Don Florencio Tarnate y Yufo

Don Florencio Yufo Tarnate was born in Binondo, Philippines on November 7, 1855 to a wealthy Sangley Mestizo merchant family. Don Florencio’s parents were Leoncio Tarnate (full Chinese blood descended from Fujian, China) and Ana Yufo (a Chinese mestiza). At a time when education was available only to the upper ranks even of those of with highest socio-economic background, Don Florencio completed his primary education at the public school of Binondo (1866) and his secondary education at the Normal School of Malate in 1870.

Don Florencio married Doña Paula Cabrera Agoncillo in Lemery, Batangas on June 15, 1876. They had six children in the following order: four daughters (Feliza, Matilde, Isabel, and Irinea) and two sons (Vicente and Ramon) and maintained residences in Lemery, Batangas; San Nicolas on 511 Sevilla; and then on 1207 Singalong in Malate. His eldest son and heir, Vicente Agoncillo Tarnate, educated at the prestigious Ateneo de Manila in the field of Commerce, became the head of his businesses (in accordance with traditional Sangley custom) after his death on August 24, 1914 from tentanus. It is said that in a last attempt to save Don Florencio's life, his wife Doña Paula brought him to Los Banos to bathe in the mystical healing waters of the region but it was to no avail. He passed away at the nearby Hospital San Pablo and was buried in the Binondo Church cemetery where his remains were "lost" after heavy bombing of the Manila area at the end of WWII.

Don Florencio naturally followed in the footsteps of his merchant father, but further expanded the family’s horizons by capitalizing on his love of the sea. A fearless seaman and navigational expert, he was appointed the prestigious position of Harbor Pilot for the South Manila Harbor in in 1880. Along with owning large swaths of prime real estate and sugar cane, palay and banana plantations in Batangas, Don Florencio was the proprietor of machine shop Tarnate, Webb & Co. He also established the shipping line of Florencio Tarnate in 1900, owning and operating five steamships (batels) at the height of his career: S/S Bauan; S/S Doña Paula; S/S Lemery; S/S Ramoncita; and S/S Vicentica. These batels plied between islands delivering official mail, livestock, commercial goods and passengers and docked by the mouth of the Pasig River near Don Florencio's home and business in San Nicholas/Binondo and in Lemery.

Don Florencio was a master mariner highly respected for his great intellect, business acumen, and seafaring skills. The turn of the 20th century brought a pivotal change in Philippine history, from a 333-year ruler ship of an outdated Spanish authority to under a “supposedly” more modern, altruistic American dominion. His successful ascent up the Philippine socio-economic ladder came at a time of high volatility, a time of transition between one white invader and another, when alliances forged and resources allocated only amongst those who were highly capable of navigating the new economic and political landscape. It would follow that a shrewd hard-nosed approach, social finesse and exemplary networking abilities (having plenty of Sangley money also helped) were skills that Don Florencio must have cultivated to near perfection in order to achieve such prominence at that time.

It was no easy feat to become a ship Captain and a Harbor Pilot in the late 1800's: there was no technology to assist with global positioning and weather forecasting and everything was calculated by hand. In order to land such a highly skilled and prominent position, Don Florencio must have mastered subjects such as hydrography, astronomy, navigation, and advanced mathematics. As a Captain with a commanding presence and stern execution, he undoubtedly was one of great physical strength and fortitude as his ships extended more than 30 meters in length and required great care and superior handling capabilities. A man capable of commandeering a wooden-hulled steamship and willing to brave the rough seas and unapologetic ocean certainly must have been one of great courage, intuition, and instinct. It is a shame that men like Don Florencio are few and far between in this day and age.

Not only did Don Florencio possess highly valuable skills attainable only by a select few, he coupled it with an aggressive risk profile. According to the Mindoro Yearbook published in 1952, Don Florencio was responsible for opening up a trade route between Manila and San Jose, a route that was considered to be the "longest and most hazardous." It further goes on to describe Don Florencio as "a Batangas shipping magnate" who owned and operated steamships with regular schedules.

According to a particularly credible family legend, Don Florencio’s family surname was originally Tan, a common Chinese last name and currently the most common surname in the Philippines. Tan was combined with “Ate” to form the more Hispanicized sounding surname Tanate or what would morph into Tarnate (most probably because of the Filipino propensity to confuse it with the town Ternate in Cavite). Reasons why this would have been done may pertain to the Chinese desire to comply with the rules created to subvert their growing influence by the Crown during the Spanish reign of the Philippines. Many converted to Catholism because the Crown granted special privileges to converts. However, upon baptism, Sangleys had to adopt a Hispanic/Christianized name. Some combined their names with their godfather’s name (Carlos Palanca Tan Quien-sien); some adopted names such as Lopez, Ybarra, Garcia, etc. and some used a kind of transliteration and Spanish phonetic spelling to make their surnames appear Hispanic by concatenation. The latter reason appears to be the most likely scenario for the origin of the Tarnate surname.

Critical to any Sangley or Sangley Mestizo’s family’s success during the 19th century was their ability to assimilate into the fabric of Philippine society. It was a time of increasing hostility towards the Chinese and their growing accumulation of wealth and influence. The shift to an American regime would heighten that hostility with the hovering, discriminatory sentiments the U.S.’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 brought upon the Chinese. By marrying Doña Paula, an Indio from the prominent Agoncillo family of Taal, Don Florencio was able to subvert discriminatory policies, complete the Sangley assimilation process and hold proper rank within a system outwardly devised against his kind.

The union of the Tarnate family, a Sangley Mestizo family flush with cash and liquid holdings, with the politically connected and landed Agoncillo family satisfied the blueprint for a successful turn-of-the-century family empire in the Philippines. Indeed, in the early decades of the 1900's, Don Florencio's political connections in Lemery included his brother-in-law (Perfecto C. Cabrera), nephew (Ramon A. Cabrera, son of the brother-in-law), and son-in-law (Jose Baldoza) in the mayoral position. Furthermore, Don Florencio's sister, Sixta Tarnate Dalupan, was the mother of Francisco Tarnate Dalupan, founder of University of the East and grandmother of Baby Dalupan, the legendary Ateneo basketball coach.

As for Don Florencio's Chinese ancestry, the surname Tan can be traced back to the inhabitants of southeastern region of China, to the Fujian province. The overwhelming majority of early Chinese migrants to the Philippines hailed from Fujian, especially from the Quanzhou prefecture. His mother's family on the Yufo side, came from a distinguished and dynastic clan that shared his paternal Fujian roots, but rose to prominence in Hong Kong (as well as the Philippines) when the opening of export trade in port cities coincided with the penetration of American commercial interests in Manila. In fact, during the time of Don Florencio, Hong Kong was a political haven for Philippine revolutionaries and exiles due to Britain’s liberal political asylum policies. It is no secret that the Chinese/Chinese Mestizos were critical financiers and benefactors of persons and interests giving rise to the Philippine Revolution. It is has been suggested that many key relationships of the Agoncillo's and other players of the Philippine Revolution were developed by way of the Yufo clan connection in Hong Kong and Don Florencio very likely served as the initial bridge between these relationships.

No doubt did the life of Don Florencio have plenty of intrigue and achievement and it was amazingly done so within the confines of a hostile and dynamic economic and political environment. His remarkable success can certainly be attributed to his Sangley roots, but it was also enhanced by his ability to synthesize aptitude and cunning with moral directives of honor and integrity. Don Florencio was a man true to his word, worthy of trust and reliance, and conducted his enterprises and dealings in such fashion. A man with zero tolerance for mediocrity and dishonor, Don Florencio’s expectations for his family (especially for his two sons, Vicente and Ramon) were exceedingly high, unforgiving and precise. Honor was paramount and moral failings signaled vulnerability and weakness to forces aiming to divide. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and therein lies the crux of a family empire destined to fail. Greed and envy, in its most insidious nature, served only to benefit few at the expense of the whole, and undermined the hopes, dreams and legacy Don Florencio envisioned for his family. But paths cannot be “untaken” nor can mistakes be “undone.” Instead, loyalty, forethought, and honor must remain central and guiding tenets to our existence. Only then can we continue in legacies carved out for us and bring back honor to our dear ancestors such as Don Florencio.