Carino: Cordillera Day

Saturday, July 16, 2011

THIS column goes to press as Baguio and the rest of the Cordillera Administrative Region celebrates Cordillera Day. Some thoughts on some terms.

Cordillera. This is the name of the Philippine mountain range that includes the provinces of Benguet, Abra, Apayao, Bontoc, Ifugao, and Kalinga. Actually, cordillera, lower case, means, simply put, mountain or maintain range, from Spanish.

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Mountain Province. This is what the Americans, taking over the Philippines from the Spanish, named the above mountain range areas. Simply put and transliterated. Thus, during the America regime, Mountain Province referred to all of the above provinces.

Mountain Province. What Bontoc is still called, while the rest of those provinces are called, and have been for ages now, names by which their respective areas (or parts of them) were originally called, indigenously. In particular, Benget, the root of the modern "Benguet," is what the Trinidad area, or part of it, was called.

Cordilleran. Capitalized, in this country, means one who hails from the above mentioned administrative region. A geographical distinction.

Highlander. A term that means, literally, someone from the highlands, the mountains. Also the title of a once famous television series, where the hero had mystical powers. What was his name again? Adrian Paul. "Highlander" is also what some Cordillerans like to be called. An, uh, ethno-linguistic distinction.

Igorot. The reason for terms like Highlander and Cordilleran in the context of this Cordillera Day -- because those terms mask the native, which the term Filipino can also be called upon to do. Igorot is also what the Baguio Ibaloy proudly calls him/herself.

Igorot Day. What this day should actually be called, especially for those amongst us, who have no problem with our ethnicity.

Get over it. Modern day jargon for what everybody should do.