Echoes of the Past

In the 1800's, a young, well-off man named Martiniano de Jesus from Bulacan joined a group of bandoleros to fight the cruel Spanish regime that had been plaguing the Philippines for close to 300 years. When the Spanish discovered his involvement, he fled to a town called San Pablo in the Southern Tagalog region of Laguna and re-settled there as Martin Brion. He bought up tracts of land in the area, married a sweet girl named Iriniana Alanguilan, and proceeded to have 6 children with her. Unbeknownst to the townsfolk however, one summer Iriniana's beautiful younger sister Fernanda visited the family and could not resist Martin's charms. She also had a son with him named Juan, but left this child with Martin and Iriniana, never being recognized as his true mother and never marrying as long as she lived.

Juan was raised as Martin and Iriniana's son, one of 7 children, but always found himself the favorite of Martin who lavished much attention on him to make up for the circumstances surrounding his birth. Juan grew up a simple kid playing among the santol trees, tolerated by Iriniana but loved by his father and "aunt" Fernanda whom he visited during vacations. At the age of majority, he married a mestiza lady named Dionisia Espinelli Bril, hailing from a rich clan in Batangas, and rumored to be descended from a Spanish friar as evidenced by her blonde hair and bluish-grey eyes. Juan and Dionisia had 2 children, Jacinta and Filemon, and passed on quite early in life. It was claimed that Dionisia fell victim to the curse of the dwendes, and Juan perished in grief shortly thereafter.

The 2 children were adopted by family members...Filemon by an aunt and Jacinta by her grandfather Martin, who imposed a strict set of rules on his favored grand daughter as he was afraid she would end up disgraced as her real grandmother. He refused for her to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse, thinking that a job like this would get her sent too far away from him. She would deeply resent this all of her life, though she loved him deeply. Martin lived to the ripe old age of 107, and passed on all administration of his property to his eldest daughter Flaviana. She then took it upon herself to parcel out the land among his other children and grand children, but some say, she took advantage and gave herself and the family she married into more of the land than the other Brion children. The original Brions were left with hardly anything, and took to selling what they had to the richer branch of the family with a different last name. Filemon, Jacinta's brother, rebelled and struck out on a new life as farmer in Villa Escudero, setting up a new branch of Brions as workers in the massive estate.

Jacinta was a beautiful young woman, with the light brown eyes and fine Spanish features of her mother. Many tried to win her heart, but she was finally entrapped while on vacation in one of the small barrios of San Pablo by an out of towner whom she married. This broke her grandfather's heart and they stopped talking before he passed away. But the strict family administrator Flaviana knew how much her gfather Martin loved Jacinta, and gave her a small piece of land in the mountains. It was argued though that this was more out of guilt than generosity, since Jacinta and Filemon deserved to have what was entitled to their father Juan. For many years, Jacinta suffered through the laziness of her husband, and bore him 3 children. He then passed away and she used her wits to live through the Japanese-American War in the 1940's. This formerly privileged and smart woman who had dreams of becoming a nurse made a living as a washerwoman, and then for a second time married a poor but this time, more caring man from the nearby town of Sta Cruz, who vowed to take care of her and her children. They had a daughter together, named Imelda. There are rumors flying around that Jacinta's second husband Marcelino was not the real father of Imelda, but Jacinta will never talk about that subject.

Jacinta is my grandmother, and Imelda is my mom.

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Aren't stories of our roots amazingly complex and facinating? Just listening to the elders talk about the past makes you think you're watching an epic movie or reading a historical novel, but its all part of YOUR life. So many surprises, so many secrets, so much went on that are just stories to us, but were once so real.

This is what I learned on my jaunt to the province yesterday, a very surface knowledge of what were very rich lives.