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LA CASA GRANDE (Part 1)Click here for Part 2.
Stephanie Dychiu takes a rare look inside the ancestral homes of Negros Occidental's landed gentry and finds glimpses of a past filled with grandeur, heroism, and nobility.
The romance of hacienda life is fascinating to many, as evidenced by the countless movies and telenovelas that have been produced around the same basic plot of mestizo hacendero caught up in a web of forbidden love and social inequity with beautiful but oppressed daughters of plantation workers. There is, however, another side to the lives of real hacenderos that soap operas fail to capture. True, they were dashing landowners of consummate wealth and a taste for fine living, but they were also far-sighted pioneers and fearless revolutionaries who shaped Philippine economic and political history as we know it today.
In this two-part series, we visit the homes of these charismatic men (and woman) at the heart of hacienda country, the genteel land of Negros Occidental. We begin with the homes of Aniceto Lacson, Enrica Lizares, and Mariano Yulo in this issue, and will continue with the homes of the Montillas, Jalandonis, Gastons, Hofileñas, and Abellos next month.
The Aniceto Lacson House (Hacienda Maria del Rosario/Hacienda Matab-Ang)
If this house looks familiar, it may be because you've seen it in Oro, Plata, Mata, the 1982 film by Negrense director Peque Gallaga. The grand plantation house of Aniceto Lacson in Talisay, Negros Occidental was the seat of power of the Republica Cantonal de Negros, an independent state established by General Aniceto Lacson in November 5, 1898 with his compatriots Juan Araneta and Jose de Luzuriaga, after they successfully bluffed the Spanish governor into signing an act of capitulation. Negros existed as a separate country from the rest of the Philippines for about one-and-a-half years until the Americans took over Spanish rule. Though the Republic of Negros was short-lived, Cinco de Noviembre continues to be celebrated as a special holiday in the province every year, and Aniceto Lacson's house is still referred to by locals as the "Malacañang of the South".
Aniceto Lacson is not written about as much in Philippine history books, but he was a close compatriot of the biggest names of the Philippine revolution. While pursuing his studies in Manila, he became friends with Andres Bonifacio and joined the Katipunan. Later on, he sheltered many hunted katipuneros in his hacienda by disguising them as farm workers. Emilio Aguinaldo stood with him when the Americans entered Negros, and Dr. Jose Rizal was his classmate at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
Cousins Anna Balcells and Carmen "Nena" Rossello, both great-grandchildren of Aniceto Lacson, have happy childhood memories spent in his casa grande in the 1950's and 1960's. Nena spent the first fifteen years of her life at the house, while Anna was part of a troop of almost forty cousins that often came over to visit. Anna gives a quick run-through of the family genealogy: "The house was built by Aniceto Lacson in the 1880's. He was of Chinese descent, and the men who did the wood carvings around the house were all Chinese. Aniceto married Rosario Araneta, after whom the hacienda is named. Their second daughter, Carmen, inherited the house. She married Ricardo Claparols, a man from Barcelona. This is why the house is sometimes called the Claparols Mansion." The mothers of Anna and Carmen also wound up marrying men from Barcelona, whom they met during their travels, and both girls spent a large part of their adult lives in the capital of Catalunia before returning to their childhood home in Talisay, Negros.
Upon her return from twenty years of living in Barcelona, Anna was heartbroken when she saw the fragile state of her great-grandfather's house. No family members have lived there full-time since the house was damaged by a terrible storm in 1969 or 1970. "The house is sinking," explains Nena. The cousins, together with other relatives, put up the General Aniceto Lacson Ancestral House (GALAH) Foundation to raise funds for rehabilitating the house and transforming it into a museum. Those who would like to set an appointment to view the house, or contribute to the conservation fund, can call Anna at 034-4953500, or Nena at 034-4952771. "The house has been declared a national landmark by the government," says Anna, "so it cannot be destroyed. Our family wants to leave the house as a legacy to Negros and the whole country. Many people consider it the grandest ancestral house in the Philippines."
The Kapitana Dicang Lizares House
Among all the houses included in this feature that allow viewing by appointment, the one of Doña Enrica "Kapitana Dicang" Alunan Lizares in Talisay is in the best state of preservation. Nearly every structure of the house is original from the 1880's, when the house was first built, from the furniture to the small items like the dinnerware, antique telephone, and Tana Dicang's very detailed accounting ledger from 1902 (with entries in Spanish written in the elegant hand of her personal scribe).
Doña Enrica gained the monicker "Kapitana" because her husband, Efigenio, was Capitan Municipal of Talisay. Throughout her life, Tana Dicang was influential in politics, her advice sought by the many important officials who visited her home. President Manuel L. Quezon and Vice-President Sergio Osmeña came over often, and one of Tana Dicang's sons, Simplicio, was a member of the 1935 Constitutional Convention that drafted the first Philippine Constitution.
The present caretaker of Tana Dicang's house, Tess Torrecampo, now in her fifties and the niece of the previous caretaker of the house, grew up within the grounds and is well-versed in the minutiae of keeping the late doña's home functional and clean. Kapitana's much-valued collection of china, glass, and silver ware, which had their own special hiding place in a well that was dug up in the garden when the Japanese were en route to occupying the house in World War II, is taken out of the platera for polishing on a fixed schedule. Once the cleaning is done, each item is carefully listed down in a logbook to ensure not a single piece is misplaced. When everything is in order, the platera is locked. "She was very, very thrifty," says Tess of the feisty and skillful matriarch who, even in her final years, had the discipline to include a directive in her will allocating a portion of the earnings of two of her farms to the upkeep of her house after her death. Tana Dicang passed away at the age of eighty-seven while fleeing the Japanese in 1942. She had given birth to seventeen children in her lifetime. She left her house to six of her daughters as a refuge, in case they, like her, were widowed or separated from their husbands.
"The house is a pueblo house, not a plantation house," explains Adrian Lizares, great-grandson of Tana Dicang. "It's built in classic bahay-na-bato style, designed to withstand earthquakes." As with caretaker Tess, the housekeeping particulars are a pet topic of Adrian. He says the toilets are flushed on a regular schedule—although no family member has lived in the house full-time since 1997—just to keep the antiquated plumbing on its toes. In the olden days before Tess had her mechanized floor polisher, the hardwood floors were buffed using a large burlap sack with small children on top being hauled about by a man.
About three times a year, members of the extensive Lizares family gather in Tana Dicang's house for various events. Adrian's best childhood memories of the house were of his lola Encarnacion, one of the daughters of Tana Dicang. "My assignment was to bring her pizza whenever she played mahjongg," he says. "I made the pizza myself by copying from the Time-Life Recipes of the World cookbook."
To view Tana Dicang's house in Talisay, schedule an appointment with Flor, Adrian's secretary, at 034-4954638.
Yulo's Park
An arch at the entrance of the Yulo ancestral home on Rosario Street, Bacolod City reads: "Dr. Mariano Yulo's Park, August 10, 1919". But his granddaughter, Purisima "Awing" Montinola Yulo Reyes, present owner of Yulo's Park, says the house was probably built in the early 1900's. Only the arch was built in 1919.
Dr. Mariano Yulo was of Chinese descent and a hero of the Philippine revolution. He became a Senator of the Philippine Commonwealth, counting among his contemporaries Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, and Elpidio Quirino, all of whom became Presidents of the Philippine Republic. These luminaries were all, at one time or another, guests at Yulo's Park. Mariano initially intended Yulo's Park to be a beach house. During those times, one side of the house faced the sea, but in the 1970's, most of this sea frontage was turned into the Bacolod Reclamation Area.
Mariano was unmarried but sired a son, Alfredo, with a woman from Iloilo. When Mariano died, Alfredo inherited bulk of his properties, including Yulo's Park. Alfredo became Mayor of Bacolod City during the Japanese occupation in the '40's. To gain legitimacy, the Japanese decided to set up their headquarters in Yulo's Park.
"The house has an air raid shelter below it," says Awing Yulo Reyes. "On one corner of the grounds, near the water, the Japanese had their anti-aircraft ammunition. Dogfights with the Americans would happen in full view of the house on the water. My brothers would climb on the coconut trees to watch."
Alfredo Yulo took so many of Bacolod's citizens under his protection during World War II, and at one point his biggest problem was how to find enough food to feed everyone. He also hosted many of the city's fellowship activities in his house. The benches, lampposts, and fountain on the grounds of Yulo's Park are a reminder of the time when the home was fully open to the public. People could come in anytime to drink and hang out, because the house, for a time, was not being used as a regular residence. However, since Awing, her children, and their children relocated to the house after years of living in Manila, the gates of Yulo's Park have been closed. To set up an appointment for viewing, call Awing Yulo Reyes at 034-4346632.
Click here for Part 2.
(This article originally appeared in Mabuhay magazine of Philippine Airlines, February 2007.)
Stephanie Dychiu takes a rare look inside the ancestral homes of Negros Occidental's landed gentry and finds glimpses of a past filled with grandeur, heroism, and nobility.
The romance of hacienda life is fascinating to many, as evidenced by the countless movies and telenovelas that have been produced around the same basic plot of mestizo hacendero caught up in a web of forbidden love and social inequity with beautiful but oppressed daughters of plantation workers. There is, however, another side to the lives of real hacenderos that soap operas fail to capture. True, they were dashing landowners of consummate wealth and a taste for fine living, but they were also far-sighted pioneers and fearless revolutionaries who shaped Philippine economic and political history as we know it today.
In this two-part series, we visit the homes of these charismatic men (and woman) at the heart of hacienda country, the genteel land of Negros Occidental. We begin with the homes of Aniceto Lacson, Enrica Lizares, and Mariano Yulo in this issue, and will continue with the homes of the Montillas, Jalandonis, Gastons, Hofileñas, and Abellos next month.
The Aniceto Lacson House (Hacienda Maria del Rosario/Hacienda Matab-Ang)
If this house looks familiar, it may be because you've seen it in Oro, Plata, Mata, the 1982 film by Negrense director Peque Gallaga. The grand plantation house of Aniceto Lacson in Talisay, Negros Occidental was the seat of power of the Republica Cantonal de Negros, an independent state established by General Aniceto Lacson in November 5, 1898 with his compatriots Juan Araneta and Jose de Luzuriaga, after they successfully bluffed the Spanish governor into signing an act of capitulation. Negros existed as a separate country from the rest of the Philippines for about one-and-a-half years until the Americans took over Spanish rule. Though the Republic of Negros was short-lived, Cinco de Noviembre continues to be celebrated as a special holiday in the province every year, and Aniceto Lacson's house is still referred to by locals as the "Malacañang of the South".
Aniceto Lacson is not written about as much in Philippine history books, but he was a close compatriot of the biggest names of the Philippine revolution. While pursuing his studies in Manila, he became friends with Andres Bonifacio and joined the Katipunan. Later on, he sheltered many hunted katipuneros in his hacienda by disguising them as farm workers. Emilio Aguinaldo stood with him when the Americans entered Negros, and Dr. Jose Rizal was his classmate at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
Cousins Anna Balcells and Carmen "Nena" Rossello, both great-grandchildren of Aniceto Lacson, have happy childhood memories spent in his casa grande in the 1950's and 1960's. Nena spent the first fifteen years of her life at the house, while Anna was part of a troop of almost forty cousins that often came over to visit. Anna gives a quick run-through of the family genealogy: "The house was built by Aniceto Lacson in the 1880's. He was of Chinese descent, and the men who did the wood carvings around the house were all Chinese. Aniceto married Rosario Araneta, after whom the hacienda is named. Their second daughter, Carmen, inherited the house. She married Ricardo Claparols, a man from Barcelona. This is why the house is sometimes called the Claparols Mansion." The mothers of Anna and Carmen also wound up marrying men from Barcelona, whom they met during their travels, and both girls spent a large part of their adult lives in the capital of Catalunia before returning to their childhood home in Talisay, Negros.
Upon her return from twenty years of living in Barcelona, Anna was heartbroken when she saw the fragile state of her great-grandfather's house. No family members have lived there full-time since the house was damaged by a terrible storm in 1969 or 1970. "The house is sinking," explains Nena. The cousins, together with other relatives, put up the General Aniceto Lacson Ancestral House (GALAH) Foundation to raise funds for rehabilitating the house and transforming it into a museum. Those who would like to set an appointment to view the house, or contribute to the conservation fund, can call Anna at 034-4953500, or Nena at 034-4952771. "The house has been declared a national landmark by the government," says Anna, "so it cannot be destroyed. Our family wants to leave the house as a legacy to Negros and the whole country. Many people consider it the grandest ancestral house in the Philippines."
The Kapitana Dicang Lizares House
Among all the houses included in this feature that allow viewing by appointment, the one of Doña Enrica "Kapitana Dicang" Alunan Lizares in Talisay is in the best state of preservation. Nearly every structure of the house is original from the 1880's, when the house was first built, from the furniture to the small items like the dinnerware, antique telephone, and Tana Dicang's very detailed accounting ledger from 1902 (with entries in Spanish written in the elegant hand of her personal scribe).
Doña Enrica gained the monicker "Kapitana" because her husband, Efigenio, was Capitan Municipal of Talisay. Throughout her life, Tana Dicang was influential in politics, her advice sought by the many important officials who visited her home. President Manuel L. Quezon and Vice-President Sergio Osmeña came over often, and one of Tana Dicang's sons, Simplicio, was a member of the 1935 Constitutional Convention that drafted the first Philippine Constitution.
The present caretaker of Tana Dicang's house, Tess Torrecampo, now in her fifties and the niece of the previous caretaker of the house, grew up within the grounds and is well-versed in the minutiae of keeping the late doña's home functional and clean. Kapitana's much-valued collection of china, glass, and silver ware, which had their own special hiding place in a well that was dug up in the garden when the Japanese were en route to occupying the house in World War II, is taken out of the platera for polishing on a fixed schedule. Once the cleaning is done, each item is carefully listed down in a logbook to ensure not a single piece is misplaced. When everything is in order, the platera is locked. "She was very, very thrifty," says Tess of the feisty and skillful matriarch who, even in her final years, had the discipline to include a directive in her will allocating a portion of the earnings of two of her farms to the upkeep of her house after her death. Tana Dicang passed away at the age of eighty-seven while fleeing the Japanese in 1942. She had given birth to seventeen children in her lifetime. She left her house to six of her daughters as a refuge, in case they, like her, were widowed or separated from their husbands.
"The house is a pueblo house, not a plantation house," explains Adrian Lizares, great-grandson of Tana Dicang. "It's built in classic bahay-na-bato style, designed to withstand earthquakes." As with caretaker Tess, the housekeeping particulars are a pet topic of Adrian. He says the toilets are flushed on a regular schedule—although no family member has lived in the house full-time since 1997—just to keep the antiquated plumbing on its toes. In the olden days before Tess had her mechanized floor polisher, the hardwood floors were buffed using a large burlap sack with small children on top being hauled about by a man.
About three times a year, members of the extensive Lizares family gather in Tana Dicang's house for various events. Adrian's best childhood memories of the house were of his lola Encarnacion, one of the daughters of Tana Dicang. "My assignment was to bring her pizza whenever she played mahjongg," he says. "I made the pizza myself by copying from the Time-Life Recipes of the World cookbook."
To view Tana Dicang's house in Talisay, schedule an appointment with Flor, Adrian's secretary, at 034-4954638.
Yulo's Park
An arch at the entrance of the Yulo ancestral home on Rosario Street, Bacolod City reads: "Dr. Mariano Yulo's Park, August 10, 1919". But his granddaughter, Purisima "Awing" Montinola Yulo Reyes, present owner of Yulo's Park, says the house was probably built in the early 1900's. Only the arch was built in 1919.
Dr. Mariano Yulo was of Chinese descent and a hero of the Philippine revolution. He became a Senator of the Philippine Commonwealth, counting among his contemporaries Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, and Elpidio Quirino, all of whom became Presidents of the Philippine Republic. These luminaries were all, at one time or another, guests at Yulo's Park. Mariano initially intended Yulo's Park to be a beach house. During those times, one side of the house faced the sea, but in the 1970's, most of this sea frontage was turned into the Bacolod Reclamation Area.
Mariano was unmarried but sired a son, Alfredo, with a woman from Iloilo. When Mariano died, Alfredo inherited bulk of his properties, including Yulo's Park. Alfredo became Mayor of Bacolod City during the Japanese occupation in the '40's. To gain legitimacy, the Japanese decided to set up their headquarters in Yulo's Park.
"The house has an air raid shelter below it," says Awing Yulo Reyes. "On one corner of the grounds, near the water, the Japanese had their anti-aircraft ammunition. Dogfights with the Americans would happen in full view of the house on the water. My brothers would climb on the coconut trees to watch."
Alfredo Yulo took so many of Bacolod's citizens under his protection during World War II, and at one point his biggest problem was how to find enough food to feed everyone. He also hosted many of the city's fellowship activities in his house. The benches, lampposts, and fountain on the grounds of Yulo's Park are a reminder of the time when the home was fully open to the public. People could come in anytime to drink and hang out, because the house, for a time, was not being used as a regular residence. However, since Awing, her children, and their children relocated to the house after years of living in Manila, the gates of Yulo's Park have been closed. To set up an appointment for viewing, call Awing Yulo Reyes at 034-4346632.
Click here for Part 2.
(This article originally appeared in Mabuhay magazine of Philippine Airlines, February 2007.)
