TAWHAY by Josephine Turalba
TAWHAY [tau.hai]: orderly (adj.); relaxed (adj.) Mahjong Set of 146 digital laser-engraved and UV printed on ivory colored hard plastic tiles, a pair of dice, descriptive legend in a hard
case. (Edition of 13), (37x27x15 cm / 14.6x10.6x6 inches), 2021. Created for Istorya Namon
Subong (Our Stories Now), a group exhibition curated by Gina Olivares Jocson for Salcedo Private View (Makati City, Philippines) from April 16 to May 8, 2021.
“Táwhay” in Hiligaynon (the language spoken in the province of Negros Occidental) refers to tranquility, calmness, quietness, peace, orderliness, repose, or one’s sanctuary; financial stability; a circumstance devoid of worry. My artwork, Tawhay, invites the audience to participate in a game of leisure and chance, where four players shuffle gossip along with the tiles before each match. The engraved illustrations on the tiles provoke dialogues ranging from the mundane to the insightful, from the frivolous to the poignant, where domestic household dilemmas and political commentaries are cut and stacked around the center of the game space.
Tawhay consists of one hundred forty-six (146) divided into four suits, each suit comprising thirty-six (36) tiles, plus two (2) extra joker tiles. Each mahjong tile references various personal and collective ‘herstories’ from the province of Negros Occidental, hereinafter referred to in this text as Negros. Visual elements include cultural and socio-political aspects of life in Negros. Two terms used to refer to people from Negros are ‘Negrense’ and ‘Negrosanon,’ herein interchably used. Some hint of many untold stories of the Negrense woman and her emergent identity in the context of adversity, austerity, and political strife.
Mahjong is a past-time card set played by many in Negros for generations. It was most popular during a glorious era when the one-crop economy based on the planting, harvesting, and milling of sugar resulted in windfalls for local landowners. The game has resurfaced during the Covid-19 lockdown, as many families enjoyed playing endless rounds of mahjong in the comforts of their own homes. When playing with the Tawhay set, history is retold and re-learned. A relaxed mind paves the way for openness to learning, stirring up various perspectives and sparkling conversations. The Tawhay tokens trigger all these through their colorful visual representations of historical Negros.
Circles Suit The first suit replaces the original “circle” suit. Its designs consist of products sold by the women who established the Association of Negros Producers (ANP). The ANP created The House of Negros, a success story on self-reliance and entrepreneurship which became the precursor of the popular Negros Trade Fair bazaars held during holiday seasons in Manila. In the 1980s, the global prices of sugar dropped, causing a catastrophic impact on the Negros economy. The women of family-owned haciendas (plantations in the Spanish colonies) swiftly responded to the crisis, spearheading the creation of products for the Association of Negros Producers. Resilience transformed into resourcefulness as these enterprising and relentless women mobilized their various dumaan (resident farm workers) to produce handicrafts to sell to the local Manila market. These ranged from beautifully woven baskets, intricate Christmas decor, capiz shell trays, jewelry boxes, Japanese-themed tableware and food delicacies which became a favorite among Manila folk: boat tarts, piyaya, molo soup, chicken inasal, biscocho, and the like. The masks refer to the annual Masskara festival whose intention adapted to address the collective depression that Bacolod and Iloilo families were experiencing in 1980. One early morning on April 22, 1980, a jam-packed inter-island passenger liner, M/S Don Juan of Negros Navigation (NN), collided with an oil tanker and sank with at least 1,000 passengers. Bound for Bacolod City, it ferried vacationers, students on break from Manila’s big universities, families of wealthy and illustrious Negrenses, who accompanied newly bought cars in its cargo and businessmen with bulk of their goods. The wore these masks to literally cover their sad faces.
Characters Suit The second suit, replacing the original “characters” suit, focuses on scenes of the lifestyle in Negros within an approximate historical timeline. Stories of the identities of the Negrense women are focused on the generation, class, and behavior with whom they interacted (as defined by the book, Estilo Ilonggo). The molino de sangre is a pre-colonial carabao-driven mill used to extract the juice from the sugarcane to make muscovado sugar. The carabao is tied to the mill and is made to walk in circles to operate the extractors. The Negros haciendas eventually took the initiative to replace these with steam mills. Foreign merchant houses in Iloilo provided the hacienderos the capital to purchase more efficient machinery. Negros’ foray into using steam-powered mills guaranteed its survival during the sugar crisis of the 1880s, which impacted other sugar-producing areas that had no access to these technological advances, such as Calamba and Pampanga. The newer machinery, hacienderos’ access to capital, and, of course, excellent quality of fertile land allowed the expansion of the Negros sugar economy, as the rest of the country lagged behind.
“Chinese mestizo, also known as “mestizo de Sangley”, is a term used to describe a Filipino of mixed Chinese and native Filipino (Indio) ancestry. Sangley also means to trade; a travelling merchant. The child of a Chinese and a Filipina was classified as Chinese mestizo. The child of a Chinese mestizo and a Filipina was also classified as Chinese mestizo. But, the child of a Filipino and a Chinese mestiza was classified as Indio” (Conlu).
Early Chinese immigrants congregated in the parian or the Chinese district (later known as Molo) in Iloilo in the 1750s, but the Chinese residing in Jaro arrived much earlier. In the 1830s, immigration and travel restrictions were liberalised, and Chinese travellers (male only) from Manila were converted to Catholicism and encouraged to marry into local families. They choose women (mostly “tejedoras” or weavers), who would serve as business partners as well. They set up retail shops, established themselves as suppliers of food and artisanal goods, and eventually monopolised the textile trade.This displaced the Spanish mestizos causing racial tension, “manifested in a more or less subdued feeling of hostility towards {the Chinese} and a tendency both among mestizos and Spanish to regard them as interlopers....The (European) mestizos diverted themselves to sugar production, especially on adjacent Negros Island....Chinese competition facilitated the emergence of a sugar-planter class in Negros” (Aguilar, 98). Eventually, the decline of the Iloilo textile industry in the mid-1860s up to the late 1870s encouraged the Chinese mestizo entrepreneurs also to try their luck in nearby Negros. “The “sugar boom” in the 1880s propelled the mass migration of the Chinese mestizos and natives from Iloilo, Antique, and Capiz to the promising island of Negros. Most, if not all, Chinese mestizas, who were once weavers in Molo and Jaro, became amas de casa (housewives) in Negros, while their husbands became known as hacienderos (owners of vast tracks of land) and managed the sugarcane farms. Some of them were also sugar millers and sugar traders” ” (Conlu).
In the book, Clash of Spirits, author Aguilar quotes the author Alicia Magos from her book The Enduring Ma-aram Tradition, that Panay Island is the cradle of the babaylan tradition and the sacred center of the universe where the ‘four pillars’ supporting the world are believed to be located. It is linked by subterranean passages to Negros’ fabled mountain, Kanlaon. In pre-colonial Philippines, a babaylan (shaman), usually a woman or feminised man, is the community’s spiritual leader and intermediator to the spirit world. She was skilled in natural medicine and physical therapies, as well as in organising social activities and political movements. The babaylan specialised in communicating with the spirits of the alternate world through rites and rituals, mostly performed in the forests. Healing was the most important role for the babaylan. With the intention of the Spaniards to evangelise the natives and eliminate animist practices, they negatively labelled the babaylans. The friars referred to them as bruha (witch). The impact on these women spiritual leaders was so severe, resulting in the practice of the animist ancestors being largely forgotten.
Aniceto Lacson, married to Rosario Araneta, was president of the Cantonal Republic of Negros in November 1898. ‘’Al Cinco de Noviembre” celebrates the unconditional surrender of the last remaining Spanish troops in the province. This gained the independence of Negros from Spain. The story goes that the final revolt in 1898 was led by Aniceto Lacson from the north and Juan Araneta from the south. “Araneta from the south led a thousand bolo-armed men who took positions at the Lupit River in the south-east of Bacolod. In addition to their bolos and other farm implements, the daring revolutionaries augmented their lightly-armed forces with (pseudo) “cannons” made of amakan (rolled bamboo mats) painted black, and (pseudo) “rifles” carved out of wood and coconut fronds. It must have been so believable from afar that the Spanish Governor was persuaded to surrender Bacolod” (Reyes). The Aniceto Lacson ancestral home stands fully intact in Talisay. During WWII, the Japanese would occupy the large homes of the hacienderos and use them as their headquarters. In a strategic move, the Filipino guerrillas, on the other hand, would burn hacienda homes before they could be occupied. On the day the guerrillas reached the Lacson home, the family had already fled. They found a large chapel that contained a Santo Entierro (Holy Interment/Burial), a statue depicting the deceased Christ lying in repose. It was dressed in full regalia inside its karwahe (coach/carriage). The Santo Entierro is paraded during Good Friday processions, and is believed to be sacred. People obtain miracles by wiping their handkerchief on the statue’s body surface. People as far as the nearby Panay island would come during Holy Week just to touch it. The guerrillas spared this home from burning in fear of divine retribution. The exact words of the guerillas were “indi ini ‘ya, kay basi gabaan kami” (not this one because evil might befall us). Sparing the Lacson home from ruin, the guerillas instead found the nearby empty home of his brother, Mariano Lacson, and set that on fire. It is now called “The Ruins,” as depicted in the next tile.
Against the iconic background of the celebrated The Ruins of Negros, this #5 tile narrates a personal story of how my pregnant grandmother, Natividad Lacson-Cuaycong, whose childhood home was The Ruins, travelled to the mountains on a cart pulled by a carabao, while my young mother and her sister walked and played alongside, carefree and oblivious to the severity of the wartime situation. Natividad was escorted away from her marital home by the guerrilla soldiers after her husband, who was Mayor of the city, went missing. Mayor Jose D. Cuaycong was suspected to be behind the sabotage acts on the electric wires providing current to the city and was, therefore, wanted by the Japanese. When my grandmother Natividad arrived atop the mountain, she was relieved to discover that her husband was the leader of the guerrilla camp and was revered by the rebels. Built in the 1920s, the The Ruins is presently the top tourist destination of Negros and Western Visayas. As they say: “You haven’t seen Negros if you haven’t seen the Ruins.” According to a certified structural engineer who visited the site, the mansion was not short of budget. Eighty (80) years after it was ravaged by the threeday fire, the structure still remains standing, roofless, battered by the elements of rain, wind, and earthquakes. The rebars used in its erection, according to the engineer, were made for a 10-storey building. The mansion was built using materiales fuertes (superior materials), reiterating that cement gets stronger as the years go by. Current owner, Raymund Javellana, speculates that Mariano Lacson, who lost his Eurasian wife Maria Braga when she slipped in the bathroom and hemorrhaged during her pregnancy with their 11th child (16 pregnancies) in 1911, travelled to Hongkong to seek support from his father-in-law to help build a suitable home for his ten (10) orphaned grandchildren. Captain Braga, a Portuguese sailor, was said to have plied the routes of Macau, China, and Portugal. Generously granting his widowed son-in-law’s request, he supplied Mariano with the plans for an Italianesque villa, sending Chinese artisans to build the mansion. The mansion floors were lined with Machuka tiles and interspersed with Kamagong, a Philippine dark-colored hardwood, and Narra, a light-yellow hardwood. The budget for the construction of the said home was quite generous, to say the least.
From the memoirs written by my own mother, Mercedes Cuaycong, a young lady at that time, comes the story of the last flight out of Manila before the Japanese soldiers arrived to occupy the city during WWII. She and her sister, Leny, shared one ticket to fly on the plane operated by Iloilo-Negros Air Express Corporation (INAEC), owned and operated by the Lopez family. As the story is quite interesting, I quote a portion of my mother’s memoirs:
As narrated to me by (Oscar) Oskie Lopez, one of the Lopez boys, the brothers were in Baguio. They left Baguio and travelled the whole night along the zigzag roads with the intent of reaching Lipa in time for the plane’s arrival. This second time they made it. The plane landed rather smoothly in spite of the rough terrain. The door of the plane swung open. This door was located on the top part of the plane and not on its side as is usually the case with the planes of today. That meant one had to climb on top of the plane and slide in to get inside the plane. True to the plan, the first ones who were helped to climb in were the Lopez boys. Then followed a commotion as those who were there ahead of us started climbing and going inside the plane. In a few minutes, the plane was fully occupied. Yet we were still on the ground waiting, not realizing what would happen next. Luckily, the pilot came out, saw my uncle, and inquired why we were not yet on board. It turned out that many of those who climbed in did not have tickets. So, the pilot requested all who were already inside the plane except the Lopez boys to go down. Then, from the manifest, he started calling the names of
My uncle bought tickets for us to fly on that trip of the plane, the Sikorsky,
those who had the tickets. That gave us great relief. Unfortunately, Leny and I shared
which turned out to be its last trip. The trip was successful in its task of picking
one ticket. This meant we would have to share one seat. When the names Mercedes
up the Lopez boys and us included this second time. Hhowever, the very next
Leny Cuaycong were called, only I climbed in. The same thing happened to Manuel
day, while that plane was still parked in the airfield of Iloilo, the Japanese
and Nena Jalandoni. It was only Nena who got in. We found our seats as the last ones
dropped bombs at the airport and successfully destroyed it. It must have
close to the tail of the plane. Meanwhile Leny and Manuel were still waiting for their
been about three in the morning when we prepared to go to the sugarcane
turn to be allowed inside the plane. Thinking that all passengers had boarded the
field where the plane was supposed to land. These fields offered the best
plane, the plane’s door was closed. All this activity went so fast we did not realize
substitute for an airfield. Not being an airport, there would be less chance of
Leny was not with us. We were seated at the tail end of the plane. There were only four
being spotted by the Japanese. The sugarcane plants provided for perfect
seats in that section of the plane. Tatis and Rudy Tinsay were seated in front of Meling
camouflage. Luckily there was a small clearing in one field big enough to
and me. Leny and I shared a seat. Presently my uncle came over to check on us and
allow a small plane to land. Arriving there, we found some people already
discovered to his consternation that Leny and Manuel were both still on the ground.
waiting for the plane. Not long after we arrived, we heard the drone of the
He went straight to the pilot to inform him. The door was quickly opened and the
plane getting louder as it neared the clearing and finally landed. We were
two of them were brought inside. To this day we tease Leny on this oversight. When
consumed with mixed feelings, that of fear of being spotted by the Japanese
we asked her how she felt down there, she said she was not at all aware that she was
and the excitement of having this chance to finally go home.
nearly left behind.”
The Jaguar XK120, a sports car manufactured between 1948 and 1954, known for its top speed of 120 mph, found its way to Negros owners back in the day. On a farming island with very poorly paved roads, Negros had at least two of these international name brand vehicles right after WWII. Negrenses’ earnings from the sugar industry skyrocketed to heights of abundant luxury living and, to some, an ostentatious display of wealth, consisting of jewelry, designer bags and shoes, grand homes, and imported furniture pieces. The men also indulged in fast cars, guns, and collector’s watches.
Tile #8 retells the story of my mother, now married, Mercedes Lacson Cuaycong-Llamas, a native Negrosanon, from whom I found inspiration for this project. She was a true haciendera-turnedentrepreneur. She was one of the founders of the House of Negros and sold, among other products, the Japanese tempura bamboo trays made by the dwellers of her family-owned farm. Mercedes sold her products at the first House of Negros bazaar held at the Ayala QUAD carpark, Makati City. In 1980, she, together with her favorite sister Magdalena “Leny” Montinola, established their own jewelry shop in Manila called Mercelles.
The ninth tile narrates how a Negrosanon, Milagros “Millie” Kilayko, joined the fight against COVID-19 early on by producing colourful personal protective equipment (PPEs) for the front liners in Negros Occidental. She performed this task as president of Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation, Inc. (a non-stock, non-profit organisation) committed to the betterment of nutrition, education, and livelihood of the Filipinos. NVC also provided food for marginalised families with no work or decreased income through their “Mingo Meals’’ and “Feeding Force” Projects.
Sticks Suit
The third suit, mahjong’s original “sticks” suit, has been replaced with Tawhay’s images of guns, sugarcane, and the espading, a broad blade with a hook at its tip, used by the tapasero (harvester) to harvest the sugarcane. The guns allude to the violence, murders, and cadaver drops that gruesomely occurred in the sugarcane fields especially under martial law during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos. Countless ‘salvaged’ bodies were ruthlessly dumped amongst the sugar cane fields. The term salvage (to save) took on the opposite definition during martial law. Salvaged victims referred to those who were illegally caught and killed by the Marcos regime. The guns include AK-47; AR-15 (M16); Heritage Rough Rider (Joker’s Long gun); AMT Hardballer Long Slide; Arquebus; SVT-40. The first tile of the “sticks” suit is a scene out of the cock fighting arena. Cock-fighting or ‘Sabong’ is a billion-dollar industry and has a long history in the Philippines. Many Negrosanons are ‘Cockers,’ breeders of game cocks. ‘Kristos’ in the arena during a cockfight refer to those who stand amongst the crowd with their arms outstretched (in a Christ-like crucified position), beckoning spectators and calling out bets through their hands with fingers signalling the audience through a special mnemonic system.
Flowers, Seasons, Dragons, & Winds Suits
The last suit of the set consists of flowers, dragons, seasons, and winds from the original Mahjong set. In v interpretation, four (4) tiles have floral designs abstracted from elements that adorn some of the Negros heritage and vintage homes, such as the Spanish tiles, balustrades, and intricate wooden carvings.
Another additional four (4) tiles represent the seasons of the sugarcane crop that dominated the life of Negros. These are the planting season or tigtalanum, the dead season or tig-kiriwi, and the harvest season or tig-talapas. A special season I have called tig-Covid has been added to accommodate the Covid-19 pandemic, which began to affect Negros in 2020. Tig-talanum is derived from the root word, tanum, meaning plant while the root word of tig-talapas is tapas meaning to cut. Tig-kiriwi, comes from the root word kiwì which means twisted, and refers to the dead season (aka tiempos muertos), a waiting period for the sugarcane to grow.
During this time, there is no work and, therefore, no pay. When funds are low, the hand-to-mouth existence of the sacada (migrant worker) or dumaan, means limited food on the table. Kiwì refers to the twisted/bent body and mouth that one gestures when feeling hunger pangs in the stomach. At the end of the twentieth century, the dead season was no longer as devastating as it was in the 70’s up to the 90’s, since the landlords had learned to diversify their crops. New developments have opened up the economy, and other kinds of work such as construction have become available to farm workers. However, with the recent tragedy of a universal pandemic, Covid-19, tiempos muertos returns in full force and highlights its literal definition of prevalent death and despair.
The “dragons” illustrations are represented by Negrense women who played important socio-political and cultural roles in history.
The white dragon is represented by Doreen Gamboa Fernandez of Silay City, a prodigious writer, literary scholar, cultural historian, beloved educator, and a champion of Filipino food. Hers was a quiet act of subversion. She revolutionised Filipino food simply by treating it as what it is: a cuisine” (Mishan). She received the Achievement Award from the National Research Council in 1997; and in 1999, was recognized by the CCP Centennial Honours for the Arts (Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Centennial Commission), honouring 100 Filipinos who helped shape the arts in the Philippines in the last century (1898-1998).
The red dragon is Olympia Severino, a lady revolutionary who sewed the flag of the Republica Cantonal de Negros (Cantonal Republic of Negros), established on November 6, 1898 and dissolved on March 1899 when the American forces led by Colonel James G. Smith occupied Bacolod.
The green dragon is Haydee Yorac, Filipino public servant, law professor, and politician who hails from E.B. Magalona. She became the chief of the Philippine Commission on Good Governance in 2001, and under her leadership, the Philippines recovered for the national treasury U.S. $683 million from Marcos’s Swiss bank accounts.
The “Winds” tiles speak of primitive man’s legends, born out of an attempt to explain natural phenomena from a simplistic and unscientific mindset. Just like the winds, they come and go; so, believe them or not. They are represented by a map showing the formation of N egros, the myths of the E ngkanto and aswang (shape-shifting mythical evil creature known to feast on body parts) and the legend of kan S ilay. Wakwak is the sound the aswang makes.
N egros was originally called Buglas, an old Hiligaynon word thought to mean “cut off”. It was believed that the island was separated from a larger landmass by rising waters during the last ice age. Buglas is an island in the central Philippines (Visayas) between Panay and Cebu.
The E ngkanto is an embodiment of the conquista espiritual (spiritual conquest) with which the Spanish colonised most of the Philippines. As there were a limited number of friars sent to ‘Christianize,’ they multiplied their presence through a manipulative method of subduing the natives through creating alien and invisible spiritual beings. In the attempt to comprehend something non-existent in their own world, the Filipino natives related them to their own spirit-world amidst which they lived. “…Spanish nouns and adjectives were appropriated, jumbled, and converted into proper nouns. Those nouns became words by which the natives learned to call the alien spirit-beings by name: engkanto, dende, muto, maligno, kapre, sirena, santilmo, tag-lugar (Aguilar, 35). A Jesuit priest named Francisco Demetrio records an image of the engkanto from a review of about eighty-seven folk narratives from the Visayas and Mindanao. “The engkantos are described as a being of either sex, with fair complexion and golden hair. Demetrio concludes that engkantos:
“…they have clean cut features and perfectly chiselled faces. Though beautiful and fair skinned, engkantos are said to be romantically attracted to a brown-skinned girl or boy. Although spirits, they are said to indulge in dalliance with mortal beings. Though known to dislike noises, they themselves indulge in raucous noises while feasting or punishing a mortal who has refused their love or abandoned them. They are whimsical and unpredictable, they play jokes on people; making them go astray in the forest at night, or transform themselves into the likeness of mortal friends and relatives in order to dupe the objects of their desire.” (Demetrio,137-138).
Filomeno Aguilar Jr., the author of Clash of Spirits, contends : “that the characteristics of the folkloric engkantos have been culled from the friars’ idealised physiognomy and their historic sacerdotal misdemeanours. …As the friars were the first to infringe the rules they themselves laid down, colonial rule was founded upon their arbitrary word, a fact reflected in the enkangtos’ ‘whimsical’ and ‘unpredictable’ character. Indeed, the enkangto figure constituted a telling critique of the colonisers who ‘duped,’ ‘led astray,’ and ‘made fun’ of the natives.”
Kan S ilay refers to the folktale of the princess of Silay that tells of her bravery in a battle defending her people against pirate invaders. The story goes that during a village celebration, the pirates came to loot the village. The village men led by Lawaan, lover of Princess Kansilay, fought bravely against them.
Wakwak is the sound of a tikling (field bird) that an aswang makes when it wrestles its prey to the ground, usually at night. In an attempt to explain the strange happenings before the time of psychology, there are those who believe that aswangs are real people who have split personalities. For example, a modern day Negros tour guide, Ver Pacete, believes that his teacher uncle, Tiñente Gimo, is an aswang, who once attacked a victim before reporting for school and had no recollection of it. Nonetheless, he also believes that this folklore was invented by the Americans to keep the locals home after sunset and establish some sort of curfew by sowing fear.
As they were quite overwhelmed, Princess Kansilay mumbles a chant for the spirits and a diwata appears to give a sword to Kansilay. This was the signal that she took with her maidens to join the fight. The battle cry was “Hugyaw Silay! Hugyaw kay Kansilay!” They were successful in driving out the pirates, but the princess died in the battle. Now, Silay is considered the seat of arts, culture and ecotourism in Western Visayas, thus it is referred to as the “Paris of Negros.” National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin, mezzo-soprano Conchita Gaston, culture writer Doreen Gamboa Fernandez, to name a few of the renowned individuals in Philippine Culture and Society, all hail from Negros.
And lastly, the set is not complete without the jokers. The first joker tile refers to the Filipino in the 60s “sporting” the American suit (coat and tie). This term has been mangled and is pronounced “Isputing” connoting a person who is dressed to the nines. “Our women are fashionable and sophisticated. They also carry that unfortunate trait of being conscious of one’s image “bisan indi pa ka sarang” (even if they can’t afford it). A Negrense aunt remarked long ago, even our maids in Bacolod (City) are “isputing”. “Sa Iloilo ya, ang amon mga maid daw maid guid.” (while in Iloilo, our maids look like real maids). However, that was years ago when Iloilo was considered buki (unfashionable). Now, they have caught up with trends, so being in fashion is no longer a Negrense thing” (Gazo).
The second joker tile in the Tawhay set is a depiction of the famous Negrense superstition, “Oro, Plata, Mata” (Gold, Silver, Death), uttered when counting steps in a home. It is believed that the last step taken must fall on Oro or Plata and never Mata. Much as this belief is an old wive’s tale, architects continue to consider this when designing homes, ensuring the staircases built abide by the lucky landing and not of death.
Bibliography "Art and Crafts in the Time of Covid." NVC Foundation - A Philippine Charity. April 08, 2021. Accessed April 10, 2021. https://www.nvcfoundation-ph.org/crafts-in-the-time-of-covid/. Aguilar, Filomeno V. Clash of Spirits : The History of Power and Sugar Planter Hegemony on a Visayan Island. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998. Alejandro, Reynaldo G., and Vicente R. Santos. Estilo Ilonggo : Philippine Southern Lifestyle. Manila: KCC Innovations, 2009. Balcells, Anna C. Telephone interview by author. March 1, 2021. Conlu, Ramon Severino Jr. Email interview by author. March 10, 2021. Gazo, Leah Jean B. Email interview by author. February 8, 2021. Demetrio, Francisco. "The Engkanto Belief: An Essay in Interpretation." Philippine Sociological Review, 4, no. 3 (1968): 136-43. Accessed April 13, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23892288. Gonzaga, Violeta B. Land of hope, Land of Want : A Socio-economic History of Negros, 1571-1985. Quezon City: Philippine National Historical Society, 1994. Javellana, Raymond L. Telephone interview by author. April 13, 2021. Llamas, Mercedes C. ON WORLD WAR MEMORIES. MS, 2007. Mapa, Placido Cesar O. Online interview by author. February 7, 2021. McCoy, Alfred W., and De Jesus, Ed. Philippine Social History : Global Trade and Local Transformations. Quezon City, Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1982. Nava, Cecilia L. Online interview by author. February 25, 2021. Pacete, Severino F. Telephone interview by author. February 22, 2021. Poblador, Michael John L. Online interview by author. February 15, 2021.
Artist Statement Tawhay, revolves around the personal and the collective socio-political narratives of historic Negros Occidental. Through a cultural pastime in the game of Mahjong, I visually highlighted select documented and hearsay accounts from legendary tales of origin, to World War II memoirs, the anecdotal sugarcane heyday, and its fall, leading up to the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic we are living in today. My starting point was my mother, who is the inspiration for this project. Missing her in this time of lockdown, she became the impetus to this artistic venture. She was born and raised in Bacolod and in turn, raised us, her seven (7) children, in a typical household of a Negrense family, beginning with our spoken language at home, “Ilonggo/Hiligaynon.” She infused our upbringing with elements of the Negrense lifestyle from our meals, to the hired household staff who all came from the province of Negros and spoke Hiligaynon fluently. We grew up partaking of all the Negrosanon delicacies (pitaw, chorizo, pinakas, panaderia de molo, oschas, diwal, barquillos, piyaya, squid rings, mango tart, batchoy, inasal na manok). We spent all our summers and school breaks at the home of our grandmother in Bacolod. The living room of my Mamang (grandmother) was always semi-permanently arranged with several mahjong tables, awaiting her friends and relatives to play every afternoon (not unusual in a Negros household in the 60s and 70s). Reminiscent of this, I re-created the designs of a mahjong set, highlighting once more the captivating stories through the resiliency and fortitude of the Negrense/Negrosanon woman. The “herstory” of Negros, is viewed from the windows of the past and present, through the one of a kind tiles of the Tawhay mahjong set. My research materials include interviews with historians, tour guides, and relatives from there. It also includes my ageing mother’s World War II memoirs, to which I derived solace from, perhaps as a form of displacement from my yearning to see her, but could not, for more than a year now due to the restricted access to visits during this lockdown. In the process, I discovered more stories about Negros that paralleled many of my experiences. These stories kept my mother closer to my heart. This project would not have come to fruition on time without the invaluable support of Toti Turalba, Gina Olivares-Jocson, Flash Tangalin, Sedona Garcia, Rhea Anne Gale Quejada, Gina Támesis-Poblete, Cedie Lopéz-Vargas, Alexandria Mesias and Mervy Pueblo.
Josephine Turalba is an interdisciplinary artist based between Manila and Boston who explores issues of divide and convergence within a volatile geo-political world order. Her works reflect on the politics of violence and dynamics of infliction and trauma, depicting spaces where empathy translates into healing. She negotiates influences from different cultures, taking on an investigative approach to place and time, in relationship to a sense of self. Turalba’s nomadic relation to various forms of media, including performance, installation, experimental video, photography, tapestry, and painting, allows her to explore her obsessions with socio-political narratives, myths and personal histories. She holds an MFA in New Media from Transart Institute New York (USA) and Donau Universität Krems (Austria). She serves as Dean at the School of Fine Arts and Design at Philippine Women’s University and is an alumni Research Fellow at the MIT Future Heritage Lab. Fellowship/Grants/ Residencies include MIT Program for Art, Culture and Technology, Council for Arts MIT, Art Omi International, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Fondation La Roche–Jacquelin. Her works have been exhibited at ICA Singapore, London Biennale, European Cultural Center (concurrent 56th Venice Biennale), 12th Cairo Biennale, Arter Space Istanbul, VII Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art, Malta Contemporary Art Center, Cultural Center Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of Manila. www.josephineturalba.art