Celebrating with Tondo folks the fiesta of their Sto. Niño

Note:  A slightly different version of this photo essay was published in the 24-30 Jan 2014 issue of the weekly FilAm Star ("The newspaper for Filipinos in mainstream America")."  The blogger is the Special Photo/News Correspondent of the said weekly, which is based in San Francisco, CA.

 

The Sto. Niño de Tondo (center) surrounded by other Child Jesus images in various costumes.

 
January in the year of iconic Roman Catholic folk rituals and traditions opens with two faces:  that of the suffering Nazarene during the fiesta of Quiapo, Manila on the ninth day of the month, and that of the innocent Child Jesus during the Sto. Niño festivals on the third Sunday held in many towns and cities nationwide,  the most popular being the Sinulog (Pit, Senyor!) of Cebu City  and the Ati-Atihan (Hala, Bira!) of Kalibo, both in the Visayas.   The Ati carnival, in fact, did not start as a folk religious festival but more of a commemorative celebration of a popular lore - the barter of Panay between the Bornean datus and the native Atis before the Spaniards arrived. There’s a fourth crowd-drawer, the Dinagyang of Iloilo, but this one is held on the fourth Sunday.

The original Sto. Niño image in residence at the Cebu cathedral reminds that Christianized Philippines will be 500 years old in 2021.  The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) prepared a “nine-year journey for the new evangelization”, which started last year, for the fifth centenary of the conversion of Rajah Humabon, Rajah Kolambu and 400 other Filipinos.    

Devotees carry their own images during the fiesta.

According to Pigafetta , the queen of Cebu, after her baptism as Johanna, was shown the images of Our Lady, the Child Jesus and a cross.  She expressed interest to keep the Child Jesus to replace her idols, and Magellan gave it to her on 14 April 1521.  It is believed that this was the same image that the Mexican soldiers of Legazpi found in one of the abandoned houses when they arrived in Cebu on 27 April 1565.

Replicate copies of that image are in the Kalibo and Iloilo churches, but with regard to the festivals, the Ati-Atihan was the original street dancing celebration centuries before Dinagyang and Sinulog festivals were organized as tourist attractions in 1967 and1981, respectively.

The tricycle procession replaced the fluvial of old.

The proletarian district of Tondo of Manila city also celebrates the feast of their Sto. Niño on the third Sunday (Viva El Sto. Niño!).  

For the first time after so many years, we visited Tondo to witness their fiesta.   We took the Divisoria route, the church being four blocks from Claro M. Recto through Ilaya Street, hemmed on both sides by market stalls.

Procession scenes.

There used to be a fluvial procession at Manila Bay on the eve of the fiesta.  Old timers remember that the image was borne through the streets of the district, accompanied by a dancing crowd to North Harbor where it was mounted on a pagoda.  Fishing boats escorted the pagoda as it sailed along the bay.

Multitude of Child Jesus images during the procession around Tondo.

The fluvial procesion was stopped in 1983. What we witnessed last Sunday was the morning procession of the Sto. Niño de Tondo on a carriage adorned by loaves of bread and flowers, followed by a legion of similar images clad in various costumes mounted on tricycles and other vehicles, or carried by young and old, male and female devotees.  There were two processions through all the barangays of the district, one in the afternoon of the eve of the fiesta, and the other after the early morning mass celebrated by Cardinal Antonio Tagle on the feast day.

Gone too is the street dancing that the late National Artist Nick Joaquin described as being performed by women in pastora hats or dressed like katipuneras in white kamiseta and red saya.  There was dancing called lakbayaw for two hours in front of the church in the morning of Saturday, but it was only for show.

Viva El Sto. Niño!

2012: Our Year of the Kalesa/Karitela

Kalesas take a break on UN Avenue, Manila to wash the carriages and feed the horses.

During our journeys in northern Luzon this year, we saw the kalesa (or the popular karitela among Ilocanos) still plying the streets of Vigan, Laoag and Tuguegarao.  While doing historical research at the National Archives on Kalaw and at the Archdiocesan Archives on Arzobispo in Manila, we also saw plenty of them bringing tourists around the Luneta/Rizal Park, Intramuros and Fort Santiago with their variations from the traditional kalesa/karitela box design making them very interesting photo subjects.

Thus, in our personal timeline, we were inclined to tag 2012 as our Year of the Kalesa/Karitela.  This is also in line with our green advocacy, this horse-drawn transport vehicle being environment-friendly because no pollutants are emitted as the cocheros drive passengers down the town or city streets.  We noted that horse-y solid wastes are very well  managed through the use of portable cloth toilets hang by the rear of the horses.

Northern Luzon kalesas.  The Vigan kalesas (top left) cater to tourists mostly while the Tuguegarao type with rubber tires provides an alternative to tricycles for public transport.  The Laoag karitela is both for tourism and public transport.

Some digression:  kalesa and karitela are not indigenous Pinoy terms.  These are our derivatives of the Spanish words calesa (feminine form of cales), a 'two-wheeled calash, chaise,' and carretela, also a calash or stagecoach.  For that matter, kariton, for the carabao or cow drawn vehicle, is not also native being derived from the Spanish carreton, a cart.

The kalesas that ply around Intramuros and Fort Santiago are of different make and design. The one at bottom right has its sides made of recycled capiz windows.

Of course, there's also the carruaje,horse-drawn carriage, that one associates with royalty or the noble classes depicted in European period movies.  It's the carriage for those who want leisurely rides around Central Park in New York, New York.  In our home province Zambales these days, the carruaje is the most expensive alternative to the funeral limousine for the last mile of a dearly departed one to the memorial park.

In our boyhood, the karitela driver (kutsero) was king of the road.  Those who lived in the town proper walked to school, plaza, church and market.  The karitela was for trips to the barrios outside town.  The young girls in our family often joined an aunt on board a karitela looking for a pig to buy and butcher for her Sunday market stall.   In high school, we boys who were PMT (Phil. Military Training) cadet officers did not find it difficult to find a horse to ride on for the town fiesta parade.  The fiesta day was 'off' day for karitelas but not for horses we either hired or borrowed for the parade.

Before the second world war, the jeepney wasn't yet a Pinoy innovation.  'Peacetime' generations moved around their towns and cities using the horse drawn vehicle. In the YouTube video (below) from PhilClassic on the popular tune Kalesa composed by A. del Rosario and performed by the Juan Silos, Jr. rondalla, we can see that the the traffic of old Manila comprised these horse drawn vehicles.  In his original lyrics, superimposed on the video, national artist Levi Celerio endowed the kalesa with nationalistic and romantic attributes.

Going farther back to the 19th century, it was the carruaje that plied the provincial carreteras or highways.  To ensure public transportation between towns in Zambales, for example, the provincial civil government conducted tenders for carruajes de alquiler [carriages for hire] among the big businessmen of those times.

One of the dibujos of Jose Honorato Lozano in his album Vistas de las islas Filipinas y trajes de sus habitantes (1847), which can be found at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, is an open carruage [sic] de alquiler drawn by two horses with passengers in colorful costumes.

Dibujo DIB158425 by Jose Honorato Lozano (1847) available online from the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica.

We'd like to think that bringing back the kalesa / karetela in barangays and towns, and in touristic sites, to provide eco-friendly alternatives to petroleum fuel guzzlers and polluters would greatly reduce the carbon print of the Philippines in the worldwide environmental map.
 

References:

Cassell's Spanish English English-Spanish Dictionary. (1978).  Gooch, Anthony & Garcia de Paredes, Angel, Rev.  New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Lozano, Jose Honorato. (1847). Vistas de las islas Filipinas y trajes de sus habitantes. Retrieved from the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica of the Biblioteca Nacional de España at 
http://bibliotecadigitalhispanica.bne.es/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=3808315.xml&dvs=1356712296422~678&locale=en_US&search_terms=&adjacency=&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/nmets.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=4&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

Philclassic video. Kalesa.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYtmutNId4w&feature=player_detailpage

Amigo 113: The Presidio of San Francisco and the Filipino

'The Ordonez Gun – “War Prize” from the Philippines

'The Presidio’s Ordonez gun was originally mounted in a Spanish coastal fort at Subic Bay in the Philippines.  Undamaged during the Spanish-American War, the gun was captured by Filipino nationalists, who were known as “Insurrectos” by the occupying Americans.

'In September 1899, a combined U.S. Army-Navy force attacked Filipino positions at Subic Bay. This gun was reported to have been destroyed by shellfire from American cruiser USS Charleston.  Some historians suggest that the damage was caused by the explosion of a shell within the gun.' -- From the Presidio Marker

The Presidio is not as popular a tourist destination as the Golden Gate Bridge and Palace of Fine Arts even if all three are in the same neighborhood.  One can take the free Presidio shuttle bus to reach the Bridge, or walk from its Lombard Gate to the Palace. It is a favorite of hikers and bikers; there's a green for golfers, outlook points for nature lovers, and places of interest for history researchers.  Crowd-drawing relocators may soon follow the Walt Disney Museum that's now housed in one of the restored military barracks there.

This was the military outpost of the Spanish empire in North America since 1776, then of the Mexicans for 24 years before the U.S. Army took over in 1846 (California became the 31st state in 1850).

On 13 August 1898, Manila was captured by the US Army under General Wesley Merritt with the support of the naval fleet under Admiral George Dewey. Spanish power in the Philippines ended.  This coming Saturday will be the 113rd anniversary of the fall of Manila.

Thus, the 113 in our title.  The Amigo (friend, Sp.) derives from John Sayle's movie of the same name about a barrio chief torn by conflicting alliances during the Philippine war for independence (1898-1902), a facet of Fil-Am history that Americans and Filipinos know so little about.  The movie is scheduled for theatrical showings in major American cities starting this month.

The Lombard Gate.  Inset are war trophies (cannons, left and right) and decorative detail at the right gate post.  The trophies are bronze cannons "probably from the harbor fortifications of Manila ... cast in Seville in 1783 [and] engraved with the monogram CR III for Carlos de Borbon, King of Spain from 1759 to 1788. (War & Dissent Exhibition Brochure)."

So, what has the Presidio got to do with the Filipino amigo then and now - the tourist from Manila, or the Fil-Am living in the [San Francisco] Bay Area or visiting from other states?

We recall that George Dewey crushed the Spanish navy in Manila Bay on 01 May 1898.  There was no way he could capture Manila.  He could only set up a blockade, and because the Spaniards did not allow him to use the cable lines, he cut them on 02 May.  From Hong Kong, he wired Washington DC on 07 May:  "I have taken possession of the naval station at Cavite, Philippine Islands, and destroyed its fortifications. Have destroyed fortifications bay entrance, paroling garrison. Have cut cable to main land. I control bay completely and can take city at any time, but I have not sufficient men to hold..."

"Unaware of Dewey’s success," a marker in the Presidio reads, "President McKinley authorized troops to mount a campaign against the capital of Manila. The military base best suited as a staging point was the Presidio of San Francisco. "

Thus, a military expedition was organized with Major-General Wesley Merrritt in command.  These comprised thousands of men from the regular army and volunteers in the regiments from the western states so that the rail travel to San Francisco, the port of mobilization, would be shorter.

The troops were all encamped in the Presidio; from 1898 through 1900, 18,000 soldiers passed through this post to the Philippines.

The first transports came on board the City of Peking, City of Sydney and  Australia under the convoy of the Charleston and reached Manila Bay on 30 June, 1898.  These were the four companies of the 14th infantry of the regular army and the 1st California and 1st Oregon regiments of volunteers under the command of General Thomas M. Anderson of the US Army.

The next troopships arrived in July--those under General Frank V. Greene on the 17th; General Merritt's on the 25th; and those of General Arthur MacArthur on the 30th.

It's important to recall that General Emilio Aguinaldo left Hongkong on 17 May on board the USS McCulloch, arrived in Cavite on the 19th, and issued three proclamations on the 24th.  In the third, he invoked that "The great American nation, a lover of true liberty, and therefore desirous of liberating our country from tyranny and despotism to which it has been subjected by its rulers, has decided to give us disinterested protection, considering us sufficiently able and civilized to govern ourselves."

Within a week, Aguinaldo had mobilized his army to resume the revolution against the Spaniards eventually liberating Cavite. On 12 June, he proclaimed the country's independence from the window of their house in Kawit.

"[U]ntil the arrival of the first detachment of United States troops on the 30th of June," Stickney (1899) wrote, "Aguinaldo maintained his headquarters in Cavite, but his troops were continually pressing the Spaniards back upon Manila.  ... It was not long before they reached the fort near the beach at Malate ... and continued their movement for investing the city to the east and north."

When his large troops landed, General Anderson asked Aguinaldo to evacuate Cavite for them.  Aguinaldo obliged and moved his troops to Bacoor where he organized a provisional government.

In July, the Spaniards in Manila were already on the defensive against the Filipino forces.  The US troops had advanced to Parañaque, and the Americans were preparing to compel the Spaniards to surrender Manila to General Merritt.

In August, while the Filipinos were pressing forward to Manila, the Americans and the Spaniards were negotiating the battle plans and the terms of surrender.  

On 13 August, the Anderson and MacArthur troops pinched Manila from two sides; the Olympia, Charleston, Raleigh and the Petrel pummeled the Malate fortifications and Fort San Antonio while the Spanish guns from Intramuros remained mute; and the California volunteers ordered the Filipino troops to hold their fire and leave them alone and in no way should they advance ahead of them.

Thus, the fall of Manila to the Presidio boys. Part 1 of America's first foreign war, a conventional one--the Spanish-American--ended;  Part 2, the Philippine-American, a guerilla type, had began.

References:

• Presidio Trust. (2008). War & Dissent. The U.S. in the Philippines, 1898-1915 at http://www.presidio.gov/NR/rdonlyres/FE971A08-508F-4301-A48A-8CF5B0E74608/0/pt_wd_gallery1.pdf

• Stickney, Joseph L.  (1899).  War in the Philippines and Life and Glorious Deeds of Admiral Dewey. A Thrilling Account of our Conflicts with the Spaniards and Filipinos in the Orient including the Glorious Deeds of the Great Commander and The Complete Story of the Philippine Islands, Historical and Descriptive. Chicago: Imperial Publishing Company. 

• White, Douglas. (1899, May).  The Surrender of Manila.  Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly.  48(1):38-48.