Fiesta de Ronda

Shoutout to all Rondahanons all over the world. Today is the solemnity of the fiesta of Mater Dolorosa, Our Lady of Sorrows, in the happy and passionate town of Ronda.

It's unbelievable that today, the fiesta of my beloved hometown, Ronda, I find myself exploring the original Ronda, here in southern Spain. The Spanish Ronda is a municipality within the province of Malaga, belonging to the autonomous region of Andalusia. It has a population of 35,000. My hometown Ronda is 82 kilometers southwest of Cebu City, facing the island of Negros Oriental and has a population of only 21,000 people.

I am missing the humba de Ronda, the famous food specialty of the Blanco, Gimarino, Villagonzalo, Maribao, Yap, Sia, Sungcad, Layaguin, Bucog, Gimena, Andan, Villalon, Famor, and other families. Ronda is one of the eight towns comprising the 7th District consisting of Dumanjug, Ronda, Alcantara, Moalboal, Malabuyoc, Badian, Alegria, and Ginatilan. The next town Samboan belongs to the 2nd District which has Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon, Oslob, Santander, and Samboan. These towns mostly face Bohol and Siquijor.

Here in Spain, Ronda, life is more active and the ambiance is jollier. This is a remote town located in the south. The terrain is very difficult, mountainous, and rocky. The town is located near the side of a cliff overlooking a deep canyon with a river called Guadalevin and is immediately accessible to the town's tourism banner site, the Sierra de las Nieves National Park. There are many bars and small tiendas where the music of the guitar, banjo, and bajo makes me reminisce about my childhood in Langin, the most distant village of Ronda, adjoining the villages of Anahaw, Tulang, and Apo of Argao.

Why am I here when I should be eating humba and torta in the house of my distant relatives, Fr. Mike Gimarino, his brother Atty. Butch, Helen Gimarino, and sister Joy Andan? Well, my client, who has a private plane (he isn’t a contractor) brought me here directly from Sydney, Australia, via Dubai. He just wants me to prepare a last will and testament. I met him when I was assigned abroad as a Labor attaché to take care of our OFWs. Surprisingly, there’s a Filipino here from Bohol who married the chef of a huge restaurant here in Ronda, Malaga.

Comparing the two Rondas, that’s what I’m doing after I finish my job for my client who comes from this part in Spain. My hometown has an area of only 57.10 square kilometers. It is a fifth-class municipality, less progressive than its northern neighbor Dumanjug, home of the famous QM Builders, but has a better economy than its southern counterpart, Alcantara. Ronda has already produced a governor, Emilio Francisco Famor Remotigue, who is also being claimed by Argao as its native son.

This Ronda in Spain has a much bigger area of 481 square kilometers and its revenue is 20 times bigger than that of Ronda, Cebu. There are three beautiful bridges here which serve as tourist sites because of their architecture and symmetry: the Puente Romano, also known as the Puente Arabe, the Puente Viejo, and the Puente Nuevo. The most popular tourist attraction here is the bullfight, the Corrida de Goyesca held every year. In fact, bullfights in Spain and in the whole world all started here in Ronda.

Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent a number of summers here in Ronda, and always stayed in an urban center called La Ciudad. Hemingway wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” here in Ronda. Welles also finished his scripts of “Don Quijote”, taken from Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece, here in the beautiful, serene and rustic Ronda. Giorgio Armani has a vacation house here and a number of celebrities used to visit here for the bullfights and for many other reasons.

The food here is fantastic, the wine is excellent, the music is very fun and calls all to dance the fandango, jota, flamenco, and celtic. But only if I had no commitments, I would have preferred to be in Ronda, my hometown. I just offered a Mass here in Ronda in honor of our patroness in Ronda, Cebu, the Our Lady of Sorrows.

Happy fiesta to all my friends and relatives in Ronda, Cebu. God bless our Mayor Chanic Blanco, Vice Mayor Rocky Gabataan, and Councilors Ann Marie Blanco, Jojo Zozobrado, Lope Camallere, Richard Ricahuerta, Jox Villanueva, Miguelito Lazarraga, Bertoldo Mansueto, and Rolando Jakosalem, Hasta la vista, Ronda.