Remontado People
Definition
The Remontado people are an indigenous ethnolinguistic group living in the Sierra Madre foothills of Rizal and Quezon provinces in Luzon, Philippines, principally in Tanay, General Nakar, and Infanta. Their name comes from the Spanish “remontado,” meaning one who has retreated back to the mountains, describing Tagalog-speaking lowlanders who fled Spanish colonial control into the uplands. They speak Hatang Kayi, also called Sinauna or Remontado Dumagat, an endangered language closely related to Tagalog.
Identities
| Source Type | Identity |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Hatang Kayi language |
| Wikidata | Q3508085 |
| DBpedia | N/A |
Also Known As
Remontado Dumagat; Sinauna; Hatang Kayi people
Examples and Analogies
Like the maroon communities of the Caribbean or the cimarrones of Latin America, the Remontados are a refuge population: rather than a distinct ethnicity forged over millennia, they trace their identity to ancestors who voted with their feet and withdrew beyond colonial reach, keeping an older form of the lowland tongue alive in isolation.
Usage Scenarios
Linguists document Hatang Kayi as a valuable data point for the history of Tagalog; anthropologists study the group’s adaptation to the Tanay-Infanta corridor; and government agencies consult Remontado communities in ancestral domain and watershed planning for the Sierra Madre.
Strategies
Cultural mapping with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, mother-tongue recording projects with elders, and community-managed ecotourism along the Daraitan-Tinipak corridor are the main strategies used to sustain Remontado identity and livelihood.
Security and Safety Measures
Ancestral domain claims fall under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Republic Act No. 8371), so development projects in Tanay and General Nakar require free, prior, and informed consent; visitors to upland barangays should coordinate with community leaders and local guides.
Historical Context
During the Spanish period, remontado communities repeatedly fled the “reduccion” policy of concentrating natives into town centers, settling the rugged headwaters of the Agos river system by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. American-era ethnographers later classified them alongside the Dumagat of the eastern Sierra Madre, and twentieth-century road building gradually reconnected their villages to lowland markets.
Challenges and Controversies
The Kaliwa Dam project under the New Centennial Water Source Program threatens to inundate portions of General Nakar traditionally used by Remontado and Dumagat communities, a controversy that pits Metro Manila’s water security against indigenous livelihoods. Hatang Kayi is severely endangered, spoken by a small and aging population of a few thousand at most.
Related Topic
Dumagat