Little Manila: Seasonal Hub of Community Events

Volume 5, Issue No. 14

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

BATHURST-WILSON JUNCTION

The Face, Smell and Taste of Manila in Canada 

It's the Hub That Gave Birth to Little Manila

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Nothing ever becomes real 'til it is experienced.” - John Keats

TORONTO - The face of Manila is literally on our faces. Not the physical face, but the metaphorical face. 

Certainly not the face, in the words of poet and novelist Miles Gibson, "that resembled a diseased cauliflower" nor of author Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "face . . . clean as a china plate".

The true face of Manila lies in between Gibson's and Fisher's lyrical description. Where to find its likeness is really not difficult as it is accessible by foot, bicycle, bus, subway train, and private vehicles.

I take the five-kilometre walk to and fro the area once I feel a craving for my favourite pancit at Sampaguita Village resto on Wilson Ave. There, I could finish an order of a medium-size plate of this noodle and try to lose the carbs by walking back home.

Eating pancit is a habit I couldn't shake off from my routine, a pleasant reminder of the time I was a foreign correspondent covering Malacanang Palace during the last few months of the presidencies of Ferdinand Marcos, the whole term of Cory Aquino, and later, the early months of Fidel Ramos.

To think about it now is to go back in time through the youthful and fruitful years as a journalist witnessing the unfolding of those troubled moments of Philippine history under three presidents.

The communist insurgency, the separatist movement in the South, the imposition of martial law, and his overthrow - those are defining periods of Marcos' rule. Then there's the short-lived revolutionary government of Cory Aquino and the endless coups that followed. After her, Fidel Ramos succeeded in stabilizing the country.

Before I would take the jeepney ride from Arlegui St. below the Quezon Bridge to San Miguel district where Malacanang is located, I would impulsively go to Chonam, my favorite Chinese restaurant near the foot of the pedestrian bridge on Raon St.

I was hoping to eat there again when I visited Manila in 2015 and in early 2018, but to my disappointment, I could not find it even behind the hundreds of sidewalk vendors blocking main storefronts. 

I then went to my second favourite, the austere and unadorned Ma Mon Luk, for the mami-and-siopao combination it's famous for. It was another quick glance at history, I thought. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Pod8-RJTE).

Well, back to Toronto. The Filipino stores that congregate along Wilson Ave. and  Bathurst St. somehow give the area an air, smell, and flavour of Manila. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc6xyf46sek).

The junction they form is the core of Little Manila, the enclave sensationalized by Filipino businesses to identify a melting pot of different Filipino tribes who work and live in that part of the city.

The geographic boundaries of Little Manila are not well-defined, perhaps because it's officially non-existent politically and legally. It comes alive only during summer and reverts back to its dormant state the rest of the year.

(Videos at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJFlnNerVA, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACkDCFUVwY, and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2fI0c11aO0).

Even as it recedes to memory, there's a growing Filipino presence that could be seen within a half-kilometre radius (from Bathurst-Wilson junction) along Bathurst to Invernay Ave. to the north, and to Joicey Blvd. to the south; and (again from Bathurst-Wilson junction) along Wilson Ave. to Laurentia Crest to the west. Wilson Ave. eastward is mostly residential.

Outside of the perimeter further north of the intersection is Earl Bales Park at Raoul Wallenberg Rd. where stands a bust of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOmxsqK801Y).

Little Manila is quite an apt description as the expanse mimics Manila, the Philippine capital, and its idiosyncrasies, warts and all. 

Philippine Ambassador Leslie Gatan christened the area Little Manila in recognition of the nascent Taste of Manila street festival in August 2014. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZa99xeGW0).

The elements that make Manila what it is are there, except one - a house of worship. The Catholic church nearest Little Manila is the Our Lady of the Assumption (or OLA to Filipino faithfuls) Church 3.5 kilometres away south on Bathurst St. 

On weekends, the church is filled with Filipino devotees. Taking buses that ply the road to the church is like being in downtown Quiapo - full of chitchats and loud phone conversations in different Philippine dialects. 

It's this area in Toronto where one doesn't get a real feel of being outside the Philippines. It's practically the homeland transformed by the fall colours and the winter snow.

If loiterers (or "tambays" in Tagalog slang) in Manila could be found in street corners and neighbourhood stores, here in Toronto they're in coffee shops gulping down cup after cup of the beverage.

In fact, a Starbucks store had to close shop because of the pestering problem of "tambays" who stayed the whole day there on a medium-size cup of coffee, thus depriving other customers of seats and tables. The rising cost of its lease had worsened the situation.

Like its counterpart half a globe away, Little Manila is less a marketplace of ideas than a centre of gossip, a flesh market, some say; a haven for scammers, a dumping ground for the Filipino supermarket tabloids and a flea market all rolled into one. 

The story goes that non-Filipino males frequently scout the area for lonely women, some of them Filipino caregivers seeking companionship or overnight or weekend trysts. The coffee shop that shut down apparently didn't want to be typecast as a pickup point in North York.

Blemishes there may be, but Little Manila abounds with Filipinos forever trying to make ends meet. And these are the ambulant men and women who sell fruits and vegetables hidden in gym bags and worn-out pieces of luggage. Some grow them in backyards, some buy wholesale from farms and resold for a small profit. 

The money these sidewalk vendors earn goes toward food on the table, tuition fees, personal upkeep, and financial help for relatives in the Philippines. Remitting money saved from their unlicensed trade helps keep their families, and the homeland too, afloat.

While the Taste of Manila street festival has given birth to Little Manila, that particular quarter, in turn, puts the spotlight on the reality of the face of Manila. 

Certainly, the face, warts and all, of Manila in Canada is Toronto's Little Manila. A caveat though. Not all Filipinos one might encounter there are working hard, many are hardly working. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).