Map taken from
Tourists go to Vigan to travel back in time. It is one of those places where the visitor is harkened to a far distant period of history when the Philippines was still a mere colony of the mighty Spanish Empire, just another one among a collection of other formerly subjugated territories like Cuba and Mexico.
From the vantage point of the present, that bygone era seems so faded in memory and recollection that any mention of it might well be as boring as an interminable history lesson from any sour-faced college professor with an irascible temper--or as dull as a visit to any musty old museum. Places like Vigan bring the old textbooks and antique artifacts back to a reality anyone can easily touch and feel and smell and see.
Photo Taken From:The heart of tourism in Vigan is the Heritage Park, a large tract of land comprising rows upon rows of so-called "ancestral houses" neatly divided by cobblestone streets. Visitors to the park are fully immersed in the old epoch--that is, if anyone could easily understand how a backpacker traipsing along the Great Wall would almost be able to relive the tension of Mongol hordes invading the Chinese mainland, it would be as easy to see how a casual walk through the Heritage Park evokes the same austere pulse of life anybody would have experienced had he or she existed 200 years ago.
The Heritage Park area has enough bustling shops, commercial kiosks, and tourist activity lining the streets to make for an almost festive ambience, yes, but the patrician architecture of the houses tends to impose a certain somnolence upon the mind and the senses. An unmistakeable stoic nobility permeates everything here. It is said that the houses in the Park were a big part of what distinguished Vigan as a prominent city during the Spanish occupation.
Photo Taken From:They were by no means the run-of-the-mill dwellings of the ordinary Pinoy--on the contrary, they were the strongholds of the rich and powerful, those at the crest of society. And they were designed and built inside and out to magnificently portray this majesty. It can be argued that while the present day state of California in the US has its Beverly Hills, the province of Ilocos Sur had its own array of expensive homes in Vigan City during the height of the Empre of Spain. The equivalent of Ferraris crisscrossing wide and paved streets leading to ostentanious garages would back then have been resplendent horse-drawn carriages clattering on cobblestone surfaces sweeping into puertita's ( or "main door"--large enough to accommodate the carriages ) and caballoreza's ( a sort of horse stable ).
Photo Taken From:
The passage of time has seen these ancestral houses having lost a considerable degree of the lustre and prestige they may perhaps have once enjoyed. Still, it wouldn't be hard to picture any pathetic roughneck Pinoy during those times straying into those streets and feeling the full weight of bourgeoisie antipathy beating his sensibilities down to submission.
Each society would have its enduring monuments to the high and mighty segment of its population, from the old eras to the present. The Great Wall of China can be cited once again as a popular example.
Photo Taken From:
It cannot be denied that the Great Wall was conceived out of pure genius. Its seemingly intractable permanence, its overwhelming sweep and grandiosity cannot but greatly impress anyone who cares to visit. However, the significance of the Great Wall lies not just in the pomposity of its physical beauty and dimensions. Equally as important and as permanent is the memory of the millions of slaveworkers who suffered in almost unfathomable torment during its construction. Simply put, the Wall is as much a testament to an ancient Empire's resounding achievements as well as its society's outrageous forms of depravity.
In the same way, the historic ancestral houses of Vigan may be viewed, in one perspective, as a gloriously successful attempt to transplant the Spanish imperial-era aesthetic in architecture from Europe--all the way across the Pacific into Philippine soil. That in itself makes worthwhile all the effort invested into the continuing nurture and upkeep of the Heritage Park's historical treasures. Indeed, even the United Nations has already recognized Vigan City as a World Heritage Site, a distinction which serves to greatly bolster the point.
And yet...there equally is great merit in pointing out that the Heritage Park's lasting legacy should not simply end with mere visual appreciation or the obligatory video or photo opportunities. Just like the Great Wall of China, whatever beauty can be seen is only one perspective, and ought not blight out numerous other, less appealing memories--no matter how decidedly reprehensible they might turn out to be.
Because if the Great Wall of China has many deplorable aspects to its history, the Heritage Park, too, would reflect its own share of sad stories from its own past.
The rule of the Spanish is bar none the worst period in Philippine history, even when taking into account the atrocities inflicted by the Japanese during World War II. For nearly 3 centuries, or a span of about 8 generations, the Spanish authorities instituted so tight a stranglehold of repression among nearly every Pinoy alive that a whole nation of millions became maltreated slaves.
Photo Taken From:This doesn't necessarily come as any great surprise, since the Spaniards' policy of brutal subjugation had been enforced over all of their colonies, whether in Asia or in the Americas. Whole races and populations were thus mercilessly and systematically reduced to impoverished servilitude, an existence defined by lack of proper education, the absence of any form of empowerment, widespread dehumanization, and perhaps most damning of all--the malicious and deliberate curruption of otherwise functional civilizations into underpriviligeded masses. Widespread hunger, forced labor, unjust taxation, government-sanctioned acquisition of personal property--all of these violations to human dignity were performed relentlessly and on a day-to-day basis. And they are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Heritage Park once was the enclave of the minute few among the populace who enjoyed immunity from the harsh conditions of the majority around them. It was the haven of the nobility which arose out of the nefarious practices designed by the Spanish colonizers that sought to siphon monetary gain into the hands of their small band of cohorts. Every homeowner here had to kowtow to all the policies of the ruling colonizers and heartily enforce the very mechanisms through which even more native Pinoys could be roped in and harnessed like any domesticated work animal.
Inside their homes, the occupants could wallow in their own self-enriching pursuits and caprices, parlor games and ballroom soirees, all the while perfectly insulated from the hue and cry of squalor and suffering outside. The sturdy walls, luxurious windows, palatial courtyards, and immaculately manicured lawns all served to segregate the elite ruling class from the lowly servant. While countless Pinoys starved and toiled and sweated, the ruling class in their small numbers could retreat into their cozy parlors and wake up in the mornings well-rested and well-fed, the only concern uppermost in their minds that of making their own house better-looking than their next-door neighbor's.
Photo Taken From:
Today, it has been over 100 years since the Spanish Empire fell in disgrace. The Philippines has managed to become its own sovereign nation after overcoming numerous obstacles, including its own internal strife and wars with other countries. And what were once the stately dwelling-places of the powerful in Vigan are now tourist attractions.
Should it be considered that the ancestral houses of the Heritage Park are simply the mere remnants of an unconscionable era that has long been eradicated with the departure of the colonizers, then contemporary Pinoy society, by all means, should finally heave its collective sigh of relief. However, the shameful fact is that slavery and oppression continues on unabated until today, long after the derelict physical traces of the Spanish era began eroding.
The province of Ilocos Sur--of which Vigan City is the capital--is one place where the pernicious demarcation line between the powerful few and the powerless majority stays perpetually unmoved. The harsh realities which the typical Ilocano had to endure under Spanish rule remain unabated until now. Desperate poverty, lack of education, slave-like labor conditions, improper and unjust administration of law and order, the severe lack of opportunities to lift oneself up from the crushing status quo--these are only some examples which illustrate how the present seems so similar to the past.
The only people who apparently enjoy lives steeped in riches and power in the province are the so-called "prominent families"--a relatively small group composed of the elite landlord class. This restrictive circle of families, most of whom inherited their largesse from the fortunes of their ancestors dating back from the Spanish era, own and monopolize just about every controlling interest in agriculture, education, commerce, tourism, and even government services. Their stature and the very means by which they protect it bears so much resemblance to how the Spanish royalty used to impose their will over "conquered territories" that the differences between the old and new societies might as well be considered negligible.
Like the time of old, these "prominent families" function as the ruling class of the inveterately underpriviliged population in their jurisdiction. Like the time of old, the gap between the two social segments--the haves and the have-nots--is so wide that the disparity can be judged not only detestable, it is an outright tragedy of the most calamitous proportions.
As recently as the time of this writing, statistical reports even bear out the fact that deprivation and poverty pervade the living conditions in Ilocos Sur:
Clip Taken From:Meanwhile, the ruling class in the province remain secure and insulated within their strongholds, with all their efforts targetted only at sustaining their own high stations, indifferent to the plight of millions at their doorsteps. It would not be too hard to imagine an analogous scenario where the former occupants of the Heritage Park's ancestral houses would have perhaps been engaged in ballroom dances inside their spacious function halls while slaves put in countless hours constructing the very cobblestone streets which their taskmasters will solely have the benefit to utilize.
It is no wonder then that the underprivileged class sees no respite despite the passage of many generations.
Regrettably, this ongoing polarization of society which puts the greater population into a horrendous disadvantage is not only true in Ilocos Sur, but is also concurrently apparent all throughout the Philippines. This experience is also mirrored in many other countries which were once under colonial Spain.
Photo Taken From:There is no mistaking that the attractiveness of Vigan's inheritance of a beautiful district which maps out the past in such visual splendour will entice visitors from all over for years and years to come. The efforts of to preserve these "Hispanic" ancestral houses can never be praised enough. The legacy they bequeath can never be underestimated, and the people of Vigan are rightly proud of the Heritage Park--a sentiment which they tend to demonstrate with effusive fervor.
Much needs to be stated, too, about the ominous irony which can enrich one's experience when coming over as a tourist. Because while the elements and the ravages of time can eventually threaten priceless houses of the Heritage Park, the spirit behind what these houses stood for has remained sturdier and more resilient.
Truly, there are things better dismantled than preserved.
