For Pinoy Basques, seats at the table

MANY Philippine towns have their Basque stories, not on the scale of the empire-building Zobel de Ayalas but significant enough to be part of a town's lore and history. Lubao, my hometown, has one. If it were not for the fact that Lubao has turned out two presidents for the Republic, a rare feat for a town, the story of how a 17-year-old fresh-off-the-boat Basque named Valentin Arrastia landed in my town and became one of the biggest and most innovative sugar planters of the province in the early 20th century would probably loom very large in the town's chronicles.

Valentin Arrastia's involvement in sugar is quite familiar; Basques have been largely credited for developing the then nascent sugar industry in the Philippines. And in the old sugar towns, you would most likely find traces of Basque influence.