Monday, April 30, 2007 Editorial: Young love for the old
“VIGAN,” once wrote architect Augusto Villalon, “has become the generic term for anything old and Hispano-Filipino.”
But Vigan’s architect was reportedly impressed enough to gush that “the south of Cebu is more than Vigan,” says Honorary Spanish Consul Jaime Picornell, after the visitor witnessed how present-day Cebuanos continue to live out their routines against a rich tapestry of tangible and intangible reminders of the past.
Teaching the grassroots how to tightrope between development and legacy is the challenge faced by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.’s (Rafi) Cultural Heritage Program, says its executive director Dr. Jocelyn Gerra.
While publicity campaigns have recently promoted local delicacies, crafts, symbols and trivia to draw in tourists and bring about economic resurgence in towns, stakeholders in these communities have to “know” first, then “understand,” “appreciate” and “love” their heritage before the past can pass on its lessons, reflects Rafi chief operating officer Dominica Chua.
As a heritage advocate, Rafi puts its stake in training first the youth to appreciate heritage resources and later, educators to integrate heritage appreciation in their lessons.
History guardians
Under the painted four-century-old vaulted roof of Nuestra Señora del Patrocinio de Maria, history student Bethany Oraca briefs visitors about the restoration of of the Boljoon church, a national historical landmark and the only church complex that is in the list of National Cultural Treasures.
A regular college student in Cebu City, Oraca finds time to commute back to his hometown and support the activities of the Boljoon Heritage Foundation (BHF), which is undertaking the restoration of the church, along with the Province of Cebu and other partners.
His childhood memories of the church lend his commentary during the church’s guided tour a certain whimsy, as well as poignancy. Pointing to the grand staircase, he recalls sliding down the tugas (molave) handrail while waiting for Flores de Mayo practices to start.
The town’s museum-in-the-making holds an impressive collection of religious icons and artifacts. But the inventory is already much diminished, following unexplained losses and thefts in the past, Oraca observes. Without a curator and staff to run the museum, it’s up to BHF officials and volunteers to safeguard the ecclesiastical treasures from further looting or even damage by the elements and termites.
Gen X warriors
Argaoanon Rechie delos Reyes poorly reins in his disgust when he narrates the failure of authorities to report to police the losses and disappearances of priceless relics from the San Miguel Archangel Parish Church and museum.
The heritage volunteer strictly enforces the “no picture-taking” rule inside the museum, whose gold and silver rooms display the relics that have not been spirited away or “desecrated yet.” Delos Reyes is scathing, too, about the decision to paint the church altar in blinding gold, reducing what was one of the country’s most ornate to the merely dubious.
Oraca and delos Reyes are among the youth leaders trained by Rafi in heritage identification, documentation, valuation and interpretation. While heritage work is perceived to interest only the mature and there is a standing bias that today’s youth is rootless, the youthful partners of Rafi’s Cebu Heritage Frontier Project have more than acquitted themselves.
If the heritage towns of Argao, Dalaguete, Boljoon and Oslob should have a resurgence, perhaps it will not be by way of PR campaigns and tourism caravans but by the unsullied and the altruistic: youth’s idealism.
