OOV Book Review

When Walls Have Memories Too
By Victoria Paz Cruz

TAHANAN: A HOUSE REBORN
by Reynaldo G. Alejandro & Vicente Roman S. Santos
Orland S. Punzalan, Book Designer
Peter George C. Mayschle, Editorial Director
©2003 Malabon City: Duende Publishing

I am indebted to Architect Wally Reyes, who happens to be my cousin-in-law, for introducing me to this book as a conversation piece, knowing my roots in Malabon and Navotas in Metro Manila.

We flipped through the book to the section “Navotas and Malabon Houses, A Comparison of Styles”. I quickly recognized several houses—that of my sister's grade one teacher Miss Borja, situated diagonal to the Immaculate Conception Church in Malabon, and those of two classmates of mine at St. James Academy .

These houses were featured with an eye to comparing their styles with the Santos-Andres' residence in Navotas, which is the real subject matter of Tahanan: A House Reborn. Built in 1917 in Navotas, the Santos-Andres family house was transferred to the town of Antipolo . The book documents the two-year deconstruction and faithful reconstruction of the house that Don Roman Santos and Juliana Andres built.

Don Roman R. Santos, as described in the Foreword, was “a visionary and hard working entrepreneur.” Just 19 when he eloped with Juliana, Roman was a penniless orphan who was “born to a wealthy family that had fallen into hard times . . . but through hard work and business acumen, discipline, thrift and simple living, was by age 37 already rich enough to build an imposing three-storey mansion on Calle Real, Navotas. It was from this house . . . that Don Roman planned and oversaw his expanding business empire.” He was in agribusiness (fishing and fish culture, farming) and financial services (insurance, banking; he founded Prudential Bank and Trust Company).

This house was home to three generations. “The house and its belonging, ranging from scarred furniture and brittle documents to articles of jewelry and monogrammed finery and tableware, lent substance to each anecdote retold and allowed one to witness a family's past.” (p. 61)

Don Roman bequeathed the family mansion, and everything within, to his daughter Alicia. Her children refused to declare the house obsolete or put it to other uses, according to the authors: “Moving away and letting the house deteriorate were an abandonment of heritage. Converting it into a warehouse or commercial space for lease, or even a little museum, was prostitution of their home. They wanted to live in the same house they grew up in and hand down the tradition to their children.” (p. 64)

In Navotas, the authors recount, Alicia had rededicated the image of the Candelaria to Nuestra Senora de la Paz y Buenviaje of Antipolo. “What better place to remount the Santos-Andres [house] than one very near Pinagmisahan, the site in Antipolo where centuries ago the image of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage was twice found after mysteriously disappearing from her chapel?” (p. 68)

As well as paying homage to their family history, the grandchildren of Don Roman and Juliana are “providing not only the younger generations of the Santos clan, but also Filipinos in general, a deeper insight into the life and times and the values of a pioneering Filipino business leader and achiever”, to quote former Chairman Jaime C. Laya of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Proudly Philippine-made, the coffee table book has impressive photographs of the house showing every interesting angle then and now, furnishings, artifacts and memorabilia covering over 150 years, anecdotes about the main actors Roman and Juliana, and how the town itself came into being. A pull-out Family Tree covering six generations starting in 1800 accompanies the family's story that traces its roots to Olegario Rodriguez, second of three capitanes naturales in the family who took his turn in 1842 and 1853 in Bacolor, Pampanga, then the capital of the Philippines . He married Escolastica Tuason, a lass who had been kidnapped at the age of six by Moro pirates, held hostage in Mindanao , and ransomed by her parents for a considerable sum after eight long years. Escolastica was one of two daughters of Gregorio Tuason, brother of the Chinese merchant Antonio Tuason, colonel and organizer of 1,500 Chinese mestizos dubbed the Battalion of the Royal Prince. For helping Spanish Governor-General Simon de Anda drive out the British redcoats out of Manila , Tuason was awarded large tracts of prime land.

Such anecdotes, including ghost sightings, excerpts from the patriarch Don Roman's uncompleted autobiography, and as a bonus, favorite family cuisine, make the book doubly interesting. The architectural details provided would interest students of architecture as well as enthusiasts for Filipino heritage conservation.

© Victoria Paz Cruz

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