LiaoningTourist.com: A Day in Hacienda Adela

Thứ Tư, 16 tháng 11, 2011

A Day in Hacienda Adela

During our Hacienda Life Tour Last week, one of the places we got to visit the Hacienda Adela in Silay City, Philippines.

Most of the times, Silay is being portrayed as a city of the rich and noble. a city full of grand mansions and heritage houses built by the Sugar Barons. But we must not forget that the sugar industry in Negros will never succeed without the sugarcane farmers or locally known as mamumugon

The blogger at Hacienda Adela

During our visit to the hacienda, we get to talk to the people. We learned from them what their nature of work is. They would retell their stories during their younger years when most of them would either cut grass, apply fertilizers, or slash the sugarcane. The men would usually carry the sugarcane from the field going to the truck.

Aside from telling their day-to-day life stories, the men and women also performed to us a unique Ilonggo artistry: Luwa and Composo. Luwa can be likened to a Haiku. it is short and the sentences ends in a rhyme, but what makes Luwa an interesting pieces is that these are only performed during funeral wakes. With a warm cup of coffee or ginger tea, the men and women would do luwa all night long. I have only heard of luwa before from our househelp during my younger years but I have never experienced it myself.

And just as I suspected, these is seldom in practice today as people would prefer to play baraha and mahjong rather than do luwa.

Composo on the other hand, is a song, writtenin Hiligaynon which usually tells about one’s experiencesor life story. It was an enriching experience hearing them do these stuff.

Aside from luwa and composo, the women also showed to us their novena prayers to San Roque the community’s patron saint. Their prayers are all in Latin. The women said that their prayers were gotten from their parents. I wonder how many generations of Silaynons have used these prayers. They added that most of the younger generations how are no longer interested in stuffs like these but they admitted that many still know how to do their Latin Prayers.

After hearing their songs and novena prayers, we then checked out their houses, the Hacienda office and the Garage where the tractors were parked.

The lessons I learned from this tour is priceless. I really appreciate this kind of tour as it gives me a new perspective on what Negrense life is all about.

Many thanks to the City Government of Silay especially to its City Tourism Officer Ver Pacete for facilitating the tour.

If you wish to experience this one of a kind hacienda life, prior arrangements must be made through the City Tourism Office. Their office is located at the Sen. Jose Locsin Cultural and Civic Center. The very first Cultural Center built in the Philippines.

Experience the simple life in Silay City. Fly to Bacolod with AirPhil Express. The airline flies 3x daily from Manila using the A320 aircraft and 2x daily from Cebu using the Q400 planes.