245. Carnival Mementos: PRESENTATION TROPHIES

LOVING CUPS & TROPHIES.Beautifully crafted silver trophies were presented to winners of various sports and music competitions organized during the Carnival days. These trophies are from 1912-13.

The Manila Carnival attractions included not just the Carnival Queen search but also the serious sports competitions participated by athletes fielded by schools and government bureaus. The sports events included Athletics, Basketball, Softball, Cycling, Indian Club and other field demonstration sports.

The winners were rewarded with beautiful presentation trophies, most of which were made by the talyer of Crispulo Zamora, who, together with his wife Pelagia, operated a successful metalcraft business in Quiapo, which he inherited from his father. His engraving plant, the biggest in the Philippines, also made religious plaques, school medals and metal buttons for the military.

His works for the Carnival first gained notice at the 1913 edition, where he made a precious array of trophies for contest winners and designed the magnificent crowns of the Carnival queens. His designs were always striking and imaginative, often mixing Art Nouveau, and later Art Deco style with Philippine motifs like bamboo, anahaw leaf and Filipina maidens.

Above are some of the magnificent silver trophies that Zamora designed and crafted,  each, a worthy and a fitting award to an athlete, for a job well done.

165. TANGHALAN NG PILIPINAS: A Philippine Showcase at the 1912 Primera Exposicion Filipinas

(translated from ‘Sariling Tala ng Renacimiento Filipino’, February 12 issue)

ILOCOS NORTE
The farming industry and probably, in the future, mining, is the source and wellspring of wealth of Ilocos Norte.I The woven products of Paoay are charming and durable. Praiseworthy too are the blankets and towels that they make. The natives take advantage of the abundant bamboo and rattan that grows there; they are made into chairs, salakots, beds and many more. The wood cut from the mountains of Solana, Piddig, Vintar and other towns are made into clothes cabinets (aparadors), tables, beds, hampers, hats and other items of note. The leaves of the ‘sarakat’ (a palm variety) plant are woven into sleeping mats and table runners in Banggi. We also noted that they make beautiful salakots of fine finish. There are knives with very good blades.

Palay is also one precious commodity valued by the province; the natives have more than sufficient supply, and the surplus is brought to nearby provinces—what more if there was a better water irrigation system.

Those, however, are not just the province’s riches; there are also its cotton threads, and in the earth’s belly comes valuable ores and minerals like magnesium, asbestos, yeso (gypsum), almagre (red ochre), coal and many more. It is hoped that these ores would bring a never-ending fountain of richness for Ilocos Norte.


PANGASINAN
The pleasing arrangement of the objects on display and the artful, visually-appealing product presentations are what make the Pangasinan exhibit impressive even to those with discriminating taste. At the door, the visitor gets the distinct impression of entering an expansive palace.

That’s because Pangasinan is the province that leads in palay harvest nationwide—and the husk (ubay) of the palay was used to decorate the interior of the booth, all the way to the center stage. Adding more appeal is a mandala of palay that serves as a centerpiece. Surrounding this mandala are spaces that contains the names of the wide rice variety of the province.

The interior columns inside the palace-like palay pavilion are wrapped with coconuts.

In the captioned picture placed in the center of the booth, we read of Pangasinan’s harvest tally for a year: 15 million pesos worth of palay, 2 million and 400 thousand pesos' worth of tobacco, 1 million and 800 thousand worth of coconut and hundreds of thousands’ worth of “pawid” (nipa roofing sheets), monggo and sugar which constitutes about 24 million pesos in value.

One should not also miss the sombreros from Calasiao: there were many of these on display made by a few women.

Pangasinan won a prizes for ‘the most artistic booth’.

MOROLAND
Moroland’s showcase is full to the brim with valuable objects. There are large conches filled with corn grains or pearls, and there are many Moro attires, rattan chairs, wooden tables, hat racks and utensils made of brass, chalk ware, beautiful mats, whips, fish nets and many, many more.

On one side, one can view a variety of sharp spears, gleaming krises and blades; also here are hand-made ‘lantakas’ (cannons) and other Moro battle gear.

It is important to know that these are in great demand in Europe and America where they are bought for good prices, including rubber, almaciga wood, kala (tortoiseshell) or karey, sugarcane, palay, abaca, monggo, camote (yams), linga (sesame), peanuts, dapo (orchids), corn, tobacco, coffee, assorted stoneware and many more. The provinces of Moroland also have wooden produce like gibo, balakbakan, narig (all hardwood trees), lumbayaw (a rice variety), lawan, kalantas (lumber trees), yellow narra and many more.

The cynosure of many visitors’s eye is a small house where resides Datu Diki-Diki. This Moro has a height of just 2 feet, 10 inches and weighs 30 pounds at 37 years of age.

This showcase was given a prize for it’s “biggest number of quality goods”.


SAMAR
The showcase is decorated with abaca, which rivals the best abaca in the land. Samar, other than abaca, also produces palay, kalibiib, earth ore, vegetables like ube, gabi, squash , araro (arrowroot), and other harvests.

The natives are fond of making luxurious mats, salakot and tampipi (woven storage chests). They also weave piña fabrics. From the forests of Samar, one can get long and sturdy rattan. There are about 23 kinds of wood that can be used in the making of very durable wooden items. There are also many varieties of shell from the sea. We also saw a few mineral produce like black coal from the earth.

A live snake about 30 feet long, with a circumference as wide as a man’s thigh was kept in a cage—the object of the crowd’s fascination. Samar was awarded a prize for 3rd class provinces.

CAMARINES SUR
Ambos Camarines (Southern Camarines) won’t be left behind with its display of unique treasures. This province also produces abaca, palay, corn, sugar cane, coconuts and many more. Like the others, it also turns out good and sturdy rattan seats and polished sombreros that are of very good finish.


Wood of varying durability and long, thick rattan can be found in the forests and mountains of Camarines.

The more valuable display of this province are its mineral ores that are a source of paracale and tumbaga (low class gold). In the shores of some of its towns, one can also find many paka and all sorts of shellfish.

163. Carnival Beauties: ROSARIO F. REYES, 1912 La Princesa Zenza de Mindanaw

PRINSESA ZENZA DE MINDANAW, Rosario Reyes y Fernandez of Camiguin reigned in the Mindanano Court of the Queen of Mindanao, who happned to be her elder sister, Remedios. The Reyes sisters were known all over the island as enchanting beauties. Ca. 1912.

The 1912 El Dia Filipino del Carnaval was unique in several aspects especially with the selection of Carnival beauties that saw the crowning of the “Matrona de Filipinas”, Paz Marquez. She was attended by regional queens representing Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, who, in turn, had also had their own array of ‘damas y consortes’, making for a larger royal contingent that rivalled that of the first Carnival.

The Mindanao Queen who bore the fancy title “La Sultana Zoraida de Mindanaw” was Remedios F. Reyes of Camiguin Island whose sisters were just as beautiful. When she won, she called on her sisters to be part of her court. A younger sibling, Rosario Reyes, thus became one of her princesses, assuming the title, "Prinsesa Zenza de Mindanaw".

Born in Mambajao in 1893, Rosario was the daughter of Don Rafael Reyes and Dña. Rafaela Haro Fernandez, rich hacenderos who were well-known in the whole of Camiguin. All their daughters were schooled in the finest institutions; just like elder sister Remedios, Charing was sent to the Colegio de Sta. Catalina in Manila, then moved to the Colegio de Sta. Isabel for 3 years. To further expand her horizons, she and her sisters moved to Hong Kong and became an intern at the Convento Italiano for another 3 years, to pursue a course in Fine Arts.

She so excelled in painting, winning a medal for her work, “ Un Dia Invernal”, at the 1908 Exposicion de Bellas Artes held in Manila. Four years after, at the age of 19, she would grace the Queen of Mindanao court as one of its lovely muses. A write-up about her described her thus: Endearing is how we call Charing, and she is truly a woman of allure and attraction, all at the same time. (“Cariñosa la llaman CHARING y ella es verdaderamente una mujer seductora y attractive y al mismo tiempo”.)

160. THE 1912 SAN PABLO CARNIVAL

Another early supporter of the annual Manila Carnival was the province of “La Laguna”, whose people followed the happenings in the capital city with anticipation and excitement. Just like other provinces that caught the Carnival bug, Laguna also sought to replicate the spirit and the success of the national fair, by holding its own provincial carnival.

The rich coconut town of San Pablo was chosen as the site of the carnival, planned from March 28 to 30, 1913. The organizers put their energies to motion, vowing to compete with the Manila Carnival in terms of grandeur and gaiety. They sought to attract local tourists by drumming up the search for their own “Reina de Carnaval”, and early on, two formidable candidates for the crown loomed, which was played to the hilt in the national press.

The first frontrunner to the crown was the 16 year old beauty, Pacita “Paz” Paulino. The daughter of businessman Marcos Paulino, Paz, at such a young age, was an accomplished pianist, noted for her expressive interpretation of opera favorites and classical pieces, performed with heart and soul. Musically-gifted, highly cultured, Paz enchants, with both her beauty and talent, earning early approval from her provincemates.

Standing in her way is the mestiza beauty Rosario Fule, just 17 years old, but already a popular figure in her home province, famed for her good breeding, admirable personality, and a kind of facial beauty that never fails to fascinate.

We would never know who brought home the crown ( subsequent issues of El Renacimiento did not carry follow-up news), but for sure, the real winner was the province itself, which pulled off its first ever Carnival successfully—not on the same league as the Manila Carnival as ambitiously envisioned—but worthy enough to merit coverage on the country’s leading dailies of that time.

25. 1912, Reina del Dia Americana, MATTIE MAY LAW

REINA DEL DIA AMERICANA DEL CARNAVAL 1912. Mattie May Law, American Day Queen.


The 1912 Manila Carnival started the trend of having a “Philippine Day” (Dia Filipinas) and an “American Day” (Dia Americana) in its schedule of activities. The muse of Americans was Mattie May Law, an American resident. Little is known about her. Unlike the 1908 Occidental Queen who shared queenship of the Carnival, the American Day Queen limited her engagements to a week-end of festivities dedicated to showcasing America’s best in the Carnival.

24. 1912, Reina de Mindanao, REMEDIOS FERNANDEZ REYES

1912 REINA DE MINDANAO, Remedios Reyes y Fernandez of Camiguin Island. 3rd princess to the 1912 Carnival Queen, Paz Marquez.

It was said that the most beautiful girls from Mindanao came from Mambajao, in the island of Camiguin. It was here that Remedios Reyes was “discovered”, when Gov. Gen. W. Cameron Forbes, accompanied by Bureau of Health director Dr. Felipe Arenas, went on an inspection tour of Mindanao. In Mambajao, the group was feted by Don Rafael Reyes whose late wife Rafaela Fernandez, was a relative of Dr. Arenas. The Reyes daughters, noted beauties of the town, were all in attendance.

SU MAJESTAD, ZORAIDA DE MINDANAW. Srta. Remedios Reyes, handpicked for the Mindanao queenship by W. Cameron Forbes.

As it was also Carnival season at that time, Gov. Gen. Forbes handpicked Remedios—the youngest of the Reyes children—to reign as Queen or Sultana of Mindanao. Rafaela died while Meding was only 9 years old, so she was left in the care of her aunt in Manila, Dna. Candida Wright. She was sent to study at the Italian Convent in Hong Kong where she learned to speak British English.

THE MINDANAO COURT, in authentic Muslim royal regalia.

GRAND SULTAN, Sr. Baldomero Pelaez was the official King Consort of Mindanao Queen, Remedios Reyes. He comes from a family that includes the statesman and politician Emmanuel Pelaez.

As Sultana Zoraida de Mindanaw, Remedios assembled her court which consisted of her sisters (sister Rosario was Princesa Zenza de Mindanaw) and cousins. She was escorted by the Grand Sultan, Sr. Baldomero Pelaez. She was a lifelong friend of Amparo Noel, Queen of the Visayas, whom she knew long before the Carnival.

QUEEN OF MINDANAO, Remedios Reyes in her Filipiniana finery.

Unlike previous queens, Remedios did not marry after her reign. It was only 10 years after that she wed Capt. Jesus Medina, a ship officer from Isabela but with Spanish ancestry. Married in Manila, they settled in Vermont St. in Malate. The union resulted four children: Guillermina, Gloria, Mario and Rene.

During World War II, the family was suffered ed when Remedios was hit by shrapnel at the height of the siege of Manila which caused her to be hospitalized for 7 months. A decade after, in 1955, she died of cancer, ahead of her husband.

23. 1912, Reina de Visayas, AMPARO BENITEZ NOEL

1912 REINA DE VISAYAS, Amparo Noel y Benitez of Carcar, Cebu, 2nd princess of the 1912 Carnival Queen, Paz Marquez.

Amparo Noel y Benitez, was the undisputed Reina de Visayas in the court of Paz Marquez, who reigned as the 1912 Matrona de Filipinas in that year’s Carnival. It is interesting to note that Paz Marquez also married a Benitez later in her life. Amparing, as she was called, had a renowned beauty which she inherited from her mother, Maria Benitez. She was a famous Espanola beauty in her time, who had married Vicente Noel of Carcar, an idyllic town less than an hour’s drive from Cebu.

BISAYA BEAUTY. Amparing in her official corontaion portrait, resplendent in authentic Visayan garb.

Nyora Amparing came second in a brood of 13 children.Her beauty has been described as “almost perfect”, with a patrician nose, dreamy (“mapungay”) eyes, delicately-shaped mouth, fine cheekbones and very fair skin.

VISAYAN QUEEN, with her prince consort Juan Orbeta and her 6 court attendants.

At the coronation night, Amparo had Juan Orbeta, a dashing Spanish mestizo. also of Cebu as her escort. Three years later, Amparo married Dr. Jose Ma. Borromeo, (d. 1959), who was 8 years her senior. Dr. Borromeo apparently had the vote of Amparing’s parents. Of this union, 7 children were born: Milagros, Rosario Josefina, Dolores, Ramon, Jose Jr., Manuel and Luis.

WEDDED BLISS. Amparing and husband, Dr. Jose Ma. Borromeo, with two daughters, Milagros and Rosario Josefina.

Ramon, the eldest son, also became a doctor, an orthopedist of repute, and married another national beauty, Myrna Sese Panlilio, the 1st Bb. Pilipinas-Universe 1964, of San Fernando, Pampanga. (Two other brothers also married Kapampangans). In her later years, she would suffer from diabetes and survived several surgeries performed no less than by his son, who has also since passed away.

22. 1912, Reina de Luzon: PACITA BANTUG DE GUZMAN

1912 REINA DE LUZON, Pacita De Guzman y Bantug of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. 1st princess of Manila Carnival Queen, Paz Marquez.

The Reina de Luzon who ranked next after Paz Marquez was, by some amazing circumstance, also nicknamed Paz—and also one of the products of the Philippine Normal School, in the same circle of “Dormitory Girls”. Born in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, she was the daughter of Santiago de Guzman and Feliciano Bantug.

LADY OF LUZON. Crowned Luzon Queen, Pacita de Guzman was also a member of the "Dormitory Girls", who were educated under the American system and who were favored to attend Malacanang functions.

Pacita finished her Education course at the University of the Philippines in 1912 and thereafter taught at the Manila North High School, the future Arellano High School. She handled a Biology class, but because of her musical background (she studied voice under Maestra Jovita Fuentes), she was appointed directress of the glee club. She directed operettas, presented musical numbers for school events and even had a number of future celebrity-students under her: actors Fernando Poe Sr., Carmen Rosales, Rogelio de la Rosa and radio/broadcast personalities Koko Trinidad and Luz Baluyot.

PACITA IN HER PRIME. Taken in the 1920s, when Pacita was a teacher at the Manila North High School. There, she made her mark as the director of the glee club.

In the early ‘30s, Pacita took a leave from teaching and traveled to Europe for further musical and language studies. It was in Marseille, France that she married Ramon Silos (the younger brother of Claro M. Recto’s first wife). The couple were childless. She continued teaching at Arellano High until the war, when she and other Maryknoll sisters were taken and incarcerated in Fort Santiago for 3 months. She was never the same after the war.

She lived with her widowed sister, Matilde in the late ‘40s and it was there that she was felled by a stroke. She never recovered and passed away in June 1956.

21. 1912, Queen of the Manila Carnival, PAZ JURADO MARQUEZ

1912 MANILA CARNIVAL QUEEN. Paz Marquez y Jurado of Tayabas, Quezon. She went on to become one of the leading lights in Philippine writing in English.

Once again in 1912, the Manila Carnival was staged with attendant fanfare and excitement. That year, the royal crown went to Paz Marquez y Jurado, an accomplished woman from a well-known family from Tayabas, and one of the first to be educated under the American system.

LA MATRON DA FILIPINAS. 'Dormitory Girl' Paz Marquez was one of the first graduates of the University of the Philippines.

Born in 1894, Paz was the second of 12 children of Gregorio Marquez and Maria Jurado, herself, a beauty queen in her hometown, Magsingal, Ilocos Norte. Maria was often referred to there as “La Estrella del Norte”. Paz went to local schools and attended Tayabas High School for her secondary education.

THE AUDITORIUM OF THE 1912 MANILA CARNIVAL. At Wallace Field, Luneta Park. site of the coronation of Paz Marquez.

As was the case with landed families, Paz was sent off to study at the Normal School in Manila, established by Americans. She stayed in the school dormitory under the watchful eye of their den mother, a certain Mrs. Burton, a widow of a U.S. senator. Her “Dormitory Girls”, as the elite group came to be known, learned English, adopted American ways and were trained social skills and proper deportment. The group, whose members also count Socorro (her sister), Francisca Tirona (her future sister in law) and Pacita de Guzman, became quite popular and were often invited to the Malacanang social functions hosted by Gov. Gen. W. Cameron Forbes, a bachelor.

Little did the members know that that they were being eyed for the queenship of the Carnival. But it was the slim 18 year old Paz—who, at 5’4” stood taller than the other girls—who was singled out for her beauty, brains and deportment to wear the prestigious title of “Matrona de las Filipinas” of the 1912 Carnival.

PAZ BE WITH YOU. Svelte, fair, tall and pretty--Paz was the top choice for the queenship, plucked from Mrs. Burton's 'Dormitory Girls'.

Her father, Don Gregorio was not pleased with the idea, and it took the Carnival Committee to convince him to give his consent. He acquiesced and the first thing he did was to write a congratulatory letter to his daughter: “Quiero ser el primero para render homenaje a los pies de la Reyna de Filipinas “ (I wish to be the first to render homage at the feet of the Queen of the Philippines).

The appointment of the Queens in the 1912 edition of the Carnival was significant in that the selected beauties were really from the regions they represented, and not according to their placements in the ballot count. Queen Paz was thus attended to by Reyna de Luzon, Pacita de Guzman (Nueva Ecija), Reyna de Visayas, Amparo Noel (Cebu) and Reyna de Mindanao, Remedios Reyes (Camiguin). They were also the first set of queens to wear national and regional dresses, as opposed to the European-influenced wardrobes of the past Queens.

THE 1912 ROYAL COURT. Paz, surrounded by a bevy of princesses, dressed in traditional Filipina costumes, a first in the carnival.

After her reign, it was business as usual for Paz, going back to her books to finish her Liberal Arts course at the U.P. She spoke sparingly of this moment in her life, even denying the fact that she was once a national beauty queen. She managed to have herself excluded from the souvenir programs of later Carnivals, which had pictures of past queens (only her “damas” were featured.)

Going back to her first love—literary writing—she founded founded Women’s Home Journal, the first women’s magazine in the country in 1919. One of the columnists was Leonarda Limjap, the 1908 Carnival winner who gave up her crown.

Paz is well-known for authoring the first Filipino modern English-language short story--Dead Stars—published in the Philippine Herald in 1925, now considered a classic in Philippine literature. She also became a professor of composition and English at the University of the Philippines . Later, she would set up St. John’s Academy in San Juan, together with her sisters.

It was at the U.P. that Paz met Francisco Benitez, also a former student of Normal School and a pensionado sent to study at the United States. Francisco's father, Higino, had been one of the original signers of the Malolos Constitution. Tasked with organizing the university’s College of Education, Francisco started the publication of “The Philippine Journal of Education”, which Paz would eventually edit.

PAZ AND FRANCISCO AT THEIR WEDDING. 20 year-old Paz and Dean Francisco Benitez of Laguna, a government pensionado, were a perfect match. Dean Benitez became a leading educator of the country, helping establish the College of Education at U.P.

It is interesting to note that Francisco’s brother, Conrado, married Francisca Tirona, a former “Dormitory Girl” like Paz, and founder of the Philippine Women’s College in 1919. Thus, in 1914, when Paz got married to Francisco, everybody agreed at the compatibility of the partnership.

The couple had 4 children—Francisco jr., Virginia, Roberto and Vicente Rafael. Francsico died of a sudden heart attack in 1951. Paz continued to edit “The Philippine Journal” till her late 80s. Paz died in 1983. The annual Paz Marquez-Benitez Lectures honor her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipina writers to Philippine Literature in English. Her biography, “Paz Marquez Benitez: One Woman’s Life, Letters, and Writings” was published by her daughter, Virginia, in 1995.