Women Workers of 19th Century Manila
/This Women’s Month, the Research, Publications, and Heraldry Division of the NHCP is presenting a series of historical images depicting the various livelihoods of Filipinas in the 19th century. This proves that women, then and now, have always worked alongside men as an indispensable part of the country’s labor force. This gallery also gives us a glimpse of women’s jobs that were common during the colonial period but have now faded into memory, as well as livelihoods that persist today.
𝗔𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗮
Forget the bibe (duckling) hairpin, the aguadoras (water carriers) of the 19th century balanced water-filled clay jars on their heads. Owing to the absence of potable water in the rivers and esteros of Manila, and the insufficient supply of the Carriedo Waterworks (only opened in 1882) especially during the hot season, drinkable water had to be fetched from farther, less-populated sources such as the Marikina River where the water was cleaner.
To do this, women traveled to the outlying towns such as Marikina and Montalban, carrying with them tinajas or large clay jars, and filling them with water. They then carried them back to the city for family use or sell them for profit. The scene of women walking the streets at great lengths with tinajas on their heads became an iconic feature of Manila and captured the interest of visitors and foreigners, making these cuadros de costumbres (paintings of customs) common features in travelogues, postcards, and periodicals.
Credit: Postcards from the NHCP Collection
𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝗮
Got buyo?
Buyo (betel leaf) and nganga (combination of betel leaf, lime and betel nut) were an integral part of Philippine social life in the 19th century. Having medicinal benefits, betel leaf chewing was a favorite pastime of Filipinos, and not having a box of nganga in the household was considered being rude to visitors. In some communities (and in other parts of Southeast Asia) buyo was even considered a sacred object, and chewing it a religious practice.
The high demand for buyo paved the way for the buyeras or betel leaf peddlers. On a sidewalk where she sold her products, the buyera spent her day preparing the nganga: wrapping the bonga (betel nut) and apog (lime) with ikmo (betel leaf). The buyera must also be quite skilled. The difference in proportions of each ingredient would differentiate a good nganga from a bitter nganga. These handmade signature crafts had names like buyos del castillo, ojo de maya, and caving caving.
Credit: Pictures from the Biblioteca Nacional de España (1859 and 1847 by Jose Honorato Lozano)
𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝗮
Want a special dress for a special occasion? The sinamayera’s shop was the place to go. Before the introduction of ready-to-wear clothes and big clothing brands, the sinamayera (from sinamay or cloth made of abaca) was where one purchased a variety fabrics from different regions, which were made into cloth by a costurera or seamstress.
According to a contemporary periodical, a sinamayera, often from an affluent and educated family, started her day bidding her parents goodbye and leaving her house for her store with a piece of cloth containing buyo and loose change. After arriving at her store, she would spend the rest of her day arranging her variety of cloths for sale: sinamay, guinaras, rengue, cardongas, jusi, and piña. She would call out to passing shoppers using different languages such as Tagalog, Ilocano, Pangasinan, Chinese, Spanish, and even English. This was no surprise, given that 19th century Manila was indeed a bustling city with visitors from different provinces and countries.
At the end of the day, the sinamayera closed her shop and returned home, where she played the piano or harp for entertainment.
Credit: NHCP postcard collection
𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗿𝗮
After buying that beautiful piña fabric from your suking (favorite) sinamayera, it’s the costurera’s turn to make it into a dress. The costurera (from the Spanish word costurar or to sew) was a typical employee in an affluent household, together with the kusinero (cook) and the criada (maid). Her role was especially important in the 19th century because everything then was hand-sewn: clothes, curtains, mantles, bedsheets, etc.
Usually hailing from a poor family, the costurera arrived early at the house of her employer. With her thimble, needle, and thread (which was usually attached to her pusód [bun hairdo), she found a corner in the house and spent the day stitching the items required by her employer, all the while singing some tunes or chewing nganga.
A Spanish newspaper, however, criticized some of the costureras for slacking off, accepting work from other households, or leaving the house for other businesses. Not only that, “costurera” was a word used in the 19th century to imply that someone engaged in prostitution outside of her daytime work. This term was mentioned in passing in Chapter 14 of Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo, where the lawyer Señor Pasta had a “costurera” that Isagani and other students could rely on to reach a lawyer.
Credit: Picture from La Ilustración Española y Americana, 15 December 1897, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
“Women, then and now, have always worked alongside men as an indispensable part of the country’s labor force.”
𝗖𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗿𝗮
In the 19th century, many arable lands in colonial Philippines were used to cultivate “cash crops” or lucrative agricultural products that were processed and exported to other countries. One such cash crop was tobacco. Fabricas de puros or tobacco factories, widely known as tabacaleras, were established in Manila and other areas to meet the demands of the international market. Its factory workers, mostly women, were called cigarreras. Catalina de Castro, the mother of Andres Bonifacio, worked as a supervisor of cigarreras: first as cabecilla or table supervisor, and later as maestra, or section supervisor, in the fabrica de puros in Meisic.
A cigarrera worked daily from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a two-hour lunch break. Working in assembly lines and under the strict supervision of a maestra, she rolled tobacco leaves, or cut the tips of cigars, or counted the produce, or put the tobaccos in decorated boxes. Jules Montano, a foreign visitor in the 19th century, was amazed when he saw the massive number of cigarreras exiting a factory for the day (there were 30,000 by the end of the 19th century). Three of the four tabacaleras in Manila hired only women, for their deftness and honesty; but this did not mean the cigarreras were subservient and easily exploited. In 1812, they staged an alboroto or strike due to issues like underpayment of wages and maltreatment. The action resulted in the dismissal of maltreaters and the general improvement of their work conditions.
Credit: Picture from La Ilustración Española y Americana, 30 January 1876, Biblioteca Nacional de España
𝗧𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮
“Guinoó, ilang tacal ng canin ang inyong ibig?”
This may have been the 19th-century equivalent of today's "Kuya, ilang rice (Older Brother, how much rice)?" in the carinderia (informal eatery). Joking aside, it is true that the tenderas (female vendors) in the carinderias have been feeding the Filipino working class for centuries.
In Manila, the improvement of transportation, establishment of factories and trading houses, and general increase in residency made the capital city more populous than ever. Like the buyera across the street, the tendera saw this as an opportunity to set up her carinderia in a busy area like Binondo. After all, those hordes of cigarreras leaving the fabrica for lunch might be especially hungry after being scolded by their maestra.
According to Jose Honorato Lozano who drew the image below, the tendera in the carinderia served dishes typically found in the household (or lutong bahay): fritada, murisqueta, moli, and carí. The last dish (kare-kare or cari, inspired by Indian curry), according to historian W.E. Retana, was the origin of “carinderia” (hispanized Tagalog) or karihan (Tagalog).
The tendera set up her eatery as they do today: a variety of dishes are displayed in carajayes (carajay pan or wok) to choose from (hence the term turo-turo). These dishes, together with tinajas of water, were placed on lancapes or tables with short legs. However, unlike today, customers then sat on the floor, usually on mats, as they ate on the lancapes.
Image drawn by Jose Honorato Lozano, 1847. From the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Reposted with permission from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines’ Facebook page. This is the first of a two-part series.
