I
would like to make a rejoinder to the post of Ms Lilet Angawa on the
"MISCONCEPTIONS ON HOW AN IGOROT/CORDILLERAN LOOK LIKE". This is a first
hand experience years ago that strengthened my resolve to somehow
change the perception of my friends from other places of who and what
the Igorots or the Cordillerans are.
I was in a national training that my department conducts for newly hired personnel for technical assignments. We were about 108 coming from the different corners of the country. The 108 participants were divided into classes comprising 30 each class and provided speakers for each class per module.
Speakers come and go depending on the module that is at hand. One day, the speaker for that session happened to be a half Cordilleran and Half Ilocano (people coming from the Ilocos region). He talks well in English.
In one of our light moments with other participants somebody asked him how a Cordilleran look like and he looked at me and said "there you are. Here is a Cordilleran" pointing his fingers at me and asked me to turn around several times.
Then he said "Evelyn is an Igorot - a Cordilleran" and somebody said "where is the tail?" I turned red and my body was hot of embarrassment. Our speaker explained that the tail that they are referring to is just a part of the Native dress of the Cordillerans that swings back and forth when they walk or dance. It is not really a tail as you must be imagining he said. All of them looked at me and said "wala naman siya kaiba sa atin" I felt like a guinea pig but I endured it if only to help them have better understanding of who the Cordillerans are. It hurt but it was worth it.
In another occasion, when laptops were very new, a colleague of mine in the department told me he did not know that people from the mountains know how to use computers and laptops. I said "sir, like you, we are a civilized people and we are educated too at the best universities of the north of the Philippines. What they have taught you we also learned it. We may be living in the high mountains but we have impeccable manners and respect for humans. He looked at me and said "yes, you are such a nice lady" and smiled at me and patted me on the back and stood up and went to talk to someone. From that day on, he looks at me with a smile every time we meet.
That gentleman is still with my Department and is now holding a high position and we are still friends to this day.
To you sir! please text me when you come up to Baguio and I will show you more beautiful Cordillerans and you will see what I have been talking to you about years ago. It's just unfortunate that every time you come I am not around.
Let us be proud to be a Cordilleran. If you are living in the Cordilleras you are a Cordilleran regardless of your ethnic origin.
I was in a national training that my department conducts for newly hired personnel for technical assignments. We were about 108 coming from the different corners of the country. The 108 participants were divided into classes comprising 30 each class and provided speakers for each class per module.
Speakers come and go depending on the module that is at hand. One day, the speaker for that session happened to be a half Cordilleran and Half Ilocano (people coming from the Ilocos region). He talks well in English.
In one of our light moments with other participants somebody asked him how a Cordilleran look like and he looked at me and said "there you are. Here is a Cordilleran" pointing his fingers at me and asked me to turn around several times.
Then he said "Evelyn is an Igorot - a Cordilleran" and somebody said "where is the tail?" I turned red and my body was hot of embarrassment. Our speaker explained that the tail that they are referring to is just a part of the Native dress of the Cordillerans that swings back and forth when they walk or dance. It is not really a tail as you must be imagining he said. All of them looked at me and said "wala naman siya kaiba sa atin" I felt like a guinea pig but I endured it if only to help them have better understanding of who the Cordillerans are. It hurt but it was worth it.
In another occasion, when laptops were very new, a colleague of mine in the department told me he did not know that people from the mountains know how to use computers and laptops. I said "sir, like you, we are a civilized people and we are educated too at the best universities of the north of the Philippines. What they have taught you we also learned it. We may be living in the high mountains but we have impeccable manners and respect for humans. He looked at me and said "yes, you are such a nice lady" and smiled at me and patted me on the back and stood up and went to talk to someone. From that day on, he looks at me with a smile every time we meet.
That gentleman is still with my Department and is now holding a high position and we are still friends to this day.
To you sir! please text me when you come up to Baguio and I will show you more beautiful Cordillerans and you will see what I have been talking to you about years ago. It's just unfortunate that every time you come I am not around.
Let us be proud to be a Cordilleran. If you are living in the Cordilleras you are a Cordilleran regardless of your ethnic origin.
