A maritime lawyer by profession, sometimes called Frog Prince of the Philippines with currently more than a thousand of collectible frog items. Like the frogs with a reputation for leaping that is well deserved, jump with me to my froglandia as we travel and explore the world seeking symbols of divine powers of love, fertility, regeneration, rebirth, immortality, and transformation.
I have to admit, this is my first close encounter (i guess) with a national treasure - the Spoliarium of Juan Luna at the National Musuem.
"Luna's Spoliarium with its bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives...stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of their Roman persecutors with their honor..." Rizal was footnoted in his speech that the Spoliarium, "embodied the essense [sic] of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and justice..." (Leon Ma. Guerrero, "The First Filipino" 2007)
The Spoliarium was a building or chamber in the colloseum where the dead bodies of gladiators were taken to be stripped of their armor and weapons prior to the disposal of their bodies. The bodies of the noxii gladiators would first be dragged from the arena sometimes by hooks in their heels, to make this chore easier. Their dead bodies were dragged through the Gate of Death called the Porta Libitinensis, This name derives from Libitina who was the goddess of funerals. The corpses of the gladiators were then taken to the Spoliarium.
Because of its asymmetrical patterns, it provides a comparison between light and darkness, the horror of dragged corpses against the mourning of a lady, the thin almost skeletal bodies of aged men versus muscular soldiers slaughtered in their prime. With everything pointing to the message : the carnage of human rights violation.
Juliana Gorricho vda. de Pardo de Tavera (seated at the center with baby Andrés Luna y Pardo de Tavera) with María de la Paz Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho de Luna (standing 2nd from the right) and José Rizal (standing 2nd from the left)
FYI,Juliana Gorricho Pardo de Tavera, the mother of Paz Pardo de Tavera (Juan Luna's wife) , gave the lamp to Jose Rizal where the paper of "Mi Ultimo Adios" was found. Both of them were killed by Juan Luna due to extreme jealousy, a crime of passion they say. Gorricho perhaps is a variation of my surname Gorecho.
In a “crime of passion”, a person commits a crime against a spouse or loved one, or another person, because of anger or heartbreak. When a person becomes very jealous or disappointed, it can produce such strong emotions that he cannot think... rationally and may act on his impulses without thinking about the consequences.the Philippine justice system considers “having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion or obfuscation” a circumstance that mitigates criminal liability. Not only that, but Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code expressly provides that if a person catches his spouse in flagrante delicto with another person and kills one or both of them as a consequence, he shall only suffer the penalty of destierro, or exile, and this only to protect him from the vengeance of the relatives of his victims. This provision, which makes the Philippines one of the few jurisdictions which recognize the “crime of passion” defense, is a holdover from the old Spanish Penal Code, which was in force in the Philippines from 1886 to 1930, a revised form of which became the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.
In one blog i read, the author wrote on one of the myths of the painting : that Juan Luna used the blood of his wife for the feisty red ink. The blog said :
" Unlike other paintings, Spolarium is not just an ordinary painting. For many years, it is surrounded by different mysteries and controversies…controversies done by no other than the ---painter himself. The main colors of the painting are red and black. Colors that express grief, bravery and death. But there is one thing that makes this painting different from any other painting…. the red paint used by Juan Luna, was said to be the blood of his wife ...Many believed that the red paint on Luna’s painting was indeed the blood of his wife…because the red paint shows more emotion than any other color in the painting. But many said it was not… The truth behind the painting will always remain a mystery… Genius people do paintings. It serves as the mirror of the past…it explains the emotions of the painter…at there will always a secret behind the great paintings that our eyes can see….."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSE RIZAL . Dateline: June 19, 1861. José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born. He was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by the National Heroes Committee. His execution by the Spanish in 1896, a date marked annually as Rizal Day, a Philippine national holiday, was one of the causes of the Philippine Revolution. (note: photo taken at CCP wall)
There is more to every photo than meets the eye. Howie Severino presented the stories behind these photographs on I-Witness last May 30, 2011 at 11:30 pm after Saksi.
"No Filipino hero of his time was as photographed as Jose Rizal. Each photograph reveals facets of his personality and sheds light on the relationships that were very much a part of who Rizal was. One of these photos is a group photo in Paris from the 1880’s that shows Rizal wearing a mischievous half-smile. Could it be because he was foolishly in love with someone in the picture? But he would soon break her heart and have his own broken too. Also in the picture is Rizal's best friends' sister Paz Pardo de Tavera, who would soon meet a tragic end at the hands of another of Rizal's illustrious amigos. The picture captures the short-lived joy in Rizal's happy-go-lucky life in Paris , before he himself would descend into a chain of sad events."
Photograph Of The Original "Mi Ultimo Adios" There was some argument whether this was the original because as you will note, there were no erasures and the grammar was flawless. It was determined such was Rizal’s concentration in the eve of his death that his writing came straight from his soul.
On the afternoon of Dec. 29, 1896, a day before his execution, Dr. Jose Rizal was visited by his mother, Teodora Alonzo, sisters Lucia, Josefa, Trinidad, Maria and Narcisa, and two nephews. When they took their leave, Rizal told Trinidad in English that there was something in the small alcohol stove (cocinilla), not alcohol lamp (lamparilla). The stove was given to Narcisa by the guard when the party was about to board their carriage in the courtyard. At home, the Rizal ladies recovered from the stove a folded paper. On it was written an unsigned, untitled and undated poem of 14 five-line stanzas. The Rizals reproduced copies of the poem and sent them to Rizal's friends in the country and abroad. In 1897, Mariano Ponce in Hong Kong had the poem printed with the title "Mi Ultimo Pensamiento." Fr. Mariano Dacanay, who received a copy of the poem while a prisoner in Bilibid(jail), published it in the first issue of La Independencia on Sept. 25, 1898 with the title "Ultimo Adios." The stove was not delivered until after the execution. Rizal needed it to light the room and to be able to write the poem and his other parting words.
In the I-Witness documentary titled "Ang Mahiwagang Ngiti ni Rizal" , my good friend Howie Severino reported that the lamp that contained the paper of "MI ULTIMO ADIOS" was given to him by Juliana Gorricho Pardo de Tavera. He carried with him said lamp until his last breath. Juliana is the mother of Paz Pardo de Tavera who was the wife of Juan Luna, another of Rizal's illustrious amigos,. Paz and Juliana soon met a tragic end at the hands of Juan Luna in the Pardo de Tavera house in Paris.
While in Paris, Rizal described the gorrichos pardo de tavera in a letter dated January 15, 1886 he wrote to his parents:
"My mode of life doesn't change. Luna and I eat here at the studio and as he has many friends at Paris, families who hold soirées at their homes often invite him. For this reason he eats outside often. The Pardo family who lives here also invites me to eat at their home from time to time. Then Luna, Resurrección, and I go there. On such days we do nothing else but talk about our country -- its likes, food, customs, etc. The family is very amiable. The mother (widow) is a sister of Gorricho and remains very Filipino in everything. Her sons Trinidad and Felix Paredo are both physicians; her daughter Paz speaks French and English and she is very amiable, and also very Filipino. She dresses with much elegance, and in her movements and manner of looking she resembles Sra. Itching. She is beautiful and svelte and it said she is going to marry Luna. She asked me to write something in her album and I wrote the story of the monkey and the turtle with illustrations. The young women in Europe usually have the custom of keeping an album (not of pictures) in which they ask their friends to put there drawings, dedications, verses, etc., etc. and they keep them as souvenirs."
In an Inquirer interview by historian Ambeth Ocampo with former social welfare secretary Mita Pardo de Tavera, she narrated that fateful night:
"I’ve often read that in a fit of jealousy, Luna killed his wife and mother-in-law, but until it was insinuated that it was for unfaithfulness, I had to say what I know of the affair. They [Juliana Gorricho, Paz Pardo de Tavera and little Andres ‘Luling’ Luna] were going down the stairs of the house and they did not tell Luna that they were abandoning him because he was violent. Very violent, like his brother [Antonio] the general who was a killer, [had a] killer’s instinct, and so they were also afraid of this Juan Luna because he also had this killer’s instinct. They were leaving the house, the two brothers Trinidad and Felix, with [their lawyer] Regidor were waiting across the street. When the three were going down the stairs, Luna flew into a rage and tried to stop them, and then he shot them."
Juliana Gorricho vda. de Pardo de Tavera (seated at the center with baby Andrés Luna y Pardo de Tavera) with María de la Paz Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho de Luna (standing 2nd from the right) and José Rizal (standing 2nd from the left)
The alcohol lamp [food warmer] that concealed Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios
Though Juliana's surname is spelled "GORRICHO", there is a possibility that my surname is related to her though mine is spelled as "GORECHO". I have also encountered persons carrying another variation of my surname which is "GORICHO".
We are now embarking into an illustrious endeavor to document the Familia Gorecho of Matabao, Tubigon,Bohol.Perhaps, if preparations and coordination will be successful, a grand clan reunion can be organized soon.The Gorecho Family Tree will be an updated database on the members of the Gorecho Clan that originated from the matrimonial bondage of Isidro Gorecho and Tomasa Cristobal. I am now in the process of documenting eight (8) generations of Gorechos. Out of this matrimonial bondage are three siblings: Alejandro Gorecho, Melchora Gorecho and Joseph Gorecho. Alejandro was married to Barbara Bulahao with six children, Melchora was married to Pedro Mascarinas while Joseph was married to Irenea Estabaya. Thus, there are eighteen (18) major lines : Six for Alejandro Gorecho and Barbara Bulahao (Librada, Leopoldo, Benegilda , Victoria , Victor, and Gregorio), seven for Melchora Gorecho and Pedro Mascarinas (Segunda, Enrique, Seferino, Florencio, Felis, Herminigilda and Isidra), and five for Joseph Gorecho and Irenea Estabaya (Constancio, Eusebio, Eulogio, Teofilo, and Juanita).
It is interesting to note that surnames seems to re-appear in other lines (like Gorecho-Mante, Mante-Gorecho, Gorecho-Corpuz, Gorecho-Embradora, Embradora-Gorecho) signifying intermarriage between not-so distant relatives, a typical occurrence in the provincial set-up.
To review your Philippine History , the filipinos were forced to change the surnames during the Spanish era as a means of population control, or a zoning scheme to determine your place of origin. On November 21, 1849 Governor General Narciso Clavería ordered a systematic distribution of family names for the natives to use. The Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos was produced and approved names were assigned to families in all towns. The book itself consists of 141 pages. The surnames are arranged in 6 columns with at most 72 surnames per column. Despite the title, the surnames are not strictly listed alphabetically (after Gandain is Ganavacas then Gandoy, and Balledor is listed under "V"). All of the letters of the Spanish alphabet are represented except for the letters "I" (in the Spanish orthography of the time "Y" was used instead of an initial "I"), "K" and "W" (there are no Spanish surnames starting with these letters) and "X" (due to a consonant shift, earlier surnames like Ximénez were spelled Jiménez, with a J, by that time.) Name distribution was so systematic that civil servants assigned family names in alphabetical order causing some small towns with only a few families to end up with all names starting with the same letter. Since there are potentially at most 61,000 surnames in the book, not all of the surnames were used..
However, when i checked the said list, the surname "gorecho" or any of its variation are not included in said list. Perhaps, it came from a Spaniard who settled in the Philippines since Gorecho/ Gorricho/ Goricho is a Galician surname meaning it was patterned from the inhabitants of Galicia , Spain. It is anautonomous community in northwest Spain., bordered by Portugal to the south, the Spanish regions of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the north.The name Galicia comes from the Latin name Gallaecia, associated with the name of the ancient Celtic tribe that resided north of the Douro river, the Gallaeci or Callaeci in Latin, and Kallaikói (καλλαικoι) in Greek (as mentioned by Herodotus). According to Ptolemy, these Callaeci were the first tribe in the area to battle the invading Romans.
