The Hiligaynon, often referred to as Ilonggo, are the indigenous inhabitants of the large coastal plain of East Panay island. Over the years, intermigrations and intramigrations have contributed to the diaspora of the Hiligaynon to different parts of the country. Now, the Hiligaynon form the majority in Iloilo province, Capiz province, Negros Occidental province, Guimaras province, South Cotabato province and Sultan Kudarat province.
Hiligaynon people speak Hiligaynon language and also speak Cebuano in Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, Cotabato and Siquijor as second language. Throughout the Philippines, they speak Tagalog and English as second languages.
Hiligaynon culture is part of the culture of the wider Visayan ethnic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnic group. Most Hiligaynons (entirely in Sultan Kudarat Cotabato and South Cotabato) are Christians who are Roman Catholics.
Famous quotes containing the word people:
“The general feeling was, and for a long time remained, that one had several children in order to keep just a few. As late as the seventeenth century . . . people could not allow themselves to become too attached to something that was regarded as a probable loss. This is the reason for certain remarks which shock our present-day sensibility, such as Montaigne’s observation, “I have lost two or three children in their infancy, not without regret, but without great sorrow.””
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)