Euro Filipino Journal: Cribs

Exploring "Millionaire's Row" in Bacolod City

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQrPSU_iEiErRu5F1tvPE1wRq6S8QxcNn3GkjFDqldA4f7UBG0iA0w6Jl3m8BdHcGgnQeCW_P5txNW1N8vbtJlSKJqJhJgM6EOHBNsTdUGHQKNl9vbD2fIk7JpuAungyjslRfrqjRkZo/s1600/villanueva04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindVgVgK_47vumbw_LEZiOom2-u-wZY62agxNlOiuvKMXeWA_lqgBxRPoduskk0VY6eGG-ihMx5hSrSYCDEmny3BH8aGErAOS4K3JNRzdC8zp0WDPCElCVsNgTlcnRTSCJstt0YIHiMhQ/s1600/bighouse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindVgVgK_47vumbw_LEZiOom2-u-wZY62agxNlOiuvKMXeWA_lqgBxRPoduskk0VY6eGG-ihMx5hSrSYCDEmny3BH8aGErAOS4K3JNRzdC8zp0WDPCElCVsNgTlcnRTSCJstt0YIHiMhQ/s1600/bighouse.jpg" width="320" /></a> Heritage conservation advocates are 
totally aghast at the ongoing demolition of the Carlos Palanca mansion 
in Pasay.  This comes just a few months after the Army and Navy Club and
 the Admiral Hotel fell prey to the wreckers of Manila's historic 
architectural icons.  To those who remember the wonderful edifices of 
Manila's glorious past, the current spate of demolitions are really a 
nightmare. 
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQrPSU_iEiErRu5F1tvPE1wRq6S8QxcNn3GkjFDqldA4f7UBG0iA0w6Jl3m8BdHcGgnQeCW_P5txNW1N8vbtJlSKJqJhJgM6EOHBNsTdUGHQKNl9vbD2fIk7JpuAungyjslRfrqjRkZo/s1600/villanueva04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQrPSU_iEiErRu5F1tvPE1wRq6S8QxcNn3GkjFDqldA4f7UBG0iA0w6Jl3m8BdHcGgnQeCW_P5txNW1N8vbtJlSKJqJhJgM6EOHBNsTdUGHQKNl9vbD2fIk7JpuAungyjslRfrqjRkZo/s1600/villanueva04.jpg" width="320" /></a> 
One cannot say the same though of 
Bacolod City, the premier city in the Philippines' Sugar Bowl.  This 
summer of 2015, tourists from Metro Manila and all over the country will
 visit Negros Island, the Sweet Spot of the Philippines and have a 
glimpse of Bacolod's fabled glory days.  This is due to the 
revitalization of a small strip of houses known back in the 1930s as 
"Millionaire's Row". 
 
For those who arrive in Bacolod City and
 follow what is usually written on travel books and blogs, the usual 
stops are the Negros Museum, the Provincial Capitol of Negros 
Occidental, and the Ruins (Mariano Lacson Mansion) which is technically 
located in the next city of Talisay. 
 
What is often missed in Bacolod is a 
street which was once known as Millionaire's Row.  This street is hardly
 publicized because most tour guides can only reach back to Bacolod's 
glory days of the 1960s and the 1970s.  The importance of this street 
goes back to the pre-war decade of the 1930s. 
 
 
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It was back in the 1930s when Generoso 
M. Villanueva, a prominent sugar planter, and his wife Paz, built the 
first art deco  structure in Bacolod City. Designed solely by the owner,
 the three-story, poured-concrete steel reinforced building with 
graceful curved balconies, parapets, and porthole steel-cased windows 
looks like the Titanic on land. It was known among the locals as the 
Boat House. Among family, though, it was simply called Daku Balay (the 
big house). 
 
On the same street, another similar daku
 balay (big house) also shows the glorious past of Negros and Bacolod 
City.  This is the house of <a href="http://www.sweetspotphilippines.com/2015/03/a-visit-to-don-mariano-ramos-ancestral.html" target="_blank">Don Mariano Ramos</a>. 
 
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Mariano Ramos was among the first 
Presidente Municipals appointed in Bacolod City.  At that time, Bacolod 
was not yet chartered as a city and thus did not have any mayor yet.  
Mariano Ramos was a former classmate of Manuel L. Quezon in Letran and 
the late president did stop by this house often during his many trips to
 Negros Island. 
 
Between the two mansions mentioned are 
other houses which are resplendent of Bacolod's decadent pre-war past.  
It is of little wonder then that during the Japanese occupation in World
 War 2, the head of the Japanese Imperial Army, headed by General 
Takeshi Kono, took over the houses in Millionaire's Row as these two 
houses had the tallest miradors (viewing towers) to observe the city 
from all directions. 
 
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The Japanese Imperial Army commanded all forces occupying Negros from Millionaire's Row until the surrender in August 1945.</div>
 
The street known as Millionaire's Row is
 commonly known today as Burgos Street.  In the same manner that one 
visits Lombard Street (the most crooked street in the world) in San 
Francisco, or the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, or Las Ramblas in 
Barcelona, one should not miss Burgos Street when in Bacolod City. 
 
All mansions can be viewed from the 
street as these are all still closed to the public, except one which is 
the currently run as a museum, the Dizon-Ramos Museum. 
 
 
 
 Photo credits to Voltaire Siacor (Villanueva Art Deco House) and Lloyd Tronco (Mariano Ramos House)
 
 
 
 
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Heritage conservation advocates are totally aghast at the ongoing demolition of the Carlos Palanca mansion in Pasay. This comes just a ...

A piece of England forever Philippine

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— by Gene Alcantara There is a bit of London that will forever be Philippine.  It is a house on 37 Chalcot Crescent NW1, on Primrose Hill, just off Regents Park, owned many many years ago by the Beckett family.  One can approach it from two tube stations, southward from Chalk Farm or westward from Camden Town.  If one happens to be visiting the London Zoological Gardens, it will just be about 10 minutes walk across the road in a northerly direction. The three-storey, white painted house with spear-like metal fencing in black, is easy to spot in the rows of identical terrace houses on the crescent.  For it is the only one with a blue circular plaque to the left of the black front door saying that Dr Jose Rizal, Filipino hero, lived there in 1888-1889.  The way though that the house has become for all intents and purposes a pilgrimage site for Filipinos visiting the British isles, one would think Rizal lived there for a long long time. I suppose he did not have to live there for very long.  For whatever period of time he spent in that house had been absolutely productive for both the birth of the Philippine Republic, and the pride of Filipinos nowadays not just as a nation of heroes, but as one with a rich cultural heritage.  The house was of course Rizal’s base when he came to England for scholarly pursuits.  It is important because under its roof he undoubtedly contemplated the state of his country and what he was going to do to bring about a better future. While he was a boarder in the house, Rizal worked on three major literary undertakings–his annotations of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, his philological studies with a view to producing a Philippine dictionary and grammar book, and most importantly his sequel to Noli Me Tangere.  During this time he was prolific in political writing as well as correspondence with family and friends.  Rizal was supposed to have done some sculptures during this period too although I have never set eyes on any of them at all. Chalcot Crescent is located fairly centrally and is a stone’s throw away from the residence on Elsworthy Terrace of his good friend, Dr Reinhold Rost, librarian of the India Office Library and who gave him access to Morga’s book.  Across the park, the British Library would probably have been a good hour’s walk away.  The major sites of attraction of London would have been also mere walking distance from where he was staying. It is a pleasant surprise therefore to find that Rizal had also actually traipsed from there to London’s more distant but less affluent East End to continue his work with Filipinos.  He apparently set up a Filipino young men’s club in the Dalton area near Hackney to ensure that his kababayans of that time were always conscious of national issues.  Rizal should probably also be given the title of ‘Father of Filipino Community Organizations in Britain’.  A lot of Filipinos nowadays own houses in London’s East End where prices are generally cheaper, but I do not think many of them realize that the hero was active in their community a hundred years ago. I wish I had a copy of the second volume (1888-onwards) of Epistolario Rizalino which the Biblioteca Nacional de Filipinas published in 1930.  It ought to have details of Rizal’s community organization work in London.  It would be fascinating to see which Filipinos were here then, what they did, what they talked about and possibly where they met regularly.  Maybe the Filipino community can discover another historical site in London.  But this time, maybe the government or some rich Filipino benefactor could purchase the property and turn it into a Philippine center or museum. The Filipino community continually seeks role models for their children born or growing up in Britain.  The Philippines however is strangely bereft of credible modern heroes who could be turned into icons of role model proportions, and whatever Filipino breakthroughs are made to date in Britain relate usually to the theatrical stage.  So looking back to the heroes of a century ago, with their imperfections and individual tragedies, is a safer bet.  For theirs at least are monumental achievements with which it is less difficult to identify.  However, one cannot simply identify with these heroes in scholarly books or in newspaper articles.  What they need is a place to go to where they could see visually what these heroes looked like and what sort of things they did when they were here for the country.  One solution is to have a house devoted to Filipino heroes who lived in London. The Chalcot Crescent house is apparently owned by an American lawyer who rents out the property to visiting Americans.  Apart from the Philippine Ambassador, his wife and embassy staff and the Knights of Rizal  who every June 19 pay tribute to Rizal with a floral offering at the house, I know of nobody else who was ever let into the house to feast his or her eyes upon whatever historical artefact remains inside, particularly the two rooms Rizal occupied as bedroom and receiving room.  This is a tragedy for the Filipino community, and a shame indeed for the Filipino nation.  How could the nation allow such a historically valuable property slip through its hands?  Its non-Filipino tenants probably cannot even begin to appreciate how much this landmark means for Filipinos around the world. This property (and the Dalton one, if it ever gets discovered) ought to become more than just a site to pose at for souvenir photographs.  I would like to see it as a testament to Anglo-Filipino relations, to the ties that bind both countries to each other in the spirit of friendship, trade, cultural and even political cooperation.  That is my fervent hope for Filipinos in Britain who have long been in need of an enduring place to meet with pride.  A place where people can bring their families and friends.   A place which can showcase the best of Filipinos, old and even new.  A piece of England forever Philippine. 
[2003, London] 
 
Photo credited to Mr. Ronaldo Samson Adoptante
 
 
 
 
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— by Gene Alcantara There is a bit of London that will forever be Philippine. It is a house on 37 Chalcot Crescent NW1, on Primrose Hill,...

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Exploring "Millionaire's Row" in Bacolod City

A piece of England forever Philippine

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