Our seas, our stories
If a museum is successful, when you visit, you will be so busy oohing and aahing over its contents that you won’t, for a single moment, pause to reflect on how on Earth it all became possible. It’s invariably true, I’ve come to realize, that this is because those who work in museums care less for themselves (the salaries are invariably a reminder of this) and much, much more for what they are doing, which isn’t merely the collection and preservation of objects, but the sharing of stories and discoveries with the public.
A lifelong lover of museums, I never expected to get involved until I was tasked by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to set up and run the Presidential Museum and Library, which had a fairly long run from her term until 2022. I had the good fortune of working in the Ayala Museum as it transitioned from its old to its new building and refreshed and reimagined its collections, and of being a guest curator a couple of times since. Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, too, and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines have been very kind in allowing me to help the Quezon Heritage House review and recurate its exhibits, something that is being planned for the Quezon Memorial Shrine Museum as well.
In all these adventures, what struck me the most was the incredibly unheralded and thus, unacknowledged talent that exists in our country’s cultural institutions, public and private: people imbued with a truly missionary zeal, each one a walking, living, breathing encyclopedia of academic and practical knowledge, each a holder of institutional memory; most, if not all, generous by nature and nearly always underpaid and overworked.
This morning, quietly and with no fanfare, the leadership and staff of the Museo del Galeón will be gathering in the Mall of Asia Complex, in a building with a silver dome (which has led to some funny speculation, including it being a mini nuclear reactor) that will be inaugurated on Wednesday. There won’t be any pomp and circumstance today; instead, it will be a quiet opportunity for fellowship, reflection, and even prayer.
Careful readers would, hopefully, have heard a mental bell chime when I mentioned “Museo del Galeón”: for years now, on and off again, this has been mentioned in features and columns. As its name suggests, this is a museum dedicated to the story of galleons, big, lumbering, armed merchant ships that connected Manila to Acapulco in Mexico for two and a half centuries, bringing silver from the New World to Asia and costly luxuries such as silk and spices from our part of the world to the Americas and beyond.
It took a man born by the sea, with its tempestuous moods, and who made a name for himself through the sheer quality of his academic and intellectual merit, to realize that Filipinos had been denied a large portion of their history because of the absence of any institution committed to telling the story of that galleon trade. The late Sen. Edgardo J. Angara took upon himself the task of convincing others to see the value of his vision and to help him achieve his mission; when he passed, he had ensured it was well on the way to becoming a reality: there was land, a building, and a committed and energetic board. It fell on the shoulders of his successor, Carlos Salinas, to bring the force of will, managerial discipline, and executive vigor that were the necessary ingredients to form a team to build and curate the museum.
Aided by an energetic, go-getting, creatively-inclined president, Doris Ho, and the fiscal prudence of its treasurer, Jaime Laya, the problem-solving, efficiency, and focus-fostering construction mentorship of Hans Sy, and the historical oversight of Carlos Madrid Alvarez-Piñer, the finesse and discernment of Alfredo Roca, and the steadfast support of other board members Enrique Razon, Nilo Divina, Lydia Echauz, and Gerardo Borromeo, a team has been hard at work to bring the museum to point it is marking today: we’re ready to be launched!
When I was first brought on board to become the executive director of this museum, there were only a handful of people to brief me. Victor Gelano, our managing director, whose expertise is in opening hotels, has the mastery of the many details and simultaneous tasking that has enabled the meticulous and demanding expectations of the board to be met, construction-wise, assisted by Christine Marie Batac, now our director for operations and development, and Enzo Novenario, our curatorial go-to-guy. Since then, we’ve grown, taking on board Beverly Ann Tan, our operations manager, and Eugene Aguilar, who has helped ensure the engineering and architectural coherence of our efforts, and, under my purview, Marjorie Steffi Gaudier, our curatorial manager. All so quiet, and unassuming that your reading their names here may just very well be the first and last time the public gets to glimpse who they are. But it is thanks to them (and many others!) that we are ready for Wednesday.
As he sought to gain support for his vision for a museum, Sen. Angara was instrumental in having Oct. 8 designated as the Dia del Galeón worldwide. The galleon trade links us to Mexico and Spain, but many countries besides; we welcome their stories, just as we are endeavoring to finally tell our story ourselves.
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Email: mlquezon3@gmail.com; Twitter: @mlq3
