The Real Maria Clara

We all know that Maria Clara was a figure in Dr. Jose Rizal's Novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Rebel) which are written by him during the Spanish colonization in the Philippines to wake the sleeping hearts of patriotism of the Filipinos during that time he was also the national hero of the Philippines until this present day. To give you a brief story about Maria Clara she is the love interest of Crisostomo Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere which he changed his name to Simoun in the later book that is released after the Noli Me Tangere which is El Filibusterismo which is obviously Leonor Rivera in real life this photo was undated but if we will base the quality of the photo was taken on the timeline which is the late 1880's. Although Rizal had many love affairs with different women it is said that Leonor Rivera was the apple of the eyes of Dr. Jose Rizal until his death.

Photo Source: Old Manila Facebook

Native Police

In a world where guns and bombs are the primary weapon of the police and the military to protect their dominions there was also a time a hundred years beforehand that the police carries a sword instead of guns because there is no guns that is handy before for the reason that it was not yet invented till the early 1910's. Here is a photo of 2 policeman wearing a traditional "guardia" attire carrying a sword this photo was taken in Bohol in the year 1898.
















Photo Source: Old Manila Facebook

Beautiful Cathedrals and Churches

We all know that almost 90% of the people living in the Philippines is a Catholic that is why there are many beautiful cathedrals that is built in the Philippines particularly in the Spanish era and most of them are still existing despite of the natural calamities that has been present throughout the years like earthquakes, storms and last but not the least its age.Here are some of the photos of the cathedrals and churches during the Spanish era and American era.

                                                    Quiapo Church 1900's

                                                  Church of the Franciscans 1890's

                                    Prisoners of war at San Miguel Cathedral, Manila 1899
                                               

Quiapo Church 1946

Photo Source: philippine-history.org and The Old Manila Facebook Page

Summer Capital of the Philippines Back in the 1950's

We all know when the summer season arrives in the Philippines the number one destination where tourists and wealthy people go to break away from the hot climate during the month of March which is the start of summer in the Philippines is Baguio where the cool breeze coming from the mountain tops soothes the heat on our body while we are in metro. A cool summer destination to all the foreigners and locals out there who wants to have fun in higher grounds.
If you do not want any tan and want to be fairer this summer this is probably the best place you can go.




Photo Source: Old Manila Facebook page

Here in Escolta

This picture was taken in the late 1890’s to early 1900’s an old picture of Escolta located in Manila during the ending of Spanish regime in the Philippines and the entrance of the American regime in the country it is one of the places in the country that is remarkable when it comes to trade during that era. We all know Manila is the capital of the Philippines but what we do not know or we know little is the details that Manila had its physical beauty and the splendor of its people.

                                              An old train station in Escolta, Manila 1890's

                                                              Escolta July 4, 1898

 

Edited picture of Escolta Road 1900's

 Regina Building in Escolta, Manila 1920's

Drying the Laundry

Today drying clothes is such an easy job to do you just get an electronic dryer, plug it into the socket put the clothes inside the dryer and turn it on and the machine will dry the clothes on its own. Effortless. Unlike yesterday when moms used to call their little daughters to stand on a wood which serves a dryer back in the time when there still no electricity and when the life is not yet fast paced just like today. You must put an effort in doing the household chores because all of them must be done manual because there is no gadgets and machines that is ran by electricity before.

Classic Beauties! Part 1

Here is a compilation of some of the winners of the prestigious Miss Philippines from the first winner of the title up to the 1937 winner. All credits go to manilacarnival.blogspot.com for the photos.

 The First Winner of Miss Philippines held in the year 1926. She came from Lemery, Batangas and was born sometime in 1906. Married to Juan Nakpil a National Artist for Architecture in the Philippines she also has a daughter whose name is Edith who is also a winner for the 1955 beauty contest.

The winner of the Miss Philippines 1927 which also known as "Manila Carnival"  back then she represented her school which is Centro Escolar de Senoritas. This beautiful lady was hailed in Gumaca which is located in the province of Quezon and after her reign as a beauty queen she pursued teaching as her career.

Photo Source: manilacarnivals.blogspot.com

Gasoline Stations in the 1950's

You run out of fuel and you do not know where to go? Well in the 1950’s this is where people load up their fuel tanks whenever they ran out of gasoline as you can see in the picture it is an old picture of a cargo truck and a man riding a car who stops by the gasoline station which is Caltex as you can see in the picture a gasoline boy is filling up some gasoline on the tanker while the other gasoline boy is wiping out the dirt on the windshield of the car. As you can notice gasoline stations in 1950’s only has a pair of gasoline apparatus to fill up vehicles only two at a time unlike today each gasoline stations usually can accommodate eight to ten vehicles at the same time.

Credits to Google Images

Two Beautiful Filipina Women

                                         A picture of two beautiful tagalog sisters

I have here a picture of two tagalog sisters as you can see they are both gorgeous wearing an elegant and classic filipiniana which dates from the late 1890's which women on that era are very conservative as you can see on the picture above the clothes explains it all. Unlike today women preferred to wear mini skirts and other clothing that reveals the skin of their bodies more. Women before are also not liberated and had a more timid type of attitude for the reason that during those era which is the Spanish era they encouraged the families of us Filipinos which is called "indio" back then to teach their daughters to be more engage on household activities such as doing the household chores like cooking, washing and drying the clothes, ironing of clothes and cleaning the house as well as taking care of their younger siblings. The male gender is more dominant back then because there is no equality between male and female before.

Credits to:
Photo source: The Old Manila Facebook Page

EDSA Back to the 50's

Figure 1(EDSA Late 1950's- Early 1960's)

Every been dreaming of a highway which is not surrounded by a high load of vehicles every now and then? If your answer is yes try to visit EDSA back in  the 1950's the traffic was so smooth that there is not too much vehicles on the road, it was also clean with no billboards yet maybe it has but just a little in order for the drivers not to be distracted by the images on it like today many of the billboards in the Philippines are in EDSA in which most of them depicts pictures of hot women and men that can put the driver's attention from its steering wheel. And also many of the cars back then are made of large engines like v8 just like the vintage chevrolet on the left part of the picture (figure 1) which consumes a lot of gas but its not a problem before because the price of the petroleum products a half-century ago is  not that high just like today which only the rich people can only afford to drive cars with large engines.

Figure 2 (EDSA present day)

Here is what EDSA exactly looks like in the present day there is a huge amount of traffic every day from time to time the cars are almost bumper to bumper not even on rush hours. So see the difference?

Welcome to Classic Manila Blog

In this blog we will reminisce the past by looking at the good old collection of pictures of what Manila and other neighboring provinces looks like a century or decades before our birth in order for us to understand where are roots came from and also to know some of the history of our country through the fascinating collection of pictures from the old scenery that came not only from Manila but also from the different parts of the country including pictures dating from the late Spanish era, early to the late American era, Pre-Japanese Occupation, Japanese Occupation, pre-war, during world war II, after war and also the different decades after that which includes the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and early 90's. So all of the era will be covered on this blog so no one will be left behind here haha just kidding. By the way I am not the owner of some of the photos that I will post here and I do not have any intention of copyright infringements here that is why every post I will make it sure that I will give credits to the owners of the photos by posting the sources of the photos. The main intention of this blog is to educate the public and also to give the younger generations an idea of how wonderful the Philippines was back before then.