To the average city dweller living in the north of the metro, camachile is just a place in Caloocan City with a flyover connecting traffic-prone Quirino Avenue (going to Baesa, Quezon City and Novaliches) with North Diverson road to NLEX with an Iglesia ni Cristo kapilya as landmark for commuters.

To people who grew up in the provinces, it's a tree and fruit that conjures images of ones youth, similar to memories of the aratilis of one's childhood.

Camachile (scientific name: Pithecellobium Dulce), like the aratilis, is not native to the Philippines. It's brought in from Mexico, where it's known as guamachil, by the Spaniards, spread to other neighboring Asian countries as far as India where it's called Manila tamarind. It's fruit is about one centimeter wide and several several centimeters long. The fruit is eaten by some people and taste a little sweet and sour, to some it may produce a pucker face though.

camachile fruits bought by Tutubi on MacArthur highway in Pangasinan for PhP20.00

Camachile trees line the highways of Tarlac, Pangasinan and other northern provinces where you'll find children selling camachile fruits on MacArthur highway.

When an officemate of Tutubi, a fifty-something man who grew up in the town of Sexmoan (the former name of Sasmuan, Pampanga), saw his camachile, he narrated a game he used to play where his childhood friends will get camachile seeds and try to peel off the seed cover without exposing the white pulp otherwise he'd lose the game. This game, however, is foreign to Tutubi since he has no childhood memories of the trees unlike the aratilis, lanzones, santol, mami (scientific name: calucarpum sapota), kaimito, guavas, and, of course, mangoes.

Lastly, is Camachile, Caloocan City named after the camachile fruit? Was the area planted with camachile trees that's why it's called that way? Will somebody please confirm history of camachile?

Labels: Caloocan City, Fruits, Metro Manila, National Capital Region

An election fraught with allegations of electoral fraud where ballots counted outnumbered voters and orchestrated by the upper class against a plebeian. Man condemned in a trial for high treason. Wife beaten and raped by his arresting officer. Rapist did not stand trial and got away with impunity. Leader executed and buried in an unmarked grave whose body up to now has never been recovered.

These are not current events, but events that happened more than a century ago to a man whose birthday the country celebrates this day: Andres Bonifacio

Born on Nov. 30, 1863, in Tondo, Manila, in present day Tutuban and part of the vast shopping mecca of Divisoria. He was named Andres since Nov. 30 is the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle. A monument of him can be seen in front of Tutuban Mall on C.M. Recto Avenue.

His parents, Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro died from tuberculosis, mother first followed by father a year later.

Was present in the house on Ylaya St meeting when Jose Rizal founded the La Liga Filipina

When La Liga Filipina was disbanded with the exile of Jose Rizal in Dapitan, Bonifacio founded the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (The Highest, Most Venerable Association of the Sons of the People), or the Katipunan, on July 7, 1892 together with Ladislaw Diwa and Teodoro Plata, at a house of Deodato Arellano on Sagunto Street (now Santo Cristo St) in Tondo. There's a historical marker at the site of KKK founding.

Bonifacio used the caves of Pamitinan in present day Rodriguez (Montalban) of Rizal on which he wrote: Long Live Philippine Independence

A poet and well verse in Spanish, his most famous poem's titled 'Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa'

Married twice, the first one to Monica, his neighbor in Tondo, who died of leprosy a year later.

Second marriage to Gregoria de Jesus (Oryang), an 18 year old lass from a wealthy family in Kalookan, at Binondo Church (though church records turned out nil, they could have married under assumed names for Oryang to escape parental objection being a minor at that time)

Notable Bonifacio Monuments:

Cry of Balintawak Monument at the corner of EDSA and Bonifacio Drive in Quezon City by Napoleon Abueva in bronze. There's a plaster version in front of Vinzons Hall at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

The Cry of Pugadlawin near Quezon City General Hospital (Did you ever wondered why there were at least two cries?)

Bonifacio Monument, popularly called Monumento, a national shrine with an obelisk at the heart of a rotonda (roundabout), the meeting point of EDSA, MacArthur Highway, Rizal Avenue(Avenue) and Samson Road in Caloocan City. It's sculpted by Guillermo Tolentino, a National Aritst for Visual Arts.

the western part of Monumento in Caloocan.

Bonifacio Monument in front of National Post Office in Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, also done by Guillermo Tolentino

Bonifacio Monument at the Mehan Garden near Manila City Hall, a work by Eduardo Castrillo. (Ed Castrillo is also the one who sculpted the EDSA Shrine in front of Robinsons Galleria at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue, the Bantayog ng mga Bayani on Quezon Avenue, Quezon City and the upcoming Montemaria Shrine in Batangas)

an old photo of the monument beside the Manila City Hall with the clock tower in view

Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan City, the site of Andres Bonifacio's battle where he met defeat at the hands of the Spaniards

The Tejeros Convention, the site of the election that catapulted Emilio Aguinaldo as president of the Philippines. Allegations of fraud, called Acta de Tejeros, emerged the next day. The election protest was never resolved (old news, eh?)

Bonifacio was executed on May 10, 1897 on Mt. Nagpatong in Maragondon (this was previously listed in textbooks as Mt. Buntis and sometimes Mt. Hulog ). A shrine is now present at the execution site in a place now called Bonifacio Historical Shrine and Eco-tourism Park in Barangay Pinagsanhan, Maragondon.

Lastly, don't ever try to restart the old debate on Andres Bonifacio, and not Jose Rizal as Philippine National Hero.

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Expect Tutubi to visit the places mentioned here in the future :P

Sources:
Ambeth Ocampo's articles on the Philippine Daily Inquirer
here, here and here.
The "rape" of Gregoria De Jesus was postulated by Ambeth Ocampo in his book Bones of Contention
National Historical Institute

Labels: Andres Bonifacio, Caloocan City, Manila, Metro Manila, Monuments, National Heroes, Philippine History, San Juan