Rafi, Mojares launch 3rd edition work on local heritage

Promoting Cebuano culture and heritage, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) yesterday launched “Casa Gorordo in Cebu: Urban Residence in a Philippine Province 1860-1920.” The book is the third edition of Cebuano writer and historian Resil Mojares’ work on local heritage. It aims to promote awareness among the youth on the importance of Cebu’s culture and history in the 19th century Spanish regime.

Launched in the Casa Gorordo Museum in Barangay Pari-an, Cebu City, the activity is in line with the celebration of the museum’s 34th anniversary last Friday, Dec. 15. The book had been previously out of print, but it has now returned to publication to highlight the development of social, cultural and political context of the Casa Gorordo house and the history of Parian. The first edition of the book was published in 1983, when the museum first opened to the public. According to Mojares, the late Eduardo J. Aboitiz thought of the idea of writing a book in time for the opening of the museum. “I decided what I was going to do was to write a social history of the house. The idea was for the book to not only serve its purpose of introducing the house as a museum but also to serve as an introduction to the early history of Cebu,” Mojares said. The author added that what’s interesting about the museum is that it stood the test of time.

Casa Gorordo was not considered an extraordinary type of residence during the Spanish era. However, it is one of the ancestral houses in Cebu that has been well preserved even after World War II wrecked Cebu City in the 1940s, leaving a desolate city. The main purpose of the museum is to preserve the evidence and the identity of Cebu City as one of the oldest cities in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.

Mojares admitted that he is fond of this publication.

“This was a one-person production. This was published before the digital age. Not only did I write the book, I designed it, supervised the printing, collected and selected the illustrations of the book,” he said. The year when the book came out, it won the best social sciences book award by the Philippine National Book Award in 1984.