OTHER cities have big budget tourism campaigns; Manila relies on a Third World promotional budget and the civic passion of its citizens like Carlos Celdran.
In May, Celdran exported his brand of Manila tourism to Toronto, as a visiting artist with the Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, the first professional Filipino arts center in Canada.
?We invited Carlos to mentor emerging Filipino-Canadian artists as part of our mandate to foster artistic expression and positive cultural identification as a foundation to empower our youth,? said Caroline Mangosing, executive director of Kapisanan. ?Carlos? work is such a creative brand of nation-building, and the artists also get to learn about their Filipino roots.?
Over 100 people attended three performances of ?If These Walls Could Talk,? Celdran?s popular walking tour of Intramuros, at Rolly?s Garage, a former garage-turned-art space along trendy Ossington Avenue on Toronto?s west end.
Rich, tragic history
In a show of Filipino ingenuity, Celdran proved one could take a tour of Manila without taking a trip to the city itself. For 2 ? hours, he led a rapt audience through an engaging mix of props and performance art, with yummy servings of halo-halo on the side, as he walked them through Manila?s rich, and sometimes tragic, history.
A visit to San Agustin Church meant watching a slideshow presentation of the famed structure, and looking at curated historical photographs, while Celdran revealed behind-the-?Noli? chismis on national hero Jos Rizal and the Spanish colonial period. And this was just the first act.
Rediscovering Manila with Celdran through four acts meant a demystification of elementary-school Social Studies canons and uncovering new truths about our past.
Who knew the Philippines was sold to the Americans for pennies to the dollar, and General Douglas ?I Shall Return? MacArthur was less a hero than my DepEd-approved grade-school book portrayed?
?It was totally accessible to any culture, and one didn?t have to be a Filipino to have an excellent time,? said Lisa, an elementary schoolteacher who had never been to the Philippines. ?Manila will be far more interesting to visit now that I?ve seen the show, better than any ?Lonely Planet? guidebook.?
?Halo-halo? backdrop
This halo-halo experience was enhanced by a backdrop of a hodgepodge of vintage photographs, the Philippine flag, a nipa hut, the sampaguita scent (yes, the smell permeated the room), and Halo-Halo Collective artist Jeff Garcia?s dramatic screen print. The halo-halo is Celdran?s favorite analogy when describing the city.
?Manila is a reflection of how different flavors can make up a greater whole, and how too much can sometimes be a very good thing,? he wrote on his namesake blog.
This being an exchange, he had brought Manila to Toronto ? but what was he bringing back with him from the land of poutine, Niagara Falls, and the Canadian Rockies?
?You can take the Filipino out of the Philippines, but can?t take the Philippines out of the Filipino,? he mused. ?It?s almost Rizalian how they want to take the positive values ?egalitarianism, secularism, self-sustainability and strong work ethic, among them ? and use them as tools for improving the lives of people back home.?
