“Who would have tought that today, their pasture became greener by keeping the inheritance manifested through their weaving skills.”
Ilocos is known to be the source of the woven fabric called abel iloko like this one woven in abra. On how abel weaving started in bulbulala, Lapaz abra is a very interesting story I’ve discovered as told by a descendant of the original abel.
Weavers who introduced this art in Bulbulala. However, aside from abel weaving, abra also has it own distinct traditional weaving done by the itneg tribe which is different from the ilocanos abel in terms of design, concept and purpose. But for this post, i will focus on the abel done in bulbulala.
For time visiting in Bulbulala, reaching the place is quite a challenge. Although there are road signboard showing the direction to brgy. Bulbulala, you might still need the help of some people to find your direction So I would suggest to hire a trycicle driver who know the place.
Asking direction from the right person is alright. But for our version of this trip, there was a twist. It was spiced with some unexpected adventures not normally done along the way. Where lucky that someone drove us to Bulbulala. However, the road leading to the village was close for construction. But we didn’t give up the search for the village. We used another route instead which is twice father than the regular route. We passed through narrow farm to market roads and a river. Good thing the river was shallow so we decided to cross it in the name of traveling. We didn’t expect that we’ll be encountering this kind of situation along the way. We survived the route and reached the village by asking direction from people we met along the way.
Bulbulala: A village of loom Weavers Knowing that we’ve reached the weaving village safely was a breath of fresh air. The village was situated in hilly terrain. The locals provide much help to find our way to the house of the certain Naty Quiday, the most popular household name in the village In terms of abel making.
The contact person we were looking for wasn’t around because according to one of her helpers, she often travels to show case his craft to different trade fairs in the Philippines. According to the people some we met, the weaving center we’ve just entered employs women from the community to meet the demands for the product. Leila’s loom Weaving is the name of the center and it is the largest in the village. However, there are also other household who do the pinagabel.
Basing on Mr Quidays surname plus the weaving skills his family has, I was confident to tell him that he is not an original settler of bulbulala and he must have come from Caoayan. The man smiled and confirmed that my theory ia true. He told me that he was a lot of relatives in caoayan and vigan, the hometown of his grandparents who migrated in abra in search for arable land for living. Carrying the bloodline and culture of abel weaving from caoayan, they settled in bulbulala and continued the learning they inherited from their ilocano ancestors. Caoayan is one little coastal town at the Mount of abra River.
During the old times, people sail via the abra River to reach the province of Abra. For the ancestors of Mr. Quidays, they found a green pasture in bulbulala but they did not forget the art they learned from their forefathers. Who would have thought that today, their pasture became greener by keeping the inheritance manifested through their weaving skills. It not all about the arable land now. It’s about the weaving.
Preserving a tradition – The tradition of pinagabel is on its glory days. The demand for this fabric is getting high as more people are getting aware of the existence of this textiles. Unlike other arts and crafts on the brink of extinction, the best is yet to come for Abel iloko. According to Mr Quidays most of the Weavers here now are migrants ( usually women who married a man from bulbulala). These female migrants learn this art in bulbulala for their living – some are already employed by the weaving center in the village. For this abel Weavers, the life in weaving might be a bumpy road, but this road can still lead them to their destination – a place for success and prosperity.
A VILLAGE OF ABEL WEAVERS IN ABRA CALLED BULBULALA 