Then and Now – Calle Rosario

Calle Rosario Early 1900s - Courtesy of the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service (http://www.lib.umich.edu/lit/dlps/)

Quintin Paredes Street 2008 (Photo taken on September 27, 2008)

Calle Rosario, now known as Quintin Paredes Street, was, and still very much is, a very busy street.

In Chapter 2 (entitled All About the Town) of the book “The Great White Tribe in Filipinia” by Paul T. Gilbert (1903, Jennings and Pye), Calle Rosario is described as:

“… one of the most interesting and complex: of all Manila’s thoroughfares. On one side of the street the drygoods-shops are shaded from the sun by curtains in broad stripes of blue and white. The dreamy merchant sits barelegged on the doorsill, and is not to be disturbed by the mere entrance of a purchaser. The opposite side is lined with Chino hardware stores, and in each one of them the stock is just the same. These shops supply the stock of merchandise to the provincial agents; for an intricate feudal system is maintained among the Chinese of the archipelago. The rich Manila merchants who have seen their fellow-countrymen safe through from China, and have furnished goods on credit, reap the profits like so many Oriental Shylocks.”

Just recently, about a year ago (I think), this street underwent major excavations for some sort of repairs (water lines maybe). For months it was left in an unsightly state, being all muddy and barely passable, so much so that I doubted it will ever be restored to its original condition.

Sadly, I was right.

The areas that had been dug up were simply paved over with cheap asphalt and with lousy workmanship that is very much similar to that of Lightning McQueen’s in Disney’s computer animated movie Cars (as you can very well see on the recent photograph).

Note (on the use of the old photograph):

From the University of Michigan Library website:

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