Saturday, November 10, 2012

The prosperous peacetime

During the 1930s, as the Great
Depression unfolded -- scarring the lives of millions of Americans and spurringdebates amongst seasoned economists as to what caused it -- the Philippines, a
US protectorate, radiated confidence despite some dark clouds that hovered over
its economic and political landscapes.

Although ruled ineligible for American
citizenship and barred from immigrating to the United States, the Filipinos
somehow never lost their faith in the Great American Dream. To ease this
astonishing prohibition, the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1935 allowed a quota of 50
Filipinos a year to immigrate to the US, though the anti-miscegenation law
enacted two years later deemed inter-racial marriage (between a Filipino and a
white American illegal.

Nonetheless, this seemingly unwelcome
mat didn't sully the inherent hospitality of the Filipinos.

During the late 1930s, while a Miami
port turned away the liner St. Louis with a boatload of 900 Jews (reflecting
America's anti-Semitic policy during that period), about 1,200 German and
Austrian Jews found sanctuary in the Philippines. They arrived in Manila's port
from Shanghai while it was then under siege by the Japanese. Thousands more of
these European Jews were to come and call the Philippines their new home.

And as millions of folks across the
United States grappled with the oppressive burdens of the Great Depression,
over at the ultra-modern Crystal Arcade building on Escolta -- which had become
Manila's "peacetime" stock exchange -- stockholders of mining firms
feverishly traded stocks amongst themselves, though most were worthless. That
was because these gold companies very rarely conducted any actual mining; thus,
the "gold profits" they boasted, if any, were nothing more than paper
profits.

But what was to eventually become a
major hit amongst the local folks, which made many of them rich overnight
indeed, was the Sweepstakes. In one instance, on September 8, 1935, jockey
Ordiales rode "Sugar Babe" to a victory, giving a 12-year-old peasant
girl from Tayabas -- who was the holder of the lucky ticket -- a whopping 75
thousand pesos. An enormous fortune at that time.

Meanwhile, back in the States, it was
also a race horse that was becoming a symbol of hope; a cultural icon, in fact.

This stallion's riveting tale of grit,
grace, luck, and an underdog's stubborn determination was swaying over the
nation's imagination. Over terrible handicaps this horse triumphed; becoming a
champion and a legend of the racetrack. But more astoundingly, this horse
healed the wearied soul of a nation battered by a staggering financial
collapse. The horse's name was Seabiscuit.

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Sources:

The Philippines: A Unique Nation

by Sonia M. Zaide

All Nations Publishing O, Inc.

Manila, My Manila

by Nick Joaquin

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

by Laura Hillenbrand

Ballantine Books

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