I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.
Basically, virtual ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.
By Lorenzo Olaguer
In a conversation over lunch at Hap Chan in Katipunan on a Sunday afternoon, my Dad and my grandfather (Lolo) were giving me descriptions of how Roxas Boulevard was like over time.
According to my Dad, it was architect Burnham who had designed what at the time was Dewey Boulevard. The idea of the American colonialists in the Philippines at that time was to create radial roads that connected areas in the city to the source of wealth, which at that time was North Harbor. The American ideals of democracy and egalitarian society pushed American design to consider building radial roads around the urban center, as opposed to the Spanish template of having the Church and the municipality faced against each other in a matrix of horizontal and vertical roads. In that design, houses and establishments of a particular radius were supposed to be equidistant to the center.
Roxas Boulevard is actually Radial Road 1. Along Roxas Boulevard are the Manila Hotel, Rizal Park, the BangkoSentral, various nightclubs and the American Embassy. The main office of the Department of Foreign Affairs is also along this road. Many important and historical Philippine buildings are at Roxas Boulevard.
According to my grandfather, the Army-Navy club at Roxas Boulevard along Rizal Park was prominent around the time of the American occupation. According to my Dad, the ceilings of the Manila Hotel were relatively low compared to more modern hotels because of technological constraints at the time. Dad also claimed that within Rizal Park stood Manila Kilometer Zero, where all kilometric measurements from Baguio such as KM. 297 would be relative to that point. It seemed that the Americans meant Dewey Boulevard to be a great avenue of influence.
While my dad was driving along C-5, he mentioned how Jose Rizal was chosen as the national hero of the Filipinos by the Americans. I brought up a question on why Rizal was chosen instead of a revolutionary like Bonifacio, after I had read a comment on the internet on how Rizal was supposedly brainwashed (by the Jesuits).
My dad said that Jose Rizal was for reform, as compared to Bonifacio who was for revolution. Rizal seemed like a logical choice who appealed to the Americans because he was educated, involved with society and from the upper class, unlike Bonifacio who was involved with the Katipunan movement which incited rebellion against Spanish colonialists.
I was able to walk around the inside of the Manila Hotel for the first time after my Dad dropped me off on the road right in front of it.
I made my way towards the entrance. Stepping inside, the main lobby was rather small compared to contemporary hotel giants such as Shangri-La Makati and the Manila Peninsula. I made my way towards the center of the lobby, where I immediately observed the low ceilings that my Dad was talking about, along with elements of wood on the walls and on the ceiling. It just so happened that there was a dragon figure which swept across the ceiling because the Chinese New Year was one day away.
Along the shopping arcade of the Manila Hotel, I found that the spaces for stores were rather small. Most of the spaces were empty; and I found only two stores towards one end of the arcade. Perhaps in earlier times, business was stronger in this shopping arcade. Today, the shopping arcades of other hotel giants in Makati and Pasay dwarf this one. While I was walking, I noticed how the ceiling was very low.
My idea of Roxas Boulevard before our Sunday conversations was that it was a road of cultural and political influence. The Senate of the Philippines is located along Roxas Boulevard. The Cultural Center of the Philippines,a project which was influenced by Imelda Marcos, is also located along Roxas Boulevard.
I had the pleasure of visiting Roxas Boulevard for a week as an on-the-job trainee of Traders Hotel, which is in front of the CCP. From my conversations with reservation agents, majority of their foreign guests are Japanese and Korean men. Aside from the political and national identity of Roxas Boulevard, it is also a tourist destination which is near the nightclub district of Malate.
The American colonialists in the Philippines in the first part of the 1900s seemed wise in designating Dewey Boulevard as Radial Road 1 because it has remained a major road of influence in contemporary Philippine history. Perhaps the fact that Roxas Boulevard was built to be such an important road is one reason why the American Embassy is also located along Roxas Boulevard.
Roxas Boulevard is one piece of evidence of how the Americans attempted to build influence around them in earlier colonial times. Long after the departure of these American colonialists, their embassy today still sits beside such an influential road. Even with reconfigurations around the area such as the Manila Bay land reclamation project which has created area for Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard as well as the SM Mall of Asia, Roxas Boulevard still retains its influence.
Many Philippine institutions and landmarks seem to be at convenient distances from the US Embassy today.
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