Provenance: : Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857– 1911) and Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)

ABOUT THE WORK

At that time when extensive oppression by the Spanish colonialists was the prevalent condition in these islands, a young and brilliant Filipino pondered deeply about the situation and asked himself hard questions about racial superiority/inferiority, physical qualities, wealth, high education, and privilege. Realizing that he had the same qualities and resources, if not more, than what the Spanish colonialists had, he resolved to beat them at their own game. He then had the audacity to declare, in word and deed and style, that he was indeed equal, if not superior, to them. That first assertive Filipino was none other than Pedro Alejandro Paterno. True, there were complex actuations, mostly political, that marked Pedro Paterno unfavorably for decades in the national psyche. However, he was much more of an intensely patriotic intellectual and visceral aesthete than his ill–deserved reputation of a mere self–serving politician. Delving more into his silent, honorable accomplishments and achievements rather than his flamboyant actuations, we rediscover a Filipino Renaissance man worth national attention and historical reconsideration. Born to great wealth in 1857, at a time when most Filipinos only had dried leaves and grasses to protect them from the elements (nipa, buri, anahaw buli, etc) and even most of the Spanish expatriates lived in rented modest houses and rooms, the young Pedro grew up a prince in a local version of a European palace, almost unreal in its opulence, with an enfilade of French– style salons decorated with crystal chandeliers, tall gilded mirrors, paintings, marbletop tables, elegant chairs, and English and Eastern rugs, including a large “despacho” office–library in the “entresuelo”/mezzanine level, in the elegant “arrabal” (district) of Santa Cruz, Manila. Once in Madrid as a 14 year–old, and unlike other Filipino students who lived in downscale dormitories in modest neighborhoods (yes, even for the national hero Jose Rizal), Pedro thought it fit to rent an entire wing of the Palacio of the Duque de Salamanca in the city’s most exclusive section. Fellow Filipino expatriates christened his palatial Madrid place in half–jest as “La Casa de Molo,” which was truth because the source of the high rental payments was the ambitious Capitan Maximino Paterno in Manila, who, wishing to maintain if not further his family’s august social rank, fully supported his son Pedro’s Madrid adventure in the grandest possible manner. DBF “de buena familia” engineering student Felix Roxas y Fernandez (son of the first Filipino architect Felix Roxas y Arroyo and Cornelia Fernandez; from the Roxas– Zaragoza–Araneta–Infante–Preysler and the Roxas–de Ayala–Zobel–Soriano clans) described Paterno’s life in Madrid as “quite simply, above the throng” with all the trappings of aristocracy --- a regal home, household staff, a complete aristocratic gentleman’s wardrobe, elegant soirees, important guests, a black carriage with the family crest in silver and the coachman and footmen in livery, etc. Pedro completed degrees in Theology and Philosophy with honors at the Universidad de Salamanca. In 1880, he became a Doctor of Civil and Canon Law at the Universidad Central de Madrid (now Universidad Complutense). His social life revolved around the Madrid aristocracy; his good friends were Spanish nobility and officials; he married an aristocratic Spanish lady, Doña Luisa Piñeyro y Merino. No Filipino expatriate in Madrid lived as luxuriously as Don Pedro Paterno, with the exception of the visiting industrialists Don Pedro Pablo Roxas and Don Gonzalo Tuason. Possessing great noblesse oblige, Paterno tirelessly promoted high Filipino culture and exquisite arts and crafts to European society out of his personal funds at his #16 Calle Sauco residence. He was possibly the earliest Filipino “heritage advocate” as well as a pioneering collector of Filipiniana. In 1880, he wrote and published “Sampaguitas y otras poesias varias,” the first collection of poems by a Filipino in Spanish, and “Poesias Liricas y Dramaticas.” In 1885, he also wrote and published “Ninay,” the first novel in Filipino; it was a roman–a–clef in the way that it drew so much from Paterno–Devera Ygnacio family life. Over the course of a literary life of 31 years (1880–1911), Paterno produced 36 major works that ran the gamut from history, law, prose, poetry, etc. Like all “ilustrados,” he dreamt of a reformed, improved relationship between Madre Espana and Las Islas Filipinas, as visualized/idealized in Juan Luna’s allegorical painting “Espana y Filipinas,” which Pedro commissioned from his talented compatriot. In 1893, Pedro Paterno was the recipient of the prestigious and coveted Spanish award “Gran Cruz de la Noble y Distinguida Orden de Isabel la Catolica.” Shortly afterwards in March 1894, Paterno was appointed by Don Antonio Maura, Minister for Overseas Colonies, as the new “Director del Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas”; he was the first Filipino appointed to that post. That important appointment was the catalyst for Paterno’s return to Filipinas after 23 long years.