Celebrating our links with Spain

Displayed for the first time around a cultural edifice in Madrid are Philippine Christmas lanterns or parols, drawing the eye to Casa de America, where an equally illuminating exhibit also does our country proud.  

Thanks to the Ortigas Library Foundation, and largely through the efforts of its executive director, the indefatigable cultural activist John Silva, an exhibit on Philippine churches opened on Nov. 28, and is now being hailed as an important historical and cultural display.

Its full title is Exposicion Filipinas y España, Vinculos Duraderos: Iglesias Filipinas (Philippines and Spain, The Lasting Links: Churches of the Philippines. It will last until Jan. 31, 2015.

The Introduction to the catalogue reads: “This premier Madrid exhibition focuses on the remaining 400 or so Spanish-era churches built in the Philippines from the 16th to the end of the 19th century. Employing its collection of drawings, prints, maps, rare books, vintage and contemporary photographs, The Ortigas Foundation Library highlights these places of worship, scattered throughout the archipelago as precious remaining links between Spain and its former colony.”

John had originally intended the exhibit for the Vatican Museum, but it didn’t quite pan out. Spanish Ambassador to Manila Jorge Domecq got wind of it, and asked for the exhibit to be shown in Spain instead. That was only in March of this year. The good Ambassador secured the use of Casa de America, and John and his staff quickly went to work.

He had to revise some of the intended material for the Vatican Museum exhibit, as it now dealt exclusively with Philippine-Spanish history. He noted how the history of Philippine churches spans 400 years — “of everything from starting as thatched huts, to the use of stone, to the center of many historical events, to their transfer to secular priests, and to their physical deterioration.”

He adds: “But while we still at least half-remember the role of churches in our lives, this exhibition encourages an appreciation of their presences, and their contribution to our culture.”

The preparation and communications between Ortigas Library Foundation and Casa de America went off well. A visit in May sealed much of the requirements, and got Silva and his staff an exhibition producer who has worked for the Casa for the past 20 years. Project Art Philippines laid it all out, digitized it, sent requirements to Spain, and when Silva returned to Madrid barely a week before the exhibit opening, he found to his amazement how the construction and all the walls were being done exactly to the centimeter!

The two main sponsors other than the Ortigas Library are Pioneer Insurance (for the insured transport of books and other materials) and St. Joseph’s Foundation.

No problems were encountered with other government agencies except for hanging the parols. Strict heritage rules ruled out displaying them on the front of the Casa, but it was allowed at the sides by the entrance to the exhibition, serving to entice passersby with the charming lights.

John Silva himself curated and wrote the display text materials for the exhibit.

Before a large, wall-sized photograph of Quiapo Church is a recreation of the stalls that surround it — offering rosaries, amulets, ointments to induce abortion, and twigs and stones that supposedly have magical powers. “Syncretic Catholicism at work,” notes John.

Another wall-sized image shows San Sebastian Church, attended by text materials on the singular efforts of Tina Paterno to get an eight-year conservation project right.

There are stark before-and-after photos of churches destroyed in the earthquake last year, prominent of which is the Loon Church in Bohol, showing its former grandeur and the sorry rubble it became.

Also displayed are Spanish to Philippine languages dictionaries that are among the prized possessions of the Ortigas Library.

The exhibition opening was a resounding success. Over 150 people attended despite the rain and the cold temperature. The crowd reaction was exuberant. Maravillosa! was constantly repeated. Many promised to bring their families and friends in the coming days. In speeches, the Ortigas Library Foundation was cited numerous times by Philippine Ambassador to Spain Carlos Salinas and Casa de America head Tomas Poveda as having rendered an invaluable educational service to the Spanish people.

Ambassador Salinas has been holding lectures and other programs in Madrid as a tireless worker, per Silva, in promoting Philippine-Spanish amity. Fr. Rene Javellana, S.J. has been among the lecturers. The Ambassador was also instrumental in having Javier Galvan, former Instituto Cervantes head for Manila and a known Filipinist, deliver the opening night lecture.

Thanks to Ambassador Salinas’ efforts, Patis Tesoro has mounted a fashion show in Madrid, while Coke Bolipata was brought in for a concert. The Ambassador is planning to bring in Gary Valenciano sometime in the future.

Very much impressed with the exhibit, he has vowed to have it subsequently displayed in Barcelona and Malaga. An offer has also been received to show it in Cologne in Germany.

Casa de America is strictly a venue to promote America-Spanish affairs, but the Philippines has managed to have displays there since Amb. Isabel Caro Wilson’s time, when John Silva mounted a rare Philippine photo exhibition in 1998.

He writes: “We had made a case that we are an extension of the Americas. I made sure that it is noted that we were administered by mostly Spaniards born and raised in Mexico, that the Galleon trade brought American influences, and in the case of the Black Nazarene, that piece was made in Mexico and brought to the Philippines.”

In his own speech to open the exhibit, John Silva recalled:

“My staff and I left our country a week ago, about the time of the first anniversary of typhoon Haiyan’s destructive arrival, killing thousands, leaving millions homeless, destroying towns, cities, and industries. Churches were not exempt from this wrath.

“Several weeks after that tragedy, I remember seeing on television the arrival of large Spanish planes bearing medicine, food, tents, volunteers and many more resources to help our unfortunate people.

“Let this exhibit be our way of expressing our deepest thanks and eternal gratitude to the people of Spain for coming to our aid in those darkest moments. “Long live the friendship and love between our two countries.

John has been manning the gallery since the opening, and he reports how daily he is warmed in the heart. “Strangers old and young, people from other countries, and Filipino Spaniards, not knowing who I am, come to me ecstatic after having read every wall text and gazed at every photo. Fabuloso! Mi encantan! Maravillosa!” 

Bravo, John!

We should always acknowledge that our country is not just led by dubious politicians, and that more than making up for their generally sorry quality is the tireless work rendered creatively by our corps of cultural activists.

Another of these, like John Silva, is Marian Pastor, who has just successfully established a museum in UP Manila on the history of ideas. I hear that she has another in the works, for the Sy family at the Mall of Asia area by the sea, on the galleon and Mexico-Manila relations. Her commendable work should be featured in this space, too.