Not 30 minutes after our plane had left Manila, our pilot announced that we were to begin our descent to the Bacolod-Silay Airport. Unlike the gloomy, stormy conditions in the city we departed from, the weather in Visayas seemed quite pleasant; outside my plane window I could see that the sky was clear, with just a couple of bright clouds here and there. As we buckled up for landing, I peered out at the landscape below. It was a quilt of brilliant green shades, stretching tens, hundreds of hectares.
These were, of course, fields of sugar cane across one of Negros Occidental’ s biggest agricultural capitals. We would drive through these fields on our tours. Our guide, a walking history book named Raymond, would tell us stories of the land and the haciendas and the old mansions and the sugar barons who once lived there.
’13’: ‘image’: ‘jcr:13f18afc-d9e4-4a1a-8086-82f5b68bd3a7’ ‘imageCaption’: ‘A plantation of sugar cane, one of Negros Occidental’s biggest agricultural capitals. The region is known as the “sugar bowl” of the Philippines,
Sugar was once the region’s backbone. Negros’ sugar industry flourished through the mid-1900s during the American occupation, but took a hit in the second World War when the Japanese invaded our country. In the years since, towards the ‘80s, worldwide sugar prices would fluctuate and decline, causing the local industry to plummet. This was then aggravated by controversial policies for sugar production and trade under the Marcos dictatorship, pushing the region towards an economic breaking point.
Negros needed to turn to other sources of income and livelihood. In fact, our hosts from the Association of Negros Producers (ANP) tell us that this was the catalyst for the Negros Trade Fair, which started in 1985. The story goes that when the sugar barons fell from wealth, their wives had to sell off their prized jewelry and, with this new capital, procured the crafts and goods that would be sold in Manila. At the fair, it would also mostly be Manila-based folks from Negros that attended and purchased the products, as a means to extend help to their friends and families. Raymond tells us that the Negros Trade Fair has always been a social gathering at its core.
READ: Resilience makes everything in Negros taste sweet
The Negrense take much pride in their resilience, especially after what they have overcome. In the glimpses of Negros that I was lucky enough to see on our short trip, I saw that this resilience has entailed making the most of their resources, rooted in a deep care for what they have — their environment, their abilities, their families. The Negrense, perhaps after what they’ve withstood, know that cultivating conditions not just for survival but also for achieving the best takes a great deal of care.
“The Negrense brand of care is powerful and deep, enough to have carried its people through many adversities. But it is still also sweet, like its confections, and generous too.”
This care is in their tourism programs, which prioritize the conservation and benefit of the sites’ environment and inhabitants. It’s in their crafts, some painstakingly made by hand by families from more remote areas, and from which these folks derive livelihood. It’s in their food (some of the best Filipino food I’ve had in my life, by the way), a celebration of ingredients they themselves sowed and grew, made with recipes that have been perfected through generations. It’s in the stories they tell about how their families and friends came together, looked out for each other, and made it through the last few decades.
The Negrense brand of care is powerful and deep, enough to have carried its people through many adversities. But it is still also sweet, like its confections, and generous too. The forms of it that were extended to me on my short trip: a good four days of pampering; curated tours at a select few of the province’s best destinations; meal after meal of incredible Negros cuisine (we were always stuffed but we couldn’t stop); riveting historical chismis (Raymond had plenty); a wide array of giveaway goods by Negrense makers that barely fit our luggage going home. If these were all just a taste, then I’m looking forward to coming back for more.
‘ ’14’: ‘image’: ‘jcr:e4e034d4-c5c4-4aba-8f9f-7e41d2779ad3’ ‘imageCaption’: ‘Our first meal was in the city of Silay at a restaurant called Sir & Ma’am. What used to be a casual roadside eatery has become an iconic
’29’: ‘image’: ‘jcr:51114071-1936-476d-87f1-8f68ffa43f38’ ‘imageCaption’: ‘One of the painted houses in Sagay City’s Purok Bougainvillea. The seaside village is home to Negrense artist Nune Alvarado, whose work and
