april – Morrighan's Muse

T is for Tobacco

Published on April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 by MorrighansMuse4 Comments

If you happen to have many colonies under your control, it can be quite an expensive habit to maintain. And when it came to the Philippines, it proved to be a drain on Spain’s treasury. Expenses incurred in the colony were usually paid via an annual subsidy sent from Mexico, another of Spain’s colonies.

But with each year’s maintenance proving to be more expensive than the year before, the Spanish government had to come up with a plan. So Francisco Leandro de Vianna, royal fiscal in Manila, came up with a tobacco monopoly.

Tobacco was already widely consumed by both the Spaniards and the indios, as well as foreigners in Manila, and though it would take some time before King Carlos III would issue a royal decree to set the plan in motion (when later on, Governor General Basco claimed that such a monopoly would make the colony self-sufficient), when he did, the tobacco monopoly was born on February 9, 1780.

By this decree a monopoly was created which remained in operation for a hundred years. This monopoly strictly supervised the growing and grading of the leaf and had factories in Manila for the manufacture of cigars, cigarettes and smoking tobacco . In the field the chief appraiser residing at the provincial capital had a force of subordinates known as “alumnos aforadores”. These were in charge of districts composed of municipalities and in each municipality there was a “caudilo” (headman) who was also the “gobernadorcillo” (little governor) who by the aid of his ” tenientes ” (lieutenants or overseers), supervised the growing of tobacco being remunerated for this service by a percentage of the crop produced.

via Tobacco Monopoly – Wikipilipinas: The Hip ‘n Free Philippine Encyclopedia.

Though slavery did not exist in the Philippine islands under Spanish rule (there could have been exceptions, of course), this did not prevent the mistreatment of tobacco workers. And of course, a lot of bribery and harassment, from the tobacco fields all the way to the cigar factories in Manila.

“Tobacco is an important crop in the Philippines, and from the year 1781 was cultivated in Cagayan as a government monopoly. In the villages of that province the people were called out by beat of drum and marched to the fields under the gobernadorcillo and principales, who were responsible for the careful ploughing, planting, weeding, and tending, the work being overlooked by Spanish officials. Premiums were paid to these and to the gobernadorcillos, and fines or floggings were administered in default. The native officials carried canes, which they freely applied to those who shirked their work.

“…I have referred to the series of abuses committed under the monopoly: how the wretched cultivators had to bribe the officials in charge of the scales to allow them the true weight, and the one who classified the leaves, so that he should not reject them as rubbish and order them to be destroyed; in fact, they had to tip every official in whose power it was to do them any injustice. Finally, they received orders on the treasury for the value of their tobacco, which were not paid for months, or, perhaps, for years. They sometimes had to sell their orders for 50 percent of the face value, or even less.

However, even the Spanish official conscience can be aroused, and at the end of 1882 the monopoly was abolished.

Here it is only right to honourably mention a Spanish gentleman to whom the natives of the Cagayan Valley in a great measure owe their freedom. Don Jose Jimenez Agius was Intendente General de Hacienda, and he laboured for years to bring about this reform, impressed with the cruelty and injustice of this worst form of slavery. The Cagayanes were prohibited from growing rice, but were allowed as an indulgence to plant a row or two of maize around their carefully tilled tobacco-fields.

Possibly this circumstance has led the author of the circular I have before quoted to make the extraordinary statement: “Tobacco, as a cultivated crop, is generally grown in the same field as maize.” Does he think it grows wild anywhere?

via The Inhabitants of the Philippines, by John Foreman, 1910

The tobacco monopoly was abolished in June 1881, at around the same time when Filipinos were thirsting for independence from Spanish rule. Smoking is believed to have helped fuel the fight for independence. According to historical documents, among the expenses by the First Philippine Republic in the late 1890’s were cigarillos distributed to the soldiers of the budding “Philippine Army.”

Compaña General de Tabacos de Filipinas, better known as Tabacalera today, was founded in 1881, just before the abolition of the monopoly took effect the following year. It was founded by the Marquis of Comillas, Antonio Lopez y Lopez.

But before I conclude my post for letter “T” in the A to Z challenge, here’s one more little tidbit about tobacco in the islands.

Filipinos, it turns out, smoked like it was going out of style. In those days, even children as young as 2 or 3 years old smoked these huge cigars. And they were H-U-G-E. When I started this blog, one of my first posts was on a newspaper article about an “embarrassing use of an instrument of hospitality.”

It was not unusual to have a “family cigar” hanging on a string from the ceiling and this would be lit and passed around from one family member to another, then to you, their lucky guest. You, as the guest, would be offending the host if you said, “no, thank you.”

Here are a few pictures from Old Manila for your ~~smoking~~ viewing pleasure.

Smoking the Family Cigar in Northern Philippines

Blogging A to Z Challenge

H is for Harana, the Filipino Serenade

Published on April 7, 2014April 8, 2014 by MorrighansMuse8 Comments

During colonial times, when a Filipino man wanted to court a woman, he would get his friends together and armed with a gitara, serenade his beloved in an act called harana. His repertoire would include love songs derived from the Spanish tango or habanera, though the tempo would be much slower.

According to Florante.org, a harana was a formal event that involved quite a few steps.

First was be the Panawagan or the Calling or Announcement. This announced the man’s presence outside of the house, using specific songs such as Dungawin Mo Sana (If You’d Look Out the Window) or Sa Gitna Nang Dilim (In the Midst of Darkness).

The second step was the Pagtatapat or Proposal. In this step, if the suitor is invited into the home, he states his admiration for the woman and extolls her virtues with more songs like Ibig Kong Magtapat Sa Iyo, Paraluman (I Wish To Propose To You, My Muse) or Lihim nang Pag-Ibig (My Secret Love).

The response in the girl’s part was the Panagutan. She could answer with a yes, she reciprocates the man’s attentions, or a a tactful “I’m not ready…” Her response could be in the form of a song, too. And should the answer be the tactful no, then the man sings songs that often would reflect their disappointment or, based on the songs available, their broken hearts.

The final step was the Paalam, which served as their farewell song, regardless of the girl’s answer. The songs chosen here would sound more like folk songs with a 4/4 tempo, such as Winawakasan Ko (I Hereby End it) or Bakit Di Kita Maiiwasan (Why Do I Find It Hard To Leave You?).

I was visiting my friend’s home town when I experienced my first, and only, harana. If I’d known then that there was some kind of rhyme and reason to the harana, I’d have paid more attention. Instead, I think I was giggling more than anything, and I had no clue what to say after it was over except thank you between sneezes (I was in the midst if a major allergy attack then). I remember the awkwardness of the following day – he was the next door neighbor – and I was really only visiting for a few days.

But it did not matter anyway. I learned this a few years later, but it turned out that my host paid the next-door neighbor to serenade me, the clueless city girl, to make my experience in the barrio more ‘enriching’, so to speak. It was just a paid gig, nothing more.

But that night, as he and his friends sang three or four songs just below my window, it was my first – and only – harana.

"Harana" - Painting by Neil Campos — “Harana” – Painting by Neil Campos

Blogging A to Z Challenge

G is for the Galleon Trade

Published on April 7, 2014April 14, 2014 by MorrighansMuse1 Comment

Picture if you will, a four-deck, 100-gun, 2,500-ton vessel crossing the Pacific loaded with treasure and not making landfall for six months. Picture it as short and broad—with high fore and stern castles—carrying so much silver and gold, it draws 40 feet of water while skirting coral reefs 30 feet deep. It’s no wonder that close to 100 of them sank from 1570 to 1815, leaving a trail of treasure across the globe, while enhancing the image of adventure on the high seas aboard the MANILA GALLEONS. – See more at: http://www.numa.net/2012/07/the-manila-galleons-treasures-for-the-queen-of-the-orient/#sthash.6RhutZwd.dpuf

– Via The Manila Galleons: Treasures for the “Queen of the Orient”

Before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines in the 16th century, Manila already had trade relations between China, Japan, India, Siam, Cambodia, Borneo and the Moluccas. After the Spaniards claimed the Philippine islands for the the crown, it soon became a highly profitable port as Spain maintained trade relations with the same countries.

When Andres de Urdaneta discovered a return trade route from the Acapulco-New Spain (present-day Mexico) which avoided the much-feared trade winds, the Galleon Trade was born. The Spaniards brought silver from Mexico, which was then used to purchase Asian goods such as silk from China, spices from the Moluccas, lacquer ware from Japan and Philippine cotton textiles. It is estimated that as much as one-third of the silver mined in New Spain and Peru went to the Far East.

The annual voyage generally began in July, and involved transporting between 500 and 1,500 tons of silver between Acapulco and Manila. The transpacific voyage lasted on average about five months from the Philippines to Mexico and four months from Mexico to the Philippines. There is a good possibility one or more of the Spanish galleons made contact with the Hawaiian Islands during the 16th and/or 17th centuries long before the English explorer Captain James Cook “discovered” them in 1778.

In the Philippine archipelago, the galleons had to avoid Chinese, Japanese and Malayan pirates, as well as the Dutch and English pirates that waited for them in the open waters. In the early 1600s, the Dutch attempted to take this valuable transpacific route away from the Spanish, but were unsuccessful.

via Exploration and Colonization « TranspacificProject.com.

According to Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, in their article, “Born with a Silver Spoon”: The Origin of World Trade in 1571,” Journal of World History 6 (1995):201, “Manila had no other purpose other than the trade in silver and silk…The Pacific route of silver to China was Spain’s only avenue for entry into the lucrative Asian marketplace because the trade out of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was controlled first by the Portugues and later by the Dutch. Spain’s Manila galleons initiated the birth of Pacific rim trade more than 420 years ago.”

Eventually Spain would close off all trading relations with other countries except Mexico, establishing a government monopoly that involved ships that would sail one or two times a year between Manila and Acapulco until the Mexican War of Independence put an end to the Galleon Trade.

Due to the route’s high profitability but long voyage time, it was essential to build the largest possible galleons, which were the largest class of ships known to have been built. In the 16th century, they averaged from 1,700 to 2,000 tons, were built of Philippine hardwoods and could carry a thousand passengers. The Concepción, wrecked in 1638, was 43 to 49 m (140–160 feet) long and displacing some 2,000 tons. The Santísima Trinidad was 51.5 m long. Most of the ships were built in the Philippines and only eight in Mexico. The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade ended in 1815, a few years before Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. After this, the Spanish Crown took direct control of the Philippines, and was governed directly from Madrid. This became manageable in the mid-19th century upon the invention of steam power ships and the opening of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Spain to the Philippines to 40 days.

– Via Manila Galleon, Wikipedia

In 1887, many items brought over by the Galleon trade were exhibited at the Madrid expo.

Between both countries, more than just goods and spices were traded between its peoples. Many of the Spaniards in the local government, the military, the Church and the merchants were either in Mexico or had lived there for a few years before settling in the Philippines.

Along with loads of silver, the galleons also brought supplies from America, such as horses, books and new kinds of plants and foods. Fruits and vegetables are probably the largest contributors of Latin American words to the Filipino vocabulary. It is estimated that there are about 250 Nahuatl words in the Filipino language.

Some Latin American foods became so popular that their Nahuatl names have entered languages around the world – xocolatl (chocolate), xitomatl (tomato), potatl (potato), ahuacamolli (guacamole) and mizquitl (mesquite). Even the name of the popular American chewing gum, Chiclets, is rooted in the Nahuatl word tzictli, which means “sticky”. And of course, corn or mais and tobacco were originally grown in the Americas. Their names can be traced back to the Arawak people of the Caribbean. Other fruits and vegetables such as the pineapple, the peanut, papaya, lima beans, cassava, chico/zapote and balimbing came from Central and South America, too.

Many traditional Filipino melodies and dances such as La Paloma and Sandunga Mia also originated in Mexico.

via Mexico is not just a town in Pampanga.

The galleon trade saw its demise when Mexico gained its independence and in 1834, free trade was formally recognized. With its excellent harbor, Manila became an open port for Asian, European, and North American traders. In 1873 additional ports were opened to foreign commerce, and by the late nineteenth century, three crops—tobacco, abaca, and sugar—dominated Philippine exports.

The ivory heads of Mary and Joseph were among the numerous such parts imported to America via the Manila Galleon trade. The style of the figures' polychromy, however, reveals that they were set into their wooden bodies in Ecuador. Artists there practiced a distinctive technique to embellish the garments of their sculptures, applying gold patterns over the colored backgrounds rather than scratching them through, as in true estofado. — The ivory heads of Mary and Joseph were among the numerous such parts imported to America via the Manila Galleon trade. The style of the figures’ polychromy, however, reveals that they were set into their wooden bodies in Ecuador. Artists there practiced a distinctive technique to embellish the garments of their sculptures, applying gold patterns over the colored backgrounds rather than scratching them through, as in true estofado.

These days, maritime archaeologists study the underwater wrecks of the many galleons that sank along the Galleon trade route, often complete with all their treasures. You can learn more about the ancient trade routes from maritime archaeologist Frank Goddio here, and view pictures and even videos of their efforts to catalog their underwater findings.

Blogging A to Z Challenge

F is for the Frenchman Who Made the Philippines His Home

Published on April 6, 2014April 5, 2014 by MorrighansMuse1 Comment

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F is for the French adventurer who made the Philippines his home from 1820 – 1840. His name was Paul de la Gironiere and after finding his name in the “fueilleton of the Constituionnel” figuring among Alexandre Dumas’ “Thousand and One Phantoms,” he decided that it was high time he wrote about his adventures.

“As a traveller, he had seen strange sights – done valorous deeds – gained a marvellous experience. He had outlived a massacre, married a fortune, founded a colony – he had combined in his own person the adventures of a Rajah Brooke and a Col. Dixon of Mairwara memory: – how, then, could he stand by and see himself reduced to “phantom” – and hear the story of his own colony of Jala-Jala mistold by the daring romance-writer of the Constitutionnel!”

– Via The Living Age, Volume 39

Gironiere was born in the region of Nantes, in western France. His father was a captain with the regiment and by all accounts they lived a good life. The French Revolution changed their fortunes, and they were forced to move to La Planche, 18 kilometers from Nantes, where his father died shortly after from illness, leaving his widowed mother to raise all the six children herself.

The hard life he lived after his father’s death taught him and his brothers and sisters to be resourceful and hardworking and soon, Gironiere went to study medicine and became a naval surgeon.

“Twenty-four hours after my nomination as a surgeon, I went and offered my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a shipping vessel to the East Indies.”

– Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by Paul de la Gironiere

At 22, he landed in Manila and made Cavite his home. He certainly was not one to sit around, sip tea and watch life pass him by. Besides, adventure seemed to follow him everywhere he went. In Manila, among the many adventures he would encounter included surviving a cholera epidemic, saving the life of a ship captain, and walking away from a massacre unscathed.

I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible scourge, the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and quickly ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first appearance the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by thousands; at all hours of the day and of the night the streets were crowded with the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the epidemic, quickly succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to another, that the strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in order to destroy the native population and possess themselves of the Philippines.

On the 9th October, 1820 … a dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite…Almost all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no longer any victims.

…Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way of dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian who had attempted to stab the captain: “You are a scoundrel.” The Indian sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I struck him on the head with a cane which I held in my hand; he waited in astonishment for a moment, and then returned towards his companions to excite them. Daggers were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a circle around me, which gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of the white man over his coloured brother! Of all these four hundred Indians, not one dared attack me the first; they all wished to strike together. Suddenly a native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through the crowd; he struck down my adversary, took away his dagger, and holding his musket by the bayonet end, he swung it round and round his head, thus enlarging the circle at first, and then dispersing a portion of my enemies. “Fly, sir!” said my liberator; “now that I am here, no one will touch a hair of your head.” In fact the crowd divided, and left me a free passage. I was saved, without knowing by whom, or for what reason, until the native soldier called after me: “You attended my wife who was sick, and you never asked payment of me. I now settle my debt.”

– Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by Paul de la Gironiere

Whew! He certainly knew how to write, didn’t he? I was on the edge of my seat there! Anyway, like any story, I hoped that our adventurer would find love, and luckily, he did.

One of my American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a young lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras of the town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed to praise the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about eighteen or nineteen years of age; her features were both regular and placid; she had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes; she was the widow of a colonel in the guards, who married her when almost a child. The sight of this young lady produced so lively an impression upon me, that I explored all the saloons at Binondoc, to endeavour to meet her elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless attempts! The young widow saw nobody. I almost despaired of finding an opportunity of speaking to her, when one morning an Indian came to request me to visit his master. I got into the carriage and set off, without informing myself of the name of the sick person…Having examined the patient, and conversed a few minutes with him, I went to the table to write a prescription; suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I turned round—the pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very lady I had so long sought after—appearing to me as in a dream! My amazement was so great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and bowed with such awkwardness that she smiled.

– Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by Paul de la Gironiere

Gironiere go on to establish the Jala Jala (pronounced Hala Hala) hacienda in Morong, which is now known as Rizal province. He raised hogs, planted indigo, sugarcane and even coffee. He gained the respect of the clergy by building them a church and earned the good side of his workers by building them cock fighting pits.

2014-04-05_20-27-53

The Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais de Pilipinas even awarded his efforts in the field of horticulture and agriculture with 1,000 pesos for raising 6,000 coffee plants.

Gironiere’s life was not without its sad moments, however, for despite his prosperity in Jala-Jala, his success with the natives, and in agriculture, he experienced much sadness as well. He lived to see most everyone he loved die before him, including his wife, his premature daughter and later, his son, and…well, there’s more but it saddens me just thinking about it.

You can find out more about Gironiere’s Adventures in the Philippines via Gutenberg here.

Twenty Years in the Philippines by Paul P. De La Gironiere

Blogging A to Z Challenge

E is for Earthquakes and Eruptions

Published on April 5, 2014April 10, 2014 by MorrighansMuse9 Comments

The Philippine islands (all 7,100 of them, give or take) sit on the shelf of the Circum Pacific Seismic Belt – better known as the Ring of Fire, an area where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the Pacific ocean.

In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes

– Via Ring of Fire, Wikipedia

Ring of Fire

Because of this, the country has endured many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, including the most recent quake that hit Bohol island with a magnitude of 7.2 in October 2013.

The seventeenth-century navigator, William Dampier, in his own quaint and amusing way, describes how the natives and the Spanish colonists of Manila strove to guard against the double danger of earthquakes and typhoons, and how they both failed ignominiously. The Spaniards built strong stone houses, but the earthquake made light of them, and shook them so violently that the terrified inmates would rush out of doors to save their lives; while the natives from their frail bamboo dwellings, which were perched on high poles, placidly contemplated their discomfiture. All that the earthquake meant to them was a gentle swaying from side to side. But the Spaniards had their turn when the fierce typhoon blew, against which their thick walls were proof. Then, from the security of their houses, could they view, with a certain grim satisfaction, the huts of the natives swaying every minute more violently in the wind, till, one by one, they toppled over—each an indescribable heap of poles, mats, household utensils, and human beings.

– Via Rev. Ambrose Coleman, O.P. The Friars in the Philippines, Project Gutenberg

In 1814, Mayon volcano, known for having a “perfect cone”, erupted and buried the neighboring villages and towns, including the Cagsawa Church that you see below.

Remains of Cagsawa church that was buried by the eruption of Mt Mayon Volcano in 1814, Albay province, Southeastern Luzon, Philippines, May 14, 1934 — Remains of Cagsawa church that was buried by the eruption of Mt Mayon Volcano in 1814, Albay province, Southeastern Luzon, Philippines, Image taken in May 14, 1934

In 1880, an earthquake destroyed one of the belfries of the San Agustin Church in Intramuros (inside Manila) and to this day, it only has one belfry.

"San Augustin Curch earthquake damage, later half of 19th Century, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines" by John Tewell — “San Augustin Curch earthquake damage, later half of 19th Century, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines” by John Tewell

After having survived the quakes of 1645 and 1863, the belfry of the Manila Cathedral crumbled during the 1880 quake.

9407303524_75525387f8_b — Manila Cathedral with the damaged belfry during the 1880 quake

While fortune may have shone on these Manila churches when it came to escaping major damage from earthquakes (although the Manila Cathedral – and most of Manila for that matter, was destroyed in WWII when Manila was declared an open city by the United States and most of its landmarks destroyed from bombings to rid the city of the Japanese), the same cannot be said for the San Pedro Apostol church in Loboc, Bohol which was built in 1601. It crumbled during the Bohol quake of 2013.

Loboc-Bohol-Church-2013-Earthquake — Loboc Church before and after. Image from Elysplanet.com

The Bohol earthquake didn’t just destroy the old churches, remnants of colonial Spanish architecture. It also destroyed the island’s natural wonders like the natural haycock formation of grass-covered limestone hills called Chocolate Hills (because when the grass turns brown, they ~~look~~ looked like Hershey’s Kisses).

vL9rNAc — Chocolate Hills Before and After

It’s a terrible price to pay for a country right on the shelf of the Ring of Fire, but one that Filipinos have learned to live with.

Blogging from A to Z

C is for the Chinese Settlers in Manila

Published on April 3, 2014April 2, 2014 by MorrighansMuse8 Comments

So here we are – going on strong with Blogging from A to Z April challenge. I’m organizing my research into 1890’s Philippines (when they were still under Spanish rule) and though I’ve been doing it now for the last ten years or so, it’s all just random notes on notepads and computer folders here and there – and never in one place.

So if you’ve stumbled upon this blog and wondering to yourself, what the heck…? Well, it’s back in time for my challenge and for the letter C, I’m writing about the Chinese settlers who made their home in the Philippines, and their impact, or at least a glimpse of it because much of this stuff is too much to write in a blog post, to Manila.

Long before the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in 1521, the Chinese had already established trade between both China and Philippines. Augustin Craig, who wrote A Thousand Years of the Philippine History Before the coming of the Spaniards (Manila, 1914) states that according to Tome Pires, writing in 1512 – 1515, gold mining was a principal industry of the Filipinos long before the coming of Ferdinand Magellan (Magallanes to the rest of the world), and that Filipinos “exported gold to China.”

When the Spaniards colonized the archipelago and established Manila – and its walled city called Intramuros – as its capital, they segregated the ethnic Chinese population outside the walls of the city, called Parian. It also happened to be within shooting range of the city’s canons, should an uprising occur – to which there were four such uprisings by ethnic unconverted Chinese residents.

Impressed by the craftsmanship and work of a group of Chinese merchants and artisans, Spanish Governor Luis Pérez Dasmariñas gave them the area of Binondo in 1594. He also gave them tax-free and self-governing privileges for perpetuity. When the Dominicans established their parish in Binondo in 1596, they converted many of the residents to Catholicism, and soon, it became a place where converted Chinese immigrants, their Filipino wives and their mixed-race children, could live in peace.

“Economic life … during the Spanish times depended largely on Chinese labor and industry. The Chinese were merchants, agriculturists, masons, bankers, painters, shoemakers, metalworkers, and laborers….The country could not exist without Chinese services.”

– via The Philippines: A Unique Nation by Sonia M. Zaide with Gregorio F. Zaide’s History of the Republic of the Philippines

Binondo soon became the main center for business and finance in Manila for ethnic Chinese, Chinese mestizos (mixed-race) and Spanish Filipinos. They also built esteros (canals) around Binondo which entered the Pasig River, serving as routes for cascos and boats to travel from one part of the area to another and was essential for trade and commerce.

One of the well-known streets in Binondo is called Escolta, known as “Broadway of Manila” during the American Occupation. Running parallel to the Pasig River, during the Spanish period, it was known as calle del la Escolta and is considered one of the oldest streets in Manila. Interestingly, the origin of its name came from the brief British occupation of Manila.

The name “Escolta,” which means escort, convoy, guard, was given during the British occupation of Manila (1762-1764), because the British Commander-in-chief would ride down the street daily with his escort.

– Via The Rise of Modern Manila, ArtInSite Magazine

Binondo Church

Image from Skyscrapercity.com

Escolta

Binondo Estero. Image from skyscrapercity.com

Bridge of Binondoc in Manila, early 19th century. Original caption: Pont de Binondoc à Manille. From Aventures d’un Gentilhomme Breton aux iles Philippines by Paul de la Gironière, published in 1855.

Blogging A to Z Challenge

B is for the British in Manila

Published on April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 by MorrighansMuse6 Comments

Did you know that the British occupied Manila and neighboring Cavite from 1762 – 1764? The Capture of Manila, as brief as it was, ended as part of the peace settlement of the Seven Years War.

The British had long hoped to establish a trading route from the Philippines to their colonies in India or the East Indies, despite the fact that the Spaniards got there first. And though they were unable to establish a successful and long lasting trade agreement between the sultan of the southern island of Mindanao without incurring much financial loss in the process (the Sulu merchants owed the East India Company more than they could afford to repay even in goods), you can’t fault the British for trying.

So in 1844, they sent a British consul, John Farren, to Manila to secure free labor sugar. This would replace the loss of West Indian sugar after Parliament passed a bill emancipating the slaves in those British colonies. England would become the Philippines’ chief buyer of sugar in the late 18th century. For the next 20 years, Farren, who would remain British consul to Manila until his death in 1864, was continually obliged to furnish proof that Philippine sugar was not the proof of slave labor to appease the anti-slavery wing in London.

Before his death, Farren appointed Nicholas Loney as Vice Consul to Iloilo, an island known for its sugar production. While Loney is known in Philippine history books for his role in the rise in production and supply of sugar for export and nicknamed as the “Father of Iloilo’s Sugar Industry,” it is through his letters to his sister that we get to see life in Manila in 1850’s.

One almost imagines himself painting the scene before him along with Loney’s words as he describes, in this letter to his sister in 1852, a Manila scene:

This (Manila) is not at all a bad place to live in, and to a fellow with health and spirits and fond of amusement it would be quite the reverse. It is a large place containing some 20,000 inhabitants. Beyond the more regular and stone-built part of the town, an endless amount of nipa (palm leaf) houses stretch away into the distance, each with its little Indian occupants, its pig, its small naked urchins, its little prints of different saintly personages, its small effigy of Our Saviour or the Virgin Mary, its little crop of vegetables, its indispensable ladder for purposes of ascent or descent, and its equally indispensable pool of dirt beneath the whole.

The street in which we live, the Escolta, is, after the Rosario, about the best in the place. In it are the best of the Chinese shops which display an ample store of articles of the Central Flowery Land, with goods of the kind most adapted to the consumption of the European population. The Rosario again contains an almost entirely British manufactured goods in the shape of gaudy handkerchiefs, prints, sayas, cambayas, trouserings, muslins, cards and the like; hoc genus omne are prominently displayed both inside and outside the doors of the celestial establishments underneath the shade of the capricious awnings (sustained by light iron poles) the size cut, colour and duration of which are regulated by government ordinance, and which keep the pavement eventually cool and shaded during the whole of the day.

Here flock Indians of various colours, sorts, and sizes, from a fine clear olive yellow, to a dark and dirty brown (the majority) others again of attractions sufficient to render the place dangerous…..

via Iloilo City Boy: The Letters of Nicholas Loney (1).

Loney loved to travel around the island to study the natural resources and also to meet personally with the sugar farmers. Six years into his stay, in which he was able to improve the standard of living and social conditions of the people on the island, Loney fell ill with typhoid fever and never recovered. He died at 41, and at his funeral, his nephew wrote, “all of Iloilo followed him to his grave and over 100 carriages besides lots of buffalo carts filled with people were there.”

But not all of the British were like Farren, who devoted much of his own money to help the local indians (the name for Filipinos then) and stranded British sailors, often paying the price of passage back to England himself, or Loney.

“Englishmen in the Philippines were totally English,” recorded one British traveler, “and more exagerratedly so, being so far away from their own country.” They insisted on sipping their tea while the Spaniards gulped chocolate, they sported waistcoats during the hot summer months, they doffed top hats and walked with canes and silk umbrellas, they refused siestas as “tiresome occupations,” they talked incessantly of the climate, they despised the local treatment of animals, they denounced cockfights as “the most horrible spectacle I have ever had the misfortune to witness!” and they bewail almost everything that was not British and was not conducted in the British fashion.

– Via Philippine Heritage, The Making of A Nation, Volume 6

And with the entry above, I can’t but help direct you to the presence of the English Club, better known as the Manila Club, comprised of Brits and Scots living and working in Manila.

“The saying goes in the Far East that if an Englishman, a Spaniard and an American were to be left upon a desert island, the first would organize a club, the second build a church, and the third start a newspaper.”

Life in Manila: Description of the Philippine Island City,
written by Charles B. Howard shortly after the Americans defeated the Spanish, as it appeared in the American publication “Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly,” Vol. 46: July-October 1898

Manila Club – Nagtahan image from Manila Nostalgia

The Manila Club in the 1880s included many nationalities within its membership but the British and Scots comprised the majority of members, all male. It was financed by its members through shares or debentures and an entrance fee and monthly dues.

The clubhouse was a comfortable, cool resort with a large verandah overlooking the Pasig. It was a 3-storied building including an attic and opened from 6am to midnight. It held guest bedrooms, a bar, dining room and lounge, a bowling alley on the ground floor and billiard room. The reading and music rooms were towards the rear facing the Pasig. “The club house is long, low and rambling. The reading, writing and music rooms from on the river, and the glossy hard wood floors, hand hewn out of solid trees , seem to suggest music and coolness. It is possible to reach the city by jumping into a native boat at the portico on the river bank, or to go by one of the two wheeled gigs, called carromatas, waiting at the front gate, or to walk a block and take the tram car which jogs down through the busy high road. “ Yesterdays in the Philippines by Joseph Earle Stevens

At the gateway was a sign announcing “No Women or Dogs Allowed” , typical of the London-styled chauvinistic attitude of the day. The property was not large, measuring some 200 yards deep from the river bank to Calle Aciete and about 250 yards across Calle Nagtahan to the Estero de Valencia but still contained a garden, stables, a few annexes, a boat house, and at least one tennis court. Arthur D. Hall, author recalls, “The English (Manila) Club is not only a sort of social centre and bureau of information but it is also a trade centre at which sales are made, contracts closed and deals consummated.”

– Via The Manila Club, Manila Nostalgia

One can only hope that things have changed since the 1880’s…

If you’ve read this far, thank you. I didn’t expect it to be so long – and I’m only at B. But since the main character in the novel I’m working on is a Brit, I hope you forgive me this indulgence. I love my muse after all, even if no women or dogs were allowed in his place of respite…

Blogging A to Z Challenge

A is For Anito and Albularyo

Published on April 1, 2014April 1, 2014 by MorrighansMuse6 Comments

Yep, I am doing the Blogging From A to Z Challenge and to make it even harder, I’m blogging about something I don’t know that much about – other than it is the setting for the novel that I am currently working on (you see the muse up there on the right).

I wrote about the overall theme for the April challenge here, which is my A to Z take on 1890’s Philippines.

So without further ado, here’s letter A.

Before the Spanish “discovered” the Philippine islands in the 16th century – naming it after their king – and converted everyone they could find to Roman Catholicism, the inhabitants were primarily pagan. They practiced a nature-based, polytheistic belief system, collectively called Anito, that included the worship of household deities and even the spirits of their ancestors.

The supreme god was Bathala, creator of heaven, earth and men. Below him were other gods and goddesses – Idianale, Tagalog goddess of agriculture; Lakapati, Tagalog god of harvest; Sidapa, Visayan god of death; Apolaki, Pangasinan war god; Kidul, Kalinga god of thunder; Dal’lang, Ilocano goddess of beauty; Malyari, Zambal god of power and strength; Poko, Tagbanua god of the sea; and Kolyog, Ifugao god of earthquakes.

– via The Philippines: A Unique Nation by Sonia M. Zaide with Gregorio F. Zaide’s History of the Republic of the Philippines

These polytheistic practices were facilitated by the male priest or female priestess called katalona or babaylan, similar to shamans and other spiritual leaders. However, with the colonization and conversion of its people to Catholicism, much of these practices were suppressed by the friars who ruled the country for the next 300 years until the Americans took over in 1898.

But old habits die hard, as we all know, and much of the incantations and spells of the katalona or babaylan were replaced by Catholic oraciones and prayers, this time performed by the albularyo, who incorporated the use of herbs, oils and various local minerals like alum into their sessions. It became a form of folk healing and religion all rolled into one, if you will.

Albularyos can still be found in the barrios, the small towns outside of the city, and it’s not unusual to see someone call on the deities and gods of old when one goes to an albularyo to seek help, especially when easy access to modern medical facilities is unavailable.

320px-Wodden_Carvings_of_the_Bululs — Wooden images of the ancestors (Bulul) in a museum in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines

Blogging A to Z Challenge

A Theme Reveal for April’s Blogging Challenge

Published on March 23, 2014 by MorrighansMuse3 Comments

A-to-Z-Challenge-theme-reveal

As if I didn’t need any more challenges to my otherwise busy life (I still have to finalize my taxes), I’ve taken on the A to Z Writing Challenge that begins on April 1st. I was supposed to do my big “Theme Reveal” on March 21st, but like all things, I’m always late to the party.

But here I am!

Not only that, but up to three minutes ago, I had absolutely NO idea what I was going to blog about for the month of April, spanning 26 posts from A to Z. But now that I do, it’s time to tell you.

Since I’m neck deep in writing my novel set in 1890 Philippines – and probably as it is with any writer having to dive into history – research is never-ending. Just when I thought I’d learned as much as I already had about the time and place, I introduced a whole new character into the mix – an Englishman. So not only do I have to do research on 19th century Philippines and world trade, there’s also everything English – what is that? Edwardian era? I’m still figuring it out and thank goodness for Ripper Street, but I’ve got something to start with as far as how London, or at least Whitechapel, looked like then. But don’t worry, the 26 posts for April will mostly delve into Philippine facts.

So I’m going to start with life in the 19th century, in Manila and its environs. It’s a little known era to me at least, even though I’m Filipino, and with each discovery, I’ll be musing on each one – or at least 26 of them.

And who knows? Maybe by the time it’s over, I’ll get some of my facts straight and finally get that novel on the road!

atozcollage