Cultural Master for Piña Weaving

Raquel Eliserio

In rural town of Balete, piña artisans start their weaving heritage from the ground. A Red Spanish pineapple variety brought by the Spaniards are propagated the local artisans as a their source of fibers. Cultural master Raquel Eliserio’s indigenous knowledge of piña weaving is deep rooted in her family tradition grew up from the family of farmers and weavers, and her ancestors weaves their garments made of Abaca and Piña. Her great grandfathers have farms beside there rice fields where they plant the Red Spanish pineapple. Mature leaves are harvested and brought back home to her great grandparents to extract the fibers using primitive tools like solid slab of wood, broken ceramics, sharpened coconut shell and clam shell. Her grandmothers produce two kinds of fibers called “Bastos” or coarse fibers and “Liniwan” which is the finest. Produced “Bastos” fibers are supplied to Cebu for manufacturing of artificial hair for the holy images, and Liniwan are finely refined through “pagpisi” or separation for weaving piña cloth. Piña cloth is woven for their garments and some are sold to piña entrepreneurs in the neighboring towns of Balete. At a young age, she observed all the stages of fibers from farm to loom and grew her fascination with their family’s traditional craft. Cultural master Raquel also has sentimental recall of her humble beginning of her piña weaving journey. Guided her grandparents, she slowly appreciated each filaments and harmoniously worked on it. With the help of little light from their  traditional lamp “kingki”, years of practice of learning high technical skill as a weaver she became a master of her craft. One notable practices she does up to this day is a ritual she learned from her ancestors. In the early days the Aklanon, weavers perform certain rituals before touching the loom. Cultural master Raquel follows these rituals to the latter. She combed her hair until it was silky and shiny in belief that doing so would smoothen  the entangled fibers. She also drink lots of water to calm her nerves, again, believing that only the weaver who is at peace could weave fine cloth. It’s mesmerizing to watch how perfectly coordinated her hands and feet are, how she and her loom move as one.

Piña is essential in everyday life of Raquel as it embodies her heritage, culture, and identity as she provides a sustainable livelihood to her community involved in the Piña value chain. Sustaining this heritage requires leadership, hard work, and patience. Raquel’s passion in nurturing the life of every Piña Artisans in her community is what helped her uplift the industry in the past years. Consistently talking to the community, guiding them ethical practices, teaching them methods to make them personally appreciate every steps, and making the traditional craft relatable to the youth through education and livelihood. To stay competitive internationally, Piña cloth can innovate by embracing sustainable practices, exploring new design concepts, and maintaining uncompromising quality standards to appeal to a discerning global audience.

 Her openness to her community’s unique tradition paved the way to people’s understanding to intricate world of piña. Sharing her knowledge through educational and academic collaboration to improve the process of piña with technological intervention, mechanization and set a techological standard. Raquel also fly out of her province to join trade fairs like the annual Likhang Habi Market Fair where she weave all year round her exquisite piña collection for Habi Fair and meet new clients or collaborate with designers.Raquel is active in participating in national and international exhibitions like the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travel Exhibition of National Museum of the Philippines and Office of Senator Legarda or the Asian Textile Symposium where she was introduced by HABI Council to her fellow weavers in Asia’s neighboring countries. She contributes in book publications like Garment of Honor, Garment of Identity by Alejo – Hila et al., 2008 published by EN Barong Filipino, Weaving Ways by Respicio-Ziazcita 2020 and Piña Futures By Dr. Randy Madrid 2021 published by Habi The Philippine Textile Council among others.  She was also featured and documentary film productions to echo her community’s voice as louder as she can like the Threaded Traditionas: Textiles of Panay Island Produced by HABI and Handmade In Asia: Philippine’s Piña produced by CBJ Production in Korea. Her tireless involvement is with hope and prayers that these documentation featuring piña would effectively and permanently pass down her indigenous knowledge and skills to every generations next to her.

After serving the weaving industry for decades, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts(NCCA) acknowledged her passion and hailed her as Cultural Master for Piña weaving. Though NCCA’s program SLT or School of Living Tradition, youth of the community get the opportunity to learn from cultural master about producing the fiber and weaving every weekend. Acknowledging her skills in weaving piña fiber, the Aklan State University and Philippine Fiber Industry(PhilFIDA) approached Mrs. Eliserio to train and help develop other weavers in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental and in Puerto Princessa, Palawan. But the pupils she’s the proudest are her children, Christian, Carlo, and Delara, who she says, “Piña weaving runs in their blood”. Her company Raquel’s Piña Cloth Products, by means of her hand woven piña fabrics aims to prove the unending tradition and culture of our generations and shows the timeless beauty of the queen of Philippine textiles, the Piña.

 Raquel’s Piña Cloth Products was officially organized in early 1989 as a private company. As Piña weaving runs in the family started from her ancestors, Mrs. Raquel was able to master their cultural heritage. She took gamble and sold her live stocks to set up a haeab-ean, a weaving area, in her home in Feliciano, a barrio of Balete town. Today, Raquel and her family, who are also are also skilled weavers, have more than a hundred looms and farms, leading her community of Piña artisans from farmers, scrapers, knotters, warpers, dyers, and weavers in the province of Aklan. Aside from her weaving center in her hometown in Balete, she was also able to organized a group of skilled weavers in her satellite weaving centers in neighboring towns like Kalibo and Tangalan. With her  mission is to provide livelihood to her fellow weavers in communities and inspire them to innovate high-end products, to continue the Aklanon cultural heritage and tradition.

Raquel's commitment to preserving and innovating the Piña weaving tradition has garnered accolades, including winning the Lourdes Montinola Piña Weaving Competition. Through her leadership, Raquel's Piña Cloth Products continues to honor the enduring tradition and timeless beauty of Piña textiles, while actively contributing to the local weaving community and positioning Piña cloth as one of the globally renowned intricately handwoven textiles of the Philippines.

And as part of her advocacy to support the local weaving community, her company is a proud member of HABI Philippine Textile Council and supplier of well-known woven textile companies of Barong Tagalog and Filipiniana. Through her commitment to help and nurture the weaving Industry, she was able to produce best and finely woven textiles that won the Lourdes Montinola Prize for Piña weaving competitions. Raquel bagged two Lourdes Piña weaving competitions from year 2019 and 2021, and major awards for other entries through the years. Her winning entries is a showcase of her years in her craft and practice high technical skills in weaving and intricate innovations that inspire more interests and development in the industry.

        Lourdes Montinola Piña Weaving Competition has propelled Raquel's growth as a weaver by providing a platform to showcase her skills, learn from fellow artisans, and push creative boundaries. This annual competition is a season for innovation of piña and discovery of Raquel’s deep-rooted skills which she finds inspiration from her cultural heritage, her  environment’s flora and fauna, the skilled weavers around her, stories of her ancestors, and the rich traditions of Piña weaving that have been passed down through her family’s generations.

“Her winning craft was piña-silk shawl. She exhibited the exquisite and classic look of Piña through the use of suksuk(supplementary weft) and renggue(cut-openwork), resulting in a magnificient ecru tissue. Eliserio displayed the highest, technical skill and fidelity in the Philippine weaving tradition.” -Daily Tribune on her winning piece from 2019