English from the books Final del juego and Las armas secretas
• Around the Day in Eighty Worlds (La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos) (1967)
• 62: A Model Kit (62, modelo para armar) (1968)
• La noche boca arriba (1968)
• Last Round (Último Round) (1969)
• Prosa del Observatorio (1972)
• Libro de Manuel (1973)
• Octaedro (1974)
• Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales (1975)
• Alguien anda por ahí (1977)
• Territorios (1978)
• Un tal Lucas (1979)
• Queremos tanto a Glenda (1980)
• Deshoras (1982)
• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute (Los autonautas de la cosmopista>) (1983)
• Nicaragua tan violentamente dulce (1983)
• Divertimento (1986)
• Diary of Andrés Fava (Diario de Andrés Fava) (1995)
• Adiós Robinson (1995)
• Save Twilight (1997)
• Cartas (three volumes) (2000)
• Papeles inesperados (2009)
• Cartas a los Jonquieres (2010)

Further reading[link]

English

• Julio Cortázar (Modern Critical Views). Bloom, Harold, 2005
• Schmidt-Cruz, Cynthia (2004). Mothers, Lovers, and Others: the short stories of Julio Cortázar. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5955-3. 
• Julio Cortázar (Bloom's Major Short Story Writers). Bloom, Harold, 2004
• Weiss, Jason (2003). The Lights of Home: a century of Latin American writers in Paris. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94013-9. 
• Standish, Peter (2001). Understanding Julio Cortázar (Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature). University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-390-2. 
• Questions of the Liminal in the Fiction of Julio Cortázar. Moran, Dominic, 2000
• Critical Essays on Julio Cortázar. Alazraki, Jaime, 1999
• Alonso, Carlos J. (1998). Julio Cortázar: new readings. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45210-6. 
• Stavans, Ilan (1996). Julio Cortázar: a study of the short fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-8293-1. 
• The Politics of Style in the Fiction of Balzac, Beckett, and Cortázar. Axelrod, Mark, 1992
• Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris With Uncommon Writers. Weiss, Jason, 1991
• Rodríguez-Luis, Julio (1991). The Contemporary Praxis of the Fantastic: Borges and Cortázar. New York: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8153-0101-1. 
• Yovanovich, Gordana (1991). Julio Cortázar's Character Mosaic: reading the longer fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5888-1. 
• Carter, E. Eugene (1986). Julio Cortázar: Life, Work and Criticism. Fredericton, Canada: York Press. ISBN 978-0-919966-52-9. 
• Peavler, Terry J. (1990). Julio Cortázar. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-8257-5. 
• Boldy, Steven (1980). The Novels of Julio Cortázar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23097-1. 

Spanish

• Discurso del Oso. children's book illustrated by Emilio Urberuaga, Libros del Zorro Rojo, 2008
• Montes-Bradley, Eduardo (2005). Cortázar sin barba. Madrid: Random House Mondadori. pp. 394 Hard Cover. ISBN 84-8306-603-3. 
• Imagen de Julio Cortázar. Claudio Eduardo Martyniuk, 2004
• Julio Cortázar desde tres perspectivas. Luisa Valenzuela, 2002
• Otra flor amarilla: antología: homenaje a Julio Cortázar. Universidad de Guadalajara, 2002
• Yo y Cortázar. Christina Perri Rossi, 2001
• Julio Cortázar. Cristina Peri Rossi, 2001
• Julio Cortázar. Alberto Cousté, 2001
• La mirada recíproca: estudios sobre los últimos cuentos de Julio Cortázar. Peter Fröhlicher, 1995
• Hacia Cortázar: aproximaciones a su obra. Jaime Alazraki, 1994
• Julio Cortázar: mundos y modos. Saúl Yurkiévich, 1994
• Tiempo sagrado y tiempo profano en Borges y Cortázar. Zheyla Henriksen, 1992
• Cortázar: el romántico en su observatorio. Rosario Ferré, 1991
• Lo neofantástico en Julio Cortázar. Julia G Cruz, 1988
• Los Ochenta mundos de Cortázar: ensayos. Fernando Burgos, 1987
• En busca del unicornio: los cuentos de Julio Cortázar. Jaime Alazraki, 1983
• Teoría y práctica del cuento en los relatos de Cortázar. Carmen de Mora Valcárcel, 1982
• Julio Cortázar. Pedro Lastra, 1981
• Cortázar: metafísica y erotismo. Antonio Planells, 1979
• Es Julio Cortázar un surrealista?. Evelyn Picon Garfield, 1975
• Estudios sobre los cuentos de Julio Cortázar. David Lagmanovich, 1975
• Cortázar y Carpentier. Mercedes Rein, 1974
• Los mundos de Julio Cortázar. Malva E Filer, 1970

Filmography[link]

• Cortázar, 1994. Documentary directed by Tristán Bauer.
• Cortázar, apuntes para un documental, documentary. Eduardo Montes-Bradley (Director), Soledad Liendo (Producer). Theatrical release 2002. DVD Release 2007.^[13][14]
• Graffiti, 2005. Short movie based on Julio Cortázar´s short story "Graffiti". Directed by Pako González.[1]

See also[link]

• Etat second

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Weiss (Fall 1984). "Julio Cortazar, The Art of Fiction No. 83". Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2955/the-art-of-fiction-no-83-julio-cortazar. 
• Julio Cortázar )[2]
• Julio Cortázar Collection (Finding Aid) - Princeton University Library Manuscripts Division [3]
• Julio Cortázar: An Argentinean Master of Anti-novel and Experimental Literature
• Books and texts written by Julio Cortázar
• A translated excerpt from Prose from the Observatory
• Julio Cortázar interview 1979