The singing Cebuana

The “sale” sign posted on a shop’s glass door attracted my attention. It was late in the evening and the humid atmosphere warned that it would be raining anytime soon. The threat of rain was not a deterrent to my search for cheap books and we went inside the store with vague plans to just run should there be a downpour.

The shop sold second-hand books and looked out of place in the area. Banks, cafés, and restaurants occupied most of the spaces on the ground floors of residential and office buildings in that street in Salcedo Village in Makati.

From outside, the store looked bright and spacious. While some books were on the floor, most were arranged neatly on the shelves. They also looked newer and less ratty than the second-hand books that I bought from other chains.

When we entered, the two salesgirls were talking to a customer who asked them if they were Cebuanas because of their heavily-accented Tagalog. They laughed and protested that they were not.

One salesgirl said that she was not Cebuana because “Cebuanas are mestizas.” She explained that it was obvious that she was not because her skin was dark.

The other salesgirl voiced her agreement and said that “Cebuanas are good singers” and cited Dulce as an example. Since neither she nor her co-worker could sing, she added, they could not be Cebuanas.

I was browsing and trying to find treasures in a shop that put a book on Pablo Picasso beside a book entitled “Physics” but I could not concentrate because their conversation about Cebuanas was too funny. I wanted to interrupt and say hello, I’m a Cebuana and I am neither a mestiza nor a good singer. But I did not want to be caught eavesdropping.

Their conversation reminded me of the stereotypes we have about people from different provinces: Warays are fierce. Ilonggos are sweet. Ilocanos are stingy. Pampangueños are bongga. There are also stereotypes about persons depending on the school they went to. La Sallites are rich. Atenistas are sosyal and speak English with a twang. UP graduates are atheists and/or communists.

Studying and working with persons from different provinces and with different educational backgrounds have allowed me to see that some of these stereotypes can be baseless. I know a Waray who speaks so softly that I thought she was speaking Hiligaynon. I’ve met an Ilocana who is fond of shopping.

 I guess stereotypes exist as some kind of shorthand to help us identify what we don’t know. However, they can also be blocks when we use to them to judge a person’s character. I remember someone who felt very annoyed when another person commented that we should eat at a place with airconditioning as an Atenista would probably not eat at a carinderia. Unfortunately, stereotyping can cause more damage than just hurt feelings.

As we approached the bookshop’s counter, the salesgirls heard my husband and I speaking in Cebuano. They looked at us and giggled with embarrassment.

Stating the obvious, I said, “Not all Cebuanas are mestiza.” The bookshop had a promotion that allowed customers who bought books that were not on sale to get the equivalent amount of books on sale for free. I found a lot of books by Karen Joy Fowler and Ellen Gilchrist and was so pleased with my loot that I wanted to break into a song. I did not. The salesgirls will have to discover that not all Cebuanas can sing some other way.

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