Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (October 1, 2019)
The topic for the October 2019 has to do with our own Borromeo family in the Philippines. Rusty, his wife Susie and I work together to run our two sites (the main site for the family plus the separate site dedicated to the monthly blog) as well as our 3 respective Facebook pages. We’re connected to more than 3,600 individuals via Facebook, 67 percent of whom belong to the extended worldwide Borromeo family. Add to this more than 1,400 people connected to us via Instagram (a Facebook subsidiary company) or via e-mail, 400 more individuals via LinkedIn and 100 plus people via Skype. Our websites have received more than 1.5 million hits from visitors in 196 countries since we went live in November of 2006 (my nephew Matthew runs the technical side of these sites). I’ve published 11 books since 2010, 3 of which are about Volkswagen, the car company based in Germany. I am the number one community poster on the worldwide VW Facebook page, which has over 34 million followers.
Now back to the important news regarding the Borromeo family. Prior to the Second World War in the Philippines (December 1941 – September 1945), my maternal grandfather’s best friend and first degree cousin Marcial Borromeo y Guerrero completed a genealogy of the family which established that the first Borromeo in the Philippines settled in Cavite City on Luzon in 1744 by way of Canton (Guangzhou) in China. Successive generations settled in Iloilo City (on Panay) in 1769, in Tanjay City on Negros in 1794 and finally in Cebu City in 1819. The records of this genealogy were lost or destroyed during the violence of the Second World War, as was much else. For example, both the ancestral homes of my grandparents and great-great grandparents were destroyed during the war. Now fast forward to the present time.
We were always able to maintain the relationship among the extended Borromeo family in Cebu – this includes my 1st degree cousins (descendants of Judge Andrés Borromeo, my maternal grandfather and the most famous member of the Borromeo family of the Philippines), my 2nd degree cousins (the descendants of José Maria Borromeo y Galan, my great-grandfather and the entrepreneur who manufactured the horse-drawn “Tartanilla” carts named after sailing vessels unique to the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea), my 3rd degree cousins (descendants of my great great-grandfather Maximo Borromeo y Feliz, who owned a homestead located on Banawa Street) and finally my 4th degree cousins of the “thin” Borromeo line in Cebu (the “mga niwang” line of the Cebuano Borromeo family also known as the “Montebello” Borromeo line – the name of one of their 3 hotels located in Cebu).
The link reconnecting us on Cebu with Borromeo family of neighboring Negros (my 5th degree cousins) was re-established due to help specifically from Glenn Anthony Borromeo of Tanjay City.
In August 2019 we finally re-established the connection to the Borromeo lines from both Iloilo on Panay (my 6th degree cousins) and Cavite City on Luzon (my 7th degree cousins) due to help specifically from Freddie Borromeo of Makati City. The updated information paints an interesting picture of how we came to the Philippines, and how we have contributed to the history (and the present) of transportation in the Philippines – both on land and at sea.
The surname “Borromeo” goes back to the year 1416 in Milan (Lombardy), Italy. The Borromeo family of Milan is directly descended from the Vitaliani family of Padua, the surname “Vitaliani” going back beyond Saint Justina of Padua in the year A.D. 303. The Vitaliani family of Padua is in turn directly descended from the Vitellius family of Nocera, a suburb of Pompeii – a genealogy which goes back to 292 B.C. This information came through the help of Osvaldo Vitaliani (born & raised in Bozen, South Tyrol, Italy and now resident as an executive chef in Romania).
The first 2 generations of Borromeos in the Philippines used Italian given names, these being Carlo “Capitan Aro” Borromeo (1720) who settled in Cavite City on Luzon by way of Canton (Guangzhou in China) in 1744 and his son Carlo Borromeo II (1745) who settled in Ilioilo City on Pany in 1769. Both father and son were harbor captains by trade, and Carlo the elder also served as an important government official in Cavite City – as a “Gobernadorcillo” which was in effect both a Municipal Judge and a Governor. These traditions were carried on by the likes of my 2nd degree cousin Gerardo “Dito” Borromeo, CEO of Philippine Transmarine Carriers and Aboitiz-Jebsen, which today employ 51,000 maritime professionals who serve aboard more than 1,000 commercial vessels worldwide and by my late maternal grandfather Judge Andrés Borromeo y Reynes (1880-1923), who served as Judge of the Court of First Instance for the Provinces of Surigao and Agusan on Mindanao from July 1914 until he was felled by an assassin’s bullet in Manila in January 1923 – prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
The Borromeo family of the Philippines expanded to Tanjay City on the Island of Negros in 1794 and finally to Cebu City in 1819. The many other branches of the Borromeo family which today exist throughout Luzon (as far north as Ilocos and as far south as Bicol) as well as throughout Mindanao are likely offshoots of the original branches from Cavite, Iloilo, Tanjay City and Cebu City.
Both the Borromeo lines from Cavite City and from Cebu City have legendary “stout” and “thin” lines of their respective families. “Stout” is “Dako” in Tagalog for Cavite and “Tambok” in Cebuano for Cebu & Negros, whereas “Thin” is “Mataba” in Tagalog for Cavite and “Niwang” in Cebuano for Cebu & Negros. Furthermore, both the Borromeo lines from Cavite on Luzon and from Iloilo City on Panay eventually intermarried with the “Thin” Borromeo line from Cebu. This took place roughly 4 generations ago during the generation of my maternal grandparents (specifically by their 2nd degree cousins in Cebu City).
The Borromeo family from Tanjay City on the Island of Negros (where Cebuano is also the native language as it is in Cebu, Bohol and northern Mindanao) has a legend that our roots go back to Italy. The horse drawn carts which were manufactured by the company started by my great-grandfather José Maria Borromeo y Galan (1847-1930) were called “Tartanilla” carts. This name is the Spanish translation of the Italian “Tartana” which is the name of a type of sailing vessel unique to the Adriatic Sea in Europe. All of the horse drawn passenger carts unique to the Philippines were manufactured by different branches of the same Borromeo family – the “Karatela” from Manila on Luzon by the Barredo de Borromeo family (my 3rd degree cousins), the “Calesa” from Iloilo City on Panay by the descendants of Carlo Borromeo II (my 6th degree cousins) and of course the “Tartanila” from Cebu City by my great-grandfather José Maria Borromeo y Galan (1847-1930), who founded the company which grew into the modern day Borromeo Group of Companies led by my 2nd degree cousin Max Borromeo. All told, the 3 cart manufacturing branches of the Borromeo family built and sold more than 121,000 vehicles from 1870 to 1940. The Barredo de Borromeo family owned the first Philippine automotive assembly plant in 1945 – Studebaker which was replaced by Morris from England in 1966 and finally by Toyota prior to 1980. Today, the Borromeo Group of Companies of Cebu City owns and operates 98 vehicle dealerships throughout the Philippines, marketing, selling and servicing the brand names of Ford, Mazda, Suzuki, SsangYong, Kawasaki and Yamaha. The extended family in Cebu owns up to 65 properties, including what will be the 3 tallest commercial towers in Cebu City after June 2020, Judge Andrés Borromeo Plaza I, II, III and IV on Lopez Street in downtown Cebu City, the Borromeo Shopping Arcade and Casino Español on F. Ramos Street, the Centro Maximo I and II corporate headquarters on D. Jakosalem Street (the former homestead property of my great-grandparents), the South Gate residential subdivision in Talisay, the “Poblacion” subdivision in Liloan, the Plaza Margarita shopping center in Minglanilla, agricultural land in Pamutan, Mantalongon, Sibonga as well as in San Isidro on the Island of Leyte (purchased by my great-grandmother Doña Margarita Sy Reynes de Borromeo who lived from 1853 to 1931).
In conclusion, I will point out that the noble Borromeo family from Milan (the eldest male heir is a “Count” and thus a member of the lesser European nobility) has a very informative page on Wikipedia. The links toward the bottom of their page show related sites, including a link to my book titled “The Borromeo Family of Cebu – with more on the Borromeo Family of the Philippines and beyond to Italy.” Everything has finally come around full circle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Borromeo.
