I was only five years old when my great-grandmother, Doña Magdalena Hashim Ysmael Hemady, passed away, so I have only snippets of memories of her.
One of my most vivid memories was of her standing at the top of the stairs in her New Manila home on Broadway and 5th, beckoning us to come up. What struck me most about her was her white hair, stern voice, and strictness. Despite her petite frame, she was very scary—we were all scared of her! But she had this big can of Pierrot toffee-flavored hard candy, and she would give each of us one or two as soon as we met her up the stairs.
I also remember celebrating my third birthday in her place. In those times, children’s parties were held at three in the afternoon, and I remember the ribbon on my hair and the dress from Spain that I was wearing, a gift from my ninong, Enrique Gonzalez. Everybody was there—Pearlie Arcache, Maite Brias, Techie Ysmael, and the Perez-Rubios. Many of us lived in New Manila (we still have our ancestral home on 4th Street), Quezon City, and we would go to each other’s home for birthdays and other special occasions.
‘EMME’
We all called her “emme,” which means “my mother” in Lebanese. My father Carlos said Emme was small but terrible—terrible in the sense that she was such a workaholic. Those acacia trees you see on Broadway and Gilmore? Dad used to say she planted them herself.
“My brother Piqui lived with Emme and Ricky Delgado would play with him,” says my cousin, Techie Ysmael Bilbao, who is now based in Florida. “They were forced to eat spinach. I wore a ballet tutu because I came from tita Totoy Oteyza’s baby class, and Emme warned our yayas not to let us wear immodest clothes showing our knees and thighs! I told my mom and your mom and they thought it was ridiculous, but they told our yayas not to make us wear tutus or shorts in her presence.”
“I remember Cito and I would sometimes sleep over at 5th Street, and for dinner (everything was Lebanese and delicious) everybody would sit at the long dining table in the dining room, and she would always be in that same black dress with her white hair loosely tied and kind of unkempt. She would look really scary, but when she laughed or smiled it was real sincere,” says my cousin and Techie’s brother, Louie.
“My mom and dad would be on either side of her and she would growl in half Lebanese and English to everyone. Yup, she would give the toffee candy, Life Savers, and Tootsie Rolls every once in a while. She never came to our house on 7th Street, but always sent food and toys.
“She would spend practically the whole day on her rocking chair in the front porch, reading or receiving all kinds of people asking her for favors. Former President Manuel Roxas was a frequent visitor, as were friends of my father who just dropped by to pay respects. She was like the Godmother of Quezon City!”
“Emme had vision and guts! Her voice said it all. She was hospitable and helped all the Middle Easterners, including the Jewish. She also always favored the boys in the family,” says my cousin, Luli Ysmael Perez-Rubio (daughter of Miguel Perez-Rubio and Luisa Ysmael).
“She was very generous, donating various properties, including the one where the Carmelite Convent (Carmel of St. Therese) stands on Gilmore. To this day the Carmelite sisters pray for their beloved benefactress, Magdalena Hemady, and her descendants.”
FROM LEBANON TO THE PHILIPPINES
Online articles like “Quezon City: Stories of Old Homes in New Manila” by John Paul “Lakan” Olivares and “The Ghosts of New Manila’s Millionaire’s Row and the Spirits of 42 Broadway Avenue” by Isidra Reyes confirm a lot of what I know and what my father told me.
Born Wadi’ah Hashim in 1877, Emme was a Lebanese national who migrated to the Philippines and changed her name to Magdalena after she converted to Catholicism.
She was married to Juan Ysmael, a Lebanese like her, from the Bikfaya region, who also changed his name because Hanna (the Lebanese equivalent of John) Mansour Gemayel was too difficult for Filipinos to pronounce. The family was en route to Australia, when their ship had engine trouble that required them to make a pit stop in Davao. I’m from the younger generation, but from what I know, they stopped in Iloilo, not Davao.
Anyway, the family liked the Philippines so much they stayed. Emme and Juan moved to Manila, where they joined her brother Faride, who had arrived in the country earlier. By that time, he was the owner of the Manila Grand Opera House, then the center of cultural, political, and social events, which allowed the family to rub elbows with the affluent and the influential. The family also established Ysmael Steel, which manufactured steel and home appliances, and later became the importer of Fiat cars.
My great-grand parents had two children: Felipe and Halim. My father Carlos was the son of Halim.
Years after my great-grandfather passed away, Emme remarried. He was another Lebanese gentleman, Kemal “Dodo” Hemady, who helped her develop New Manila, or what was known in the 1930s as Magdalena Estate. In the early years before World War II, my father and his cousin, my tito Johnny Ysmael, would ride their horses along Aurora Boulevard.
According to Lakan Olivares’s article, Magdalena Estate was divided into four major roads: Victoria Avenue (named after Emme’s daughter-in-law Victoria Cortes, wife of Felipe), Broadway Avenue (after Broadway in New York), Gilmore Avenue (named after Eugene Allen Gilmore, the American Governor General of the Philippines at the time of the estate’s development), and Pacific Avenue (a reference to America’s successful acquisition of the Pacific Rim islands of Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from the Spaniards during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The street is now known as Doña Hemady Street). Bisecting these roads are streets numbered from 1 to 13, a nod to the streets in Manhattan, New York.
Originally owned by the Jesuits, then later by the American government until Emme acquired it, the vast tract of land was in an area with a perennially cool breeze. She believed it would make a perfect residential area for Manila’s elite. In its heyday, it was the address of prominent political personalities—President Manuel Quezon, senators Lorenzo Tañada, Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, Quintin Paredes, and Benigno Aquino Sr.; Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan III; business tycoons Don Vicente Madrigal, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., Fe S. Panlilio, the Uytengsu clan, and showbiz royalty, singer Pilita Corrales, actresses Gloria Romero, Charito Solis, and Amalia Fuentes, and movie producer Doña Narcisa “Sisang” de Leon of LVN Pictures.
Notable architects were commissioned to design their stately homes. Doña Sisang’s mansion on Broadway and 9th Street was by National Artist for Architecture Pablo Antonio, Sr. He was also responsible for the homes of Felipe Ysmael on Gilmore, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Klar on Pacific and 11th Street.
The residence of Dr. Jose Lerma on Broadway and 11th Street was designed by his relative, architect Domingo Lerma. When the bachelor doctor moved to a smaller home after closing down his practice, the mansion became the home of the Ongsiako-Gallegos, who renamed it Villa Caridad after the family matriarch. Alejandro Yelab Caudal, the architect who designed many pre-war homes in Manila and Bulacan, was put in charge of renovations.
New Manila also earned the reputation of being the Hollywood of the Philippines, because it was home to then major film studios Sampaguita Pictures and LVN Pictures. A number of religious institutions are also located here: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Christ the King Mission Seminary, St. Joseph’s Academy and Convent, Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres Novitiate and Provincial House, to name a few.
The young Ysmaels, Rosary and her sister Mari-Len or Nena
PROUD TO BE AN YSMAEL
Emme died of pneumonia in 1955 and her remains can be found at Santuario de San Antonio Parish in McKinley Road, Forbes Park, Makati.
In the Esquire article “The Brief but Remarkable Life of Johnny Ysmael, Millionaire Playboy” by Nicai de Guzman, tito Johnny was supposed to be Emme’s heir. But because he passed away in 1952 (of tuberculosis, at age 32), the rights of Ysmael Steel were transferred to his younger brother, Felipe “Baby” Ysmael Jr. Tito Baby eventually became its owner and managing director, and for several years, the company thrived. It even had its own basketball team, the Ysmael Steel Admirals, whose fiercest rival at the time was YCO Paints.
Tito Baby ended up selling the company to the Guevara family, who assembled Volkswagen vehicles, first in a property on Libertad Street, Mandaluyong, and then in the Ysmael Compound on E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon City. Tito Baby and his family then migrated to Australia.
As for Magdalena Estate, that was dissolved. My father, who worked for the family’s real estate arm, got his share and set up his own company.
Growing up, I was very proud to live in New Manila, and proud to be an Ysmael—I still am. To this day, when people, especially those from older generations, hear the name Ysmael, they’re very impressed. For me, family is legacy and my generation and I always try to uphold the legacy of our family.
The author, Rosary Ysmael (first row, standing, center), celebrating her third birthday in the home of her great grandmother, with close family and friends. Guests included: (seated boys, from left) Enrique Brias, Joselito Eraña, and her cousin Juan Miguel Philips; (first row, standing) her cousin Luli Perez-Rubio (fifth from left) and Maite Brias; (second row, standing) Denise Kahn (third from left), BG Eraña (fourth from left); her sister Mari-Len (fifth from left), Pearlie Arcache, and Mila Garcia; (third row, standing, from left) Susie Bayot, her cousins Techie Ysmael, Louie Ysmael, and Cito Ysmael, her brother Halim Ysmael, her cousins Miguel Perez-Rubio and Carlos Perez-Rubio, and her brother Ricardo Ysmael (top).
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