Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson
Speaker 2: and I'm Holly Frye. Today we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: somebody whose life and work overlapped with a number of
Speaker 2: previous episodes, including the ones where we've talked about chemistry,
Speaker 2: home economics, and women during World War Two. Maria Ilagan
Speaker 2: Arosa was born in the Philippines and her education in
Speaker 2: chemistry took place primarily in the United States at the
Speaker 2: University of Washington in Seattle. Then she took that knowledge
Speaker 2: back to the Philippines and spent the rest of her
Speaker 2: life working to eliminate food insecurity. So she was trying
Speaker 2: to reduce the philippines reliance on imported foods, trying to
Speaker 2: revive the use of locally available ingredients, and writing recipes
Speaker 2: for dishes that continue to be a big part of
Speaker 2: Filipino cuisine today. Maria Arosa was killed during the Battle
Speaker 2: of Manila in World War Two, and while we will
Speaker 2: be touching on some of the atrocities that took place
Speaker 2: in the Philippines during the war, that is really not
Speaker 2: the primary focus of the episode. So if you listen
Speaker 2: and you think wonder why we did not mention any
Speaker 2: particular thing, it's because our focus is really on her
Speaker 2: in her life. Maria Aroso was born on November twenty eighth,
Speaker 2: eighteen ninety three, and to All Philippines to all is
Speaker 2: on the coast, very roughly one hundred kilometers or sixty
Speaker 2: miles south of Manila. Her parents were Simplicio Arosa e Agoncio,
Speaker 2: who was captain of a steamship, and her mother was
Speaker 2: Juliana Ilagen. Maria was the fourth of their eight children.
Speaker 2: The Philippines was under Spanish colonial control when Maria was born,
Speaker 2: and the Spanish had established a free public education system
Speaker 2: there about thirty years before her birth through a royal
Speaker 2: decree by Queen Isabella the Second. There had been schools
Speaker 2: before that point, primarily run by Catholic religious orders, but
Speaker 2: this decree mandated the building of schools for boys and
Speaker 2: for girls in all towns that had more than five
Speaker 2: thousand residents. Education was also made compulsory between the ages
Speaker 2: of six and twelve, so by the time Maria was born,
Speaker 2: most children in the Philippines had access to education, at
Speaker 2: least through primary school. It was not as common for
Speaker 2: people to go on to college, but Maria and all
Speaker 2: seven of her siblings did, four of them going to
Speaker 2: college in the Philippines and three in the United States.
Speaker 2: She and all of her siblings were seen as respectable
Speaker 2: and accomplished, and later on, in nineteen forty eight, their
Speaker 2: mother was voted Mother of the Year by the National
Speaker 2: Federation of Women's Clubs of the Philippines for having raised
Speaker 2: all of those kids.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: Somehow we don't have much detail or many anecdotes about
Speaker 2: Maria's young life, but this was a really tumultuous time
Speaker 2: in the Philippines. The Filipino nationalist organization Katipunin was established
Speaker 2: the year before she was born to fight against Spanish
Speaker 2: colonial rule. By August of eighteen ninety six, it had
Speaker 2: an estimated one hundred thousand members. Katipunin had been founded
Speaker 2: as a secret organization, and when the Spanish authorities discovered
Speaker 2: its existence, its founder, Andreas Bonifacio, called for an armed
Speaker 2: uprising that's generally marked as the start of the Philippine Revolution.
Speaker 2: This happened just a few months before Maria turned three.
Speaker 2: Fighting in the Philippine Revolution continued until December of eighteen
Speaker 2: ninety seven, when the Pact of Biacnabato established a provisional
Speaker 2: truce with revolutionary leaders exiled to Hong Kong and Spain
Speaker 2: promising to make a number of reforms. Neither side really
Speaker 2: followed through on the intent of this pack, though, with
Speaker 2: revolutionary leaders re arming themselves in Hong Kong and Spain
Speaker 2: not actually carrying out those reforms within a few months.
Speaker 2: Spain also had some other things to worry about. The
Speaker 2: United States had backed Cuba's fight to become independent from Spain,
Speaker 2: and tensions between Spain and the United States escalated after
Speaker 2: the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on February fifteenth,
Speaker 2: eighteen ninety eight. By April of that year, the two
Speaker 2: were at war. In May of eighteen ninety eight, the
Speaker 2: United States defeated the Spanish fleet that was anchored in
Speaker 2: Manila Bay, and when American forces arrived for a ground
Speaker 2: invasion of Manila, Filipino revolutionary forces joined them. Revolutionaries considered
Speaker 2: this as fighting with the United States against a common
Speaker 2: enemy to free the Philippines from Spanish colonial control, and
Speaker 2: on June twelfth of eighteen ninety eight, the Revolutionary Government
Speaker 2: of the Philippines proclaimed its independence. Neither the United States
Speaker 2: nor Spain recognized this independence, though, and the Treaty of Paris,
Speaker 2: signed on December tenth, eighteen ninety eight, gave the United
Speaker 2: States the right to purchase the Philippines from Spain, which
Speaker 2: it did for twenty million dollars. The US Senate ratified
Speaker 2: the treaty on February fourth, eighteen ninety nine, by which
Speaker 2: point American troops had already started fighting against revolutionaries in
Speaker 2: the Philippines who continued to fight for their independence. At
Speaker 2: this point, Maria was only five, and her father was
Speaker 2: using his steamship to transport Filipino troops and supplies to
Speaker 2: support the fight for independence. That was something he had
Speaker 2: been doing during the Spanish American War and the earlier
Speaker 2: revolutionary uprising. Her father was one of the people as
Speaker 2: well who lobbied for the United States to recognize the
Speaker 2: Philippines as independent.
Speaker 1: The Philippine American War was officially declared over in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh two. That year, Congress also passed the Philippine Organic Act.
Speaker 1: This act did not grant independence to the Philippines, but
Speaker 1: it did establish a civilian government and authorize two Filipino
Speaker 1: resident commissioners to have seats in Congress, although these were
Speaker 1: non voting representatives. Residents of the Philippines were considered US nationals,
Speaker 1: but not citizens. That's something that we talked more about
Speaker 1: in our episode on the Insular Cases in August of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Eventually, the Arosa family moved from Taal
Speaker 1: to Bawan, which is roughly twenty kilometers farther south and
Speaker 1: also on the coast. The details are vague here, but
Speaker 1: most sources about Maria Arosa's life say the family was
Speaker 1: trying to get away from the violence and brutality of
Speaker 1: American soldiers who were stationed in Taal. Apparently, American authorities
Speaker 1: found their departure suspicious, and her father was arrested and detained.
Speaker 1: There are also some sources that say their move was
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of an eruption of the Taal volcano.
Speaker 1: That eruption seems to have happened later either way. In Bawan,
Speaker 1: Juliana and Simplicio ran a general store. Simplicio died in
Speaker 1: nineteen ten at the age of just forty five. Maria
Speaker 1: was sixteen at that point, and she started helping her
Speaker 1: mother to run the store. In nineteen fifteen. At the
Speaker 1: age of twenty one, Maria enrolled at the University of
Speaker 1: the Philippines to study pharmaceutical chemistry. A year later, she
Speaker 1: traveled to the United States to continue her college education
Speaker 1: at the University of Seattle.
Speaker 2: There are some contradictory accounts about this moment in Maria's
Speaker 2: young life as well. According to some accounts, her education
Speaker 2: was self funded, but others say that she had been
Speaker 2: awarded a partial scholarship from the government. In nineteen oh three,
Speaker 2: Congress had passed the Pensonado Act, which provided funding for
Speaker 2: students from the Philippines to go to college in the
Speaker 2: United States. This act was ostensibly part of an American
Speaker 2: plan to quote modernize the Philippines and prepare it for
Speaker 2: self government, although it was definitely also an attempt to
Speaker 2: promote goodwill and cut down on the likelihood of another
Speaker 2: revolutionary uprising. In the program's first year, only men and
Speaker 2: boys received scholarships, but that changed in the second year.
Speaker 2: It's possible that Maria was the recipient of one of
Speaker 2: these scholarships. Two of her brothers definitely were, including her
Speaker 2: brother Jose, who came to Seattle while Maria was still
Speaker 2: a student there. I did not find her name on
Speaker 2: any of the specific documents that had lists of students
Speaker 2: on them. A lot of accounts of Maria's life say
Speaker 2: that she traveled to Seattle as a stowaway, including some
Speaker 2: accounts written by family members, but her name is on
Speaker 2: a passenger manifest from a Japanese ship that arrived in
Speaker 2: Washington in August of nineteen sixteen, along with the name
Speaker 2: of a friend that she was known to be traveling with.
Speaker 2: Once arrived, she lived at the YMCA for a while
Speaker 2: before eventually finding other housing. Some of Rosa's letters home
Speaker 2: from her college years have survived and been translated into
Speaker 2: English and posted online by family members. These letters make
Speaker 2: it sound like her time in college was difficult but
Speaker 2: worth it. Most of these letters describe her as safe
Speaker 2: and well through the mercy of God, and she also
Speaker 2: credits God's help in keeping her well and helping her
Speaker 2: with her studies. She clearly worried about her family, especially
Speaker 2: after hearing about an outbreak of cholera in the Philippines.
Speaker 2: At various points after getting this news, Maria urged her
Speaker 2: mother to eat nutritious food, get plenty of sleep, and
Speaker 2: wash her hands, and to cook or boil anything she
Speaker 2: ate or drank, and to throw away any food that
Speaker 2: flies or mosquitoes had landed on. And these worries continued
Speaker 2: with the start of the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic. Maria
Speaker 2: herself contracted the pandemic flu in nineteen nineteen, but she recovered.
Speaker 2: Maria was also worried about her brothers and nephews. World
Speaker 2: War One had already started when she left for the
Speaker 2: United States. The Philippine Assembly established the Philippine National Guard
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventeen, and the National Guard recruited between fifteen
Speaker 2: thousand and twenty five thousand Filipino soldiers to support the
Speaker 2: American war effort. Maria didn't give a reason why in
Speaker 2: her letters. I can imagine a number of different possible reasons,
Speaker 2: but she was strongly against the idea of the young
Speaker 2: men and her family joining. Although being so far away
Speaker 2: from her family during wartime and a pandemic must have
Speaker 2: been stressful, the war also led to an opportunity. While
Speaker 2: a Roso was in college, one of the people who
Speaker 2: was working in the university's food lab left for military service,
Speaker 2: and Aroso was hired to take his place. In a
Speaker 2: letter to her mother, she described this as an honor
Speaker 2: because this was a type of job that was always
Speaker 2: offered to white people first before Filipino, Chinese, or Japanese applicants.
Speaker 2: It was also a job that she described as a
Speaker 2: great responsibility and a great help to her studies as
Speaker 2: she tested foods for purity and adulteration, and she made
Speaker 2: sure they met quality standards and actually contained what was
Speaker 2: on their labeling. We'll talk about her life after college
Speaker 2: after a sponsor break. Maria Aurosa earned a bachelor's degree
Speaker 2: in pharmaceutical chemistry in nineteen seventeen, followed by a bachelor's
Speaker 2: in food chemistry in nineteen eighteen, and then won in
Speaker 2: pharmacy in nineteen twenty. That sounds like plenty, and she
Speaker 2: thought about returning home at that point, but she stayed
Speaker 2: for one more year to earn a master's in pharmaceutical
Speaker 2: chemistry because she hoped having that masters would help her
Speaker 2: get a higher rate of pay after she returned home.
Speaker 2: While at the University of Washiington's, she was inducted into
Speaker 2: Sigma sized Scientific Research Honor Society and Iota Sigma Pi
Speaker 2: Honor Society for women in chemistry. While in the United States,
Speaker 2: in addition to just an enormous amount of schoolwork, she
Speaker 2: also helped her mother run an export business with Juliana,
Speaker 2: ordering goods like baby bibs, embroideries, and bags in the
Speaker 2: Philippines and shipping them to the United States, where Maria
Speaker 2: arranged for their sale, offered some guidance on what was
Speaker 2: selling and what was not, and sent the proceeds back home.
Speaker 2: Some of the jobs Maria did to support herself while
Speaker 2: she was in college would also go on to influence
Speaker 2: her work when she got back to the Philippines, including
Speaker 2: working at a fish cannery in Alaska and picking fruit
Speaker 2: on a farm during the summers. After earning her master's degree,
Speaker 2: Erosha turned down a job offer to be an assistant
Speaker 2: chemist for the state of Washington. She arrived back in
Speaker 2: the Philippines in nineteen twenty two. A year she taught
Speaker 2: home economics at Centro Escolar University, and then she went
Speaker 2: to work as a chemist at the Bureau of Science
Speaker 2: for the rest of her career. A huge part of
Speaker 2: Erosa's work was focused on reducing food insecurity and malnutrition,
Speaker 2: and on food autonomy for the Philippines. The term food
Speaker 2: sovereignty would not be coined for decades, but there was
Speaker 2: a lot of overlap with what she was doing trying
Speaker 2: to give local people rather than governments and corporations, control
Speaker 2: over their own food systems. To be very clear, the
Speaker 2: Philippines is home to a huge diversity of different ethnic groups.
Speaker 2: This archipelago has had connections to other nations, both nearby
Speaker 2: and across oceans for centuries, so Filipino cuisine has a
Speaker 2: lot of different influences. I cannot stress this enough. I
Speaker 2: am not criticizing any cuisines that arose from this process
Speaker 2: or any foods that people like to eat. The reliance
Speaker 2: on American foods after the Philippines became a US territory, though,
Speaker 2: that was an intentional part of American control over the islands.
Speaker 2: After the United States annexed the Philippines following the Spanish
Speaker 2: American War, the US thought the Philippines was not capable
Speaker 2: of governing itself. President William McKinley had instructed commissioners to
Speaker 2: americanize and civilize the archipelago. Obviously, this was not just
Speaker 2: about food, but food was a part of it. Authorities
Speaker 2: from the United States saw Filipino foods as unhealthy and
Speaker 2: poor quality, and encouraged people to eat processed imports instead.
Speaker 2: As the United States eventually started looking at a plan
Speaker 2: for the Philippines to become independents, adoption of American foods
Speaker 2: was also seen as a sign of progress. If American
Speaker 2: officials dined at the home of a Filipino official, eating
Speaker 2: any Filipino dishes that were served was considered to be
Speaker 2: a gesture of goodwill, Like it was a it was
Speaker 2: polite to accept and appreciate this food. But if this
Speaker 2: Filipino host instead served American dishes, that was seen as
Speaker 2: a sign that the hosts, and by extension, the community
Speaker 2: that they were part of, were moving toward being capable
Speaker 2: of governing themselves. This even included a preference for canned
Speaker 2: imported fruit over fruits that were locally grown, because local
Speaker 2: fruit was believed to be a potential vector for cholera.
Speaker 2: To be clear, cholera is spread through contaminated food and water,
Speaker 2: but it's caused by bacteria, not the fruit itself, and
Speaker 2: canned foods had their own problems in the early twentieth century,
Speaker 2: including bachulism outbreaks, which were an ongoing problem in American
Speaker 2: canned goods. Yeah, so we're not going to get into
Speaker 2: the weeds about the idea of healthy or unhealthy, because
Speaker 2: food is more complicated than that. But this meant that
Speaker 2: over time, the Philippines was increasingly and really artificially dependent
Speaker 2: on imports of processed and preserved foods, primarily shipped from
Speaker 2: the United States, Australia, and Japan. This was generally a
Speaker 2: lot more expensive than food produced locally would have been,
Speaker 2: and this focus on imported food also meant that people
Speaker 2: had progressively less and less familiarity with how to prepare
Speaker 2: and eat the foods that were abundant there in the Philippines.
Speaker 2: So Erosa focused on figuring out the nutrient content and
Speaker 2: uses for foods that were locally available, sometimes reviving older
Speaker 2: traditions and sometimes finding new uses for things that were
Speaker 2: typically seen as a byproduct or waste or suited only
Speaker 2: for animal feed. Many of these were also foods that
Speaker 2: had potential as export crops. For example, Maria Arosa is
Speaker 2: the first person known to have canned and frozen mangoes
Speaker 2: in the Philippines. Mangoes aren't native to the Philippines, but
Speaker 2: they were introduced sometime after the fifteenth century, and they
Speaker 2: grew and grow abundantly there. Arosa also established rural improvement
Speaker 2: clubs basically four H clubs, patterned after the four H
Speaker 2: clubs she'd encountered while studying in the United States. These
Speaker 2: provided information and instruction on how to grow, prepare, make,
Speaker 2: and preserve things at home. By nineteen twenty four, these
Speaker 2: clubs had about twenty two thousand members around the Philippines.
Speaker 2: She also worked with the Extension Service to provide families
Speaker 2: with information on gardening, raising poultry, and making things that
Speaker 2: could be sold. The whole idea was for families to
Speaker 2: be more self sufficient and to find new sources of
Speaker 2: income and to progressively reduce their reliance on American goods.
Speaker 2: While she was relying on education that she had attained
Speaker 2: in the United States, Arosa was focused on what people
Speaker 2: in the Philippines actually needed and how people were living
Speaker 2: day to day, like a lot of people didn't have
Speaker 2: electricity in their homes, especially outside of cities. She modified
Speaker 2: an existing type of earthenware container called a pallioc, adding
Speaker 2: a piece of sheet metal to the bottom and aluminum
Speaker 2: foil under the lid, and that turned it into a
Speaker 2: small oven that could be used over a fire or
Speaker 2: a wood burning stove. As we said earlier, commercially canned
Speaker 2: foods had become a big part of the food supply
Speaker 2: in the Philippines, but at the same time, they were
Speaker 2: expensive and they were out of a lot of people's
Speaker 2: reach financially. But home canning was not widely practiced at all.
Speaker 2: When Orosa started doing this work. She developed canning methods
Speaker 2: for a wide range of locally available foods, including whole mangos,
Speaker 2: and she created educational materials to teach people how to
Speaker 2: do this themselves. In nineteen twenty five, the annual Manila
Speaker 2: Carnival included a display of home canned goods, which was
Speaker 2: many people's first exposure to the idea. Interest in canning
Speaker 2: at home really increased after this point. In nineteen twenty seven,
Speaker 2: Aroso was promoted to lead the Division of Food Preservation
Speaker 2: at the Bureau of Science in Manila. A year later,
Speaker 2: as part of her work, she embarked on a year
Speaker 2: long global tour to study food preservation techniques and home
Speaker 2: demonstration methods. The people traveling with her included Isabel de Santos,
Speaker 2: owner of DeSanto's Fruit Products Company, which had been established
Speaker 2: two years before and incorporated under the name ismar taken
Speaker 2: from the names Isabel and Maria. Maria wasn't directly involved
Speaker 2: in the creation of this company, but she had been
Speaker 2: the one who had taught Isabel how to preserve fruit.
Speaker 2: This company preserved foods for export, especially mangoes and guava,
Speaker 2: according to a nineteen twenty nine description of their visit
Speaker 2: to Hawaii on this tour. By that point, Arosa had
Speaker 2: sixteen women working for her as demonstrators, traveling all around
Speaker 2: the Philippines to teach people how to can their own
Speaker 2: food and to develop new methods in the food lab.
Speaker 2: Arosa was promoted to lead the Philippines' Home Economics Division
Speaker 2: after she returned from this tour. She applied what she
Speaker 2: had learned during this year of research to finding or
Speaker 2: reviving nutrient dense foods in the Philippines. This included making
Speaker 2: flour from coconuts, green bananas, cassava, and rice rather than
Speaker 2: using imported wheat flour. She also developed culinary uses for
Speaker 2: coconut oil, which was mainly being used for things like
Speaker 2: floor polish. In nineteen thirty two, she published a booklet
Speaker 2: of recipes using roselle, which is a type of hibiscus
Speaker 2: that had been introduced to the Philippines from India and Malaysia.
Speaker 2: Its fruit has a similar flavor to cranberries, which were
Speaker 2: another expensive import from the United States. So she saw
Speaker 2: the roselle as a potential source of both food and income,
Speaker 2: and the booklet out lined recipes for a range of
Speaker 2: foods made from it, including jellies, butters, marmalades, chutneys, juice, wine,
Speaker 2: and vinegar. She also developed a number of recipes using soybeans,
Speaker 2: including a soybean based powdered protein drink called soilac. Here
Speaker 2: also is a recipe that she wrote for soy milk,
Speaker 2: which was published in a USDA bulletin in nineteen thirty six.
Speaker 2: That bulletin also included two different recipes for making powdered
Speaker 2: soybean milk that she wrote. Quote, Wash the beans thoroughly,
Speaker 2: soak them in plenty of water for twelve hours, changing
Speaker 2: the water frequently. Grind the soaked beans, and a stone mill,
Speaker 2: adding small amounts of water while grinding. The total amount
Speaker 2: of water subsequently added as from three to five times
Speaker 2: that of the beans. The thin paste like fluid is
Speaker 2: boiled half hour and then strained through a cheesecloth. A
Speaker 2: small amount of vanilla extract or other flavoring maybe added
Speaker 2: in order to mask the characteristic odor and flavor of
Speaker 2: the milk. Rice was and is a staple food in
Speaker 2: the Philippines, but rice brand or derrek, was considered to
Speaker 2: be a waste product of the refining process. Arosa found
Speaker 2: that rice brand was very high in B vitamins as
Speaker 2: well as vitamins A, D, and E, and she created
Speaker 2: a recipe for Derek cookies that were high enough in
Speaker 2: B vitamins that they could be used to treat and
Speaker 2: prevent the vitamin B one deficiency known as Barry berry.
Speaker 2: Her most famous culinary development was banana ketchup, and we
Speaker 2: will talk about that after a sponsor break. The culinary
Speaker 2: invention that Maria Rosa is most famous for is banana ketchup.
Speaker 2: So let's back up for a second and talk about ketchup.
Speaker 2: If your background is like Holly's and mine, ketchup is
Speaker 2: probably so synonymous with tomato that you don't even need
Speaker 2: to say the tomato part. But ketchup has roots in
Speaker 2: Asian cuisines, and its early precursors did not have tomatoes
Speaker 2: in them at all. These were fermented fish or soybean
Speaker 2: pastes that were meant to have a very long shelf life.
Speaker 2: The exact origins of the word ketchup are not totally clear.
Speaker 2: It first appeared in English in the seventeenth century as
Speaker 2: a word for sauces that British merchants and colonists were
Speaker 2: bringing back to Europe from Asia. Some articles on ketchup
Speaker 2: history cite a specific word as its origin, but there
Speaker 2: are really a number of similar words from East, South
Speaker 2: and Southeast Asian languages that all describe various brines and
Speaker 2: salti or savory sauces. Regardless, early references to ketchup and
Speaker 2: English make it clear that it really didn't resemble the
Speaker 2: tomato ketchup of today. Like one recipe from sixteen eighty
Speaker 2: three calls for ketchup and if you don't have any ketchup,
Speaker 2: you can substitute an anchovy, So obviously not the same thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: anchovy would not be a good substitute for the red
Speaker 2: tomato ketchup that comes out of a bottle.
Speaker 1: It would be a far better substitute in my book,
Speaker 1: but that's just a matter of personal taste.
Speaker 2: Over the seventeen hundreds, various English language references to ketchup,
Speaker 2: and recipes for making ketchup involve things like soy, mushroom juice, walnuts,
Speaker 2: and oysters, as well as a number of different fruits,
Speaker 2: but not tomatoes, since the conventional wisdom among a lot
Speaker 2: of Europeans at that point was that tomatoes were poisonous.
Speaker 2: Exact recipes for making this non tomato ketchup could really vary,
Speaker 2: but for the most part they involved simmering the ingredients
Speaker 2: down until they had thickened, or adding lots of salt
Speaker 2: to a paste, or some combination of both of those things.
Speaker 2: James MEAs is usually credited with introducing the first tomato
Speaker 2: ketchup in eighteen twelve, although his this version tended to
Speaker 2: spoil fairly quickly and it was really more like tomato
Speaker 2: sauce in consistency, but people seemed to like it, and
Speaker 2: in the decades that followed, more and more ketchup recipes
Speaker 2: included tomato or just had tomato as their primary ingredient. Then,
Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy six, Hines introduced a bottled tomato ketchup
Speaker 2: that also contained vinegar and sugar that gave it a
Speaker 2: longer shelf life. It was thicker and sweeter than Misa's version,
Speaker 2: and it was made without the preservatives that had become
Speaker 2: controversial in the late nineteenth century. By the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 2: Hine was selling five million bottles of tomato ketchup a year.
Speaker 2: The tomato part is there on the label. Like we
Speaker 2: said earlier, For a lot of Americans, that tomato part
Speaker 2: goes without saying. Tomatoes had been introduced to the Philippines
Speaker 2: from South America, most likely by Spain during the Manila
Speaker 2: galleyan trade that ran from Manila to Acapulco from the
Speaker 2: sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Eventually, a localized tomato variety developed,
Speaker 2: known as the native tomato or the Cammatis tagalog, which
Speaker 2: usually has a lighter red or sometimes greenish skin. This
Speaker 2: variety of tomato is more resistant to the climate of
Speaker 2: the Philippines, and it's a key component in a number
Speaker 2: of Filipino dishes, but it's usually more sour and acidic
Speaker 2: than what would be used to make today's tomato ketchup.
Speaker 2: Aside from that, the runaway success of Hinz tomato ketchup
Speaker 2: meant that by the early twentieth century, people were not
Speaker 2: typically making their own ketchup at home. Anymore, they were
Speaker 2: buying it in glass bottles. Circling back around to what
Speaker 2: we discussed earlier about American food imports into the Philippines
Speaker 2: and the early twentieth century, imported bottled ketchup was really expensive,
Speaker 2: but it was also in really hide demand, both because
Speaker 2: of the presence of Americans living in the Philippines and
Speaker 2: this influence of Americans and American policy on Filipino cuisine.
Speaker 2: Maria Arosa looked for an alternative, making ketchups from a
Speaker 2: lot of different fruits, including guava and papaya. That Roselle
Speaker 2: cookbook we mentioned earlier included Brozelle ketchup, but banana ketchup
Speaker 2: was the most successful of all her ketchup recipes, made
Speaker 2: from saba bananas, brown sugar, spices, and vinegar. Saba bananas
Speaker 2: are stockier and have a richer flavor than the cavendish
Speaker 2: bananas that are the usual standard in most American grocery stores.
Speaker 2: About a decade after Arosa developed her banana ketchup, Magdolo
Speaker 2: viv and Francisco Senior started the first mass production of
Speaker 2: commercially bottled banana ketchup under the brand named Mafron. Today,
Speaker 2: some commercially bottled banana ketchups are colored red, but others
Speaker 2: aren't and retain the color of the banana and the
Speaker 2: spices instead. Banana ketchup continues to be popular both in
Speaker 2: the Philippines and in the Filipino diaspora, both as a
Speaker 2: condiment and as an ingredient in other foods, including Filipino spaghetti,
Speaker 2: which includes banana ketchup and cut up hot dogs in
Speaker 2: the sauce. I would absolutely eat this, but I have not.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty four, Arosa became head of the Plant
Speaker 1: Utilization Division of the Philippine government's Bureau of Plant Industry.
Speaker 1: That same year, the US passed the Philippine Independence Act,
Speaker 1: establishing a ten year transition period for independence, during which
Speaker 1: time the Philippines was meant to both prepare itself for
Speaker 1: independence and demonstrate that it was capable of it. But
Speaker 1: war disrupted that ten year plan. After rising tensions that
Speaker 1: had gone on for years, Japan invaded China in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty seven and Germany invaded Poland in nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 1: On December eighth, nineteen forty one, just hours after attacking
Speaker 1: Pearl Heart, Hawaii, Japan invaded the Philippines. The departure of
Speaker 1: the United States military from the Philippines is really its
Speaker 1: own involved story, but by May of nineteen forty two,
Speaker 1: General Douglas MacArthur had withdrawn to Australia, vowing to return,
Speaker 1: and about one hundred thousand Allied troops had been captured,
Speaker 1: with another about fifty thousand killed or wounded. The aftermath
Speaker 1: of this withdrawal included a series of atrocities, including the
Speaker 1: Bataan Death March, which was a forced march of about
Speaker 1: twelve thousand American and sixty six thousand Filipino prisoners of war,
Speaker 1: during which thousands of them died. Arosa became part of
Speaker 1: the Filipino resistance against the Japanese, becoming a captain in
Speaker 1: Marking's Gorillas. This gorilla unit also has its own history,
Speaker 1: but Erosa's focus was once again on food finding and distributing,
Speaker 1: including paying for it with her own money and working
Speaker 1: with volunteers to prepare it. Many of these volunteers were
Speaker 1: students who were stranded in Manila because of the war.
Speaker 1: During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, she also worked
Speaker 1: to smuggle food to prisoners of war and into Santa
Speaker 1: Toomas internment camp, where thousands of civilians were being held.
Speaker 1: She reportedly filled hollow bamboo with things like her soilac powder,
Speaker 1: which was nicknamed magic food, and got it into the
Speaker 1: camps with the help of resistance fighters who were disguised
Speaker 1: as carpenters. It is likely that she saved thousands of
Speaker 1: people from dying of starvation doing this work over the
Speaker 1: course of the war. In nineteen forty three, Japan declared
Speaker 1: the Philippines to be independent, with the hope of securing
Speaker 1: the loyalty of the archipelago and putting a stop to
Speaker 1: the ongoing resistance fighting. But Filipinos continued their fight, including
Speaker 1: alongside American forces when they arrived at Laity in October
Speaker 1: of nineteen forty four. American efforts to liberate the Philippines
Speaker 1: ultimately led to the Battle of Manila, which started on
Speaker 1: February third, nineteen forty five, and lasted for a month.
Speaker 1: By that point, Allied forces had taken the surrounding countryside,
Speaker 1: but Japanese infantry remained inside the city. The Battle of
Speaker 1: Manila was truly horrific, with roughly one hundred thousand civilians
Speaker 1: being killed, many of them massacred indiscriminately by Japanese troops,
Speaker 1: but some were killed by American artillery, and one of
Speaker 1: those was Maria Arosa. Her family had tried to get
Speaker 1: her to leave Manila and come back to Bowan, where
Speaker 1: she might be safer, but she had insisted that she
Speaker 1: could not abandon her work or the women that she
Speaker 1: was working with. Those women had been nicknamed the Arosa Girls.
Speaker 2: I think even after this, girls and young women who
Speaker 2: were part of like the home economics movement continued to
Speaker 2: be nicknamed the Erosa Girls. On February thirteenth, nineteen forty five,
Speaker 2: she and others from the Bureau of Plant Industry had
Speaker 2: taken refuge at an improvised bomb shelter when she was
Speaker 2: struck in the foot by shrapnel. She was badly injured
Speaker 2: and taken to Remidio's Hospital in a push cart. This
Speaker 2: hospital had been established by the Philippine Red Cross at
Speaker 2: Malate Catholic School, but at this point the Red Cross's
Speaker 2: funding had run out and the hospital was being staffed
Speaker 2: entirely by volunteers. A Red Cross sign had been painted
Speaker 2: on the roof to try to make it clear that
Speaker 2: this was a hospital, but this was hit by American
Speaker 2: shelling during a three day bombardment of the area. According
Speaker 2: to survivors, there had not been a large Japanese presence
Speaker 2: in the area when this bombardment happened, and one account
Speaker 2: compared it to using a pile driver on an ant hill.
Speaker 2: That same day, while at the hospital for treatment of
Speaker 2: the injury to her foot, Maria Ilagan Arosa was again
Speaker 2: struck by shrapnel, this time in the heart. She was
Speaker 2: killed at the age of fifty one, and she was
Speaker 2: one of about four hundred people who died in Manila
Speaker 2: that day. The dead could not be buried immediately because
Speaker 2: the few Japanese soldiers who were in the area were
Speaker 2: shooting at people in the streets. It's believed that she
Speaker 2: was eventually buried in a mass grave on the grounds
Speaker 2: of Blante Catholic School, although the exact location is not
Speaker 2: currently known. The Battle of Manila went on for more
Speaker 2: than two weeks after Arosa's death, ending on March third,
Speaker 2: nineteen forty five. It is regarded as the worst urban
Speaker 2: battle fought in the Pacific theater during World War II.
Speaker 2: Roughly ten percent of the population in Manila was killed
Speaker 2: and much of the city was reduced to rubble, including
Speaker 2: nearly the entire business district. In terms of capital cities,
Speaker 2: the destruction in Manila was comparable to that of Berlin
Speaker 2: and Warsaw, but it's far less well known today outside
Speaker 2: of the Pacific. Direction of Manila was a massive loss
Speaker 2: of cultural and architectural heritage for the Philippines. This diverse
Speaker 2: and cosmopolitan city had been nicknamed the Pearl of the
Speaker 2: Orient as far back as the seventeen fifties. On a
Speaker 2: more practical level, this destruction included many government buildings, including
Speaker 2: buildings where Maria Arosa had worked. Most of her research,
Speaker 2: teaching tools and materials that she had created for the
Speaker 2: Philippines Extension Service were destroyed. More than a million people
Speaker 2: were killed in the Philippines during World War II, out
Speaker 2: of a population of about eighteen million. General Tomoyuki Yamashida,
Speaker 2: who had been in command of the Japanese forces defending
Speaker 2: the Philippines toward the end of the war, was later
Speaker 2: hanged for war crimes. The massive destruction and disruption contributed
Speaker 2: to rampant inflation and shortages of food and other resources
Speaker 2: after the war ended. There were also differences of opinion
Speaker 2: within the Philippines and in the United States about how
Speaker 2: to handle Filipinos who had collaborated with the Japanese. When
Speaker 2: World War two ended, the ten year timeline for independence
Speaker 2: for the Philippines had passed, and President Harry S. Truman
Speaker 2: issued Proclamation twenty six ninety five on July fourth, nineteen
Speaker 2: forty six, recognizing the Philippines as a separate and self
Speaker 2: governing nation. Because of the war, this independence was recognized
Speaker 2: in a very different context from what had been imagined
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty four, and the nation's transition from a
Speaker 2: colony first of Spain and then of the United States
Speaker 2: to an independent nation is really its own separate story.
Speaker 2: There were definitely struggles related to the food supply of
Speaker 2: the Philippines in the wake of World War II and
Speaker 2: the shift in its trading relationship from the United States
Speaker 2: that came from it's no longer being a territory, but
Speaker 2: Maria A Rosa's two decades of work on food and
Speaker 2: security are recognized as having helped with this transition. It
Speaker 2: would have been even more difficult without everything she had
Speaker 2: done to promote locally available food sources and methods for
Speaker 2: preparing and preserving them. A street in Manila was named
Speaker 2: after Maria Arosa in nineteen sixty four. On November twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, the National Historical Institute placed a marker
Speaker 2: memorializing her at the Bureau of Plant Industry. There's also
Speaker 2: a Mario y Arosa Memorial Hall at the Bureau of
Speaker 2: Agricultural Extension building in dillman Queson City, which is part
Speaker 2: of the Manila Metro Area. A plaque there reads quote
Speaker 2: dedicated to the memory of Maria Ilagan Erosa, pharmaceutical chemist,
Speaker 2: home economist, humanitarian, guerrilla worker and organizer of home extension
Speaker 2: in government, died in the line of duty thirteen February
Speaker 2: nineteen forty five. In twenty twenty, a marker commemorating Maria
Speaker 2: Arosa was found during a search for a mass grave
Speaker 2: believed to be the one on the grounds of the
Speaker 2: Malate Catholic School. This is believed to have been a
Speaker 2: memorial stone rather than a marker of her burial site.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, a Ketchup Museum opened at the Neutra
Speaker 2: Asia Kabwyo plant in the Light Industry Science Park in Kawaya, Laguna.
Speaker 2: This closed during the early part of the COVID nineteen
Speaker 2: pandemic and reopened in December of twenty twenty three. It
Speaker 2: features exhibits on bananas, the commercial production of banana ketchup,
Speaker 2: and in Maria Arosa Hall, the Life and work of
Speaker 2: Maria Arosa. A Google doodle of her also came out
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen in commemoration of her one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty sixth birthday, and a bust of her was unveiled
Speaker 2: in her home province of Batangas on her birthday that
Speaker 2: same year. Over the course of her career, Maria Erosa
Speaker 2: developed more than seven hundred recipes, many of them still
Speaker 2: considered to be staples of Filipino cuisine. Her niece, Helen
Speaker 2: Arosa del Rosario, collected these recipes along with essays about
Speaker 2: her aunt, who she knew as Tia Maria, and these
Speaker 2: were published as a book in nineteen seventy. This was
Speaker 2: reprinted in nineteen ninety eight as part of the celebration
Speaker 2: of the centennial of Philippine Independence. That centennial, of course,
Speaker 2: being of eighteen ninety eight when the Philippines declared itself independent,
Speaker 2: not nineteen forty six, when the United States recognized it.
Speaker 2: A fiftieth anniversary edition of this book was published as
Speaker 2: Appetite for Freedom, The Recipes of Maria y Arosa. There's
Speaker 2: also a picture book about her that came out in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three that is called Maria Arosa, Freedom Fighter,
Speaker 2: Scientist and Inventor from the Philippines. We'll talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about a little story involving that fiftieth anniversary edition
Speaker 2: on Friday, and we'll also talk about banana ketchup on Friday.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to talk about food, food food. Do you,
Speaker 1: in the meantime have listener mail? I do?
Speaker 2: I do have listener mail. First, I have a note.
Speaker 2: This is all about the ruby slippers from our Unearthed episode.
Speaker 2: First all, First of note, a number of people have
Speaker 2: contacted us about this, and I just want to thank
Speaker 2: everybody who has contacted us about this for being kind
Speaker 2: about it, because it is the exact kind of silly
Speaker 2: mistake that has sometimes prompted violent anger from people. The
Speaker 2: Judy Garland's museum is in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, not Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Speaker 2: I just saw the word Grand Rapids in an article
Speaker 2: and my brain auto completed the rest incorrectly, So apologies
Speaker 2: for that. Judy Garland was from Minnesota, not from Michigan.
Speaker 2: A couple different emails we're going to read quickly about
Speaker 2: these reeby slippers because the emails they sort of dovetail.
Speaker 2: The first one is from Holly, not the Holly. I've
Speaker 2: been talking to you for the last forty minutes, as
Speaker 2: far as you know, different Holly, Holly, Hi, Holly, and Tracy.
Speaker 2: I've enjoyed listening to your podcast for many years now,
Speaker 2: having been introduced to it by my sister, a true
Speaker 2: history major. I've been meaning to write to you so
Speaker 2: many times about things that I hear that I can
Speaker 2: relate to, but was finally prompted to do so today
Speaker 2: after hearing you talk about the ruby slippers. I live
Speaker 2: in Minnesota and remembered hearing stories on the local news
Speaker 2: about the ruby slippers being returned and about the man
Speaker 2: who had stolen them. Apparently he Terry, had lived a
Speaker 2: life of crime and was told by one of his
Speaker 2: mobster friends that the rubies must be real, which justified
Speaker 2: their one million dollar insured value. So Terry went to
Speaker 2: go steal them as one last score, thinking he could
Speaker 2: take the rubies off the shoes and sell them. When
Speaker 2: he took them in to sell, the person he was
Speaker 2: dealing with told him they were glass and not real rubies.
Speaker 2: It still sounds fishy to me that he believed the
Speaker 2: rubies were real. However, he had never seen the movie
Speaker 2: and did not know about their cultural significance, so maybe
Speaker 2: he did not know what he was dealing with. Terry
Speaker 2: got rid of the slippers two days later, and the
Speaker 2: FBI eventually found the shoes in Minneapolis during a sting operation.
Speaker 2: The FBI still hasn't disclosed exactly how they were able
Speaker 2: to track the slippers down. I'm attatching the original news
Speaker 2: story I saw, so you can read about it and
Speaker 2: see what you think. So the next bit of.
Speaker 1: Listen, I think he should go to jail for never
Speaker 1: having seen The Wizard of the.
Speaker 2: Next bit of this email is about an episode about
Speaker 2: John Dillinger, which prior hosts the show did. I have
Speaker 2: never heard it before, so I cannot really comment on
Speaker 2: slash process the stuff about John Dillinger. I'm just going
Speaker 2: to skip ahead and say anyway, I hope this article
Speaker 2: helped shed some light on your questions about the man
Speaker 2: who stole the bribe slippers. I always enjoy listening to
Speaker 2: your podcast, and thank you for your diligence. And bring
Speaker 2: you to light so many stories and cultural sensitivities that
Speaker 2: can get lost over time, including a pet tax of
Speaker 2: our Persian rag doll cat Smokey and our terry poodle
Speaker 2: mixed Betty. Yes, our cat is bigger than our dog,
Speaker 2: but they get along well and love playing with each other.
Speaker 2: Thank you for all you do, Holly from Minnesota. Incredibly
Speaker 2: cute cat, incredibly cute puppy dog. Listen, very excited to
Speaker 2: get this email. I've had poodle fever lately, so that
Speaker 2: was like too much for my heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so cute. It's so cute.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read this other email quickly because like
Speaker 2: they sort of just go together. This is from Alan,
Speaker 2: and Alan said, Hi, Tracy and Holly. I'm something of
Speaker 2: an insomniac when I'm puzzling over something that doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: so I was hoping to solve this particular ruby slippers
Speaker 2: mystery for you both. While the ruby slippers are covered
Speaker 2: in sequins, the bows on the front of the shoes
Speaker 2: are decorated with red crystals and glass gems, which might
Speaker 2: look like ruby's to someone who had heard about the
Speaker 2: value of the shoes without knowing their history. The defendant
Speaker 2: also claims to have never seen The Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 2: which seems unbelievable. Although the viewing habits of low level
Speaker 2: Midwestern gangsters probably doesn't trend toward Hollywood musicals of the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties. The red crystals actually played an important role
Speaker 2: in authenticating the shoes after they had been recovered by
Speaker 2: the FBI. During the Smithsonian's restoration of their pair of
Speaker 2: ruby slippers, it was discovered that some of the red
Speaker 2: crystals were replaced by clear ones painted red in what
Speaker 2: was probably an on set repair during filming, a fact
Speaker 2: not known to the public previously and therefore not something
Speaker 2: a forger would have been able to duplicate. Of course,
Speaker 2: there are lots of unanswered questions in this particular mystery,
Speaker 2: But as someone who has been paying close attention to
Speaker 2: the things we do know, I thought i'd passed along
Speaker 2: something of what I'd learned to save your sleep. As
Speaker 2: for pet tax, I'm including a picture of my little
Speaker 2: guy Toddy, who acts as something of a lowing a
Speaker 2: low level gangster in my house, shaking down his poor
Speaker 2: brother and sister for any cat treats they may have missed.
Speaker 2: Cheers Alan, opening the picture of Toddy. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: Totty looks like the expression on this cat's face looks
Speaker 2: Toddy is planning something. That's what I will say. So
Speaker 2: thank you so much. Toddy is planning a heist for sure.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Alan and Holly, both of you
Speaker 2: for this. I think I can believe someone never having
Speaker 2: seen the Wizard of Oz le iiil. What I can't, though,
Speaker 2: quite wrap my head around, is the idea that a
Speaker 2: person who has lived for seventy some years in the
Speaker 2: United States would be unaware of their cultural significance because
Speaker 2: there are just so many references to the Wizard of
Speaker 2: Oz and to the Ruby Slippers and so many other things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so I'm.
Speaker 2: Sure there are people whose just world does not intersect
Speaker 2: with that at all. I have a hard time imagining it.
Speaker 2: So thank you very much Alan and Holly for sending
Speaker 2: these emails, and to everyone who kindly told us that
Speaker 2: Minnesota was where we were talking about in not Michigan.
Speaker 2: If you would like to send us a note about
Speaker 2: this or any other podcast, we write history podcasts at
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe to the show
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