I WAS on board a fast craft from Iloilo to Bacolod when I met Felizardo, a retired bookkeeper once working in a Negros hacienda somewhere in the third district. He transferred to Manila and worked there after the Edsa revolution.
He is coming back to Negros to visit his daughter and grandchildren. His daughter’s husband has a small business in Bacolod. After a short exchange of ideas, he sported a serious face and asked me, “How are the Negros haciendas?” That’s an easy question for me. “They are still there but many workers do not want to cut sugarcane anymore. They prefer to work with construction firms. The daily wage is better.”
Felizardo started telling me stories about his hacienda experience. “I was obliged to work as a bookkeeper for a certain hacendero. I needed a house for my wife and three small children. The salary was low but I was given ‘open credit’ for rice and sardines in the ‘cantina’ as long as I pay every fifteen days. We called it ‘lista de book, suma the week.’”
The hacienda office was inside the house of the hacendero... and his wife was known as “senyora.” Everybody called her “senyora” The husband was strict and suspicious but I could still tolerate him because he talked less. The “senyora” was a scandalmonger. She believed that everybody around her was a thief including her half dozen maids.
I was told that her parents were Españoles – Filipinos, the Spanish mestizos born in the Philippines. There were times that she would stand up for thirty minutes at my back just staring at what I was computing. I was not comfortable but I could not do anything. During meals, she would just eat on the table near my desk without even telling me. That’s a semi-feudal character.
For a little mistake, she would hit the maids with “married slaps” and barked filthy words in Spanish : “cabrona,” “puñeta,” “mierda,” “maldita,” and other “maldiciones” (curses). In several instances, she would lock the maids in their quarters without breakfast or lunch. For the “girls,” she is the wicked “bruja,” “demonia,” “diablesa,”...or the “aswang” and “impakta.”
The maids had no way to air their grievances except to spit on her cup of coffee or keep her panties for the dogs to bite. She could be nice to the maids only when she had visitors or relatives from Manila who would have lunch or dinner in her mansion. All the best silver and gold wares would be out for a show. She would wear her best pieces of jewels that would make her “beast-bearing jewels.”
There was an instance that she lost a pair of diamond earrings after the party. She obliged her maids to form a line for inspection. She even forced the maids to raise their skirts and open their personal chambers in front of her to locate the missing earrings. That was dehumanizing comparable to what the colonizing Spaniards did to the indio ladies who became their slaves.
I could not say more than what was said by Felizardo based on his personal and vicarious experiences. “That could be the things of the past. Our fourth and fifth generation ‘senyoras’ are very civilized. Even in the past, not all ‘senyoras’ were like your ‘senyora.’”
His answers were still loaded with a grain of salt. “I hope so. I hope no.” His eyes were fixed on the island of Negros as the fast craft was approaching the port.