An invitation to Cebuanos to rediscover themselves

There is a show this coming Saturday at the Cebu International Convention Center that is for all Cebuanos to see. It is not a concert though there is truly great music being lined up. It is not a play although exciting exchanges of dialogue are expected.

In other words, do not go to the show if your only reason for going is the music or the drama. Instead go because you are a Cebuano and you have an obligation to yourself to at least know or try to understand why you are who you are.

This affair, this presentation, entitled “Kinaiyang Sugbuanon,” will attempt to convey in word and song the spirit and character of the Cebuano before he got overwhelmed by outside influences that became inevitable with the breaking down of global borders.

The person responsible for the concept of bringing together people and materials for this show is Jose R. Gullas who, among all this achievements and awards, ought to be most proud of that one that honored him as a “Great Cebuano Leader.”

There is good reason to revive a Cebuano-centrist culture and awareness, considering that Cebu has always been in the heartland of this little universe we call the Philippines, a fact that, by reason of familiarity, has largely been denied its due importance.

To a large extent, Cebu can claim to being the birthplace of many of the most important facets of modern Philippine history. For instance, the religion of 87 percent of all Filipinos first took root right here in these shores.

The great entrepreneural spirit of the Cebuanos was responsible for that great economic surge in the 1990s called “Ceboom” that went on to outstrip and outpace the growth rate of the country itself.

On the political scene, the term that is most often on everybody’s lips is “Edsa People Power Revolution,” with only very few knowing that, in fact, the prototype of that mass movement of warm bodies was first tested years earlier in Cebu’s “ Freedom Marches.”

Cebu is the center of the shipping industry, which is the most widely available means of transporting people and cargo throughout this archipelagic country of ours. Most of the big shipping companies are owned by Cebuanos or are headquartered in Cebu.

Many of the taipans and barons of commerce and industry had their modest beginnings in Cebu, with their later success in life largely attributable to the kind of character in the Cebuano that is laced with the virtues of heart, hard work, honesty, and humor.

And so, this show on Saturday will give a glimpse of the kind of culture, the kind of milieu, upon which was molded the kind of character that was eventually responsible for making the Cebuanos the great kind of people that they are.

The songs, for instance, harking as they do to a long-gone era, may not be familiar or appealing to the younger generations. But that is if the songs are taken only at their face value. Only when the core is laid bare will understanding become inevitable.

The songs, the dances, the dialogues — they all have the same things in common, which is attitude. Cebuanos are brave, diligent, sincere and happy, characters essential in good people. Cebuanos have good manners and put a premium on respect.

The invitation is open to everyone, to reconnect and to rediscover, and at the same time have a good time. My greatest wish for those who will come is that they may see a little of themselves in the show and bring it home as a gift to themselves, the gift of identity.