remembrance of things awry

“Senor Don Cirilo Quiason y Cunanan y su esposa Senora Dona Ceferina Henson y David con sus dos mejores hijos Aureo y Jose, pintado por Senor Don Simon Flores y de la Rosa, ano de 1875, San Fernando, Pampanga.”

THE FAMILY PORTRAIT

The obviously old portrait of considerable size [ now in the "Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas" collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila ] shows a reasonably goodlooking gentleman standing by his seated, quietly pretty wife holding their baby boy, with an older son [ often mistaken by observers for a girl ] standing by her holding a prayer book.  They seem to be in their elegant “sala” living room:  a seemingly American Victorian gasolier hangs behind them and a silk bouquet of flowers under a glass cloche [ "virina" ] on a pedestal table stands between husband and wife.  The “capiz” windows behind them are open and there is a view of greenery.

CIRILO QUIASON Y CUNANAN

The 33 year-old gentleman was Cirilo Quiason y Cunanan of San Fernando town, Pampanga.  He was a Chinese mestizo and was a prosperous rice and sugar planter. His parents were Modesto Quiason of San Fernando and Maria Cunanan of Mexico, Pampanga.   He lived in a large house on the site where the 1920s Lazatin-Singian mansion now stands.  In 1896, he joined the Pampanga branch of the revolutionary Katipunan movement and served under General Nepomuceno, his Henson wife’s relative.

CEFERINA HENSON Y DAVID

The 28 year-old wife was Ceferina Henson y David of Angeles and Guagua, Pampanga.  On her paternal side, she was a great-granddaughter of the founders of Angeles, Angel Pantaleon de Miranda [ o 1765 - + 1835 ]  and Rosalia de Jesus [ o 1765 - + 1840 ].  Her parents were Jose Henson y Miranda of Angeles and Gertrudes David of Guagua, Pampanga.  Jose Henson y Miranda was the son of Mariano Henson y Paras of San Fernando, Pampanga and Juana Ildefonsa de Miranda y de Jesus, the only daughter of Angel Pantaleon de Miranda and Rosalia de Jesus, the founders of Angeles.

Mariano Henson y Paras [ o 1798 - + 1848 ]  was the son of Severino Henson and Placida Paras [ o 1777 - + 1840 ].  Severino Henson was a son of “Eng Son,” the Chinese patriarch of the clan.

Ceferina was known to be a beautiful woman with pale, translucent skin; she washed her face with Chinese jasmine tea everyday.

The couple were ardent music lovers and were competent performers.  Cirilo “Ilong” could play the violin and the cello well.  Ceferina “Bari” could play the piano with proficiency.

Their passions for music became ingrained on their children, and the happy result was that all of their sons and daughters could play at least one musical instrument very well.

AUREO QUIASON Y HENSON

The older son holding the prayer book was Aureo Quiason y Henson.  His diminutive was “Aure.”  He was actually the second son of the couple.  The eldest son, Pedro, had died as an infant.  Aureo Quiason y Henson married Florentina Gueco y _____, of the wealthy Chinese mestizo Gwekoh family of Magalang.

JOSE MARIA QUIASON Y HENSON

The baby boy was Jose Maria Quiason y Henson.  He was, oddly enough, called “Yayang” by everybody. He was actually the third son of the couple.  He was originally depicted by Simon Flores partially naked, with his rather endowed genitals in full view.  The story in our Quiason family has it that, after so many years, ”Yayang” finally became exasperated with the jocose comments of friends and relatives about his “endowed” genitals that he decisively poked his cigar directly onto his painted genitals and eradicated them forever!!!  In old age, he recounted to his oldest grandsons that, as a young man, he had read Jose Rizal’s subversive novel “Noli Me Tangere” in the seclusion and safety of their outhouse bathroom, which was connected to their house by a wooden bridge.

THE OTHER CHILDREN

Cirilo “Ilong” and Ceferina “Bari” had six more children after the portrait had been painted in 1875.  They had nine children all in all:  Pedro, Aureo “Aure,” Jose “Yayang,” Ceferino “Parino,” Catalina “Tali,” Rosario “Charing,” Maria “Biang,” Cesario “Sariong,” and Emiliano “Miliong.”  Ceferino Quiason y Henson, “Parino,” played the organ beautifully during Sunday masses at the Angeles church.  [ The Quiason-Cruz aunts were the daughters of the fifth son, Cesario Quiason y Henson, "Sariong," who married Gabina Cruz y Paras. ]

Pedro died as a child; Aureo married Florentina Gueco y _____; Jose Maria married Marcela Aguilar y Valdes; Ceferino married Maria Lacson y _____; Catalina married Pablo / Pablito “Litong” del Rosario y _____; Rosario married Gemiliano Cruz y _____; Maria married Francisco Ferraz y Ducuco; Cesario married Gabina Cruz y Paras; and Emiliano married Gabina Cruz’s sister Joaquina Cruz y Paras.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

One would expect that a handsome and affluent gentleman, his beautiful and equally affluent wife, and their delightful children would have lived happily ever after.  But unfortunately, they did not.  According to the Ferraz-Quiason aunts [ daughters of Maria Quiason y Henson { the youngest daughter of the Quiason couple } and Francisco Ferraz y Ducuco ], in the 1890s the Spanish “cura parroco” [ parish priest ] of San Fernando town took an improper, although not unusual, romantic interest in Cirilo’s most beautiful daughter, Rosario “Charing.”  The prominent gentleman expectedly became upset and tried to prevent the friar’s advances on his hapless daughter.  The friar became frustrated and in retaliation implicated Cirilo in seditious activities.  The accusations could have been true because Cirilo was a known liberal and a reformist.  Cirilo was forthwith thrown into prison and tortured.  He passed away soon after.  Fortunately, his properties were not confiscated by the Spaniards as he was never tried in court nor sentenced.

Ceferina was left a rich widow by her industrious and prosperous husband.  She was an extremely kind and very charitable woman who helped many people in real need.  However, unscrupulous relatives and friends descended on her like vultures, took advantage of her known kindness, and borrowed properties, jewelry, and cash which they never returned.  She gradually slid into penury.  Their big house in San Fernando was sold and she and her impoverished family retreated to Angeles, to a smaller house two properties away from the Henson ancestral house.  In Manila, she maintained an “accessoria” apartment along O’Donnell Street in Santa Cruz.  Her children had to start from scratch:  her sons worked their way to become successful entrepreneurs while her daughters made good marriages to prosperous businessmen.

STARTING ANEW

Jose Maria Quiason y Henson [ "Yayang" o 12 January 1874 - + 12 September 1951 ] became a rice and sugar planter like his father.  He also became a successful businessman with a famous music store in Quiapo which sold expensive German musical instruments.  He married his Henson second cousin Marcela Aguilar y Valdes, also of Angeles.

Marcela “Celang” was a hardworking entrepreneur who dealt in textiles and garments.  She established a flourishing store in the Divisoria entrepot.  Her parents were Policarpio Aguilar y Henson [ o 1858? ] and Paula Valdes y Arceo [ a daughter of Ignacio Valdes, the eldest son of Pedro Angeles and Anacleta Valdes [ y ] Juico, progenitors of the Pampanga Valdes clan ].  Policarpio Aguilar y Henson was the son of Dionisio Aguilar y Hipolito [ + 1887 ] and Juana Petrona Henson y Miranda [ o 1834 - + 1860 ]. Juana Petrona Henson y Miranda was the daughter of Mariano Henson y Paras of San Fernando, Pampanga and Juana Ildefonsa de Miranda y de Jesus, the only daughter of Angel Pantaleon de Miranda and Rosalia de Jesus, the founders of Angeles.  Thus, Jose Maria “Yayang” Quiason and Marcela “Celang” Aguilar were Henson second cousins.

Marcela Aguilar y Valdes was a paternal first cousin of General Servillano Aquino y Aguilar, the father of Benigno Aquino Sr. “Cong Igno,” who was the father of National Hero Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr..

Jose Maria Quiason and Marcela Aguilar had five children:  Paz [ "Pacing" ], who married Emilio Reyes y Pangan of Arayat; Pamela [ "Paming" ] who married Benjamin Cruz y Espiritu of San Simon; Serafin [ "Serafin" ], who married Teofista Danganan y Henson also of Angeles; Rogerio [ "Eriong" ], who married Diana Flandes y _____ of Samar, and Lydia [ "Liding" ], who married the affluent Chinese entrepreneur Jose Yap y Lao of Angeles and Bacolor.  In later life, ”Yayang” had a stroke which left him a paralytic.  But he remained active by crafting interesting wooden toys for his grandchildren.

THE FAMILY PORTRAIT IN THE 1970s

For all the vaunted accolades accorded to this important 19th century family portrait by Filipiniana scholars, art collectors, and connoisseurs, I have only the most mundane memories…  

As a child in the 1970s, I used to see it in the living room of my Quiason-Cruz grandaunts — Rosa Hermosa Erza [ "Ersing" ], Natividad [ "Naty" ], Flocerfina [ "Flocer" ], Angeles Rosario / Presentacion [ "Prising" ], and Florencia [ "Floring" ] — during family gatherings at their nice house on Simoun Street in Santa Mesa heights, at the back of the Santo Domingo church.  It hung, somewhat casually, over the upright piano in their living room.  It was big enough to be seen at a distance, you could see it from the foyer and from the dining room.

Its singular claim to fame for us uberignorant children [ who were actually direct descendants of the sitters ] was that there was a gaping hole where the baby’s “birdy” should have been…!!!  

The painting must have been so old because it was so darkened and its lower right side had torn off from the frame and curled outwards.

My smug 8 year old self, already possessed of some “taste,” was [ stupidly enough ] certainly not impressed with it.  It simply did not look as radiant, as impressive, and as well-kept as the 1940s – 50s Fernando Amorsolo portraits in my Lola Charing Arnedo-Gonzalez’s splendid house.  Because it was not an “Amorsolo,” I didn’t think it was worth my while and certainly did not even think of it as valuable…!!!        

Mommy [ Pilar Quiason Reyes-Gonzalez ] would look at it occasionally, with searching eyes, while her Quiason-Paras aunts, the far younger first cousins of her mother Paz, reminisced about family…  They called the gentleman “Apung Ilong,” the lady “Impung Bari,” the elder son “Apung Aure,” and the baby simply as “Yayang.”  I ignorantly thought that their diminutives were so provincial [ like mine  ]!  “Yayang” became Mommy’s maternal grandfather.  The first time I heard the nickname “Yayang,” I wondered stupidly how that baby could have been a “yaya”… how could he possibly have taken care of anybody???  I thought that was weird!!!  

Mommy recalled that the portrait used to hang in an apartment on O’Donnell Street in Santa Cruz, Manila before the war [ She used to say "Calle Odonel" and pronounced it "O-do-nel' " { accent on the last syllable }, so I naturally thought that it was some Spanish street name until I came across the Anglo-sounding "O'Donnell Street" in some Manila heritage article several years later.  It turned out that "O'Donnell" was actually the surname of a prominent Spanish-Irish official during the Spanish era, so my mother was right:  it was indeed "Calle Odonel" pronounced "O-do-nel" with the accent on the last syllable, Spanish-style.   ]  “Impung Bari” had passed away there at the age of 89 in 1936.  Yayang had also stayed there for a while.

*unfinished*