What makes you a true Batangueño?
A question too simple yet too hard to answer in a snap. It’s the same difficulty you encounter when you are asked to describe yourself. Like falling short of the right words will make others think you don’t know exactly who you are.
Do you have to be born and raised in Batangas and your parents need to be both Batangueños for you to be a genuine one? How about a Batangas-based Cebuano who is knowledgeable about many things in the province and acts like a local?
It has long been a debate in psychology if our personality is a result of our nature, what is within us that we inherited, or is it a product of our experience. We are who we are primarily because of how we are raised and how we co-exist with other people around us.
Did you know that there are two types of Batangueño? One is “Batangueñong Taal” or those born and raised here, termed as locals. The other one is “Batangueñong dating” or those who married a local or who moved to Batangas to do business and eventually started life here. We got this interesting trivia from Ms. Chona A. Andal of the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office. We dont know the exact source of this information but it’s good to know about these labels used by our grandparents.
In order to figure out the attributes we are typically known for, we went around to ask random people the makings of a true Batangueño.
You may put great anticipation that being ‘barako’ would top the list of responses we have collated. But their answers exceeded our expectations. There’s more to being ‘barako’ in us, being Batangueños.
Provincial Board Member Hon. Rowena “Weng” Sombrano-Africa from the 4th District of Batangas described a true Batangueño as resilient, industrious, loving and caring to his family, and prayerful.
Mr. Dindo Montenegro, an advocate of promoting the tourism and culture of Batangas province, characterized Batangueños as brave, kind, and adventurous.
Both BM Weng and Sir Dindo have expanded on the Batangueño traits they have mentioned. Their responses are included in the video of our random people interview in the hopes of finding out how our kababayans describe the true Batangueño.
Added to that are these comments from a past conversation on our Facebook page.
From Randy Evangelista Sarmiento, “Ang tunay na Batangueño marunong gumalang at rumespeto sa ibang tao o sa nakakatanda sa kanila! Marunong makisama at makisalamuha sa kahit na sinong tao, ika nga eh pang DAYO, kahit saang sulok ng mundo pwede ang Batangueño, marunong umiwas sa gulo, ngunit papalag kung kinakailangan.”
From Cee Mitra, “My mom’s Kapampangan and my dad’s Batangueño. Though I spent most of my childhood in Pampanga and Manila, I’ll always be “Batang” for them, my nickname daw. Short for Batangueña. Kasi daw matapang daw talaga ako. Haha! I have only been residing here [in Batangas] for five years now but it feels like I never left since I was born here 20 years ago.”
From Hector Jibrael Landicho Orindain, “Yung taong nagmamahal at may malasakit sa Batangas at sa mga taong naninirahan dine, pinanganak ka man o hindi sa lalawigang are, sakol man o hindi kung dumulog ka sa batalan, nakaranas man o hindi na mangbalibang ng mangga ng kahanggan, basta may puso ka para sa Batangas..purong ala eh ka..”
This is us, Batangueños. Do you truly know who you are?