Maria Cacao
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Maria Cacao is the ''
diwata ''Anito'', also spelled ''anitu'', refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the Indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associ ...
'' or mountain goddess associated with Mount Lantoy in Argao, Cebu,
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. The Maria Cacao legend is a prominent example of the mountain goddess motif in Philippine mythology; other prominent examples being
Maria Makiling Maria Makiling, more properly Mariang Makiling, is a '' diwata'' in Philippine mythology, associated with Mount Makiling in Laguna, Philippines. She is the most widely known ''diwatà'' or ''lambana (fairy)'' in Philippine mythology and was v ...
of Los Baños and Maria Sinukuan of
Mount Arayat Mount Arayat is an isolated, potentially active stratovolcano in the Central Luzon plains. Located within the vast agricultural lands of Pampanga, it rises to a height of above sea level. Its southern half lies within the municipality of A ...
.


Origin

The original name of Maria Cacao is unknown as it was not recorded before the Spanish changed her name in a bid to convert the natives to Catholicism. It is widely assumed her name is not indigenous as "cacao" is an imported term that came from Latin America when the Spanish arrived. Additionally, the term "Maria" was added by the Spanish to turn her Catholic in a bid to widen Spanish rule in southern Cebu. Like with Makiling and Sinukuan, it is assumed that Maria Cacao's mythology was present prior to Spanish arrival with minor differences.


Legend

The basic form of the Maria Cacao legend is that whenever rains flood the river that comes from Mount Lantoy, or a bridge is broken, this is a sign that Maria Cacao and her husband Mangao have either traveled down the river in their golden ship so that they can export their crops or traveled up the river on their way back.Argao: A Portrait of a Town
She is supposed to live inside a cave in the mountain and the cacao plants outside it are supposed to be her plantation.Maria Cacao: Ang Diwata ng Cebu (Maria Cacao: The Fairy of Cebu) Rene O. Villanueva


Contemporary variants of the Maria Cacao legend

One contemporary evolution of the legend is its merger with another common Filipino mythological motif – that of soul-harvesting boats. The new stories suggest that borrowers who fail to pay their loans to the goddess would soon find themselves facing dire consequences, as Maria Cacao's boat comes to take their souls to the next world.Michael Tan. Maria Cacao. 15 April 2016. http://opinion.inquirer.net/94297/maria-cacao accessed 15 April 2016 A very specific variant of this new element of the myth was reported in
Cagayan de Oro Cagayan de Oro (abbreviated CDO and officially the City of Cagayan de Oro; ; Bukid language, Binukid: ''Ciudad ta Cagayan de Oro''; ; ) is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Regions of the Philippi ...
in the aftermath of Typhoon Sendong (Tropical Storm Washi) when there were reported sightings of a boat with a woman at the helm traveling along the river and offering to pick up passengers. These rumors were accompanied by a warning not to accept invitations to board the boat because the woman was supposedly Maria Cacao "collecting souls for the next world." In his regular newspaper column, anthropologist Michael Tan noted that this " soul harvester" function wasn't part of the prototypical myth and associated the evolution of the myth with the social need to invent stories as a means of coping with disaster, creating a context for the sense of despair and, to some degree, offering a scapegoat for the situation. It is also possible that the legend might have been influenced by Maguayen, the Visayan goddess of the sea and death, as both share some elements (i.e. being aboard a water vessel, being female goddesses who bless people with bounty


Interpretations and cultural significance

While the story is obviously mythical in nature and a colonial invention, it is cited as evidence of how long the production of ''tableya'' has been going on in the area. ''Tableya'' is Cebuano (from Spanish ''tablilla'') for round, unsweetened
chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...
tablets made from
cacao bean The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao trees ...
s. It is a crucial ingredient in the Filipino delicacies '' sikwate'' (hot chocolate) and champorado.


References

{{authority control Mountain goddesses Tagalog goddesses Tutelary deities