Adarna Food and Culture was a restaurant that served Filipino historical, regional and heirloom cuisine. It also showcased memorabilia from different periods in Philippine history, ranging from household implements, movies, pop culture, documents, photographs and maps.

Giney Villar, Executive Chef, co-owned Adarna with her partner Beth Angsioco. Beth is also the head of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines. Giney writes, “We are into heritage conservation and cultural revival.

We try to do our share to help make history current in a fast-changing world that seriously needs to be aware of its culture to anchor it to its identity.”

Anonymous postcards with messages translated from Tagalog
My dearest Doming I dedicate this picture as a token of our sincere and eternal love. Yours always, Lauro
A tender remembrance for my beloved Doming, a symbol of my unfailing memory/thoughts of him. Lauro
My Beloved Doming I wholeheartedly offer you my body, life and death and nothing proves this more than this humble photograph. Yours always, Lauro

Giney Villar and Beth Angsioco’s Migrating Archive

My partner, Beth, and I are Filipino history buffs. We are always on the look   out for things from the past, not necessarily museum pieces but everyday   things. She likes the ‘bigger’ things - furniture, paintings. I like the ‘smaller’   things - curios, books and pictures. What we find we mostly put in our   restaurant so people can remember, learn about and appreciate our history.When I found these photos, what struck me were the dedications on the   back sides of one man to another spanning three years. Beth noticed that   they were all of the same man. The last picture was taken in Michigan but   with the same declaration of love. The questions in my head remain: Did   they have a relationship or were these photos he would have wanted to send?   If Doming received the photos, did he keep them or were they returned? Did   Lauro come back to the Philippines?We found the pictures in a shop located in a flea market/artists haven in   Cubao, Quezon City, in a box full of other old pictures. Doming graduated   from college and can write Spanish, which was not unusual at that time for   an educated man. He could have graduated from the Univ. of Santo Tomas   because most of the other universities were still in their infancy at that time.   He could have been one of the young men sent to the US to study in that   scholarship program meant to improve (think Americanize) the new generation   of Filipinos during the Commonwealth period and then brought back to   make the country better (more American). If I remember correctly, my late   grandmother (born in 1910) referred to them as ‘pensionados’. Or he could   have migrated in search of new adventures.- Giney Villar