Happy Birthday Richard Franco! Barr Tower, Chicago, December 1991
Happy Birthday Richard Franco! Barr Tower, Chicago, December 1991
A group photo at Warren N. Barr, Sr. Tower, 856 W Nelson St, the childhood home of Joy and me, and a birthday greeting for Richard Franco.
Happy birthday, Richard Franco! I hope you and yours are well.
This is Chicago, December 1991. I put my camera on the roof of Frances' car and the five of us lined up in front of Warren N. Barr, Sr. Tower. The tower's name is on the structure behind us, and the address, 856 W Nelson St, is in steel on the wall. That building was the childhood home of my sister Joy and me, part of our Filipino American story in Chicago.
I don't have the exact day of this photo. It was taken sometime between December 2 and December 18, 1991. Richard, Frances, Joy, Vince: if you remember the day, tell me and I'll fix the date.
💬 Please comment below ↓
Litrato — li-TRA-to
Photograph. Larawan is the other everyday word for it; litrato is the one that came into Tagalog from the Spanish retrato. This post is one litrato of five people and one building.
Who is in the photo
Left to right: Vince Putong and my sister Joy, who weren't married yet. Then Richard Franco, who was like a brother to me and who helped tour us that day. Then Frances Pacis, Richard's first cousin and my 6th grade classmate at St. Sebastian. Then me.
The tower at 856 W Nelson
Warren N. Barr, Sr. Tower is a 20-story apartment building across Nelson Street from Illinois Masonic Medical Center, built in 1973 to house the hospital's residents and students. Our family lived there from August 1976 until June 1979. I wrote about Christmas Eve 1978 inside our apartment. In December 1991 I was standing in front of it again, more than a decade after we left.
Happy birthday, Richard
Richard, Frances, Joy, Vince, the comments are open.
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Happy birthday again, Richard Franco. Salamat for the tour that day.
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J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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