From Time Magazine/August 13, 1945
In the steep Caraballo Mountains of northern Luzon, a battalion of the 127th Infantry Regiment last week came upon a vast road block—a chasm blasted by retreating Japs.
A battalion commander, Lieut. Colonel Powell A. Fraser, had his jeeps dismantled, called for native bearers. Scores of volunteers—sturdy, brown-bodied Igorot women —eagerly picked up wheels, engines and other parts, carried them along paths which at one point soared 2,000 feet above the road. On the other side of the chasm the jeeps were reassembled, and Fraser’s men sped after the Japs. The Igorot women stayed behind to help the engineers rebuild the road.
Related Posts:
It Was Also a Women’s War
Those Gallant Igorots
Here’s a story we found at the San Francisco Chronicle. It is a good and interesting read.
Averil Pooten Watan and Mark Watan: The pull of ancestors
By Louise Rafkin/San Francisco Chronicle
In 1995 they were teenagers. Mark Watan, 18 and a native of San Francisco, and Averil Pooten, 16, a Londoner, were youth delegates to a world conference for Igorots in Los Angeles. An indigenous tribal people from the mountains of the Philippines, Igorots remained independent in the face of the Spanish colonization and, as a result, had a unique history. Both Averil and Mark, second-generation Igorots, hailed from families who convened every few years to preserve their rare cultural and spiritual traditions.
The world of second-generation Igorot expats was small. Fewer than 20 families had settled in England and not many more than that in California - and both thought of those in their local populations as siblings, or cousins. So finding each other, with a shared passion for ancestry but without sticky family ties, well, that was interesting! Averil found Mark hilarious and loud, yet sweet. As for Mark, Averil was spunky and gorgeous. At the close of the conference, Mark scrawled out his e-mail address.
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Legend has it that Limahong, the Chinese pirate who raided Manila back in the 1500s, escaped to the Cordilleras when Spanish/Filipino soldiers regrouped to kick his ass out of the capital.
According to the legend, Limahong and his band of pirates sought refuge in the Cordilleras and married the local women. This supposedly explains why a lot of Igorots have some East Asian features. See above photos for instance.
It would be cool to have a pirate for a forefather but the legend is, apparently, only a legend. From the writings of Francisco Antolin in 1789 (translated by William Henry Scott):
1574: At the end of this year the famous pirate Limahon came with many sampans and armed Chinese to take Manila which he was unable to do due to the resistance of the Spaniards. He had to retreat and seek refuge in Pangasinan, and they also drove him from there.
The histories of Father Colin, Father Gaspar, and the Franciscans, refer to this whole affair with considerable detail, and none of them says that any of these Chinese took refuge farther inland in the mountains of the Igorots, but rather that those who survived at liberty took to sea in their sampans, besides some 52 captives and prisoners in the fort in Pangasinan, who returned to China from Manila with the Chinese merchants.
An early account by Father Chirino printed in Rome in 1604 also recounts this event, and says that after the few Spaniards of Manila had vanquished the enemy Limahon, who had brought more than a thousand warriors with him, they made him retreat to Pangasinan, and even from there he was forced to flee from us with light boats which they carried to the sea on their shoulders, leaving the heavier ones in the river and some spoils in their forts and camps, which our forces took.
Thus there is no basis in the early histories for the idea that the Igorots are descended from these Chinese of the pirate Limahon.
So I guess that settles it. But, then again, one can argue that just because no Spanish writer “says that any of these Chinese took refuge farther inland in the mountains of the Igorots” does not mean that it didn’t happen. After all, school history books don’t mention that Gabriela Silang is part Tingguian but this doesn’t mean that she is not. And it’s not like a pirate running away from authorities would shout, “Hey, I’m going to hide in the Cordilleras.”
Anyways, what we find most interesting in Antolin’s writing is the fact that, apparently, questions regarding the Igorot-Chinese link is not a recent “modern day” issue (Read this blog for instance) but dates back to as early as the 1700s.
INFO SOURCE: Nanzan/PDF File. Click here for a non-PDF version. PHOTO CREDITS: Dialoguebetweennations for Vicky’s photo. Girlwithagun for the boy’s picture.
Apologies to all of you. I’ve not been feeling well these past two weeks hence the blogging hiatus. Thanks to those of you who continue to visit. I will try to make it up in the coming days :-)
Roses raised in Bahong, La-Trinidad, Benguet. Transported to Manila by Dangwa Tranco. Sold in Manila’s flower district which is now known as “Dangwa”.
More pictures from the Dangwa flower district after the jump.
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Never thought there is such a contest like this healthiest lolo/lola thing but apparently there is. From the DSWD-CAR website:
Three senior citizens from Tabuk, Kalinga and one from Dolores, Abra were declared Healthiest Lolo and Lola during the awarding ceremonies for the Search for Healthiest Lolo and Lola in CAR 2007 held at the DSWD Conference Hall last October 4.
In the young-old category (60-69 y/o), 62 year-old Flaviana Pacapac of Dolores, Abra won against two other nominees. In the old-old category (70-79 y/o), 71 year-old Rosario de Jesus and 76 year-old Ireneo Uyam clinched the titles, and in the oldest old category, 81 year-old Aurelia Flores was declared winner. The three hail from Tabuk, Kalinga.
Congrats to the Cordillera’s healthiest senior citizens. Read the full article here.
INFO/PHOTO CREDIT: DSWD-CAR
Shalom to our blog visitors from Israel. Ma shlomcha/Ma shlomech?
The topmost photo, courtesy of My Share of Israel Sun, shows our kailiyans during the Purim carnival parade last March 2007. The second photo also taken during the same event is courtesy of the DFA which reports that “the Igorot Association of Migrant Workers in Israel wowed the crowd with their authentic agong and banga dances while performing in the streets of Holon.” [DFA/PDF File]
Note to DFA: It’s called gangsa, not agong. Anyways, for those of us who are not in Israel but are wondering about how our kailiyans are doing in that Holy Land, here’s a collection of articles we found on the net.
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