There was a young bride. Her name was Victoria. Her gallant knight was the handsome Salvador. As a young bride. she kept a diary. In one of the pages, she wrote a prayer.

“Please give me a baby, another Salvador, just like his father, to hold in my arms because we both want one direct from heaven. Please let it be just like his father, the exact image of my Salvador”.

Their prayers were soon answered. In no time, my sister Carminia was born followed by Ana Marie, Marivic, me and Regina.

My mother wrote down in my baby book that at 10 months, I was blowing kisses and pointing to airplanes. She did not say if they were friendly or enemy planes. My vocabulary was progressing and by April 5, I could say ‘Baby’ and ‘Dada’. At the age of two years, my mother also wrote that I could recite nursery rhymes: Jack and Jill, I Have Two Hands and Bahay Kubo.

For Christmas 1941, my mother described my first Christmas: Baby’s First War, Japanese bombs falling. No Midnight Mass…Baby was seven months when the war started, December 8, 1941. While there was “pandemonium” when they learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor, the family survived and Father gave credit to Mother as they dealt with the new realities of war. Father recounted that from The Admiral he saw huge flames through the reflection of the window panes; Americans were bombing their gasoline and ammunition sites. He promised God that if all the family would survive he would work to rebuild the country.

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Before my parents, Salvador and Victoria, built a house for themselves, they first lived with their little ones in my Lola Ana’s house at 1140 Calle California, one of many streets named after one of the battalions of soldiers brought in by the Americans when they came to colonize the Philippines.

The house my father built for my mother would be called Villa Victoneta. It was described by my elder sister, Marivic, as a palace. There was a grand sala with a mural of The First Baptism, a historical panorama by Fernando C. Amorsolo. It was the first of a series on the theme. Since it was badly damaged during the war, what remained was unfortunately discarded. I was born in 1941 and have no recollection of our home. Thankfully, there are photos that showcased the nursery, Mother’s bedroom and adjoining dressing room, Father’s library and Lola Ana’s bedroom. There was also a Chinese Room which was actually a hallway and a Spanish Room which led to the basement where Mother’s free school was located. I read about the school she opened in her home before the war; this was at a time when the moneyed were more aristocratic than democratic. In fact, the gates of her home were kept open until dusk for all the children in the neighborhood so that they could play in her garden.

Our eldest sister, Carminia, remembered Villa Victoneta was circumscribed by three streets: Shaw Boulevard, which was then called Pasig Boulevard, Nueve de Febrero and another street whose name has been obscured by time and the buildings that have sprung up since the 1930s. It took three architects to build the house. The third and last phase of Villa Victoneta included a chapel. It was the son of the famous painter Juan Luna, Andres Luna de San Pedro, who was commissioned for the final phase. The Victoneta chapel had a rich wooden ceiling and featured a balcony that led to the house so that one did not have to leave the house to be present in church.

The Admiral Apartments were commissioned in 1938 by my grandmother, through her son-in-law, Salvador. Architect and civil engineer, Fernando Ocampo, followed the style of Victoneta. It was completed in 1939 at the cost of 400,000 pesos. It was the tallest building at that time not only along Dewey Boulevard but in the entire country. To be more precise, it was even the landmark used by sailors or seafarers entering Manila Bay. We were really very lucky to have had a place in The Admiral Apartments. It was no less than the penthouse suite on the 8th floor that became our abode until we moved to our home in Mandaluyong. In those days when one spoke of Mandaluyong, it was associated with the mental hospital situated almost next door to our home. My parents selected this place – then it was considered the hinterlands – because it was close to Wack Wack Golf & Country Club. At that time, Father used to play golf. I say used to because once they built a house there, my father stopped playing golf!

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Looking back, we were at The Admiral when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I was a mere infant then; not quite seven months old. Ana Marie, at the age of nine, thought and moved like an adult. She took it upon herself to help the staff prepare the rooms. Beds had to be made, linens changed and towels laundered. Carminia was just as eager to help the housekeeping staff. While many guests stayed there, others were relatives and some were evacuees. It was around this time that the Imperial Japanese Army seized properties to be used for military offices and quarters. Among those commandeered was The Admiral. Although the occupying Japanese said they would pay rent of three thousand pesos, they never did. In fact we had to leave The Admiral and return to Villa Victoneta.

Prior to the war, for a couple of years, we were free to live and move around in our little paradise. From the recollections of my sisters, it indeed was a happy place. Can you imagine the daughters of Salvador and Victoria milking cows at the age of nine? Ana Marie would recount how she and our Yaya Acion milked the cows but not the Indian Nellore cow, who would kick so its legs had to be tied. Other cattle we had came from the Hacarin Dairy Farm of Tito Vicente. Carminia, who must have been in her early teens, was tasked to take care of the chickens. And because Carminia took charge of the poultry in Victoneta, she developed a dislike to eating chicken! Marivic, who was much younger than her two elder sisters, was given indoor chores. She had to dust the furniture with wood carvings. Father’s rules were such that his daughters had to tidy their rooms and they were not allowed to call on the yayas to do this and that. For my father, this was character building.

Villa Victoneta had become more pastoral and was transformed to meet the needs of the time. We had a lot of fruit trees such as guava trees and banana trees, which were useful to feed the cattle; with enough space to plant our vegetables. We had two horses. One was a retired race horse compliments of our uncle, Tito Tony, that they would often refer to “sa pula, sa puti” in reference to placing bets in sabong. We had a pond that was inhabited by ducks. (This pond had been built for canoeing). With all these animals on the grounds of Victoneta, there were regular visits by a veterinarian, who was paid with guavas which he loved. They fondly called him “Dr. Bayabas”.

I drank goat’s milk as we also had goats. There was enough cow’s milk to share with our neighbors and Dad would deliver the milk to them himself. Since our home was located near the mental hospital, Mother employed several boys, who were almost ready to be released from their confinement. Just before the war, our home was stripped of their heavy curtains and sold for extra money; Mother’s Ramon Valera gowns were sold to the baylarinas; and Ana Marie’s bed, decorated with cherubs, was also sold.

Despite all the changes in our house and in our life, Mother would still bring herself to dress to the nines, even if dinner was a bowl of mongo soup! There was a Christmas pageant and to celebrate there was lechon. Carminia would later recount, in what would be the last Christmas in Victoneta, the neighbors gathered to watch their adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’. It was performed by my sisters, Carminia, Ana Marie and Marivic, and other children of the neighborhood. The late Victor Guevara played the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Marivic recalled that for the performance, the cast had to improvise since there was no turkey. Towards the end of the play, the cast shouted in delight, “Lechon, lechon!!” instead. For the Christmas of 1942 and 1943, my mother marked down in my baby book that it was “The Happiest Christmas. Fr. Geiger was with us in the house.” Months later, we were forced to vacate Victoneta as the Japanese military seized our home again and it was off to Baguio we went. Our car was followed by a borrowed truck carrying our precious cargo of pigs, cows, chickens and goats that provided the family with a supply of pork, milk, eggs and poultry.

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Ana Marie recalled a simple and happy life in Victoneta of playing and climbing trees once they had finished their chores. She even built a small wooden cart for Marivic as they played along Shaw Boulevard. Neighbors knew each other; had time to talk to one another; and most importantly, prayed together. Sunday mass was celebrated in our chapel by visiting priests. Mother received special dispensation for mass so long as no one was turned away. One detail told to me was that those attending mass were even picked up by dokars. These were much like horse-drawn karitelas that became the only means of transportation for everybody as there was no gasoline. Our coachman, Mang Atilano, would pick up the priests assigned to stay with us during weekends. The others who were also fetched were neighbors, members of the Legion of Mary and our family friend, Sister Cora Mendiola. She belonged to the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ICM). We reconnected with her by chance in the 1990s when we would frequent the University of St. Louis in Baguio.

Everyone has a story to tell. Every daughter remembers a father and a mother, so these stories have been written for today’s sons and daughters and tomorrow’s children. It may have been another time and another world, but this collection of stories, passed down through generations, can take us all back to a bygone era.

LINA SANTIAGO
July 24, 2023

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Did you know that Charles Dickens published the novella ‘A Christmas Carol ‘ in 1843? So when Tita Carminia, Tita Ana Marie and Tita Marivic staged their own production in 1943, it marked the 100th year anniversary of ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Did you know that Charles Dickens used the phrase “Once upon a time” in the beginning of Stave 1 (the first chapter)? He wrote: once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. This gives the story a tone of a fairy tale with a moral lesson.

Did you know Charles Dickens began writing ‘A Christmas Carol ‘ in October 1843 and finished it by early December 1843? He wrote it at a great speed compared to his other works.

Did you know that there are similarities with Charles Dickens and my great grandfather Salvador Araneta? Both championed the marginalized and the orphaned; both were prolific writers for social change; and both strongly believed in education (not just memorizing).

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My dearest mom spent a lot of time on her laptop writing about her parents and her family. It was her joy to reminisce and to write about family chronicles. Imagine my delight, when I found one of her emails to me with this article. I find it amusing that when my mom sent me a draft, back in November 2022, I told her it was too long. But now I realize all these details are worth sharing in this 7th edition of The Green Monitor.

Thank you to all her family and friends who take the time to read our newsletters. Caroline and I spend so much time editing and proofreading the final copy before it goes to print. I know my mom would be very happy we are continuing her tradition of sharing stories.

As the year comes to a close, we wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year. As Tiny Tim says in 'A Christmas Carol': God bless us, every one!

Danielle Marie

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