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Thursday, February 13, 2003
Reminiscing with Albert Arriba
By Jenara Regis Newman
This assignment to interview Albert Arriba was something I viewed as a chance to catch up with someone who years ago in Miss Gay beauty contests, I always found the most beautiful as well as the most beautifully gowned.
In his beauty salon along Archbishop Reyes across Ayala, I find him casually dressed in a sheer, ruffled yellow blouse worn over beige pants. He’s still a cross-dresser who is admittedly gay, but who does not have the exaggerated feminine gestures or speech one associates with other gay people.
Sun.Star Life and Leisure: When did you realize you were gay?
Albert A. Arriba: Long ago. Maybe when I was five years old? I am the fourth son of my parents, Josefina Abadia Arriba and the late Urbano Arriba. They had hoped I would be a girl and as a baby, my mother would dress me up.
My maternal grandmother lived across us and she would bring me to Taboan with her. On these excursions, she would give me anything I wanted. I would always end up asking for miniature pots and pans or dolls.
SSLL: Did you take up a design course in college?
AAA: No, I dropped out of school. I studied kinder in Ylac San Nicolas, and Grades 1 and 2 in San Nicolas Elementary School, Grades 3 to 6 I was in Santo Niño, and at the University of the Visayas high school. I took up only a year of college, in San Carlos, but I dropped out. I was too busy earning a living.
SSLL: When did you start working?
AAA: I must have been 10 years old in 1958 when I started to help Mama in her beauty parlor, Pingping’s Beauty Salon, in Colon. She gave me P .05 to arrange the small sheets of paper used in cold wave, then an innovation in perming techniques. At that time, P .05 meant really something and that encouraged me. Then, working after school, I went to Freddie Calderon’s in the 60’s for a year or two, and on to Ely Aznar’s Maples, for another year or two. Later I found myself in Mondel’s Gowns in Leon Kilat, and Zeny’s Beauty Salon, also in Leon Kilat. After that, I worked for Hylen’s Beauty Parlor and then moved on to Cecilia’s Beauty Parlor. After two years there, I went to Davao and worked there for a year or two before setting up my own beauty parlor in Sanciangko corner Pelaez st., simply named Albert Arriba. In 1975, the place burned down and I transferred a few doors away, still in Sanciangko st. I was beginning to have a loyal clientele. Paz Yap, Judy Durano, Mrs. Songalia, the Gothong ladies. In 1978, I moved to Ramos. My customers expanded to include Rosebud Sala, Amparito Lhuillier, Mrs. San Pedro, Mingming Gullas. 1978 was also the year I first went abroad, to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Bangkok. The travel bug bit me and I traveled every year, to other destinations like the U.S.
SSLL: The US. That’s where I saw you last, to talk to, in a Santo Niño fiesta in upper Manhattan. I thought that you’d stay permanently there. What happened?
AAA: In one of my travels there, I took a one-week brush-up course in Vidal Sassoon. That was 1984. I went back there to stay in 1988. I worked in LA and New Jersey before finally settling down in New York where my first job was with Vidal Sassoon. That lasted a year and a half, after which I went on my own, serving customers in my apartment across Macy’s.
SSLL: What made you come back here?
AAA: I thought about coming back for a year. Ug mobalik, makakwarta ba kaha ko dinhi? If I stayed on and came back to Cebu at age 80, maybe I will not be able to walk. Unya inig kumusta nako sa akong mga amigo, tingali patay na. Ug buhi, ug mangimbitar ko, tingali ga-wheelchair na, o dili na makakaon ini o ana. Since I meant to come back, I decided to do it then, in 1996, because coming back later might mean coming back to a depressing situation. At first, I had a very small parlor, beside Igloria’s in Lahug. I opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m., and saw customers on a “by appointment” basis. I transferred to my present location in 1998, because the shop beside Igloria’s had become too small. Some of my old clients had started to come back, and some new ones also came.
SSLL: You’ve got a very beautiful place here, with your old furniture and art pieces.
AAA: I buy these things when I have money. Most of them were in storage when I was in New York. I don’t have cash because there’s so much to spend on. Pag-umangkon to see through school. My treasures are what you see in this salon.
SSLL: You used to cross-dress and looked very lovely in your gowns. Do you still do that? And I know you make your clothes and you did clothes, too, in New York, including one for Imelda. Do you still do those now?
AAA: I still cross-dress but only on occasion. I used to participate in all the Miss Gay contests. But now, lie low na ta kay tigulang na ta. Karon ang akong hunahuna magdako lang. I think of going out but faced with all the preparation needed before I can go out, I end up sleeping instead. Unless it’s very important. Yes, I still make clothes, gowns, but only for a very few close friends. I started to design clothes when I was in my early teens. I designed clothes instead of drawing fight scenes or whatever it is other youngsters do.
And I studied for six months at the Sabido’s School of Fashion and Beauty in order to learn how to cut and sew. I don’t have a sastre. I sew the clothes I design myself. It’s mostly a hobby. The mannequin in the showcase of the shop is only for “show”.
SSLL: At 50 something, is there anything else you want to accomplish in life?
AAA: I would like to do two coffeetable books. One on the decades of my career, and another one on Cebu’s fashion designers, starting with Agus and her contemporaries. But what I would also want very much to do is to have a home for the aged or aging gays. I see them nga luoy kaayo nga way kapuy-an. They come, asking for help. Every Christmas, they come. I give them clothes, canned goods. At other times, some come, asking for roof material or things like that. I know a lot of old gays who are poor, pero mabuhi man lang gihapon. Panagsa ra kaayo ka makakita og bayot nga tiguwang nga daghag kwarta. Maluoy sab ko. Basin pag maparehas ta nila. So that’s my dream, a home for them. Naa ba kahay motabang no?
That’s Albert Arriba for you, a cross-dressing gay. From where I sit, he’s a very refined gentleman.
(February 13, 2003 issue)
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