Home Sweet Ancestral Home

The late authority on Philippine antiquities Martin “Sonny” Tinio, Jr. declared that to be considered “ancestral” a home has to be lived in by at least four generations of the family. If “lived in” is considered the same as “owned,” then our house in Santa Cruz, Manila qualifies, having been built by my grandmother and grandaunt in 1932 and with their 13 great-great grandchildren as heirs-in-waiting.

- Wala Lang Dr. Jaime Laya

The family moved to Quezon City in 1955 and my sisters and I now own the house. It’s been rented out these 65 years and the last time I was in the area was four decades ago. ECQ, however, has given me lots of unexpected internet browsing time and thanks to Google Earth I saw the old manse again, an alien among townhouses and low-rises.

My Lola Trinidad del Carmen and her sister Susana de Sena moved there from Tondo, enticed by relatives who were next door. The house has been pushed and pulled in all directions over the years and is no longer its old self. Gone is the unpretentious elegance it shared with other middle-class homes of the 1920s and 1930s, two floors of two bays with capiz windows (no grilles), ventanillas, and outside stairs ascending to a balcony.

The balcony opened to the hall leading to the sala that extended the width of the house. There were also a cuarto, really a large walk-in closet with two aparadors, a bathroom, and back stairs. On the ground floor were dining room and general living area, kitchen, toilet, and a bamboo-floored mezzanine where the lolas slept.