The Sacadas of Negros Occidental 2

All drawings, in colored pencil on Bristol board. Click to enlarge.

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The sacada's labor is heavy and difficult, the pay is meager. They work for the sugarcane plantation owners called haciendero.

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There is nothing glamorous about toiling in the hot and humid son and chopping sugarcane manually with sharp knives or machetes called "bolos". The sugarcane leaves are serrated, that is why the sacadas cover their bodies with clothing. They are quite ingenious and very colorful. However, if were to choose whom to paint, between the sacada and the haciendero, I will choose the sacada over the haciendero.

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To all my blogger friends and visitors: Thank you for visiting me last week. Today was my first day back to work and this evening was the first time in many days that I visited the blogs. I hope to be able to visit all of you soon.

Illustration Friday - Electricity

"But the 32 families living in the sugarcane plantation, live in darkness."
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This is a continuation of the Sacada series. Sacadas are workers of the sugarcane plantations in the province of Negros Occidental. I dedicated this series to Sidney Snoeck whose blog about the Philippines was my favorite. Sidney closed his blog on May 6th, 2008. He left powerful and haunting photographs of ordinary life in the Philippines, much of which was an education an eye opener for me. The above illustration is my contribution to Illustration Friday's theme "electricity" and in this case, the lack thereof.

The Sacadas Of Negros Occidental

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Sacada (Sugarcane laborer). Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol Board.

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I am dedicating this series to Sidney Snoeck, who blogged about the Philippines. Sidney traveled all over the Philippines even to places where I would not dare venture. He photographed the lives of ordinary people. His blog was a poignant reminder of the country I left twenty six years ago. I still look back to it with loving memories and pride. He photographed every aspect of life imaginable. My reactions covered a wide spectrum of emotions, from joy to sorrow, shock and horror and disbelief, pain and hopelessness, anger and disdain, pride and hope. He officially closed his blog on May 6th, 2008. One of the provinces he visited was Negros Occidental where he photographed the laborers in the sugarcane plantation. His photographs of these poor, often indentured laborers, some of whom are members of families who have toiled the sugarcane fields for generations, serve as the inspiration for this series. These illustrations are intentionally unfinished. Unfinished because the toil of these people seem to never end. Read more about Negros Occidental's sugarcane laborers.

The Fruity Series

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So I wanted to see if I can draw with colored pencils. It requires more skill and technique than I ever imagined. It was fun discovering different styles and methods to achieve an object's texture. This was fun. The best part was discovering how many layers and mixtures of colors it took to achieve a certain shade. Unlike oil paints where I mix the paints on the palette to achieve the desired hue, colored pencils are entirely different. Even though an object may be composed of the same mixture of colors, the sequence of layering them achieved different effetcs. I had so much fun creating different hues. I never realized how popular the brown shades are and black is an extremely important color. I also discovered my preferred colored pencil brand. Unfortunately it does not come in a box of 100's nor sold separately to replenish the more frequently used colors. I will try other brands. I really love colored pencils. I always wanted to be a specimen illustrator. In elementary, high school and in nursing college, I enhanced my presentations with drawings. Now I just want to draw at my own leisure. These are all archival materials. This is the Fruity series for now. I hope you enjoyed the drawings and the stories.

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Next!

I wonder what it will be.

Grape

The Fruity series:

Grape. Uvas. Ubas. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.

I drew this grape to replace the tamarind that did not look palatable, even though the tamarind is a tasty sweet and sour fruit that I loved when I was a kid. Tamarind is used for cooking as a base for soups and also may be candied. I don't want to post the tamarind drawing and since I laid out all the fruits I needed one more illustration to make the presentation even. So here is the grape illustration. It took me a while to do this drawing because each grape is composed of six to eight different colors. Yes, I know it is a shade of green but I mixed it with different greens, browns and black, then blended them to achieve the final texture. I hope you like it.

Pineapple

Pineapple, Piña or Pinya because it looks like a pine cone. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.

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The Fruity series:

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I love pineapple, (piña in Ilonggo) especially the sweet golden kind found in the tropics. I can smell it, I can taste it, Oh yummy! A pineapple is a bromeliad fruit.

Illustration Friday - Seed of the Chico Fruit

Chico. Colored pencil on 9"x12" vellum Bristol board.

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The chico is my favorite fruit – ever! It has the consistency of a pear and tastes like brown sugar. I will have a chico over any fruit any time. The chico was brought to the Philippines by the Spaniards from Mexico but the rich volcanic soil produces the finest fruits with smoothest peel. I have never seen a chico that is as smooth as the ones I've known in childhood. The peel is edible. The chico does not ripen until it is picked from the tree. It has one black seed in the center of the fruit. Oh, and talking about seed, the coconut is the biggest seed! See Seed Part II

The Fruity series.

Coconut

Coconut. Lubi. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.

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Coconut is a major source of food and industrial crop in Asia. I can post a whole dissertation about it, but you are in luck. I am under the weather. So just enjoy this quick short post. Happy May Day.

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Here's a previous post about the managete, a man who climbs coconut trees to make wine.

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The Fruity series.

Papaya

Papaya. Kapayas. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.
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I seldom talk about my father on my blog even though he was a great influence in my life and of my brothers and sisters. Once I read that the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. That was my father. He was a devoted father and he loved my mother. He adored her and was very proud of her. My father was a photographer and worked hard in order to raise our big family at a time when the Philippines was awash in corruption and nepotism. Come to think of it, nothing much has changed. He and my mother believed in education and learning. I can still hear him say that "wealth could be lost but knowledge will always stay with you". He was very proud of all our accomplishments because despite our financial struggles we all managed to go to the best colleges and universities, graduated and became professors, engineers, lawyers, nurses and doctors without going into debt. Among eight of us siblings we have over a dozen baccalaureate degrees, six masters degrees, and five doctorate degrees, so far. He and my mother were proudest when the youngest of us graduated from medical school. My father also took care of our extended family. He and my mother took care of many nieces and nephews. He was very active in the community and did charitable work without much recognition and fanfare. Once he and my mother sponsored several couples who wanted to be married but could not afford the marriage licenses and fees. Poor people approached him for help and guidance. He was a very confident man, articulate, comfortable with and equally respectful of the president, the bishop, the papal nuncio or the fish vendor. He engaged us in lively academic and philosophical discussions during mealtime. He was always properly attired and was always neat. He did not like injustice, encouraged us to stand for our rights and beliefs but put us to task and expected us to accept our mistakes. In college he forced me to apologize to my Spanish professor with whom I engaged in a shouting match that sent her to the hospital. He told me that I may have had the right to argue with my teacher but did not have the right to shout at my elder. I felt like a fifteen year old. (I was.) He taught us the values of industry, of perseverance, charity, citizenship, among others. Most of all he taught us to be loving and protective of one another. When I left for America he took me to the airport and told me to call home and write to my mother often. He was delighted that I was joining my sister in New Jersey. It was a pleasure to hear his voice over the telephone and I had many lumps in my throat when he told me he loved me and to take care and watch over my sister who lived in the next town. As a child I never heard him say a swear word. He spoke gently, was very charming, smiled and always waited for my mother and held her hand. He would have been eighty-nine years old today. He loved papaya.
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Pomegranate

Pomegranate. Colored pencil on 9"x12" vellum Bristol board.

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This text has nothing to do with the pomegranate illustration above. What's with the word verification? Is there really a difference whether they display the words in proper fonts that I can easily read instead of this?

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By the way, I love pomegranate. I ate it frequently during the 80's, 90's and early 2000's before it became fashionable to drink pomegranate juice. Now I can hardly find the fresh fruits.

Jackfruit

Jackfruit. Langka. The largest tree-borne fruit in the world sometimes reaches a weight of up to 80 pounds. I called the big fruits "pigs". Colored pencil on 9"x12" vellum Bristol board.

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The jackfruit or langka (Ilonggo) tree is an awesome tree. The tree provides shade; its wood is used for carving musical instruments; bowls and other woodworking articles; the immature jackfruit is used as a vegetable in cooking; its ripe fruit which contains the golden aromatic flesh could be eaten fresh, jammed, or candied; the seeds may be boiled and eaten; the fibers that surround the edible ripe flesh may be boiled and used as vegetarian feed for the pigs. Even the baby jackfruits are edible. The leaves naturally serve as mulch on the base of the tree. A jackfruit tree full of fruits is an awsome sight. Even a small tree can hold many huge fruits. The black and white pen drawings are interpretations of my mother's garden. Growing up, we had the fortune of living on a volcanic island. My mother's garden did not need any fertilizer and everything she touched grew. She planted ornamental plants and orchids, ten macapuno palm trees, 3 mango trees, an avocado tree, a santol tree, 3 starapple trees, 5 guava trees, several atis (atimoya) trees, a vegetable garden that fed us, malunggay trees, sugar cane, cassava, yams, bananas, fortune plants that grew into trees, then the jackfruit trees and even an acacia tree! It was like being surrounded by a jungle and it was always very cool under the canopy. She had a ritual for planting fruit trees. When she had a new fruit tree to plant, she called all of us and asked us to cling to her as she planted the tree. She said the tree will bear many fruits clumped and clinging to its branches. We never questioned her. We all thought it was such a neat tradition. Her fruit trees did bear many fruits. My job was to water the the plants by pumping water from the well and carrying buckets of water and hand-watering the plots. We did not use a hose because our water tank was for household use only. Later much of the garden was uprooted to make way for the driveway and a garage. The last time I went home Mother was very ill. My sister, another nurse, and I went home to help take care of her at the hospital. After she passed away, my sisters, brothers and I gathered in her garden. It was such a comfort to touch the plants and trees that she planted. I felt her in every tree and plant she planted.

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The Fruity series.

Actinidia

Actinidia. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.

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Would you eat something if it was named "actinidia? It sounds like a disease condition. No wonder they commonly call it Chinese gooseberry or the much cooler name of kiwifruit.

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The Fruity series.

Illustration Friday - Wrinkles

Plum. Prunus. Colored pencil on 9:x12" vellum Bristol board.
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I did not want to interrupt my fun Fruity series project so I had to figure out what to draw for Illustration Friday's theme - "wrinkles". I thought about all kinds of fruits that have wrinkles. Since I have not drawn grapes yet, I thought about drawing Riesling grapes for trockenberenauslese wines but those grapes refer more to the very very late harvest and therefore more rotten than wrinkled. I don't think it would be a pleasant sight plus I intended this series to be educational. I did not want children to start eating rotten grapes. Also, I don't know where to get those kinds of grapes, except in a bottle at my favorite wine store. In the end I chose to draw these fresh, plump and unwrinkled plums that turn to wrinkled sweet and juicy prunes. Plums, apricots and almonds belong to the plant genus Prunus. This is such a fun project. I get to eat the subjects after their poses. Have tried to draw strawberries, and finding it difficult to draw the texture. Under a magnifying glass each little dot is embedded in a recessed geometric shape. It was easier to eat them. I realize through this project that I live in an area with access to most of these fruits from our culturally diverse grocery stores. I am currently drawing a jackfruit! The rest of my Fruity series:

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Blueberries And LadyBug

Blueberries and Ladybug. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.
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The last time my husband and I took the kids blueberry picking at a blueberry farm (where else?) I did not really see a lady bug but a huge spider that looked 99.9% poisonous. I almost picked the darn arachnid.

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I love picking blueberries and I am a very good harvester. I could almost work alongside with the migrant workers who go from state to state harvesting blueberries, strawberries and other crops. The only difference with the blueberries I pick, is, I have to pay for them.

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We love blueberry pies, blueberry buckle and blueberries on cereals and pancakes.

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I am dedicating this drawing to K.J. who loves blueberries. I hope she would like a ladybug or two too.

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I have to think of a wrinkly fruit for Illustration Friday.

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Continuing my Fruity series.

Banana

Banana, Bananas. Colored pencil drawing on 9"x12" Bristol board. Click on image to enlarge.

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Left photo: Bananas in my kitchen for eating, cooking and drawing the above illustration. Above, the Cavendish (yellow, forefront) is imported not for its taste which is mild but more for its hardy properties for export from SE Asia. They are shipped green and "gassed" in air-tight rooms filled with ethylene to aid the ripening process. Unlike the natives that don't make it to the beauty contest but are the sweetest, cutest (some are only as long as a woman's or child's fingers) and richest flavored bananas. Recently some stores that cater to immigrants are starting to import less common varieties such as the many varieties of plantain and manzano bananas.

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Saging (Banana)

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Read about the 149 or more banana cultivars in Southeast Asia.
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We have bananas today!

Continuing my Fruity series.

Peach

Peach. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board. Click on the image to view the fuzz.

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Im Peach!

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Peach facts:
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* Peach is my favorite ice cream flavor. When I was single and lived alone, my refrigerator was empty except for ice cubes and several half gallon boxes of peace ice cream in the freezer.

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* My favorite pie is peach pie.
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* I love a peach fruit that drips its juices when eaten.

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* When they were young, my husband and I took our children to an orchard to pick peaches. We went home with a trunk full of peaches.

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* My children love peaches, of course.

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* I love peaches with cottage cheese.
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* I love peach flavored yogurt.

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* I love peach cobbler.
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* I love the smell of peach shampoo and lotion.

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* I love peach ice cream.
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* I love peaches. You already know that?.

The Fruity series.

Avocado

Avocado. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol board.

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"Cecilia, cilia, mantequilla.

Avocado viente quatro.

Uno,

Dos,

Tres,

Quatro!"

(Translation: "Cecilia, cilia, margerine. Avocado twenty four. One, Two, Three, Four!)

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One of many name-rhyming chants my sisters and I used to irritate one another.

My chant for my younger sister was:

"Ly-nette, Ly-nette,

panit,

kulanit,

ininit."

Translation: "Lynette, Lynette, skin ,skinny, bolied water."

Sorry Inday Lyn. I am just explaining :-)
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The Fruity series.

Apple

Apples. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol Board. Clcik on image to enlarge.
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"You are the apple of my eye."

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Continuing my Fruity series.

Pear

Pears. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol Board. Click on image to enlarge.

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"Please pear me the details."

Continuing my Fruity series.

Mango

Mango. Colored pencil on 9"x12" Bristol Board.

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"Mongo, mango, guinamos kag mango."

Taken from a made-up song we sang when we were kids. The original words were "Mongo, mongo, guinamos kag mongo." "Mongo" is a mung bean dish commonly eaten by the poor and guinamos is a smelly paste of fermented minute shrimps. My husband loves both mongo dish and mango. My children are mango connoisseurs.

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Back to fruits. Asians brag about their mangoes. Mango is the national fruit of the Philippines, also of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The sweetest cultivar comes from the small island province of Guimaras near Iloilo and my birth province, Negros Occidental. During the summer season, the central markets are full of golden mangoes stacked in rows, a beautiful sight! Because mango trees require a lot of land and space, growing up, in our treeless house in the city, I always thought that families with mango trees were very lucky and rich. When we moved to the suburbs, Mother planted three mango trees in her garden. The fruit bowl in our dining table always had mangoes, papayas, bananas and seasonal fruits. I love mangoes.

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Humans have a tendency to make anything that is good bigger. Last summer my husband and I went to Whole Foods market and saw the biggest mangoes I have ever seen. They were a product of agricultural genetic experiment conducted in Costa Rica with a Texas agricultural university. It looked perfect and beautiful and huge! I bought one and was hugely disappointed. It was bland and dry, a far cry from the organic mangoes I knew. It did not even taste like a mango. In mangoes, bigger does not necessarily mean better.