CEBUANO is an invention. We don't know what the inhabitants of this island called themselves in pre-colonial times (they did not then constitute a single, self-conscious community). The word itself descends from an error when Sugbo (the name of the island's main port) was misspoken and mistranscribed by the Spaniards as Cebu.

Ambiguous origins, however, do not erase the fact that, through history, the Cebuano (or Sugboanon, if you will) has invented himself as a community. Such invention involves the marking of difference, of qualities that make the Cebuano distinct from other groups in the country.

The ethos of Cebuano enterprise is said to be one such quality.

What defines the Cebuano as entrepreneur?

Geography and history are the large answers. Cebu's character has been shaped by its maritime location in the heart of the archipelago, straddling trade routes that connected islands and these islands to distant ports in Asia and, by the sixteenth century, Europe. A moderately-sized island dominated by a jagged, saw-toothed mountain range, it is not well-endowed for agriculture. Slightly less that 30 percent of the islands is suited to agriculture. It is relatively dry, and its soil derives from porous limestone materials.

For these reasons, Cebu has always been turned towards the sea, and what lies beyond it. It was as a trade center that the port of Cebu (Cebu City) already had a wide reputation before the Spanish coming. In pre-colonial Cebu, foreign vessels registered, paid harbor fees, and loaded such merchandises as pearls, coral, gold, and forest products, in exchange for goods like Chinese jars and cotton blankets. Much of this trade consisted of goods that did not originate in Cebu, showing that Cebu was less a producer than an agent of goods from an economic hinterland extending beyond the island itself.

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