by Rose Cruz Churma
The Manila We Knew and Care books with different genres but with similar intent—to inspire the reader to re-discover and appreciate the historical and cultural attractions of Manila, as well as its unique shopping destinations and its rare nature-themed habitats.
As the school year ends and summer vacation beckons, a lot of families will consider returning to the homeland, with Manila as its first port of entry.
Manila is plagued by calamities— from its crazy traffic, unkempt historical monuments and ugly billboards—such that most leave the metropolis to escape to the provinces. But Manila has its hidden treasures which these two books describe with affection.
The Manila We Knew is an anthology of essays edited by Erlinda Enriquez Panlilio with original art by Manuel D. Baldemor.
This book is a collaborative effort and a product of a long-running writing workshop led by Dr. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, former director of the Creative Writing Institute at the University of the Philippines.
This anthology is primarily a “nostalgia book” since it contains the memories of the writers as they remembered what it was to live in Manila from the 30s to the 70s.
As noted by one of the authors:
“With this retelling, we are passing on to our children and to generations to come our memories—both mental and emotional…This is not merely nostalgia, after all. It is preserving the past and conserving it for future readers and researchers on what Manila was like, once upon a time.”
Street-Bound: Manila on Foot, written by Josefina P. Manahan, is a guide to touring Manila on foot!
At its face value, it seems like an odd book for a country whose people don’t like to do walking tours.
Whether it is due to the lack of sidewalks, or vehicles clogging walkways and side yards, the unbearable heat and humidity, to the lack of consideration for pedestrians—Manila is not a “walkable” city.
But the only way to appreciate the city—its history and culture—is to visit notable locations on foot.
In this book, “Block by block, the city comes alive, revealing delightful surprises, unexpected treasures” writes Christine Pantoja Hidalgo in the book’s back cover.
The guide categorized the tours into four: nature, historical, cultural and shopping.
There are 22 tours described in this book and are not confined to the original city of Manila but include the outlying areas of the metropolis such as the UP Diliman campus and the shopping mecca of Greenhills to the Ayala Museum in Makati.
One of the tours described is that of the area around San Sebastian Church and the adjoining R. Hidalgo and San Sebastian Streets.
R. Hidalgo was the premier residential area from the 19th century to the early 20th century.
During its heyday, it must have the ambiance of an elegant European residential boulevard, where the street was flanked by stately mansions. The guide describes the architectural features of the buildings.
Unfortunately, there are no photos that accompany the guides—but it does provide the impetus for one to visit the place.
To fully appreciate the selections in this guidebook, I read it in tandem with some of the selections in the anthology The Manila We Knew.
In the narrative “In Search of a Memory” by Josefina Pedrosa Manahan, she writes about R. Hidalgo Street, where her older sister’s piano teacher lived.
One day in January, they were invited to watch the procession of the Señor of Quiapo.
“I looked down on the street and saw the statue of Christ borne on what looked like a huge, black and brown serpent snaking down the street,” she writes of actually seeing masses of men bare to the waist participating in an all-male ritual that had its roots in the Philippines’ ancient past, an animist rite transformed into the cult of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo.
Another narrative is “UP Beloved” by Erlinda Enriquez Panlilio who recalled her first days at the UP Diliman campus soon after graduating from an all-girls Catholic school of Saint Theresa’s College run by Belgian nuns to the “atheistic” state university her father favored (since he was an alumnus).
This recollection can be paired with the last tour guide in the Street Bound book titled “The University of the Philippines.”
Six hundred hectares were set aside for the campus during Manuel Quezon’s term during the Commonwealth period, and two buildings were constructed before World War II—the College of Education and College of Law. It would be in 1949 when the campus’s full transfer was implemented.
One pairing that provides the most contrast to what was then, versus the present is the narrative of Laling H. Lim titled “At the Edge of Manila” as she recalls those days in the 1930s when the Malate-Ermita district consisted of elegant homes and lovely gardens, known for its unhurried, gentle lifestyle.
This is paired with the walking tour of A. Mabini Street, which was known as La Calle Real during the Spanish colonial era. The principal street in Ermita-Malate now renamed A. Mabini Street.
A. Mabini Street is currently home to the Hobbit House, a landmark where the waiters are dwarves, and is home to many famous and soon-to-be-famous musicians.
There’s also Tesoro’s, a handicraft emporium, one of many handicraft and art boutiques that line the street. Gone are the mansions and gardens, to be replaced by commercial establishments and “well on its way to becoming a little better than a slum” until a renewal program was initiated by the residents and property owners.
With the anecdotes provided by the authors of The Manila We Knew and the practical descriptions of how to get to these places in the walking tour book, the two books work hand-in-hand—a must for those revisiting Metro-Manila who are curious, adventurous, and healthy—willing to discover unexpected surprises that linger and new memories to treasure.
ROSE CRUZ CHURMA established Kalamansi Books & Things three decades ago. It has evolved from a mail-order bookstore into an online advocacy with the intent of helping global Pinoys discover their heritage by promoting books of value from the Philippines and those written by Filipinos in the Diaspora. We can be reached at kalamansibooks@gmail.com.
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