I also have to apologize for the haziness of some of these photos. Turns out that there was some sort of "smear" on my camera lense. I cleaned it up later, so there is a weird blurriness in the middle part of the photos. Sheeyit.
So why did we even go here? Well, I wanted to show Dennis one of the major Filipino grocery stores in National City as well as a bit of history...
The bust of Dr. Jose Rizal was installed in front of Seafood City during the Centennial of Philippine Independence from Spain in 1998. In my opinion, the Rizal bust probably deserves a better venue than the front of a grocery store like maybe a park or something less commercial.
Dr. Jose Rizal is considered one of the national heroes of the Philippines. He was executed by firing squad by the Spaniards during the Philippine Spanish Revolution in 1896. Rizal was a reformist rather than a true advocate for independence from Spanish rule. As a member of the elite upper class, he would have lost his rights if he truly wanted the country to break away from Spain.
Controversy dogged the bust's arrival in San Diego. Apparently, that same year, a lot of money went "missing" by one of the major Philippine organizations. I won't even get into that here but there ya go.
We took a quick look see in Seafood City...Right near the front were these assorted rice cakes known as "puto".Yeah, man PINCHE PUTO! For those of you that don't know, "puto" may mean steamed rice cake in Tagalog, but it is an extremely bad word in Spanish, short for "prostituto" = "puto" or MALE WHORE. Isn't that nice? My Mexican friends always got a kick out of seeing and eating puto cakes.
Dragon fruits...These were huge!
Different types of fresh lumpia wrappers in the cold case...
It was just a quick jaunt here! On to the next place recommended by one of my friends, Menuderia Don Vicente on Highland Avenue.
Articles about the Jose Rizal Bust and Jose Rizal:
"Jose Rizal - From National Hero to Fishmarket Sentinel"
"The World of Dr. Jose Rizal"
Jose Rizal entry in wikipedia
2 comments:
This was fun and thanks for explaining some of the history of the Rizal bust!
i'm sure a lot of people pass by it everyday and don't even know who he is. well, most older filipinos would know but the younger ones and the non-filipinos don't know his historical significance.
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