The Copy Editor
![A memory of past Iberian days. Tatang Dan Dizon, a UP classmate of Bencab, has immortalized the Malig clan’s ancestral home built in the 1750s in Cabambangan, Bacolor.
From Toto Gonzalez’s Remembrance of Things Awry:
“Further down was the 1750s Malig mansion, certainly the oldest and the most atmospheric of the Old Bacolor residences.
The quaint, archaic architecture of the Malig mansion was not the splendid, classical 1850s “bahay na bato” of the great landowning families of Bacolor, Guagua, San Fernando, and Mexico towns. It was the affluent house of an earlier era, perhaps of the mid 18th century [ 1750s ]…
One entered an arched adobe portal to a small courtyard paved with ‘piedra china’ granite slabs and hung with bougainvilleae before proceeding to a handsome, pedimented front door which was actually located at the ‘mirador’ tower and not in the house proper [ the “mirador” tower was most probably a remnant of the days when the “Moros” would raid Pampanga towns —- notably Lubao, Guagua, and Bacolor —- and capture their inhabitants for slaves and for ransom, occurrences which lasted until the early 1800s ]. The dim entrance hall was laid with brilliantly colored Spanish ‘azulejos’ tiles. To the left was parked the old piercework giltwood ‘andas’ / ‘carroza’processional carriage of the Malig Family’s ‘Mater Dolorosa,’ a very old image venerated by Bacolorenos during the traditional Good Friday Procession. One proceeded to the right, up a staircase with a small flight of steps to the house proper, to the ‘caida’ living area. There was, rather incongruously, a 19th century matrimonial bed with a beautiful, Chinese-inflected headboard of birds [ cranes / pheasants ], hung with a sheer mosquito net, in the center of the room. Hanging from the walls were the famous 1860s colored lithographs of Reina Isabel II and her consort, Principe Francisco de Borbon in equally old giltwood frames. If one observed the distressed walls closely, there were still the vestiges of geometric handpainted decoration, perhaps from the 1850s. Beside the staircase, to the right, was a smaller staircase that led up to the ‘mirador’ tower.
So old was the Malig mansion, so atmospheric, with so incredible a ‘Stimmung,’ that it was used convincingly as the house of the ‘Alferez’ and his abusive wife Dona Consolacion in the 1961 movie version of ‘Noli Me Tangere’ by the national hero Jose Rizal directed by master filmmaker Gerry de Leon.”
Rizal himself was apparently a guest at the family ancestral home:
“In Bacolor, a sumptuous lunch was prepared for Dr. Rizal at the Malig family ancestral home near the San Guillermo Church where our hero must have met with Don Ceferino Joven, Don Francisco Joven, Dr. Francisco Liongson, and Don Valentin Ventura among others. This sudden Pampanga visit of Dr. Rizal created quite a stir among the populace in the province, especially among the enlightened illustrados, their relatives and their peasant farmers. [DOT]”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8tsddqAqO1qctkspo1_500.jpg)
A memory of past Iberian days. Tatang Dan Dizon, a UP classmate of Bencab, has immortalized the Malig clan’s ancestral home built in the 1750s in Cabambangan, Bacolor.
From Toto Gonzalez’s Remembrance of Things Awry:
“Further down was the 1750s Malig mansion, certainly the oldest and the most atmospheric of the Old Bacolor residences.
The quaint, archaic architecture of the Malig mansion was not the splendid, classical 1850s “bahay na bato” of the great landowning families of Bacolor, Guagua, San Fernando, and Mexico towns. It was the affluent house of an earlier era, perhaps of the mid 18th century [ 1750s ]…
One entered an arched adobe portal to a small courtyard paved with ‘piedra china’ granite slabs and hung with bougainvilleae before proceeding to a handsome, pedimented front door which was actually located at the ‘mirador’ tower and not in the house proper [ the “mirador” tower was most probably a remnant of the days when the “Moros” would raid Pampanga towns —- notably Lubao, Guagua, and Bacolor —- and capture their inhabitants for slaves and for ransom, occurrences which lasted until the early 1800s ]. The dim entrance hall was laid with brilliantly colored Spanish ‘azulejos’ tiles. To the left was parked the old piercework giltwood ‘andas’ / ‘carroza’processional carriage of the Malig Family’s ‘Mater Dolorosa,’ a very old image venerated by Bacolorenos during the traditional Good Friday Procession. One proceeded to the right, up a staircase with a small flight of steps to the house proper, to the ‘caida’ living area. There was, rather incongruously, a 19th century matrimonial bed with a beautiful, Chinese-inflected headboard of birds [ cranes / pheasants ], hung with a sheer mosquito net, in the center of the room. Hanging from the walls were the famous 1860s colored lithographs of Reina Isabel II and her consort, Principe Francisco de Borbon in equally old giltwood frames. If one observed the distressed walls closely, there were still the vestiges of geometric handpainted decoration, perhaps from the 1850s. Beside the staircase, to the right, was a smaller staircase that led up to the ‘mirador’ tower.
So old was the Malig mansion, so atmospheric, with so incredible a ‘Stimmung,’ that it was used convincingly as the house of the ‘Alferez’ and his abusive wife Dona Consolacion in the 1961 movie version of ‘Noli Me Tangere’ by the national hero Jose Rizal directed by master filmmaker Gerry de Leon.”
Rizal himself was apparently a guest at the family ancestral home:
“In Bacolor, a sumptuous lunch was prepared for Dr. Rizal at the Malig family ancestral home near the San Guillermo Church where our hero must have met with Don Ceferino Joven, Don Francisco Joven, Dr. Francisco Liongson, and Don Valentin Ventura among others. This sudden Pampanga visit of Dr. Rizal created quite a stir among the populace in the province, especially among the enlightened illustrados, their relatives and their peasant farmers. [DOT]”
