Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is Iloilo City and is located at the southeast portion of Panay Island, bordering Antique to the west and Capiz to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is the island-province of Guimaras and across Panay Gulf and Guimaras Strait is Negros Occidental.
People from Iloilo are called Ilonggos. There are two local languages spoken in the province Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a. Hiligaynon and variants of it are spoken in the city and few towns of the province. Outside the city, majority of the people speak Kinaray-a. Each town has its own distinct variation of Kinaray-a. Most Ilonggos are bilingual in English and Hiligaynon; English is taught from grade school to college. The Ilonggos are mostly Malayo-Polynesian people although there are small pockets of populations with Negrito, Chinese, and European ancestry.
Spanish architecture can be seen in old buildings in downtown Iloilo. Merchants from China and India have long traded with the Ilonggos even before the Spaniards came. The ruling Spanish government encouraged these foreign merchants to trade in Iloilo but they were not given privileges like ownership of land. The mestizo class eventually was born from the marriages of the Spaniards and merchants with the local Malayo-Polynesian people. They later emerged as the ruling class of the Ilonggos (see Principalía).
The town Fiesta is one of the most important events of the Ilonggos. Almost every town (municipalities) in Iloilo has a fiesta celebrated on different times of the year. You can eat 'free' in any house in any town that is celebrating its fiesta in that week if you go with somebody who knows somebody in that house.
History
