Hey, it's Manila Day! Lucky people living in the City of Manila get to have a holiday; unfortunately, although I live in Manila I work in Quezon City, so-- no holiday.
It is also San Juan Day. Is it observed only in the city of San Juan, you may ask? No, for San Juan Day is the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which means it is time to get out the umbrellas and not just because Tropical Storm Feria is making for us.
All over the islands on San Juan Day, people play the same prank: they douse everyone with water in memory of the Baptist. Some use hoses, some use buckets, some use dippers, others even throw water balloons or more commonly, water in plastic bags. Everybody is fair game, and if you're on your way to class or the office in a clean uniform, too bad. At least it gives you a legitimate reason to be late, LOL.
As a student in high school and later in college, I remember having an umbrella always ready to dodge the thrown water on this day. Even if it is a hot and sunny day, jeepneys deploy the plastic tarps covering their windows to keep their passengers dry.
Perhaps I should take a taxi home today just to be safe, LOL.
I've always thought that if someone wanted to see what a place and its people really are like, they should go not to the showplaces, but to the places where real people go. If you thought the traffic in Makati and on EDSA are awful, try the intersection of Recto and Reina Regente/Jose Abad Santos in Divisoria. At least in Makati and EDSA, people have some semblance of manners, you just chafe at the delay.
This afternoon, I took a jeep from Sta. Mesa to Divisoria. All was well till we reached that same intersection, really a crossing of two roads. It was chaos. I don't know if the traffic light was busted or whatever, but everyone, jeepneys, private cars, taxis, motorcycles and even padyaks jockeyed for position. The jeepney I was in took a long time making a left turn (despite the huge sign saying "no left turn") because all the approaching traffic from the other side made a mad dash to cross once the road was clear. The jeeps cut in front of each other, honking like crazy. As we crossed, this other jeep was almost jostling us, and when the driver fell back a bit, a padyak immediately swept into the gap and squeezed through. The delay made everyone else hit their horns, and it took a good ten minutes before everyone sorted themselves out. The situation seemed to be aggravated by everyone's tendency to force themselves into the gap once one showed, and no one seemed to know the meaning of the word courtesy, as in, you go first.
And weren't there any police, you ask? Well, I did spot a couple of blue uniforms and one gray. Standing in the middle of the intersection, talking to one another at first, then finally going to stand on the sidewalk.
Hay, buhay.
We saw golden bangles, rings, and necklaces, earrings, tiaras and studs, belts, bowls, cups and hilts of weapons. I was fascinated when I saw the burial masks, with stylized features engraved in the gold. I thought: forget ancient Egypt, it turns out the Philippines has its own! Aside from the burial masks, there were also "orifice coverings", shaped like the eyes, the nose and the mouth. I guess if the dead couldn't afford a whole mask, they could just go for the important parts! Whew! Move over, King Tut!
Aside from the burial masks, I was also fascinated with the Kinnari, a small vessel shaped like a mythical woman-bird, who appeared to be holding some kind of jug. Her eyes looked serenely out at the people who had come to see her. There was also the binibini, an anthropomorphic plaque depicting the head of a lady with what seemed like an elaborate hairdo or headdress. I also drooled over a cuff or wrist ornament, as wide as a sleeve and intricately worked, so that the gold mesh was like lace. The information on it said it weighed 204 grams. Heavy! There were also earrings so big and so heavy that we all wondered how the owner could possibly have worn it without getting his or her ears torn. My personal favorite, however, was a beautiful belt (I know someone's snickering while reading this!). Catalog No. 81.5175, weighing 575.1g, measuring 68.2x49 cm, circa 10th - 13th century. It was made of fine mesh, with a zigzag design running along its length, and two golden plaques ornamented with granules of gold painstakingly arranged into stylized designs. Oh, I could have stood there and stared at it forever!
Then, there was the piece de resistance: the Upavita or Sacred Thread, weighing almost 4 kilos (heaa-veee!), strikingly similar to one depicted in the 16th century Boxer Codex, said to be the earliest description of the people of the Philippines in a Western language. a copy of which can be found in the exhibit. The Upavita was supposed to be draped around the neck then attached to the wrist. Wow, the person who wore that must've been pretty strong!What was striking about these artifacts was that they seemed so Pinoy to me. There were at least two necklaces or bracelets that were woven banig-style: take four flat strips of gold and weave a fifth one back and forth across it, the way we used to weave banana-leaf or coconut-leaf ornaments. The Upavita itself reminded me of the legs of a modern armchair made of nito because it had the same basket-weave technique. Some of the other items were decorated simply by poking holes in the gold to create a lacy pattern. The tiaras were created by cutting a sort of fringe in a strip of gold, then bending them back and forth to make a crown-like design.
Seeing the exhibit made all of us walk a little taller and prouder. We had always read about the treasures of other lands, like Egypt and Troy; now we know that we have our own! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
Special thanks to our boss, Mr. Gaspar A. Vibal, for making this wonderful experience possible for us.
Back to the question: do I know who my ancestors are?
I never met my grandfathers. My father's father died when Papa was a little boy (he was born in 1898, so he must've been really old, whew!) . According to family history (or legend), Tiburcio Adorador (or Adulador) Panogot was born in Iloilo during the Philippine Revolution. The original family surname was supposedly Magbanua, but due to a famous member of the family (Teresa Magbanua was said to be a second cousin) who fought during the revolution, my great grandfather supposedly changed the family name because the Spaniards were trying to get at Nanay Isa through her relatives. Although my uncle has been heard to say disparagingly that our ancestors didn't change the family name back to the original one after the danger had passed because they were having too much fun making bandit raids as ostensible Hukbalahap members. Anyway, I'm not sure when my grandfather married my grandmother, but he was 17 years older than she was (she was born in 1915!). They had nine children, all of whom lived past their adolescence, although only four of them got married.
My paternal grandmother, Scholastica (or Escolastica, we called her Lola Kulasing, like Tamblot's wife in the hilarious Yuhum komiks Tamblot) Cumoda Panogot, lived with us until her death when I was in college. The doctor said she died of old age (she was 73, I think). I have these memories of a tiny old woman with wrinkled shiny skin that looked like rippling water, and long, long gray hair that reached to her thighs and that she always kept in a huge bun pinned by a brown barrette. She loved plants and was always sweeping the yard and grubbing around in the garden, and was likely to chase us with a walis tingting if we misbehaved. She always woke me up if I slept late... for years after her death I dreamed about her waking me up and saying "Neng, neng, bugtaw na adlawon na! (Child, wake up it's late morning already!)" If we took naps in the afternoon, she always woke us before sunset, saying that we should not sleep past sundown because the sun will carry our souls with it when it set! According to my old maid titas, Lola was stingy and strict. She didn't allow them to go out with their friends, even in community activities. Although they could well afford it, my tita said, Lola kept all their good clothes and made them wear the old ones over and over again until they were in rags. She told horror stories of how the three of them (all old maids now) always got picked to be Fe, Esperanza, Caridad (Faith, Hope and Charity) during the annual Santacruzan, and Papa was a member of the marching band playing the trombone, but Lola refused to shell out anything for their costumes or even let them attend, so their friends and teachers had to sponsor them and they had to sneak out of the house when Lola was asleep. Anyway, Lola was not very strict with us grandkids!
Apaprently, despite the disparity in ages, there was real affection between my grandparents. Again, my titas say, after Lolo died, the family migrated to Mindanao, and Lola got sick and almost died. When she was resuscitated, she told stories of climbing up a tall flight of stone stairs and when she got to the top, Lolo was waiting for her but he told her that she had to go back, that it wasn't time yet for her to go with him. He said that he would come for her when it was her time to go. During her last days, she kept saying his name and looking over our shoulders as if someone was standing behind us. When Lola finally went to her eternal rest, she was smiling. I wonder if Lolo really did come for her as he once promised!
My mother's father died about 4 years ago (I never met him because I have never been to Mama's homeland of Antique, where he lived). I don't know much about Epifanio Lavega Panaguiton except that he and my grandmother, Alicia Panaligan Lavega, were first cousins! This usually happened in small, isolated communities where almost everybody was related; despite taboos, people often ended up marrying relatives. In fact, the maternal side of the family is more tangled than a skein of thread that the cat had rolled in. When I was a child, I took it for granted that the same relatives came to every family occasion such as KBLs (kasal, binyag, libing or weddings, baptisms, and funerals)... it was only when I got old enough to think for myself that I found myself questioning why, if these people were on the Panaguiton side and these on the Lavega side, they attended occasions on both sides of the family. Lola Alice is still alive and well, thank goodness. She used to travel back and forth between Antique and Mindanao every so often, so I saw her a lot. Mama used to tease her that she was temporarily divorced from Lolo since she always left him at home to mind the farm while she traveled all over, visiting their children and grandchildren.
My knowledge of family history ends with my sketchy knowledge of my grandparents. I don't know about my great grandparents except my Lola Kulasing's mother, Cristina Legada Cumoda, whom I was named for. And the only thing I remember about her except for her keyring is the implication that she was a binukot. I recently read an article on GMANews.tv about the binukot of the Visayas, but it doesn't tie in with family legend. There's an article on a Capiznon website that is more to the point however.
According to my tita, the same one who melted down her grandmother's heirloom keyring, her mother's mother came from the beautiful hinterlands of Janiuay, Iloilo. She and her sisters were all binukot. This meant that they were so beautiful that they were kept inside the house all the time, away from public view. They were not allowed to do any work and spent all their time making themselves beautiful. When a binukot came of marrying age, she was offered for marriage to the highest bidder. My tita used to say disparagingly that all her grandmother's sisters were bought and married by the sons of rich hacenderos, and that Lola must have been the least beautiful in the bunch because she married someone who wasn't quite as rich as her sisters' husbands! Unfortunately, all I have to go on is a name, so it's hard for me to verify the truth about this legend. I don't even know if my great-grandmother has any relatives left in Janiuay who might remember her or her family!
Anyway, if anyone reads this and knows about the Legadas and/or Cumodas, and may be able to help me piece together my family tree, I would appreciate it if you left a comment on this post.
There's also another family legend, about a how-so-many-greats grandfather who lived sometime during the Spanish era and who was a folk hero somewhat like Juan Pusong, but that's another story!
When I was able to read a copy of the Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos, containing Claveria's order of 21 November 1849 for all Filipinos to change their family names, I found almost all my family's names listed there, which gave me a thrill. When one is looking for one's roots, it's different to know that your family existed now and to know that it was already in existence as a clan way back in the Spanish era (although come to think of it, I wouldn't be here today if my family hadn't existed way back when! haha, silly me!) Based on what I know so far about my family, I might even be able to say that I'm pure Filipino (though highly unlikely, because almost all Pinoys have foreign blood in them somewhere)! Well, that explains my pert nose.
My site is worth
$2,027.35
Your website value?
