Hiligaynon is the lingua franca of the West Visayas in Central Philippines.

Politically labeled
Region 6, West Visayas is composed of the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Aklan on the
island of Panay; Negros Occidental, the western half of the island of Negros; and the new island-
province of Guimaras which used to be a sub-province of Iloilo.
The mother language of West Visayas is Kinaray-a or Hiraya, the language spoken by the central
and southern towns of Iloilo, all of the province of Antique and most of Capiz. Hiligaynon is
spoken in Iloilo City in all the coastal towns north of Iloilo City, in all of Guimaras, in most of
Roxas City in Capiz, and in Bacolod City and most of the towns of Negros Occidental. The
language is also spoken in South Cotabato, in Mindanao, where many West Visayans have
migrated. The northern towns of Negros Occidental speak Cebuano or
Sugbuanon , the lingua franca of Central Visayas. The province of Aklan speaks Aklanon which,
like Hiligaynon, developed from Kinaray-a .
Though distinctly different from
Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a and Aklanon are conveniently considered by many linguists and literary
researchers as subsumed in the lingua franca. Current writers in Kinaray-a and Aklanonhave
shown that it is not so.
Purely oral, West Visayan literature before the coming of the Spaniards was in Kinaray-a which
must have been the language in folk literature of the ten Bornean datus who, according to the folk
account of the Maragtas,got the island of Panay from the aboriginal Ati in exchange for a headgear
of gold and a necklace that touched the ground.
Folk literature ranges from brief riddles, proverbs, ditties, ritual chants to elaborate love songs,
tales and extensive epics. A poem is called
binalaybay and the tale is the asoy or the sugilanon.
The paktakon is a riddle while the
hurubaton is a proverb. Both are usually in two lines and rhymed.
Folksongs may be as simple as the ili-ili or lullaby or as intricate as the
ambahan, a long song alternately sung by a soloist and a chorus; the siday
which can be a long poetic joust between two paid poets respectively representing the two families
in a marriage suit (siday sa pamalaye); or a
balitaw , a jocose love song sung in a debating manner by a man and a woman.
The asoy may be a legend or a tale about a folk hero or a local happening. Foremost among
the Panay epics are the Labaw Donggon
and the Hinilawod.
Ritual chants are delivered by the
babaylan or healer to please the
diwata or supernatural beings or spirits in exchange for good health and luck in the home and the
fields during planting and harvest seasons.
The coming of the Spaniards and the conversion of the people to Christianity produced new forms
of folk literature. Written literature also started, first with translations of Spanish texts of prayers
and lives of the saints.
Tracing their origins to the Spanish times are the luwa, the witty quatrain recited by the loser
of the
bordon,the most popular game during the belasyon or vigil for the dead; and the composo, the
ballad that sings the life of a folk hero or a significant incident in the community.
Religious literature flourished during the Spanish times. The Flores de Mayo is a devotional song-
prayer held throughout the month of May characterized by singing hymns to the Virgin Mary and
offering flowers.
The Pasyon , which recounts the suffering of Christ, is chanted during the Holy Week.
The gozos of the novena, the nine-day devotional prayer to a saint, stresses Christian virtue or
recounts incidents in the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Always part of the feast in honor of the patron saint is the coronation of the fiesta queen. The local
poet then delivers the pagdayaw, an extensive ode praising the queen’s beauty and virtue.
Purely secular is the corrido , actually a medieval romance brought by the Spaniards. Most
popular
corrido in West Visayas is Rodrigo de Villas.
Two theater forms developed during the Spanish times. The moro-moro is full of action but is
no more than a morality play celebrating the victory of the Christians against the Moros. The
zarzuela is a musical but later made a vehicle for subversive activities.
The establishment of Imprenta La Panayana in Iloilo City late in the nineteenth century by a
Bicolano, Mariano Perfecto, engineered written
Hiligaynon literature. With his Pasyon , novenas and corridos , Perfecto published Almanake
Panayanhon (Panayan Almanac), the all-time
Hiligaynon best-seller. Almanake, which published literary works by most of the early Hiligaynon
writers, is still being published today by the Perfecto heirs.
The coming of the Americans saw the so-called Golden Age of Hiligaynon literature even if
the orientation was still heavily Spanish– didactic and Roman Catholic though strongly
nationalistic.
The relatively short period from the 1920’s to the coming of the Japanese is considered the
Golden Age. This produced Angel Magahum (first novelist for Benjamin ), poet Delfin Gumban,
poet Serapion Torre, poet-translator (from Spanish) Flavio Zaragoza Cano, essayist-journalist
Rosendo Mejica, zarzuela masters Jose Ma. Ingalla and Jose Ma. Nava, playwright Miguela
Montelibano, novelist-poet Magdalena Jalandoni, essayist Augurio Abeto and Abe Gonzales, and
the young novelist Ramon L. Musones and poet Santiago Alv. Mulato. The triumvirate of
Gumban, Torre and Zaragoza Cano ruled it out for years in poetry, their rivalry magnified by the
public
balagtasan or poetic joust. The establishment of Hiligaynon magazine by Liwayway Publications
in Manila and of the Makinaugalingon Press by Rosendo Mejica in Iloilo City further strengthened
Hiligaynon literature.
Jalandoni, Muzones, Gonzales and Mulato wrote their way through the Japanese Occupation and
on to the fifties and the sixties which saw two new novelists, Jose E. Yap and Conrado Norada.
The establishment ofYuhum magazine in Iloilo City by La Defensa Press and of the short-lived
Kasanag by Diolosa Publications, kept literature not only alive but strong. Big names were Ramon
L. Muzones, Santiago Alv. Mulato, Conrado Norada, Abe Gonzales and the forever versatile
Magdalena Jalandoni. Jose E. Yap had started his series of science-fiction novels. New names
came like Hernando Siscar , Antonio Joquiño and Isabelo Sobrevega.
The influence of English literature, especially in the short story, became pronounced in the 1960’s
whenHiligaynon writers became more aware of formalist guidelines like characterization, local
color and irony. The short story became popular while the novel with Muzones, Yap and Norada at
the helm kept its position. Emerging from the sixties are important names of the present: Nilo P.
Pamonag, Lucila V. Hosillos, Mario L. Villaret, Romeo Garganera, Ner E. Jedeliz, Jr., Quin
Baterna and Jose Ali Bedaño who wrote under the name of Julius Flores. Two prominent women
novelists are Ismaelita Floro-Luza of Roxas City and Ma. Luisa Defante-Gibraltar of Bacolod.
Yuhum stopped publication in the sixties and resumed during Martial law.
Hiligaynon closed during Martial law and resurrected in 1989.
The Cory Revolution of 1986 is an important milestones in the history of
Hiligaynon literature. Because of the new management of the Cultural Center of the Philippines
and the creation of the Presidential Commission for Culture and the Arts which later became the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts, new writing and new writers have been born. The
CCP and the NCCA have become truly the people’s patrons of the arts by paving the way for the
creation of regional and local art councils, providing writing grants to writers of marginalized
languages, supporting workshops and publications and conferring awards. Competitions likewise
have had their share in the ferment of new writing. Most significant is the inclusion of the
Hiligaynon short story, alongside that of Cebuano and Iluko, in the Palanca Awards since 1997.
The Cory Revolution has also ushered in these historical landmarks in the literature of West
Visayas:
1. The emergence of Kinaray-a writing;
2. The emergence of Aklanon writing;
3. The emergence of writing in Filipino which is Visayan-based;
4. The ferment of campus writing in these languages;
5. The emergence of multilingual writing in the region.