People of Roxas

The residents of Roxas City are peace-loving, hospitable and God-loving people. The city houses many churches and denominations, and during weekends, these houses of worship are fully packed.

Population Statistics

In the 2000 NSO Census of Population, Roxas City registered a total population of 126,352 resident and a household population of 125,901. It had a total 25,126 household with an average household size of 5.03 persons per household. The City’s gross density in 2000 was 1,239 persons per square kilometer.

The people of Capiz Province predominantly belong to the brown race. Initially,    they were a blend of the indigene, the Negrito, the Indonesian and the Malay, but later the Arab, Chinese, Spanish, American and other races modified the blend. Before the Spaniards arrived in Capiz in 1565, the province was called Ilaya because it was the hinterland of what is now the Aklan Province. In short, in precolonial times, Capiz was part of Aklan (and not the other way around, as many believe) and its people were called Ilayanhon or Ilayanon.A colonial legacy, the mix-up started with the way the colonial rulers (the Spaniards in 1693; the Americans in 1901) dealt with the names of Capis (Ca-PIS: accent on the second syllable), the town renamed Roxas City on April 11, 1951, and Capiz (CA-piz), the old province which under the Spanish regime included what is now Aklan.[1]

Before 1693, the year Fr. Agustin Estrada set up the CaPIS section[2] of the town of Pan-ay (Panay), there was no confusion about people’s names in the province. The inhabitants of Capis were called Capisnon (Ca-pis-NON). 

The name Capiceños entered the cultural world of the Capisnon, Pan-ayanon, Daonhon, Panit-anon and other groups in what is now the Capiz Province after the Spaniards reorganized Panay island in 1703[3] with three component provinces, namely, Iloilo, Antique and Capiz (which included Aklan).

To avoid confusion in 1703, the Spaniards called the people of Capiz ProvinceCapiceños. But it had been the practice of the natives of every barangay[4](village) in the province to identify themselves with the place where they were living; and to signify that they were from that place, they would attach the suffix “non” (meaning “of” or “from”) to the place name. Thus the natives of Pan-ay called themselves Pan-ayanon; and for the natives  of Capis, their name was CapisNON. Even though the Spaniards kept on calling all the people of the province Capiceños, the folks in all towns, influenced by the traditional practice, called themselves Capisnon (Ca-PIS-non), not Ca-PIZ-non since they had difficulty in articulating the “z”. They said CapisNON when they referred to the residents of CaPIS town; and as natives of Capiz province, they called themselves CaPISnon.While the elite adopted “Capiceños” as their provincial name, the masses in the various towns continued calling themselves CaPISnon even if they were aware that the name of the natives of Capis which was CapisNON was different from the provincial name only by a matter of accent.

After World War 11, especially from the 1960s until the start of the 21^st century, the local broadcast media – radio and cable TV – used CaPISnon, CapisNON, CaPIZnon, CapizNON, Capiceños and Capizeños interchangeably. In print media, “Capisnon” was also spelled “Capiznon.”