Higante maker and his ‘giant faith’

CEBU, Philippines — It was already past 10 p.m. but Arnie Enjambre and his two assistants had not eaten supper yet. Along a little but well-lit alley right smack in the heart of Barangay Luz, Cebu City, it was crunch time for the team.

Enjambre took a yellow wig, then dropped it on to the figure’s head.

“This is nearly done,” he told The FREEMAN in Cebuano.

At this time of the year, this has become a common sight among Enjambre’s neighbors and passersby: large sculptures of men and women clad in flamboyant costumes ready to hit the streets for the Sinulog.

But his affair with the higantes – towering effigies of famous personalities of the past and present – did not blossom overnight.

In his teenage years, Fiesta Señor, for Enjambre, only meant hanging out with friends in the streets.

His father, Arnulfo, had been persuading him to join the higante competition, a sidelight of the annual Sinulog Grand Parade, but the egging had fallen on deaf ears most of the time.

Still, year after year, Arnulfo persisted in convincing his son, until one day in 2008, his persistence paid off. The father finally hooked the son into the arduous work of making a person come to life in the form of giant statues.

Enjambre started off as his father’s assistant. That year, their two entries copped the first and second prizes.

In 2009, he again assisted his father in making their single entry. Unfortunately, it did not win.

They came back strong in 2010, bagging the second and third prizes.

The next year, Lady Luck was not on their side, but right after that, the father-and-son tandem regained the title after winning the top two spots in the category.

This would be followed by two years of drought.

Enjambre, in 2015, had to do the higantes all by himself as his father was asked by the city government to make the city’s float entry for the grand parade. Still guided by his father, he made a festival queen higante out of recyclable materials.

The entry earned him the first prize.

It was a bittersweet victory for Enjambre as it became the last time he and his father worked together for a higante.

One month shy into the next Sinulog, Arnulfo died of heat stroke.

“That was the time I had doubts if I could still make it without my father, especially that I have not fully gotten his skills in sculpture. People in our community have been requesting me to join to continue the legacy of my father,” Enjambre said.

But amid all the doubts and hesitations, the words of his father tolled like bells inside Enjambre’s mind: whatever happens, entrust everything to the Santo Niño.

“Indeed, my faith to Sto. Niño gave me strength to join the competition even without the physical guidance of my father,” he said.

Process

Excluding conceptualization, it normally takes over three weeks to make a higante.

Once a concept has been decided, the first phase in the process begins, which is the sculpturing, an art Enjambre said his father really excelled in.

“My father was a classic artist. He can really make a perfect sculpture of a human. I am still studying his techniques until now,” he said.

As part of the initial stages, the head and face of the higante are formed using Styrofoam and paper mache to make them durable.

The second stage involves covering the framing of the body of the higante. Here, Enjambre uses strips of bamboo for the frame to make its weight as light as possible.

Finally, the last stage is dressing up of the higante with different kinds of cloth fit the character.

Enjambre decided to join with three entries in 2016 with the help of the people who used to be his father’s “sidekicks.”

His two entries emerged as second and third prize winners.

Last year, Enjambre once again proudly paraded his creations on the Sinulog stage, and he won first and third prizes.

Relevance is Key

This Sunday, spectators at the Cebu City Sports Center can expect three giant creations from Enjambre, with themes that, according to him, revolve around the Fiesta Señor.

He calls them “Birth of Christianity,” “Devotee,” and “Padre Pedro Valderama.”

“I would always remember the advice of my father to make my entries of the higante category more relevant to Sinulog or the Fiesta Señor,” he said.

And rightly so. Afterall, if not for his father, Enjambre, who is still single, would have still continued going around the city grand parade after grand parade just to have fun.

Looking back, the 39-year-old science major graduate could not believe that away from the tutelage of his beloved father, he could actually make a name for himself.

And for him, this was not only the workings of his father’s soul, but of Santo Niño as well.

“Making higantes is not just for a show off during parade but also showing our devotion to Santo Niño who has been my inspiration and strength when my father died,” he said.

“There was never a time that I wanted to give up but there were doubts when my father died. When you see the smiles of the people along the parade stretch, you can feel the satisfaction and fulfillment that people loved your work,” he added.

Now, he is living up to the promise left by his father — to make a higante every year as a testament of a faith that, like his works, towers to the sky and dwarfs all his doubts. —/JMD (FREEMAN)