BRIDGING THE GAP
Sarswela: WV popular entertainment
It is commonly recognized that Iloilo's major development and greatest prosperity were caused primarily by the boom in the sugar industry in the West Visayan region. This was in turn brought about by the opening of Iloilo's port to international trade in 1855.
With incentives given to sugar production, plantations in the region, especially in Negros Occidental, expanded very rapidly. With this major development, the Iloilo port served as storage, trading center, transloading station and exporter of sugar produced throughout the area.
As early as 1873, Iloilo already surpassed Manila in sugar export (Foreman 1899). The effect of this remarkable increase in Iloilo's sugar export was very significant. A new wealthy elite began to emerge and dominated the sugar business and other economic ventures in both Iloilo and Negros Occidental. Subsequently, the physical appearance of the town of Iloilo underwent important changes. New public and commercial buildings, besides residential ones, were constructed and Iloilo developed into the most important commercial center of the Philippines outside of Manila.
The town of Iloilo expanded to provide all the supporting facilities and institutions, which included retail and wholesale houses, banks, warehouses, machine shops, commercial firms, printing presses, newspapers, educational institutions, foreign consulates, social clubs, and theaters. To it flocked not only farmers and merchants from the interior towns of the province, and of the neighboring provinces of Aklan, Antique and Capiz, but also hacienderos from Negros as well. They visited Iloilo to sell their products, buy consumer goods, purchase equipment, negotiate crop loans, check on prices of sugar and other products, and avail of the forms of entertainment that Iloilo clubs and theaters had to offer. Among the popular forms of entertainment patronized by the people at that time were vaudeville, movie, carnival and circus, concert and sarswela.
Sarswela or zarzuela, as a popular entertainment of the Ilonggos, started in the late 19th century during the Spanish rule. It became very popular in the 1900s, reaching its peak in the 1920s. Sarswela was performed not only in theaters in Iloilo City but also in fiestas, celebrations and in carnivals. It was patronized by the Ilonggos of all walks of life: professionals, salaried people, landowners or hacienderos, and ordinary workers.
At the height of the flowering of sarswela, many groups or troupes performed throughout Western Visayas, but mostly in Iloilo and Negros Occidental. A sarswela troupe visiting Iloilo City, for instance, would schedule a series of performances which offered subscription to spectators (Fernandez 1978). Subscribers were encouraged by discounts on the seat prices to book for the whole season and to make early reservations. A certain amount was set which had to be met by advanced bookings before the actual arrival of the troupe.
Sarswelas were so popular that they were very much in demand, finding their way into school programs, intermission numbers, musical and band concerts and, as already stated, fiestas. Sarswelistas like Valente Cristobal, Jose Ma. Ingalla, Angel Magahum and Miguel Montelibano were by-words among aficionados and were idolized by the Ilonggo public as celebrities. The case, for instance, of Magahum's "Gugma sang Maluib" was classic (Fernandez 1978). Staged at Teatro de Molo on January 10, 1903, the theater was filled to the brim. The author "was twice called to the stage and given an ovation". Published reviews afterwards proclaimed Magahum's sarswela as a real triumph and a repeat performance was made at Teatro Lavente in Jaro during its fiesta the following February.
The years 1928-1931 were considered by Fernandez (1978) as the period of the sarswela decline. Other forms of entertainment, like the "talkies" or talking movies and the vaudeville displaced it as a popular mode of entertainment. It was still staged from time to time throughout the 1930s but it progressively lost its appeal.
Fortunately for the sarswela, in more recent times (the first decade of the 21st century), there has been a revival of this neglected form of entertainment (Gonzales 2005). In 2001-2003, for example, Iloilo had produced three original sarswelas, namely: "Pinustahan nga Gugma", "Belasyon", and "Juanita Cruz".
Alicia Tan-Gonzales, a multi-awarded literary writer, has this to say of the public's positive response to the staging of the said sarswelas: "The revival of elements of humor and satire, the delving into the motivations of characters, contemporary issues like feminism and OFW problems, the introduction of traditional culture like the bordon as part of the narrative action, the use of 'dramatic montage', the adaptation of an old material, or Hiligaynon classic, and the wielding together of stage and film in a post-modern packaging even while adapting an old story - all these could account for the success of the first three sarswelas of this decade, showing directions for the sarswela to spark up interest in its revival" (Palayag 2005).