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