Postcards from the village (1)

Barangay San Francisco, Bulusan

Weaving karagumoy hats is a major livelihood activity in Kapangihan also known as Barangay San Francisco in Bulusan. To supplement the harvests of coconut and pili nuts in the area, women make hats almost daily that can fetch at around 7.50pesos each. Weavers average to about 10 hats a day minimum.

Karagumoy hat weaving is a traditional craft that dates back in the early 1900. Early Chinese merchants of Bulusan were the first to trade the hats that continues up to the present.

As the karagumoy hats become an established commodity being traded in town, cultivation of karagumoy in farm patches became the norm. It is common to see karagumoy, an indigenous plant  from the pandan family, inter cropped between coconut and pili in almost all agricultural patches of land in Bulusan.

Photos: Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

The 'teen weaver' photo

Hilda Espano was actually twenty (she looks younger than her age) that year (2011) when I photographed her in their open anahaw hut in Sitio Tawog. With an earphone plugged on her ears, she was busily chatting on the phone with her friends and weaving at the same time while I continuously take photos of the weaving and its milieu.
The setting was typical in Bulusan. As I'd expected, there were the usual tools of the trade (hurmahan i.e. wooden block, hiyod or bamboo stick karagumoy strips softner, stone polisher etc.),  the strewn unfinished karagumoy hats, the strips of karagumoy ready for weaving and the almost finished hats ready for trimming and soon for delivery to the nearest trader just across the street--a sari-sari store that sells also cell phone loads for Hilda's use. She told me though that most of the proceeds of the hats after weaving go to the more important daily household needs and for petty cash as well.

Photograph by Alma P. Gamil
Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

Karagumoy accent for Bulusan's Belen

There is no doubt that karagumoy runs across the gamut of Bulusan's rural life for centuries. From mats to hats to bay-ongs (bags/baskets) karagumoy rules. Karagumoy hat making is in fact one of the major and the most widely spread occupations in Bulusan next to fishing and farming. It is a big part in the town's cultural heritage as documented in several articles in http://pamughaton.wordpress.com/ a purely Bulusanon website.


Karagumoy hats could be seen  all over Bulusan town on a sunny day. Hundreds of it drying under the sun by the roads, backyards of rural homes and even along the beaches of coastal villages.


However, it is only this Christmas of 2012 that a karagumoy hat and a banig (mat) provided a distinctly Bulusanon touch to the image of the Nativity (Belen). "The nipa hut concept of the Nativity is already a very common theme," says Father Fulay. "We wanted to make it more unique and typical of the place--what is identifiable to Bulusan." he adds during my afternoon visit to his parish to personally document the setting-up of the indigenous Nativity tableau.


Father Edu Fulay is the present Saint James the Greater Parish Priest. He suggested to his parishioners to utilize indigenous materials and crafts for this year's Belen to highlight what is distinctly Bulusanon. The design concept is his he added when asked about who did the design of the one-of-a-kind Belen.



Photos:  Alma P. Gamil

Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines