Of vintas & calesas
October 31, 2004 | 12:00am
All eyes were focused on the horizon, keeping watch as the first sight of colorful vintas appeared. Only this time, it was not to repel the Moro invaders, but to welcome the start of the regatta that is held annually during the week-long celebration of Fiesta Pilar, Zamboanga City‘s most colorful festivity for the year running from October 1 to 12, the day of La Nuestra Virgen del Pilar, patroness of the City of Zamboanga.
More than 113 vintas coming from the 98 barangays of Zamboanga joined in the fiesta regatta on October 10. All decorated with rainbow colored sails, all primed with the latest outriggers, and fashioned to make their native canoes slicker and faster in the water. Each canoe handler carried the honor of his tribe, each one with his own lucky charm, and hoping to win the most coveted prize for the year.
Although Fiesta Pilar is a totally Christian celebration, it has become a unifying factor for Christians and Muslims that the regatta has become a competition, where everyone pitches in regardless of religion. Everyone joins in just to have fun at the Cawa Cawa Boulevard, the traditional site for the races. Winning the race has become a matter of honor especially for the Samal tribesmen, who have dominated the race for several years now. The Samals are the dark skinned, hardy seafarers, noted as one of the best sailors who have sailed throughout the archipelago and even to the Indonesian and Malaysian waters in those flimsy looking vintas with colorful sails that have become the symbol for the City of Zamboanga.
The regatta gets bigger and bigger each year, and has elicited the interest of foreigners visiting Zamboanga have expressed their desire to join, just like they do in the dragon race in Hong Kong and in Thailand.
On the streets of Zamboanga, however, cars and tricycles fight their way in a mad scramble to cross the traffic lights. Things used to be different in the late sixties, when we used to watch calesas passing by. We used to choose the most beautiful horses or the most beautifully decorated calesas, trimmed with ornate silver tapped appliqués. It made us feel as if we were princes when we rode on the horse-drawn carriages. At 3 p.m., caleseros would bring their horses to fetch hay from the fields and hold an impromptu race to see which one had the best horse or which one was the better calesero.
One calesero stood out from the rest, not only for his ability to win in most of the races but because he was the only one with a ghostly white horse. His name was Oreq. It wasn’t so strange either that he named his horse "Silver," because he thought of himself as the local version of the Lone Ranger.
I remember the rides on a calesa along Cawa Cawa, watching the young lovers seated on the benches, all dressed in their finest. For Zamboangueños it would be a sin to be caught wearing something inappropriate when you were with your girlfriend. I remember the words of my grandmother, "You may be out of cash, but you should never be out of class."
Our long summer calesa rides would take us to the wharf were we would buy roasted corn on the cob or go fishing alongside the wharf without anyone bothering us.
Our calesa ride would always end up at my Aunty Lily’s place, called the "Soda Fountain." At that time, I felt that it was the only watering hole in the city because most of Zamboanga’s who’s who spent most of their time either drinking beer or coffee while they gossiped about the latest events that happened in town. I remember the young Mayor Cesar Climaco often dropping by just to crack jokes.
Zamboanga was a quiet town, but it was a bustling city were business flourished. It was a place were people of all walks of life learned to live with each other. Things have greatly changed since then…call it progress, but the influx of people to the city have in one way or the other changed its old charm, something which we are trying to recapture once again.
More than 113 vintas coming from the 98 barangays of Zamboanga joined in the fiesta regatta on October 10. All decorated with rainbow colored sails, all primed with the latest outriggers, and fashioned to make their native canoes slicker and faster in the water. Each canoe handler carried the honor of his tribe, each one with his own lucky charm, and hoping to win the most coveted prize for the year.
Although Fiesta Pilar is a totally Christian celebration, it has become a unifying factor for Christians and Muslims that the regatta has become a competition, where everyone pitches in regardless of religion. Everyone joins in just to have fun at the Cawa Cawa Boulevard, the traditional site for the races. Winning the race has become a matter of honor especially for the Samal tribesmen, who have dominated the race for several years now. The Samals are the dark skinned, hardy seafarers, noted as one of the best sailors who have sailed throughout the archipelago and even to the Indonesian and Malaysian waters in those flimsy looking vintas with colorful sails that have become the symbol for the City of Zamboanga.
The regatta gets bigger and bigger each year, and has elicited the interest of foreigners visiting Zamboanga have expressed their desire to join, just like they do in the dragon race in Hong Kong and in Thailand.
On the streets of Zamboanga, however, cars and tricycles fight their way in a mad scramble to cross the traffic lights. Things used to be different in the late sixties, when we used to watch calesas passing by. We used to choose the most beautiful horses or the most beautifully decorated calesas, trimmed with ornate silver tapped appliqués. It made us feel as if we were princes when we rode on the horse-drawn carriages. At 3 p.m., caleseros would bring their horses to fetch hay from the fields and hold an impromptu race to see which one had the best horse or which one was the better calesero.
One calesero stood out from the rest, not only for his ability to win in most of the races but because he was the only one with a ghostly white horse. His name was Oreq. It wasn’t so strange either that he named his horse "Silver," because he thought of himself as the local version of the Lone Ranger.
I remember the rides on a calesa along Cawa Cawa, watching the young lovers seated on the benches, all dressed in their finest. For Zamboangueños it would be a sin to be caught wearing something inappropriate when you were with your girlfriend. I remember the words of my grandmother, "You may be out of cash, but you should never be out of class."
Our long summer calesa rides would take us to the wharf were we would buy roasted corn on the cob or go fishing alongside the wharf without anyone bothering us.
Our calesa ride would always end up at my Aunty Lily’s place, called the "Soda Fountain." At that time, I felt that it was the only watering hole in the city because most of Zamboanga’s who’s who spent most of their time either drinking beer or coffee while they gossiped about the latest events that happened in town. I remember the young Mayor Cesar Climaco often dropping by just to crack jokes.
Zamboanga was a quiet town, but it was a bustling city were business flourished. It was a place were people of all walks of life learned to live with each other. Things have greatly changed since then…call it progress, but the influx of people to the city have in one way or the other changed its old charm, something which we are trying to recapture once again.
BrandSpace Articles
<
>