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The Negrenses (; ) are the native cultural group of the Philippine provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
Southern Negrosin particular, to be settled by precolonial migrants from the island of Panay. These came to be known as the Negrense highlanders (Hiligaynon and Cebuano language: bukidnong Buglasnon or Magahat). A second wave of migrants from Panay came to inhabit the northwestern portion of the island; they are known today as the Suludnon (Hiligaynon and Cebuano: bukidnong Panaynon or Suludnon), who continue to reside on Panay as well as on Negros.
Finally, on January 1, 1890, Governor-General Valeriano Weyler issued a decree, partitioning Negros into Negros Occidental, with Bacólod retained as its designated capital, and Negros Oriental, with Dumaguete as the designated capital. The division was not made along linguistic lines but rather for practical administrative purposes: those falling under the jurisdiction of the 13 friars composed the new Negros Oriental province, which also includes the Hiligaynon-speaking towns of Tolong (present-day Santa Catalina) and Tolong Nuevo (present-day Bayawan). The Cebuano-speaking towns of Sagay, Escalante, San Carlos (all three later converted into cities) and Calatrava chose to remain with Negros Occidental.
With the declaration of martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 and the collapse of the sugar industry on Negros in the 1980s due to the expiration a few years earlier of the Laurel–Langley Agreement, which had previously guaranteed Philippine sugar-producers access to the US market, Negrense families emigrated en masse from Negros to the United States, Canada and Australia to escape the economic losses incurred with the steep decline of the island's main crop. Large diaspora populations have since formed in the United States (Hawaii, California, New Jersey and New York) and in Australia (Queensland and New South Wales). Sizable diasporas have also emerged in Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, where they work and live as either overseas workers or permanent expatriates.
The collapse of the Negros sugar industry and the "widespread hunger, unemployment, and terrorism" that subsequently engulfed the island accounts for the large Negrense presence outside the homeland, Billig, M. S. (1994). The death and rebirth of entrepreneurism on Negros island, Philippines: A critique of cultural theories of enterprise. Journal of Economic Issues, 28(3), 659–678. whether in other parts of the country or abroad. All strata of Negrense society took part in the emigration from the island: from the Debt bondage Sakadas and dumaan to the landowning hacenderos, the latter now easily stripped by Marcos of their kingmaker roles in national politics. During this time, the troubles on Negrosincluding the infamous Escalante massacremade the island "briefly famous in the international media" as a "social volcano". Among the emigrant children of hacenderos, many would "recall being embarrassed to admit that their families planted sugarcane on Negros". Several of those whom remained on the island would even lament that the opulent lifestyle that had been afforded by their Old money had "made their parents and grandparents lazy and smug". In the 1990s, President Fidel Ramos would further erode the hacenderos' political and economic clout through the abolition of protectionist sugar-import tariffs. Violent Class conflict, albeit much reduced, continues to plague Negrense society to this day, Mercado, J. L. (2013, May 3). Yesterday's "apparatchiks". Philippine Daily Inquirer. the latest series of incidents being the Negros killings of 2017 to 2019.
In spite of the troubles that continue to beset the Negrense people, particularly those who live on mainland Negros, the island today positions itself at the centre of Organic farming and Food tourism in the Philippines, seeking to move away from the colonial Monocropping economy to one rebuilt on sustainable food systems. In 2005, the provincial governments of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental jointly declared the island as the first GMO-free zone in the country. Other provinces and independently administered cities would gradually follow suit by banning the use of pesticides, the entry of GMOs or both.
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Between 2015 and 2017, Negros and the surrounding islands had been administered as a single regional unit, the Negros Region. The region was dissolved by President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies in the cabinet.
Culture
Language
Migration into and within Negros, especially during the fortune-seeking decades of the late-Spanish and US-colonial eras, has created a distinct blend of people, culture and languages, with the northwestern half, comprising Negros Occidental, having a Hiligaynon-speaking majority,The Bacolod Metropolitan Area is noted for its distinct dialect of Hiligaynon called Bakolodnon. while the southeastern half, comprising Negros Oriental, having a Cebuano language-speaking majority. Descendants of the indigenous Magahat and speak the Magahat language, which is heavily influenced by Hiligaynon and Karay-a language as a result of their interactions and intermarriage with colonial-era migrants from Iloílo and Antique; while those descended from the Panayan highlanders speak Sulod language. The Carolan language continues to be spoken in Kabankalan by descendants of the indigenous Carolans. The Cebuano language predominates in Siquijor.
Religion
The majority of Negrenses are Christians; for the most part Catholics with a number of Orthodox and Protestant faithful. Negrenses of Chinese Filipino heritage may practise either Buddhism or Taoism or both, at times Syncreticism. Dayawism, which is the umbrella term for the Philippines' indigenous folk religions, remains quite popular.Aguilar, F. V. (1998). Clash of spirits: The history of power and sugar-planter hegemony on a Visayan island. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
Cuisine
The Negrense homeland is known for the culinary skills of its inhabitants. Piyaya () is a muscovado-filled flatbread, while napoleones are an especially sought-after Negrense pastry. Traditional dishes and modes of preparation brought by immigrants from the neighboring island of Panay but which are now also emblematic of Negrense cuisine include batsoy (), binakol, inasal, Cansi () and various pigeon pea (, from the general Malay word for ‘bean’, ) soups.Such soups include kadyos, baboy kag langka (literally "pigeon pea, pork and jackfruit soup" in Hiligaynon) and kadyos, manok kag ubad ("pigeon pea, chicken and heart-of-palm soup"). Alcoholic beverages consumed include lumboy wine produced in Siquijor and rum produced in the Negros provinces. Engaling, T. Y. (2017, August 5). A glimpse of Sikihodnon cuisine. Around the Philippines. Retrieved from Nicavera, E. P. (2019, July 22). Bacolod's first-ever rum festival to highlight Negrense cuisine. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved from $
Society
Negrense society has from its inception been heavily stratified,Billig, M. S. (1992). The rationality of growing sugar on Negros. Philippine Studies, 40(2), 153–182.Gonzaga, V. L. (1990). Negros in transition: 1899–1905. Philippine Studies, 38(1), 103–114. divided between the seasonal Sakadas laborers, the settled dumaan farmhands, the Sugarcane mill and the landowning hacenderos. This had more than occasionally been the cause of bitter rivalries between the millers and hacenderos, and continues to be at the root of violent socioeconomic conflict between them, the sacadas and even the dumaan. Marriages, as well, between Negros-based sugar families and their counterparts in other regions are not unusual. The implosion of the export-dependent sugar industry in the mid-1970s would gradually blur, though not completely erase,Gonzaga, V. L. (1988). Agrarian reform in Negros Oriental. Philippine Studies, 36(4), 443–457. the inherited distinctions.
Notable people
The following is a list of Negrenses resident either in the Negros provinces and Siquijor, elsewhere in the Philippines or abroad. The large diaspora population is a result of the waves of emigration from the Negros provinces during the latter half of the 20th century.
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Notable people of Negrense descent
Below is a list of people of Negrense parentage or upbringing.
See also
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