Heritage of sin

DON Angel Pantaleon de Miranda, in his storied goodness, had only supremely sublime ends in founding Kuliat. Conversely – more aptly, perversely – Angeles, the city that rose out of Kuliat, was conceived and birthed from the loins of an occupying army. How the Don must have convulsed in his grave!
The epithetical “Sodom of the Pacific” summed up the city’s not so distant American past, and impacted in its present as well (Or as badly?).
Sin City has been so etched in the national psyche as an Angeles legacy that it simply cannot be buried in oblivion, not even by the thousand tons of Mt. Pinatubo ash and lahar that devastated the city. Or, if one may, phoenix-like it formed, flew and flourished from that very volcanic ash. Whichever, Sin City is there as ever in all its shameful – or should it be shameless? – ignominy. An unwanted but indefeasible heritage.
Heritage. The word is one hot issue these days, rising from the teapotted tempest that brewed out of the proposed city council resolution of the Honorable Jay Sangil to declare the Grand Palazzo Royale as a city heritage site. Precisely, the alderman argued, to focus on the good and the beautiful in the city and veer it away from its sin image. No fireworks were exchanged though in the council hearing at the Palazzo itself with learned members of the community opening their cultural and historical reservoir of knowledge that was greatly appreciated by all those present.
So, Grand Palazzo Royale may not fit the heritage tag but, in the words of Tourism Director Ronnie Tiotuico, more than qualifies as a “prime tourist attraction.” Interestingly, Tiotuico pointed out that the craftsmanship involved in the construction of the Palazzo, being a skill passed down from preceding generations, is by itself a heritage.
Presently though, a presumed (presumption mine) cultural cognoscente who was not present at the hearing came out in print with a scholarly disquisition on heritage. Thanks to his erudition, we barbarians whose comprehension of heritage was bounded by its dictionary definition of “property that can be inherited” were enlightened with the element of time, historical significance, cultural impact, and ethnic identity that make heritage… well, heritage.
In the practical application of this new-found learning, I am now inclined to lobby the city council to declare Fields Avenue as a city heritage site. It meets the qualifications of time, having been there for as long as anyone can remember; of historical significance – of world proportions at that, playing a pivotal, albeit leisurely, role in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, care-giving to battle-fatigued American GIs; of cultural impact, being the melting pot of Waray, Cebuano, Bicolano, Ilongo and Capampangan culture, pulchritude, even idiosyncracies, if not perversities; of ethnic identity, Fields Avenue is uniquely Angeles City’s.
A bonus, Fields Avenue has an international reputation, being the point of convergence of foreigners, no, make that a miniature United Nations in the city, with its share of just about every nationality: American, Australian, British, Belgian, Swiss, German, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, whatever. To some others though, Fields Avenue could make the Interpol’s rogues’ gallery on the profiles of some of its habitués.
Yet another international factor for Fields Avenue is its having more hits in the Internet than the Angeles City and Pampanga websites combined. Then there was that spread – publicity, good or bad is still publicity – in the glossy GQ magazine late last year, indeed a crowning achievement for Angeles City’s famed avenue of the senses.
Even more qualified than Fields as a city heritage site is the Area, also uniquely Angeles City’s. Pre-war pa, it even holds some anthropological significance being the long-preferred locus of the rite of passage of Capampangan males. The Area easily coasted through the American Period, the Japanese Occupation, and the American Re-Occupation, and survived a number of conflagrations sparked by righteous religious vigilantism. The Area – it is privately acknowledged – even serves as a zone of peace: the combatants – policemen, army troopers, insurgents of all persuasions – laying down their arms there to lie down in the arms of its denizens.
Sin City forever. A fitting heritage for Angeles. Pronounce that the American way –
ein-jeh-less. Meaning, without angels, as in where there is sin there are no angels. Haven’t we read something to this effect somewhere? Yes, The Sinners of Angeles, magnum opus of the Capampangan writer I revere most, Tatang Katoks Tayag. Now, that’s one literary heritage Angelenos should be most proud of.
(Pampanga News, Feb. 2-8, 2006)