[Unintentionaly] Gatecrashing on a Carlos Celdran Tour

Standing barely five feet tall, a stout man with receding hair and wearing unassuming clothes was staging what looked like an public repertoire. He would strut around the monument of Rizal with a pipe in hand, speaking in his oratorical voice, even shouting in several occasions. But this wasn't a play or a monologue - it was part of a tour of Intramuros by Carlos Celdran. I have known him as Manila's quintessential tour guide and as an activist for gay rights, the RH Law, among other causes. We were just walking around Fort Santiago, marveling albeit cluelessly at the ruins around us. To see him on one of his tours was an unexpected opportunity I thought we shouldn't miss.

Celdran isn't your typical tour guide. This particular tour, in fact, included only four sites - Rizal's statue and an old military installation inside Fort Santiago, San Agustin Church and Casa Manila. Unlike most guided tours, Celdran's didn't just explain what a particular site was - he was telling a story. The four sites were chosen as they were the appropriate backdrops of the story he was weaving.

First Stop inside Fort Santiago

Second Stop at Fort Santiago

San Agustin Church

Casa Manila, where halohalo was served

I initially thought that the tour was part of the entrance fee of P75 that we paid at Fort Santiago. But when kalesa rides were offered as we proceeded to San Agustin Church, it then came to me that we may have actually just gatecrashed on a paid tour (I would later learn when I returned home that the tour costs P1,100). But we haven't finished Celdran's story - and he was sharing a part of our history that I may not find in Google or in history books, or that I may, but not in the vivid way he delivered them. So we decided to continue, blending in the largely foreign crowd as best as we could. And as gratitude to Celdran for not shooing us away, and for the halohalo that was part of the package (and of the story itself), I won't spoil much of the story he gave.

The thesis of his tour would strike anyone as shocking, not just for the untold stories of the war that he shared, but for the radical - well, relative to the way I've been taught history in school - perspective he put into them. In three hours I got a complete picture of what happened in Intramuros from the Spanish occupation, to the arrival of the Americans and later, of the Japanese, to its utter destruction during World War II. It's amazing how such a small, long abandoned and obsolete Spanish-era fortress can speak of what was happening in the country.

I know that there are some Filipino historians who have the tendency to rewrite history as they please, and Celdran, though not a historian himself, may as well have shared his own version of history. Nonetheless, the tour left me dumbfounded. And while I still intend to verify some of the facts he shared (I'll write a separate post on this maybe) Celdran's story left me an impression, mainly that there's so much to the study of history than just dates, names and places, and that our conventional history books may actually be silent on details that would tell crucial events in our history accurately.

POSTCRIPT: Two friends visited Intramuros the following day and caught Carlos Celdran doing his guided tour at San Agustin Church. They didn't get free halohalo though. Turns out Celdran began issuing stickers to legitimate participants to weed out gatecrashers.

For infos on Celdran's tours, visit www.carlosceldran.com.

Other Pictures

On our way to the second site, following Celdran like mice following the Pied Piper. Huge crowd, eh?

Some tourists opted to walk from Fort Santiago to San Agustin Church.
Shown in this picture is Manila Cathedral.

We were able to catch the last scene of a wedding at San Agustin Church.

The marble floor of San Agustin Church actually had inscriptions. Names of the war dead? Not sure.

Our free halohalo.