WALA LANG
Jaime C. Laya
I got a message from Jojo Canlas about the lost and found ivory parts of an image of Santa Ana (Wala Lang, Nov.16, 2020) that’s too good not to share. Canlas had gone to see Antonio “Tony” Martino to report a vandalized santo that on the same day led to its reconstitution.
It turns out thatin the same morning: (a) Canlas saw part of the image at a shop two minutes away from Martino’s; (b) an hour later he heard from the horse’s mouth as it were that what he had just seen was hot; (c) not knowing what else to do, he went straight to Martino as the Mabini “Interpol”; and (d) Martino and his neighbor-shopowner found the other missing part and the story ended happily.
A Tacloban church was broken into and thieves desecrated the image of its Santa Ana.The image is an ensemble of the Virgin Mary as a young girl and her mother St. Anne as an old woman.The thieves made off with the image of Mary and the ivory mask — the detachable face — of St. Anne.
LOST ANDF FOUND A home altar santo of Santa Ana (not Tacloban’s venerated image), ca. 18th or early 19th century.
There was no trace of the lost objects and Santa Ana’s feast day was approaching, so a Tacloban monsignor rushed to Manila’s Tayuman Street in Santa Cruz, center of Manila’s Catholic religious images and paraphernalia trade, to have the missing parts of the image replaced.
Earlier that same morning, Jojo Canlashad also left his Pampanga home for Manilato pick up a santo for restoration that he had left with Manolo Natividad, a Tayuman carver.Canlas was early so he decided to drop by his friend Romeo Bauzon’s shop up the street from Martino’s to see what was new.
Bauzon proudly showed him a newly acquired Santo Niño.They had a long discussion. Canlas pointed out that it was dressed in pink and blue with outstretched arms and argued that it was a Niña Maria, the Virgin Mary as a child seated on her mother’s lap and part of a Santa Ana ensemble. Bauzon “pooh poohed” Canlas’ opinion and they left it at that.
Bauzon added that the ahente who sold him the Niño also had the ivory mask of an old woman that he didn’t like and that the ahente planned to offer it to the well-known Severina “Viring” de Asis of San Juan’s Jo-Liza Arts and Antiques.
Canlas then proceeded to Natividad in Tayuman to pick up his santo. Next in Canlas’ words, “Manolo was hurriedly packing because a monsignor was fetching him to go to the Visayas … where he had to fix the town’s patron because the ivory mask of Santa Ana and the child Mary had been stolen.Manolo had to replicate them as the town fiesta was coming up. I asked to see the pic and was amazed and told him that I just held this … an hour ago. I did not know the monsignor was behind me.What was I to do?”
So now the monsignor knew Canlas knew where the stolen ivories were, placing Canlas in a quandary.Of course, he could not confront Bauzon, “Aha, so you have pala Tacloban’s stolen image.” He didn’t want himself or Bauzon to get into trouble so he decided to toss the hot potato to Martino, leaving him a photo of the vandalized Tacloban image.
The rest, as they say in showbiz, is history. Martino and Bauzon went to de Asis who fortunately still had the mask. De Asis gladly relinquished her purchase, Santa Ana recovered her face, and Niña Maria returned to her mother’s lap in time for the fiesta.
Canlas got a tin of turrones de manî from the monsignor but lost the package of chorizo de Bilbao that he used to receive every Christmas from Guernica, Bauzon’s delicatessen.
Note: Jojo Canlas is the, proprietor of Atelier El Nuevo Siglo, a top-of-the-line restorer of images expert in embroidery, carving, refinishing, metalwork, etc., and patronized by parishes, dealers, and private collectors.
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