Finding history on Ongpin street
The hometown of my ancestors on my paternal Ongpin side is Binondo, the heart of what is often referred to as the oldest Chinatown in the world, tracing its origins back to the late 16th century. Its best-known road is Ongpin, named after my great-great grandfather Roman; more on this later. “Ongpin” is often used as a metonym for Manila’s Chinatown, for example: “Let’s go to Ongpin to have some Chinese food,” or perhaps, “You can surely source gold jewelry on Ongpin.”
Binondo’s founding dates back to the 1594 when Governor Luis Perez Dasmariñas purchased a parcel of land in an area across the Pasig River from Intramuros described as “binundoc” (hilly), and turned it over to the Dominicans to create a new parish for baptized Chinese and mestizos. Mestizos in this era of Philippine history were the issue of marriages between pure Chinese referred to as “Sangleys,” who married Filipino natives (naturales) and chose to be baptized as Catholics in order to assimilate into Philippine life and society. The Sangleys were traditionally confined to the Parian area of Intramuros for centuries, under strict supervision, rules and curfew, often suffering oppression and death in massacres by the Spanish authorities throughout history for perceived misdemeanors.
As the Sangleys and mestizos were proficient at running businesses, Binondo quickly became a bustling business center, in contrast to the sedate pace and somewhat serious atmosphere of Intramuros across the river where most government and religious institutions, as well as Spanish residents, were located. Important businesses such as tobacco factories, foundries, distilleries, and commercial trading houses were established in Binondo, as well as hospitals, churches, and other civic and religious institutions meant to address residents’ needs. Rounding off the business and civic institutions, places of entertainment and vice arose, too, such as theaters, opium dens, gambling houses, and brothels.
A strict system of taxation was maintained in Binondo based on a guild system, which classified residents according to their ethnicity. The three guilds, known as “gremios,” were the Gremio de Sangley (pure Chinese from Fujian) who paid the most tax, the Gremio de mestizos who paid half the tax of the Sangleys, and the Gremio de Naturales or native Filipinos, who paid the least tax, presumably because of their lower business standing in the community. Sangley occupations included shoemakers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, cooks, and herbalists. Some mestizo trades were listed as storekeepers, tailors, fishermen, laborers, and traders; while the naturales or natives were mostly day laborers, carpenters, servants, washerwomen, etc. Each gremio established their own Casa de Tribunal in Binondo, which was similar to a community center, and could contain a meeting hall, a courtroom, a jail, and even lodging.
The first known Ongpin ancestor in the Philippines was Ong Yak Pin (Hokkien), sometimes referred to as Wong Yibin (Mandarin) from Fujian, southern China; who probably arrived in Binondo in the 1840s. His name is recorded in a founder’s monument in the Chinese cemetery, as having been one of its benefactors. He was also referred to as a Capitan de Chinos, an appointive position. He Filipinized his name to Simon Ongpin, and family lore describes him as a seller of candles, which was probably one of the most basic goods of the time, perhaps akin to selling light bulbs.
This story of the life of my great-great grandfather Roman is how the name Ongpin came to be closely associated with Chinatown in the Philippines.
Simon located himself in the busy milieu of Binondo, which by this time in the mid-19th century, was fueled by the opening of Manila ports to world trade in 1834, following the cessation of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. The demand for Philippine agricultural products and raw materials that came with the rise of the Industrial Revolution spurred the establishment of foreign trading houses and consulates—British, American, and European—in Binondo.
Simon married a mestiza, Sinforosa Tambensiang, with whom he had five (some say three), children; though only one son, Roman, had offspring. Thus the Ongpin family members we know of in the Philippines are all descended from Roman, and sprung from the mestizo tradition of assimilating with Philippine society and culture.
Roman became a successful and well-known businessman, pioneering fixed prices at a time when bargaining was the default sales mode. His general merchandise store, “El 82,” specialized in art supplies imported from Europe. He married Pascuala Domingo, a granddaughter of the distinguished painter, Damian Domingo, who was the founding director of the Philippines’ first government-sponsored art academy, a forerunner of what eventually became the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines. The link between the shop’s specialization in art supplies and the Domingo family connection was probably not a coincidence.
A fun fact: a family-owned portrait of Damian with Hispanicized facial features by his painter son Jose misled many later generations of Ongpins into believing he was of Spanish descent, until his last will and testament was discovered in the National Archives in 1992, wherein he referred to himself as a “mestizo de Sangley.”
With Pascuala, Roman fathered 16 children (yes, 16; their names are recorded in the family cemetery plot), of which only nine survived into adulthood. He became involved in local politics, being appointed Teniente Primer de Mestizos, likely a sort of barangay captain, in 1883 for two years. Active in patriotic and charitable organizations, Roman was elected president of the Casa Asilo de Invalidados de la Guerra, which assisted the injured veterans of the Philippine-American war; and treasurer of the Union Obrera Democratica, a trade union federation. He was a founding member of the Camara de Comercio Filipino (Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines), and of La Gota de Leche (“a drop of milk”), a feeding program for poor infants that still exists today; and had close links as well to the Philippine Independent Church founded by Isabelo de los Reyes and Gregorio Aglipay.
Possibly because of the nationalistic proclivities of its owner, El 82 became a hangout for famous Filipino ilustrados with revolutionary leanings such as the Luna brothers, Guerrero, Paterno, Limjap, Zaragoza, R. Hidalgo, and others. When the shop was destroyed by fire in 1898, he donated part of the insurance proceeds to the revolutionary cause. Roman’s boldest act was to assist the Philippine revolutionaries in what eventually became the Philippine American War by donating funds, supplying ammunition and other goods hidden in tins of paint and other products he sold, conveying them by carromata, or horse-drawn carriage, to the rebels. For this he was caught and imprisoned by the Americans for several months in 1902, and apparently suffered so terribly from this ordeal that he thereafter refused to sell any American goods in his shop. He was a firm admirer of Jose Rizal and would close his shop on the anniversary of Rizal’s execution, wreathing the windows in mourning black, a risky and daring move at the time.
Roman has been described as a freemason and “anti-clerical.” His children were tutored at home, rather than in traditional religious schools. As far as we know, Roman’s children spoke only Tagalog, Spanish, and English. There were no family traditions, or language, linked to the Chinese culture in the generation of Roman’s children. This fact, together with his patriotic and philanthropic acts for the nation indicates that the mestizo Roman considered himself and his family as Filipinos, first and foremost.
According to family records, including cedulas (yearly tax certificates), the Roman Ongpin family held several addresses in Binondo. Like most families in the district, they likely lived in the upper floor of their place of business, probably renting the premises. El 82, established in the year of its name, started off in 15 Rosario, one of the main shopping streets of Binondo then and now, facing the mouth of Gandara (now Sabino Padilla Street).
In 1898, a fire decimated the Rosario shop premises. Roman worked hard to reestablish the business, first in 28 San Jacinto in 1899-1900; and in 1901 at “230 Calle de Colon, puente de Binondo,” as printed on his stationery. The street name of Colon no longer exists but research has shown that it was part of San Fernando Street which runs from the foot of the bridge that links Binondo to the arrabal (outlying district) of San Nicolas. The bridge is now considered part of San Fernando Street. Early photos of the shop exterior in Colon show a large bahay na bato type of structure, with prominent “El 82” signage on the lower floor.
Thirteen years after the fire, in 1911, El 82 moved into a five-story concrete building in “Renaissance” (or perhaps, more accurately, neo-classical) style, designed by the architect Arcadio Arellano on Anloague, (later Juan Luna), alongside the Plaza Calderon de la Barca which was popularly known as Plaza de Binondo, and in recent years, renamed Plaza Lorenzo Ruiz, after the martyr and saint who was a Binondo native. Sadly, Roman passed away from complications of asthma at the end of 1912, just over a year after he had moved into his own premises. Family lore has it that he asked to be buried wearing barong Tagalog to honor his country.
In 1915, three years after his death in 1912, the Municipal Board of Manila honored Roman Ongpin by renaming Sacristia Street, which runs by the sacristy door of the Binondo Church, to Ongpin Street. In a tiny plaza bordered by the Ongpin Street and Quintin Paredes Road, a copper statue of Roman Ongpin with a letter in hand, presumably a communication exchanged with revolutionaries, was erected in 1975 in his honor with the assistance of the Ong Family Association. Today it remains a uniquely local landmark in Binondo, with the urban legend attached to it that the envelope he holds is actually the traditional Chinese New Year “ang pao,” a money gift.
And this story of the life of my great-great grandfather Roman is how the name Ongpin came to be closely associated with Binondo and Chinatown in the Philippines.
