some things we were never taught in school

we then went to syquia mansion, which is a well-maintained, lived-in museum. when we got there, the place was completely closed. but we figured that since it was not a monday, we could get in. we rang the bell a few times, and finally met rusty ponce, the caretaker of the place. he asked us our purpose and where we were from. shortly, he opened the place for us.

as it turns out, the place is, strictly speaking, open for viewing by special arrangement. you have to go to the vigan tourism office, and they would arrange for a visit. but rusty was kind enough to give us a tour seeing as we were already there.
we found out that the syquias descended from the ahkongs--all filipino chinese, whose progenetor was from guangdong, china. the late pres. quirino's wife was a syquia, and when they got married, this mansion became their home.
bit of trivia: quirino was born in the provincial jail because his father was the warden.
more trivia: cory quirino's mom is his second wife. his first wife was killed during the japanese occupation, along with some of his children.
the mansion occupies an entire block, from what we could tell. across the street are the ruins of a structure that the syquias also owned. mr. syquia was a trader and a traveller, and one of his businesses was as a "recruiter" of workers from ilocos who were sent to hawaii--you know, the progenetors of the ilocano americans that worked in places like plantations there. the structure was dubbed "para hawaii", because that's where the ilocanos stayed while waiting for their departure for hawaii.

when we entered the front door of the house, we saw several portraits of pres. quirino hanging on the walls, a door to out left, stairs to our right, a caruaje in front of us, and behind that, another door.

rusty told us that several historical shows had been filmed there, including CCP's "Noli Me Tangere" series, as the home of Capitan Tiago.--and indeed that's more or less how i imagined that house would look! we went through the door to the left and found a room full of pres. quirino's memorabilia, from their home in manila, including gifts to him as president from dignitaries from india, china, japan. there were even newsreels! i was so curious to see what they contained.
we went up the stairs to fight an anteroom (or antesala) adorned with wonderful antique furniture and statues. under a coffee table is a peephole, that had originally been covered by a round wooden disk. when a guest arrived, the master of the house would peep down through it to see who it was. if the guest was important, he would instruct his helpers to guide the guest to the main sala. but if the guest was not, he or she would only be met at the anteroom.
if the master was in his bedroom, there was another peephole that was near his bed and had a good view of the staircase, through which he could view the guest. now that's something i never learned in school!

the syquia mansion is so well-maintained and being inside, exploring the centuries-old (the house was built in 1830) rooms, furniture, and adornments made us feel in awe. also in the anteroom is a reproduction of luna's "spolarium", done by respall, a spaniard who was an apprentice of luna.

there are several rooms in the house--with the master's bedroom, kids' bedroom, older children's bedroom, library, prayer room--all very grand and spacious. i don't know if some of you don't know this, but a husband and wife had separate beds during that time. and quirino's and his wife's bed were side by side in the same room.

it was the first time i saw this first hand: there's a corridor that's about 2 ft wide between the windows and the actual rooms that runs through the whole second floor of the house. this is where the household help passed in silence, so that they did not catch the attention of the master's guests. i found it odd that rusty said that the help was treated equally by the master of the house and his family--but why then the need for such corridors to conceal them?
we went to the deck, that had an area that was roofed, and an area that was completely open. and i could imagine the ladies with their huge dresses and fans coming out to the deck and whispering and laughing amongst themselves.
we went downstairs again and found beyond the backdoor were the stables--wow! there were rings where the horses were tied, and places where they were fed.

beyond that was a garden. and you could also see the presidential car some distance away. rusty says they intended to open a cafe in the area. how cool is that? a cafe in the middle of former stables. it all felt so european!