Iloilo Philippines

Meet Manang Egly. She did the embroidery on that bright red shawl I posted earlier. Manang Egly holds the honor of being a Panubok master. At the Panubok contest held in Tapaz, Capiz, I ordered a blouse used for the PanayBukidnon’s Binanog dance. It took her more than a month to finish. I didn’t mind the long wait. The rich and colorful embroidery was all done by hand. And her workmanship. Wow!

I took this candid shot last March during the heritage tour I organized for my Humanities students. That guy in orange is actually the konduktor (every Ilonggo driver’s assistant who likes to “dangle” at the jeep’s entrance) . I like the play of colors in the pix–a bright yellow with navy blue plus the highly saturated orange or tangerine on the guy’s shirt.

There is such a thing as local color. A particular culture’s identity can be recognized by its choice of colors. Look at the Mexicans, when we say Mexican colors, bright and deep colors like yellow, red, orange,green, violet and blue come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Panay is said to have come from “Hay pan!” (literally “There is bread!”)

Etiological legend says, to borrow the phrase of respected art historian Fr. Rene Galende, that when the Spaniards (Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and co.) scoured the nearby islands for food (they were near starvation in Cebu, their first official settlement), they discovered this island abundant in rice. In great relief and joy, they exclaimed “Hay pan.” Read the rest of this entry »

Joy Rosal-Sumagaysay

The word heritage comes from two Latin words – heri (past) and tangere (to touch). Literally, it means “touching the past.”

Heritage is the sum total of all cultural goods we inherit from our ancestors. As inheritance, we have the obligation to take good care of it (preserve) and hand on. In our language, heritage can best be translated as paranubli-on. Its root word, the verb subli connotes not absolute ownership of something inherited from an elder; rather, it carries with it a duty to handle it with care (paranubli-on like duta, alahas, manggad…) so that it can be further passed on to future generations.

Heritage can be classified into two general categories: intangible heritage and tangible heritage. Examples of intangible heritage are our oral history, songs, lullabies, values and beliefs. Tangible heritage consists of everyday objects, food, clothing, paintings, sculptures and structures among others.

In particular, the architectural or built heritage of our place, its structures or monuments, is one concrete link to our forefathers long gone. Here we have actual, physical evidence–structures we can gaze at, explore with our bare hands—-to jolt us into realizing that “Hey, these are real people; my great great grandparents participated in the building of these; they sweated it out in backbreaking labor to leave us with reminders from their era.”

For us living in the present, our built heritage helps define the identity of our town and its inhabitants, bringing out what is distinct and outstanding in our locality and positively setting us apart from our neighbors. Being conscious of our heritage develops in us a ‘pride of place.’

A heritage structure is important because of its cultural heritage significance. This can be assessed based on social, aesthetic, historic and scientific values. Miagao church, for example, ranks high on aesthetic significance because of the exceptional bas-relief on its façade.
In a publication entitled “Protecting Local Heritage Places” are listed the reasons why we need to protect our heritage places:

• they are a link with the past, a reminder of special moments in lives, history and culture
• they are part of a location’s special identity which could bring economic as well as other benefits to the area
• they have natural or cultural values which should be handed on to future generations
• there are social, spiritual or ethical (including respect for existence or intrinsic values) obligations to do so