 
This happy occasion marks another significant step forward in our concerted efforts to retrieve our heritage and to conserve our past through the final turnover of the DM Guevara Foundation collection, a fine collection of the late nineteenth century ilustrado lifestyle to the Museo De La Salle. In my travels across the globe, which in my youth always included visits
to the city’s great collections of art and artifacts, I have come to conclude
from simple observation some insights I would like to share. I would like
to gather these insights into a theme which I would like to entitle
Practically all the great collections of the world in art and in lifestyle pieces have been made possible through the efforts of individual collectors, two of whom were Domingo and Carmen Guevara, after whom the DM Guevara Foundation has been named. There are many other fine collectors who have shared their precious time and talents and resources with us. It takes imagination, creativity, good taste to choose selectively what
is worth collecting in preserving our past and if we are just beginning
to do this as a society, in retrieving it. The means to acquire these collections
must likewise be available but more important are not just the means but
the dedication and love which go into the collection. Not all people are
gifted with this talent and this perseverance; it demands exposure to the
beautiful and the lasting in our past, time to rummage through disposable
items to look for valuable and what is worth preserving, and a persevering
will to acquire this for one’s collection. To me this is a real talent
and a gift, borne not
Perhaps one of the most fulfilling accomplishments of a lifetime is the process and the results of this care and concern to retrieve and to preserve the past, which constitutes so much a part of our identity, of who we are. One collects, makes sacrifices to acquire this collection and to exchange items with equally dedicated and generous aficionados, to catalogue them, and them to display them not only for one’s pleasure and satisfaction but to share this pleasure and satisfaction with others of similar tastes and disposition. The great collections of the world and our museums have been started and developed as a result of this instinct to preserve and to collect. The joy in the process of acquiring, exchanging, purchasing, completing a collection and then displaying it for optimal benefit of those interested in the field and of maintaining the collection is often more important the acquisition activities themselves. What happens then when one has had this fulfillment and one is in the process of slowing down and inevitably facing the prospect of mortality? What I have observed with regard to human institutions, including the result of efforts to build a collection and to institutionalize this collection, is that permanence and continuity become major considerations and issues. Even if one relies on biological heirs, there is no guarantee that the heirs will take the same interest in and the same passion for collection and cherishing the collection. Families disperse, heirs are sometimes uncaring and unappreciative of the past and what their parents and grandparents had to go through to build up these collections. They fall prey to poverty and dispose of these collections. The institutions which survive are not biological families and family wealth but churches and schools and governments which caring for the national treasures keep these items preserved and on display for late generations through museums and galleries. The great collections of the world, at least up until now, were built
up by caring and concerned individuals with a passion for the past and
for collecting and maintaining. Sooner or later, a larger institution has
to take over to assure continuity and support. This is where museums have
a function. Whether aided by the government itself or set up in cooperation
with universities and churches,
The Guevara family has reached such a stage of development and maturation
when it must think of the future realistically and ensure that the collection
so painstakingly gathered together by Domingo and Carmen Guevara will be
taken care of for posterity, for the benefit of their fellow Filipinos,
for every generation must retrieve its past, come to terms with it, eye
it critically but lovingly, and make it part of its being and identity.
The collection has suffered the vicissitudes of social changes—from a self-sufficient
museum by itself to the Central Bank Museum, then the Nayong Pilipino,
and
Having gone through a similar experience with our own family’s modest collection, so painstakingly collected by my grandparents and parents, especially by my mother, I built up some of the collection not much in furniture but in crystal and silver and now in the last phase of my life realize that I must let go and let go graciously, to the point of making it a fine art. I am sure that other collectors have had similar experiences as the Guevaras and I have had. The DM Guevara Collection has finally found a home, an institution that
we think will last. Not only in the academic community of Cavite but all
of Philippine society should justly appreciate this fine gesture on the
part of the family represented here especially through the daughters Carmen
To them we express our gratitude and appreciation, their vision, and
the generosity that has characterized the family as it manifests the fine
art of letting go…
Wealth and memory
- 8/31/2003
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