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- Title:
- Pampanga Rice
- Description:
- Among the earliest Augustinian mission towns are Betis and Lubao of 1572 and Macabebe and Candaba dated to 1575. Medina writes: Pampanga “is a most fertile land, and we might say that it sustains the country, for it is all rice-fields.” Because it had many residents, Lubao’s church was brick, had a 2-room convent, and 2 assigned religious to service 600 Indians. “All Pampanga is like streets, for the houses of one town are continued by those of another.” Bacolor (established1576) was the best mission of the province. 10 more missions were set up by 1619 around when Medina arrived. Friars were Hispanic culture bearers. Those from Valencia would have been used to rice as their major cereal. From Manila Bay one can sail past Bulacan to Pampanga Bay where 3 major rivers are found. The southmost is Pampanga River that reaches Candaba swamp and continues into Nueva Ecija. Moving along the coast toward Bataan are the Pasag River (that forks into Guagua River) and Malabag River. Betis is in the Guagua area. The Guagua River heads north to Bacolor. In the 1600s people travelled by boats on waterways that were clean and clear of obstructions. Roadways for horses, carriages and wagons were still in the future. Hispanic influence of Philippine food depended on close contact between colonisers and the colonised, a consistent sharing of foreign ingredients and techniques, a desire (even if coerced) by the colonised to integrate the foreign, and so many other factors. The mixing of Spanish elements into native cooking was neither instant nor widespread.
- Subjects:
- Pampanga Acculturation Missions Augustinians
- Exhibition:
- Juan Medina 50
- Source:
- Philippine Atlas, 1959.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Pampanga Rice", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll104.html