Escolta and Carriedo

I was supposed to write about my personal Visita Iglesia last Holy Thursday, but I couldn’t help but notice the journey that we took, the characters and faces that the streets of Manila shows that Thursday. In this blogpost, I would like to go back to two streets which are two streets that are contrasting with each other, yet a mirror of Manila’s character: Escolta and Carriedo.

Manila has been the capital of the islands since the Spanish colonial era, and it has been a hub of political power and of commerce. From the northern banks of Pasig River, just across the walled city now called Intramuros, this became Manila’s economic hub because it’s near the docks. Between the districts of Binondo and Santa Cruz, Escolta’s prominence rose. On another side, connecting Quiapo to Santa Cruz is the busy street market of Carriedo.

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