“dum vivimus vivamus”
[ "let us live while we have life" ]
Toto Gonzalez is mad about All Things Beautiful and pursues them like a Cat does a Mouse. He looks Chinese but is of mixed Malay-Chinese-Japanese-Spanish-French ancestry. Although a Filipino, he is a Francophile. He would be very comfortable in Paris, in an 18th century hotel particulier on the Faubourg Saint Honore, with its grand salon walled by stuccoed boiseries, ceiling hung with a great rock-crystal chandelier, parquet-de-Versailles floor laden with Savonnerie rugs, the salon littered with ormolu-encrusted furniture by the ebenistes Riesener, Roentgen, and van Risen Burgh, the tabletops populated by Sevres, Chantilly, and Qianlong porcelains. He would also be equally comfortable in a Rothschild palais, with 17th century Genoese velvet hangings, Bourbon furniture, 17th century Augsburg silver, Renaissance jewelry, and 16th century Limoges enamels.
When he is realistic, Toto Gonzalez adores the English Style of Colefax & Fowler as epitomized in the rooms of the doyenne Nancy Perkins Tree Lancaster both at Haseley Court and at Avery Row.
When he is in a resigned, hopeless, and totally ghastly mood [ as with all Filipinos ], Toto Gonzalez simply plonks down Ch’ing porcelain after rock crystal after English silver after Italian bronze after Spanish gold after English black-lacquered chair after Filipino grooved marble top center table after Isfahan rug after Indian crystal chandelier after [ Filipino ] Amorsolo painting after silk damask curtains. Ironically, he achieves a “Carlos ‘Charlie’ de Beistegui at the Chateau de Groussay” effect instead of the ”Mad Desperation” he was after originally…!!!???
He has three favorite movies: Luchino Visconti’s “Il Gattopardo” / “The Leopard,” Franco Zeffirelli’s “La Traviata,” and Martin Scorsese’s “Age of Innocence.” He has seen “Il Gattopardo” / “The Leopard” 300 times, “La Traviata” 400 times, and “Age of Innocence” 200 times…!!! He adores them for their production values. He opines that the glum Italian aristocrats were a good counterpoint to the dazzling tilework of the Palazzo Gangi in Sicily. He thinks that Violetta Valery [ Teresa Stratas ] showed great style in dying of consumption amidst all that Second Empire splendor. He feels that Ellen Olenska’s [ Michelle Pfeiffer ] unconventional behavior was perfectly justifiable amidst all that High Victorian luxury.
He also adores, along with legions of contemporaries, the 1960s Filipino camp cult classic “Dance-o-Rama” starring the would-have-been First Lady of the Philippines, Susan Roces.
As it happens, Toto Gonzalez lives in Manila, in an unrepentantly angular 1950s Danish Moderne style house with 300 years of family wreckage from several ancestral manses crammed in its rooms. He can hardly move in his own house. 
Toto Gonzalez, despite Everything he has, is an unhappy person. But it doesn’t bother him, because he thinks it is the zeitgeist anyway.
X said,
September 19, 2006 at 6:20 am
Toto, I do enjoy reading your blog. Please do write more. You bring back memories of things past. You bring the funny little stories and whispers-in the-ear comments from old ladies in my family.
I can just imagine your house.
Our houses there in Manila are still a bottega of Qianlong porcelain, santos, lamparas, narra tables and carlos trece furniture, of azulejo tiles and steep wide escaleras…
of four poster beds that creak at night (that you’d end up feeling the vibration of pulsating sex on the floor rather than the shaking of the four poster beds against the adjacent walls)
of long tables with no lazy susans, of rustles of faint mango blooms and leaf-dappled gardens, of open carports and drivers missing at the same time as the maids do not respond to your screams…
i see my past in your writings. carry on.
toto gonzalez said,
September 19, 2006 at 11:24 am
X:
Thank you! I am flattered that somebody is actually reading my blog AND understanding it!
In the past week, I have written ten articles but have deleted them because they were overly accurate portraits of famous/notorious Filipinos I know very well. I have been well-advised by protective lawyer friends…
I had not realized the sheer expanse of cyberspace until I began this blog and was actually surprised that I got readers from all over the Philippines and all over the world. Manila is really small and the moment word got out that I had written “a few things,” the blog was actually visited by many of the subjects [ those who are still alive
], who were curious about what had been written about them. To their great relief, there was nothing scandalous or salacious, just amusing anecdotes.
My Home… It has become almost unlivable because apart from The Family Wreckage, I am a Magpie who finds Anything and Everything Beautiful and I invariably bring something home everyday. I will be moving to a new house but I will fill that one up too so I will have to move again. And so forth and so on…
Wow! What beautiful things your family has! Make sure about Security and Maintenance matters…
Pulsating Sex. Wonderful. We’ve had them on tester beds, planter’s chairs, and everywhere else!
The Maids and the Drivers. Never underestimate “backstairs action”!!!
Toto Gonzalez
mandy said,
October 7, 2006 at 4:24 pm
hi! i stumbled on your blog accidentally(was searching for something else in google) and read your posts. interesting! riveting!
like reading a history book –but with chismis! heehee. continue blogging!! i see that you only started last august. but how you write!! it’s like making up for years of non-blogging! 
toto gonzalez said,
October 8, 2006 at 2:01 am
mandy:
Thank you for finding my silly blog interesting!
As always, Truth is stranger than Fiction. In fact, Real Life, with its twists and turns, is far more interesting than anything that can be plotted in the mind!
Do read the comments as well as the posts. I’ve been told that my readers’ comments are far more interesting [ more acidic! ] than my actual posts.
Toto Gonzalez
Paz Cacnio Atienza said,
October 16, 2006 at 6:36 am
Toto, this is so YOU! I was actually floored by some of your interesting and colorful comments about your immediate family and other relatives. Not to mention your profound knowledge about Filipino culture, arts and history. Keep writing! Keep on entertaining! Enjoy life!
toto gonzalez said,
October 16, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Cousin Paz:
*laughs*
Thank you! Isn’t my silly blog fun? Now, if only this techie dummy can learn how to upload pictures…
As your friend said: “It’s some kinda… chuva!!!”
Toto Gonzalez
Paz Cacnio Atienza said,
November 8, 2006 at 7:58 am
Hi Toto! Our cousin, Dra. Annie (Cacnio) Anicete-Abrigo, daughter of Tita Lucing (mom’s sister who died last year) was in town for a few weeks and I told her about your blog. She is based in Florida.
I printed some of the pages on your blog for my mom to read as she is definitely hands-off on this techy “chuva.” Annie saw some of the materials and she was laughing and laughing. She promised to read your blog as soon as she gets to Florida.
By the way, we had a very interesting and touching reunion with the descendants of Josefa Mercado y Espiritu – Javier Gonzalez y Sioco at the Quezon City Sports Club a few weeks back. I came with my mom and her 2 “Barbies” (Tita Miding and Tita Zon) and brought with us some old photos. It was great to finally meet newfound relatives. Of course Ryan was there with our soon-to-be family member, Juday! They even went to our table to meet their 3 lolas.
By the way, I promised to send you these old (sepia) photos right? Will give you a CD when we see each other at Tita Miding’s 89th birthday this November.
toto gonzalez said,
November 8, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Cousin Paz:
*laughs*
I’m glad that Cousin Dr. Annie found some of the posts amusing. This blog is primarily intended for Entertainment!!!
I’m sure some of the posts will take “Imang” Esther back in time…
I was just about to ask you about that Gonzalez – Mercado Family Reunion. I’m so glad that it turned out well!!! I’m happy that you were even able to bring the two “Barbies” [ lolsz! ]!!! How’s Tweetums? I haven’t seen her in a while. My fault though, she has left me all her contact numbers and addresses but I haven’t found the time to get in touch. I hope that you haven’t lent out original photographs as I had warned you… remember what happened to ours!!!
The forthcoming Wedding of Ryan Agoncillo and Judy Ann Santos will actually unite four old Pampango families: the Sulipan, Apalit Gonzalez and the Minalin Mercado [ Ryan A.'s ], the San Fernando Dayrit and the San Fernando Singian [ Judy Ann S.'s ].
Thank you in advance for that CD, I’ll need it!!!
I am really looking forward to the unsinkable “Imang” Miding’s 89th birthday celebration this late November. It is always such a pleasure to spend a day with your family at your beautiful ancestral home!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Paz Cacnio Atienza said,
November 9, 2006 at 8:18 am
Hi Toto! Yup, I heard that Judy Ann is a Dayrit. What a funny way of describing Tita Miding! Unsinkable! That is soooooo her! Here I am again laughing so loud while everyone’s eyes are on me.
toto gonzalez said,
November 9, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Cousin Paz:
Judy Ann Santos is a San Fernando Dayrit by descent. How exactly, I don’t know. It was the historian Ivan Henares, a Dayrit descendant himself, who told me. My friends at the JDN Center for Kapampangan Studies at the HAU also know; most Pampango genealogies are filed there.
I should ask those people — that since Judy Ann Santos is a San Fernando Dayrit descendant, and Jamby Madrigal a Mexico – San Fernando Hizon descendant [ both large clans whose descendants have intermarried several times ] — could it be possible that the two are actually very distant cousins??? It is possible. That would really make the Judy Ann – Jamby political campaign tandem more memorable [ and prophetic? ]!!!
I really love your aunts “Imang” Miding and “Imang” Azon… They are cousins of Lola Charing and are my surrogate grandmothers. I think it’s wonderful that “they threaten to last forever”!!!
Try not to laugh so much… as the late Lourdes Jimenez Carvajal a.k.a. “Inday Badiday” said: “‘Careful,’ ‘careful’…Kailangan ay maging ‘careful’…!!!”*lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
November 13, 2006 at 10:43 am
Hi Toto,
Mwahahahaha….
Tita Miding, Tita Zon and my mom are your dad’s cousins. Lola Charing is an aunt from their mother’s (Maria Paz Espiritu Mercado Cacnio) side. A 2nd cousin, I believe.
Just curious… where is the JDN Center for Capampangan Studies? Would be interesting to do some research.
toto gonzalez said,
November 14, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Cousin Paz:
Hmm… you’re right. Don Calixto Armayan Espiritu of Sitio Alauli, Barrio San Vicente, Apalit, Pampanga and Dona Maria Macam of Calumpit, Bulacan had three children: Don Pedro, Don Lucas, and Dona Estefania, all surnamed Armayan Espiritu y Macam [ Dona Estefania married a Carlos, but we've lost track of them ]. Don Pedro’s daughter Dona Maria “Maruja” Espiritu y Dungo [ de Arnedo ] and Don Lucas’ daughter Maria “Mariquita” Espiritu y _____ [ de Mercado ] were first cousins. Dona Maria’s [ "Maruja" ] daughter Dona Rosario Arnedo y Espiritu [ de Gonzalez ] “Lola Charing” and Dona Maria’s [ "Mariquita" ] daughter Dona Maria Paz Mercado y Espiritu [ de Cacnio ] were second cousins. That makes my Dad Augusto Beda Gonzalez y Arnedo and the siblings Corazon, Milagros, Luz, and Esther Cacnio y Mercado third cousins. And we’re fourth cousins!!! Bwahahah!!!
Don Pedro Armayan Espiritu y Macam married three times. His first wife was Maxima Santa Rita, whom he described in his Last Will as having had no money. His second wife was the heiress Dona Dorotea Arnedo Cruz, with whom he had a daughter, Dona Francisca Armayan Espiritu y Arnedo Cruz, who married Don Atanacio Mercado. His third wife was his housekeeper, the peasant Ysabel Dungo y Nocom [ he hid under her voluminous skirt in the "cocina" kitchen when the Spanish officers and the "guardias civil" came looking for him on suspicion of sedition after the "Cavite Mutiny" in 1872; she probably had no underwear as was the practice of that time, only an "enagua" slip; he had to marry her after that to maintain her honor; that or he was just aroused by her pheromones ], with whom he had six children: Eulogio, Maria, Dalmacia, Gregorio, Aurea, and Ysidora, surnamed Espiritu y Dungo. That man had a thing for peasant women… Bwahahah!!!
The JDN – CKS HAU Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies is at the Holy Angel University in Angeles City. It is a great repository of All Things Pampanga. The staff are all my friends. Look for the Center’s director Robby Tantingco and Arwin Lingat.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
November 16, 2006 at 5:34 am
My grandmother’s mom is Mariquita Espiritu who married Wenceslao Mercado, an only child of Tiburcio (?) Mercado. She had 3 daughters, Concha (who married Bibiano Reyes), Maria Paz (who married my grandfather Don Vicente Cacnio y Garcia) and Josefa (who married Don Francisco Javier Gonzalez) and a son, Domingo (who relocated to Pangasinan after marrying someone from there).
Gee, thanks for the address of the JDN Center. I hope to visit it one of these days.
cousin paz said,
November 16, 2006 at 6:46 am
Just a slight correction, my great grandfather Wenceslao was the only child of Don Basilio Mercado and not Tiburcio as I wrote you earlier. Also, Tita Miding’s real name is Milagros (not Remedios) because she was born on November 29, 2 days after the feast of the Virgen dela Medalla Milagrosa.
toto gonzalez said,
November 16, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Cousin Paz:
Are Concha Mercado and Bibiano Reyes the grandparents of Tito Toy Reyes? I was told that those Reyeses are a branch of the prominent Reyes of Malolos, also relatives of the Arnedos of Sulipan. Years ago, I was told by a senior Reyes lady that Don Macario Arnedo used to address Don Ramon Reyes as “Coya Amon.”
The JDN CKS HAU is a great place for research into all things Kapampangan. The staff is very knowledgeable and very helpful. Have fun!!!
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 16, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Cousin Paz:
Was Don Wenceslao Mercado the son of Don Basilio Mercado and Dona Josefa Arnedo? Years ago, “Imang” Azon and “Imang” Miding told me that there were three Mercado y Sioco brothers: Don Basilio [ married Dona Josefa Arnedo ], Don Balbino [ married Dona Paula Arnedo ], and Don Atanacio [ married Dona Francisca Armayan Espiritu y Arnedo Cruz ]. Their Sioco mother, who married Don Crisanto Mercado, was a sister of Don Josef Sioco of Sulipan [ "Joseng Daga" o 22 January 1786 - + 26 December 1864; the progenitor of the Arnedo, Escaler, and Gonzalez Clans ]. They were first cousins of the sisters Dona Maria de la Paz Sioco [ y Carlos ] de Tanjutco de Arnedo, Dona Sabina Sioco [ y Rodriguez ] de Escaler, and Dona Florencia Sioco [ y Rodriguez ] de Gonzalez. That was why Tweetums’ grandparents Don Francisco Javier Eligio Gonzalez y Sioco and Dona Josefa Mercado y Espiritu were actually uncle and niece — Don Francisco Javier and Dona Josefa’s father Don Wenceslao were second cousins.
I actually have a pile of notes about the Mercado – Arnedo – Espiritu linkages from conversations with “Imang” Azon and “Imang” Miding years ago, but I can’t find them for the time being…
Thank you for the corrections. Done!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
November 17, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Bibiano Reyes who married Dona Concha Espiritu Mercado is not the Tito Toy Reyes connection. I think he was a school teacher. I am not really sure but I think he was not liked by the family.
It’s good you have your notes (please try to find them). Okay, I think you are right about Don Basilio Mercado. Tita Zon and Tita Miding knew the family tree by heart then but of course, things are different now. As one cousin commented, “nag-babalikbayan” na ang memories nila!
My great grandmother Dona Mariquita Espiritu (who married Don Wenceslao Mercado) was one of 3 daughters of Lucas Espiritu y Armayan (?). Her other siblings were Dona Victoria Espiritu Reyes (Tito Toy’s grandmother), Dona Inez Espiritu Galang, grandmother of Tito Noli Soriano (a surgeon who was for many years US based until his retirement) and a brother named Luis Espiritu.
toto gonzalez said,
November 19, 2006 at 3:10 am
Cousin Paz:
Yes, the blood relations of the Mercado to the Arnedo, Escaler, and Gonzalez are closer than people know. After all, they all lived next to each other in Sulipan.
“Imang” Azon and “Imang” Miding remembered everything about The Family. I think they still do, barring a few hitches…
Yes, Don Lucas Armayan Espiritu y Macam and Dona _____ Yutuc had four children: Maria, Victoria, Ines, and Luis. Don Luis Espiritu y _____ married Dona Tiburcia Arnedo and had three children: Jose, _____, and Emilia. Don Jose Espiritu y Arnedo became the Dean of the UP College of Law. He was the father of Lourdes Espiritu-Campos. Dona Emilia Espiritu y Arnedo married Don Benjamin Cruz [ an Arnedo relative ] of San Simon, Pampanga. She was the mother of Ambassador Carmen Cruz-Sexton.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
November 20, 2006 at 3:57 am
I am so impressed! You really know our family history. I am actually printing your comments and filing them so that I have a hard copy.
cousin paz said,
November 20, 2006 at 4:30 am
By the way, I found an old photo of Don Virgilio Gonzalez in the old family album. He was still single at that time. Would you be interested? I can scan it for you and include it in the CD I prepared.
toto gonzalez said,
November 20, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Cousin Paz:
I know a little. Certainly not as much as “Imang” Azon and “Imang” Miding. They even know what those people smelled like!!! *lolsz!*
It’s good to have a hard copy of everything written. One virus can wipe away all files in a click!!!
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 20, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Cousin Paz:
I would appreciate that!!! The more pictures the better!!!
One of Lolo “Bosto’s” [ Don Augusto Diosdado Gonzalez y Sioco ] brothers courted your Lola Rosa Cacnio. Was it Lolo “Vijing” [ Don Dr. Virgilio Rufino Gonzalez y Sioco ] or Lolo “Quio” [ Don Joaquin Jorge Gonzalez y Sioco ] ? Ask Tita Esther, she would know.
I will show that photograph of Lolo “Vijing” [ Don Dr. Virgilio Rufino Gonzalez y Sioco; he married the uberrich Dona Rosario Singson y Chiong Veloso of Cebu ] to his grandchildren Charo Cancio-Yujuico, Dr. Vicki Gonzalez Belo, and David de Padua.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
November 21, 2006 at 7:06 am
Yup, your Lolo Vijing courted Imang Rosa (she was known in Apalit as Dona Rosa while the unsinkable is addressed as “Madam” by her grandnephews and nieces; to me she’s simply “Barbie No. 2″). I think the photo I will give you even has his dedication to her in Capampangan.
According to my mom, the Gonzalezes were really looking forward to the union but unfortunately, it fizzled out. Why? She doesn’t know… Well, it could be because Imang Rosa wanted to become a nun but her parents did not want her to.
Imang Rosa remained single but was so involved with church work even until her death. However, she maintained ties with the Gonzalezes as they collaborated with her in doing charity work, sending so many seminarians to school and helping their parish in Apalit.
I am not sure if you ever met Imang Rosa when she was alive. She was one gracious lady of the old school, very conservative, soft-spoken and never (and I mean never) angry. She practically prayed the whole dayI She was my idea of someone who just got better with age. She was always dressed neatly for Church in her signature “starched” brown saya (she must have been a devotee of San Antonio or the Brown Scapular).
It’s amazing how she could be so humble as to ask for forgiveness from her “apos” like me especially every time the seasons of Lent or Advent came. According to my mom, that was Imang Rosa’s practice even before when she was a child. However, my mom would “blackmail” her and tell her that she would remain unforgiven if she didn’t give her some money! Hahahaha!
Ivan About Town said,
November 22, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Hi Toto! Judy Ann Santos is a great-granddaughter of Don Joaquin Singian Dayrit and Dona Ma. Paz de Leon Cuyugan who lived in the white house along MacArthur Highway in Dolores. There are more prominent families in Judy Ann’s blood including the de Leon’s from Mexico who own the ivory image of Sta. Monica.
Correction on Singian, Judy Ann’s Singian is not from Sto. Tomas. Only the Cristino Singian de Miranda branch is said to be from Sto. Tomas SIMPLY because he married a Torres from there. But Cristino, together with his sister Victoria Singian de Miranda are from San Fernando, being children of Don Bernardino Singian de Miranda, a gobernadorcillo of San Fernando. Don Bernardino’s father is from Bacolor.
I’m not quite sure about Jamby being a San Fernando Hizon (let me double check but if she is Hizon, maybe it’s Mexico). But for sure, she is a Teopaco and Abad Santos, both prominent families of San Fernando.
toto gonzalez said,
November 23, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Cousin Paz:
I’m confused [ that's why it's taking me so long to reply
]: I know that Lola Rosa was an aunt of “Imang” Azon, “Imang” Miding, and your Mom. Was She Cacnio or Mercado? She couldn’t be a sister of your grandmother Dona Maria Paz Mercado [ y Espiritu ] de Cacnio because the latter only had two sisters, Dona Concha and Dona Josefa.
And Herminia Cacnio “Imang” Miniang…???
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 23, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Ivan:
Thank you for the information!!! I’m so glad to get the facts from you, the true Pampanga historian!
That White House in Barangay Dolores along MacArthur Highway is now the home of my Rodriguez-Dayrit cousins “Ache” Elsie and “Ache” Evelyn Dayrit Rodriguez. I should visit them there some time.
The de Leon of Mexico, Pampanga. Isn’t that the family of the brothers who engaged each other in a duel PreWar?
It’s interesting to learn that even the San Fernando Singian trace their lineage to patrician Bacolor…
It was Louie Dison West who told me that Jamby Madrigal is a Hizon descendant. Maria Ana “Jamby ” Madrigal’s mother Amanda Abad Santos y Teopaco [ Mrs. Antonio Paterno Madrigal ] and aunt Victoria Abad Santos y Teopaco [ Mrs. Jose Paterno Madrigal ] were the daughters of Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Sr. and Dona Amanda Teopaco y Hizon. Dona Amanda Teopaco y Hizon was the daughter of Don Pedro Teopaco and Dona Miguela Hizon y Hipolito. Dona Miguela Hizon y Hipolito was the daughter of Don Atanacio Hizon y David and Dona Aniceta Hipolito. Dona Miguela was a younger sister of General Maximino Hizon y Hipolito.
Now tell us, are Jamby Madrigal and Judy Ann Santos related by blood???
Toto Gonzalez
Ivan About Town said,
November 24, 2006 at 5:12 am
Hmmmm, so there you have it. Jamby is a Mexico Hizon since the Hipolito-Hizon branch is from there. Tita Elsie and Evelyn are 2nd cousins of my mom. They are the ones who inherited the Mexico image from their de Leon ancestors. Almost all families in San Fernando trace their lineage to patrician Bacolor or to Mexico, that includes the family of 1902 San Fernando municipal president Don Mariano Leon Santos y Joven, which is why your good friend is my uncle. Bwahahahaha!
cousin paz said,
November 24, 2006 at 7:33 am
Herminia Cacnio y Mercado (who later became Mrs. Clemente Pangan) is my mom’s eldest sister. She was childless having married her boyfriend after (believe it or not… this is for the Guiness Book of records) …. 25 years of courtship! The daughters of Don Vicente and Dona Maria Paz (Mercado) Cacnio were: Herminia, Corazon, Milagros, Luz and Esther Lucia.
Imang Rosa is the sister of my Lolo Vicente. Her other siblings were: Don Jose (single), Atty. Alfredo Baldomero Cacnio y Garcia (who married Dona Gregoria Tejuco) and Dona Rosario (”Charing”) Cacnio (also single). Their mother was a Pampanguena, Dona Estefania Garcia y Timbol. Their father was a Chinese mestizo (Mestizo de Sangley I was told) named Don Romualdo Cacnio y Pascual who traced his roots actually from Barrio Tambobo (the old name of Navotas).
toto gonzalez said,
November 24, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Cousin Paz:
Yes, Lolo Vijing Gonzalez really courted Lola Rosa Cacnio. I was told by Lola Ising [ Elisa Juana Arnedo y Espiritu, Mrs. Fortunato K. Sazon o 1910 - + 1987 ] that She was very pretty in her youth.
I hope his photograph addressed to your Lola Rosa wasn’t signed as “The Original” [ they were all sooooo unoriginal in those days because they all signed themselves as "The Original"!!! Whatthe*??? ] *lolsz!*
It must have been quite a courtship then — some 80 years ago — for it to remain in the collective family memories of the Cacnio and the Gonzalez up to the present. I do wonder though, why Lola Rosa’s parents objected to her entering the nunnery. In those days, to have a “religious” in the family was a privilege and a status symbol…
I am sure that Lola Rosa Cacnio worked with Lola Charing Arnedo-Gonzalez, Lola Charing Valdes-Gonzalez, and Lola Auring Ocampo-Escaler in financing seminarians and in assisting the Apalit Parish Church.
I never met Lola Rosa. Perhaps she passed away even before I was born in 1967. The way you described her — gracious, conservative, soft-spoken, gentle —- sounded very much like the last Arnedo daughters, Lola Titay [ Dona Maria Ignacia Arnedo y Sioco o 1872 - + 1964 ] and Lola Ines [ Dona Ynes Arnedo y Sioco o 1876 - + 1954 ], the much-loved aunts of Lola Charing.
Actively asking for forgiveness during the Lenten and Christmas seasons was an old religious practice. Actually, it should still be the case but nobody does it nowadays. It’s a good thing I wasn’t alive then… I would have made “forgiveness” a flourishing business!!! *lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 24, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Ivan:
I just realized that it is logical for the old San Fernando families to trace their lineages to the principal families of the adjacent towns of Bacolor and Mexico as San Fernando itself was created from the barrios of those two older towns in 1754…
Did the Henson Clan originate in Mexico, Pampanga? Everyone knows that they certainly flourished in Angeles [ and how!!! ], but the Chinese progenitor “Eng Son” / “Son Eng” was not from there…
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 24, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Cousin Paz:
I pity Clemente Pangan for waiting 25 years to marry his lady love Herminia Cacnio… What substance was he on??? *laughs*
Your grandfather was Don Vicente Cacnio y Garcia. His father was Don Romualdo Cacnio y Pascual of Barrio Tambobong [ Navotas ]. That beautiful image of “San Romualdo” [ Abbot? Hermit? ] must have come from him. If Don Romualdo Cacnio was a Pascual on his maternal side, then you are related to the Pascuals of Malabon.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
November 26, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Ivan:
I strongly suspect that Judy Ann Santos and Ma. Ana “Jamby” Abad Santos Madrigal are related by blood, however distant. The Key lies in Judy Ann’s great grandparents Don Joaquin Dayrit y Singian and Dona Maria Paz Cuyugan y de Leon. The Key lies further in her Mexico de Leon antecedents. And in Jamby’s Mexico Hizon antecedents. Both are patrician clans of the town! It is virtually impossible, I daresay, that there were no marriages between those families which resulted in the ancestors of both Judy Ann and Jamby.
You’re a cousin of Judy Ann Santos too, you know.
Toto Gonzalez
Ivan About Town said,
November 26, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Toto, if you say they are related by blood however distant; my answer there is we all are. Right?
On Henson, I’m not sure. I’ll find out when I get back to Manila.
cousin paz said,
November 27, 2006 at 3:12 am
Hi Toto,
Just a thought… wasn’t Judy Ann actively campaigning for Jamby when she was running for senator? She was all over the place. And people say that Judy Ann was a plus factor for her candidacy. I just remembered…
Cousin Paz
cousin paz said,
November 27, 2006 at 3:33 am
Yes, the image of San Romualdo came from my great grandfather. I think it was customary for people to have an image of the saint they were named after. Yes, we are related to the Pascuals of Malabon. The Cacnios were an old Filipino-Chinese/Tagalog family too. It is assumed that they descended from Chinese merchants and Cacnio was a Hispanized name. There is also a link to the Tiangcos and even the controversial Archbishop Oscar Cruz (of Dagupan) who says he is a Cacnio.
The last recollection of Tita Zon is that we descended from one Alejandro Cacnio, the son of a Chinese merchant. Alejandro was a bamboo trader whose business took him to several towns of Pampanga, one of them Apalit. This was sometime in the late 1700s. He met the ward of the parish priest of the town named Dolores Medina (she was referred to as “Dolores cing cumbintu”). They fell in love. However, the parish priest hated Alejandro because everytime he visited, he refused to kiss the hand of the fraile. So the priest told them to break-up. And they did. However, she was already pregnant with his son. I am not sure if she remarried but what I know is that she did not let the son use the Cacnio surname, but Medina. Many years later, from this Medina descended Florencia Medina Reyes Pangilinan (grandmother of the famous Manny Pangilinan).
As for Alejandro, he married Brigida Bernardo (we have an old image of Sta. Brigida too but I think it was given to one of the Cacnio sisters already). The union produced Don Baldomero and Don Pedro (?). If I am not mistaken, it is the Don Pedro Cacnio branch where Clementina Elizalde y Cacnio descended from. I think Don Pedro married Dona Regina Mercado (an aunt of my Lola Paz which makes her a 3rd cousin of her husband).
Don Baldomero (who became gobernadorcillo of Bo. Tambobo for many, many years) later married Dona Alejandra Pascual (I think she was a Naval by her mother). Their children were Don Romualdo I (who married Dona Estefania Garcia y Timbol), Don Jose (single and who became gobernadorcillo too of the town), and Dona Carmen (who was also single).
As I mentioned earlier, Don Romualdo produced Vicente (my mom’s dad), Jose (single), Alfredo (married), Rosa and Rosario.
cousin paz said,
November 27, 2006 at 4:00 am
I actually didn’t check out “the original” signature at the back. Yup, all photos just had to have that “original” chuva (!). Anyway, Imang Rosa was probably not allowed to become a nun because of the links of her uncle, Don Jose I to the La Liga Filipina (the roots of Philippine masonry, right?) Don Jose was one of the founding members of this secret organization. It was said that when Rizal was trying to elude arrest by the Spaniards he was at one time sent to the Cacnio Family estate in San Simon, Pampanga (specifically in the family-owned Barrio San Miguel) to hide. The old chapel still stands upto this day.
As for the 25 year courtship of Clemente Pangan to my Tita Miniang, it is really one for the books. I only learned about it from my mom’s 1st cousin on her father’s side (Tita Betty Cacnio Tanedo) many years ago. She told us that had Miniang married earlier, she could have had at least 1 child to take care of them. But honestly, she was such a devoted wife to him. They simply enjoyed their togetherness travelling all over the world (even to places other people have never visited). When she died in 1989, he followed after 11 months.
According to my mom, no one in the family suspected that she was still gonna get married. And to Tito Mente pa (God rest his soul; he was actually not liked by the family too as there was some sort of a bias against people from San Simon. You see, Jose Cacnio I, Tita Miniang’s great grand uncle was killed by “tulisanes” from San Simon who planned to steal from him) But Clemente had always been waiting in the wings. Matiyaga…
Tita Miniang was the prettiest among the 5 Cacnio sisters. Mom said that a close relation of yours Rogelio (”Rogie”) Gonzalez courted her and wanted to marry her na. At that time, she was so engrossed with her career as a teacher and had been going back to school for her Masters and her Doctorate. Clemente (or Tito Mente) on the other hand, also went back to school and took Law and even a Masters in Law. Four months before Tito Do (Romualdo II), mom’s youngest brother married in 1963, my mom and my dad got a shocking request from my Tita Miniang for them to arrange for a simple wedding for her and Tito Mente. My dad even had to call the parish priest of Bacoor, Cavite (where he hails from) to solemnize the simple wedding. So in 1963, the Cacnios had their version of “sukob.”
I was laughing when you mentioned making the practice of “asking for forgiveness” a flourishing business. Well, my mom will be your dutiful ally! (Hahahaha….)
Rosarito Antonio A. Carino said,
December 3, 2006 at 10:27 am
HI
The one you met in Abra was me Rosarito Carino my brother Jose Maria Carino is the one who wrote the book you mentioned and he has actually come out with another two books. I am glad that you still remember your visit there as from what I read you went there a long time ago. I came across your blog by chance I hope you will still come and visit Abra again. If my memory serves me right you also wanted to visit the villa we had in the mountains I hope to be able to invite you there one day once we have finished the necessary repairs and construction.
cousin paz said,
December 4, 2006 at 6:29 am
I don’t know if you were able to hear the story of Tita Miding last Saturday regarding the love story of Don Virgilio Gonzalez and Dona Rosa Cacnio. She said that the link to the supposed union was Don Virgilio’s brother Don Francisco Javier Eligio Gonzalez (Tweetums’ lolo). Apparently, Don Virgilio was so smitten by Osang (her nickname) that he was really bent on marrying her. The courting “style” then, if one may call it, was for the man to come to the house of the lady between 5 to 6 PM (shortly before the Angelus) and it would be her father who would entertain him. In this case, it was my Lolo Romualdo (Don Romualdo Cacnio y Pascual I). While he was talking to her father, she would be in her room praying! The courtship lasted for 10 years! Gosh… she almost broke the record of Tita Miniang!
I guess he waited too long until he met his future wife, as you mentioned, Dona Rosario Chiong Veloso Singson, a native of Cebu (?). According to Tita Miding, even when the engagement of Don Virgilio to Dona Charing had already been announced, he was still hoping that Osang would change her mind. And this was based on a letter Don Virgilio sent his brother Don Javier; the contents of which were addressed to Dona Rosa. There, he said that he was willing to break the engagement if she agreed to marry him. However, she was bent on staying single. Wow! How dramatic and so like a telenovela right?
Marianne Gonzalez de Leon-Hudson said,
December 9, 2006 at 3:45 am
Wow Toto!
This is some website! You surely know how to tell stories. I will pass your website to the rest of the clan. Just a few corrections on the wedding of my parents Jorge de Leon and Raquel Gonzalez; they married on January 2, 1947 and the reception was in our present house on M.H. del Pilar, which was one of the few houses that survived the bombing of Manila.
I have only started reading your stories; your site was passed on to me by Noli Gonzalez. Will give you more comments as I go.
Take care and keep the stories going,
Marianne
toto gonzalez said,
December 9, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Marianne:
Hi Rich Cousin!!! I’m glad to hear from you!!!
It was only from Cousin Nana Lopez Gonzalez that I found out that you’re already in Australia and leading a new happy life. I’m glad for you!!!
Thank you for finding your way here. Many people are enjoying my silly blog. Surprisingly enough, I have even been translated to Spanish, French, and German!!!
Thanks for the corrections. I wrote the post “Brother Andrew invented breakdancing when he was six years old” according to his recollections [ usually during Sunday dinners ], and there could have been minor lapses. He always specified that your parents’ wedding reception was held in the house that your grandparents Don Peping and Dona Naty occupied, which was beside the house that your parents Tito Jorge and Tita Raquel stayed in. Oh well…
I so regret not keeping a series of some 100 small photographs taken during your parents’ 1947 wedding which were stored in Lola Charing’s house… They disappeared along with so many other things!!! I should have given them to you, or to Tony, Bambi, and Jane!!!
Do keep the comments coming!!! I would appreciate more input about the [ Bacolor ] de Leons and the Escalers.
Warmest regards.
Toto Gonzalez
xxxx said,
December 14, 2006 at 3:20 am
You are related to a Dr. Anne Abrigo of Florida? of Orange Park?
xxxx said,
December 14, 2006 at 3:21 am
Such a small world indeed.
cousin paz said,
December 14, 2006 at 6:08 am
Just curious, is Ivan Henares related to Ria Henares who worked at Saatchi about a year ago? She has Capampangan roots too.
toto gonzalez said,
December 14, 2006 at 2:20 pm
xxxx:
If we’re talking about the same Dr. Anna Maria “Annie” Cacnio Anicete-Abrigo based in Florida, the answer is yes. She is a fourth cousin of mine through the Arnedo-Espiritu line. [ Her mother, Luz Mercado Cacnio-Anicete, was a third cousin of my father, Augusto Beda Arnedo Gonzalez; her grandmother, Dona Maria Paz Mercado y Espiritu [ Mrs. Vicente Cacnio ], was a second cousin of my grandmother, Dona Rosario Arnedo y Espiritu [ Mrs. Augusto Gonzalez Sr. ]; her great grandmother Dona Maria “Mariquita” Espiritu [ Mrs. Wenceslao Mercado ] was a first cousin of my great grandmother Dona Maria “Maruja” Espiritu y Dungo [ Mrs. Macario Arnedo ]; her great great grandfather Don Lucas Armayan-Espiritu y Macam was a younger brother of my great great grandfather Don Pedro Armayan-Espiritu y Macam [ + 1905 ]. The blood relation is a tad distant, but relatives are relatives.
Sorry for the long-winded explanation.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
December 14, 2006 at 2:20 pm
cousin paz:
I’ll ask my dear “Ivan the Terrible”…
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
December 15, 2006 at 5:33 am
Yup, that’s Cousin Annie alright. Dr. Anna Maria A. Abrigo is based in Orange Park, Florida and is married to Philippe Marasigan Abrigo. I think I mentioned that she was in town recently with her husband and youngest daughter, Amelia Therese.
toto gonzalez said,
December 15, 2006 at 5:49 am
cousin paz:
Thanks for the confirmation.
Toto Gonzalez
xxxx said,
December 16, 2006 at 9:19 am
toto and paz. your prima and i live in the same country club then. they must also attend high mass at saint catherine’s (though i usually don’t attend masses unless it’s the holidays or i’m dragged to by the family…i’m a sinful one you know)
Ivan About Town said,
December 17, 2006 at 4:40 am
Yes, Ria is my sister.
toto gonzalez said,
December 17, 2006 at 5:35 am
Ivan:
Thanks for the confirmation.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
December 17, 2006 at 5:37 am
Cousin Paz:
There you have it: my dear “Ivan the Terrible” confirms that Ria Henares is his sister.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
December 18, 2006 at 2:53 am
Hi Toto,
Small world! Ivan is Ria’s brother. Well, she emails me regularly. As for XXXX, yes, our cousin Annie lives in a country club area in Orange Park. Her husband, Philippe’s middle name is Marasigan [ and not Malabanan as I wrote you earlier ].
cara y cruz said,
December 20, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Toto:
Are you by any chance related to Don Antonio Gonzales who had a hacienda in Cagayan?
toto gonzalez said,
December 20, 2006 at 9:11 pm
cara y cruz:
I wouldn’t know anymore. There are so many GonzaleZes and GonzaleSes in the Philippines.
I summed it all up in a long comment in the post “Slurping Soup.”
Toto Gonzalez
jeanne cacnio jacinto francçois said,
December 31, 2006 at 9:00 pm
hello tita vemil, this is chingkee from luxembourg, was doing some research about the cacnio family tree and seen this, it’s quite interesting yet complex at the same time!! (please send me your email addy so we could keep in touch!!) wanted to ask you (just so as not to change the main topic!!!) how are you related to tito joevi from california?
hope to hear from you soon!
chingks
xoxox
P.S.
I got two little ones now, can’t wait to show you their pics
hugs
cousin paz said,
January 2, 2007 at 3:11 am
Hi Toto,
It seems your blog is now read in Luxembourg as you can see from the email of my niece Chingkee, daughter of Rosevias Cacnio (ex Jacinto) now a widow of Belgian jeweler Charles Ducenne. She chanced upon your blog while looking for the Cacnios. Sorry, I have to email her from here:
Chingks, you asked about Dr. Jovi Cacnio of California? He is Dr. Jose Vicente Ramirez Cacnio, your Tito Jovi, son of Lolo Do and Lola Belen (Romualdo Cacnio I y Mercado and Belen Ramirez y Suarez). The blog that you chanced upon, is written by your uncle Toto Gonzalez, a relative of your Lolo Wilfrido on his mother’s side (the Espiritu-Mercado side). Small world! Please email me at pancakepaz@yahoo.com.
Paz Atienza (Tita Vemil to you)
toto gonzalez said,
January 2, 2007 at 3:28 am
cousin paz:
Wow, that is so far away but only a click on the Internet. I’m shellshocked…
I’m thrilled that you reconnected through this blog. I am really amazed by its reach day after day…
I was wondering who Tita Vemil was…???!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
January 3, 2007 at 5:33 am
My nickname is a different story. Maraming santo sa calendario ang combination niyan in addition to my first two names! The truth is, I have dropped the two additional names (for obvious reasons) but my close relatives still refer to me as Vemil, the Barbies especially.
cousin paz said,
January 4, 2007 at 6:34 am
Hi Toto,
We will be expecting you for lunch this Saturday at the old house. Tweetums and company will be there around 11:30. Merienda will be at Tito Toy’s place in Sulipan. See you.
Cousin Paz
toto gonzalez said,
January 4, 2007 at 10:49 am
cousin paz:
Thank you!!!
I hope I’ll be better by Saturday. My systems finally broke down after all the holiday partying. *lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
benigno arceo said,
January 5, 2007 at 1:07 am
Toto, i enjoy reading your blog,very educational and amusing.i know dra.nita anicete,we were neighbors in apalit,her uncle,judge fullen anicete is married to my cousin ate nati catacutan.my grandmother is honorata arnedo sister of apung kiko[francisco arnedo] and sister of apung mirang arnedo santos,mother of dr. florentino santos.is my grandmother related to you? beny
toto gonzalez said,
January 5, 2007 at 10:09 am
beny:
Thank you for enjoying my silly blog.
I met Dr. Annie Anicete-Abrigo last year during the funeral of her mother Luz “Lucing” Cacnio-Anicete in Apalit. She is based in Orange Park, Florida.
Of course, we’re related: Capitan Joaquin Arnedo Cruz y Tanjutco [ married to Dona Maria Sioco y Carlos ] and Don Juan Mata Arnedo [ married to Dona Elena Dionisio ] were brothers. Capitan Joaquin’s son, Pampanga Governor Macario “Ariong” Arnedo y Sioco and Don Juan’s son Don Francisco “Quico” Arnedo y Dionisio and his sisters Dona Casimira “Mirang” and Dona Honorata “Atang” were first cousins. Governor Macario’s daughter, my grandmother Dona Rosario “Charing” Arnedo y Espiritu [ married to Don Augusto Diosdado Gonzalez y Sioco ] and your mother were second cousins. My father Augusto Beda “Beda” Arnedo Gonzalez and you are third cousins. You’re an uncle!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
January 5, 2007 at 10:34 am
Hi Toto,
Wow that’s a pity. I do hope you will be okay by tomorrow. Hope to see you.
Paz
Ej Abrigo said,
January 18, 2007 at 3:44 am
hey yall im Ej from Texas..i just googled the last name Abrigo and i was wondering if you can fill me in on some history of the Abrigo family. I was looking at the msg posts and I recognize Dr. Annie Anicete-Abrigo…
My Abrigo family comes from the Samar area however that is not our origins. My grandfather and his 2 brothers, one of which became Senator of Samar in the early 50’s or 60’s came from the Luzon area. I have been researching some history for a while but I have never landed with anything consistant or helpful other than this article of the Abrigo family being ranchers and tried manipulating local townspeople in some province up in Luzon. According to my father and uncles, and the still surviving Abrigo grandfather the Abrigo family last name is pretty rare and the family small. I haven’t had the opportunity to ask my grandfather about our history when I was younger and now he is in critical condition in a hospital.
I been looking for any input or knowledge of my family last name, such as origins, relations, etc. My cousin has recently met some members of the clan Abrigo in California which is my 2nd cuzns however I still do not know if Dr. Annies’ husband is a relative.
Can you plz fill me in with any knowledge on the matter. Much Thanks!
cousin paz said,
January 18, 2007 at 5:39 am
I really do not know anything about the Abrigos as I am only an in-law. Dr. Annie Cacnio-Anicete is our relative. However, I could get in touch with her husband Philippe via email and he may be able to furnish you with some family history. His mother is a Marasigan. Why not email your addie here?
Hey Toto, hope you don’t mind! You are really all over the place now.
toto gonzalez said,
January 18, 2007 at 7:58 am
EJ:
OK. Let’s see what we can find out about your family, the Abrigos.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
January 18, 2007 at 8:01 am
cousin paz:
You’re exactly the person who can help out EJ Abrigo…!!!
I am very happy that I am all over the place. Aside from Luxembourg, would you believe that I am also read in Johannesburg, South Africa??? And that aside from Spanish, French, and German, I have also been translated to Italian, Dutch, and Portuguese??? *lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
January 22, 2007 at 7:06 am
For EJ through Toto:
Please email Philippe Abrigo at amabrigo@bellsouth.net. Please tell him we got in touch via Toto’s blog. Good luck and thanks!
Paz
cousin paz said,
January 22, 2007 at 7:11 am
Toto,
You are really going places. I mean I’m bumping into long lost relatives like Chingkee in your blog. Hope you are okay. Looks like your post on the “War of the Microwave Ovens” is getting worse. A friend texted me to watch a local showbiz show yesterday and our microwave oven girl was breathing fire again. The saga continues…. I am so glad her lover’s mom is one grand and educated lady of the old school who will not dignify such cheap talk and sugar quotes that still spell nonesense. This is the emerging Manila society for you – ex-starlets cum socialite wannabes…. sad.
paz
cousin paz said,
January 24, 2007 at 7:26 am
Toto,
I was at a dinner last night with Tito Noli Soriano (Dr. Manuel Soriano y Galang) and I mentioned your blog. He and my mom were once again tracing their roots. I told him to access your blog so don’t be surprised to read a comment from him one of these days.
I found out last night that my great grandmother Dona Maria “Mariquita” Espiritu de Mercado’s middle name is Yutuc. Sound familiar? Seems to be a Chinese Capampangan surname too huh?
Paz
Manuel G."Noli" Soriano,Jr.,MD said,
January 24, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Dear Toto, I’m a 3rd cousin of your father “Beda”. My mother Paciencia is a 2nd cousin of Imang Charing (your Lola). We are all descendants of Don Calixto Armayan-Espiritu. In the tombstone of my Lola, Dona Ines Armayan-Espiritu, In the tombstone of her elder sister of my Lola, Victoria Yutuc Espiritu de Reyes (your Tito Toy’s Lola), I presumed that there are kins who used Armayan-Espiritu, and some only use Espiritu. Could you enlighten us on these discrepancies? Where did you find the name Don Calixto Armayan Espiritu? His children were Don Pedro, Don Lucas and Dona Estefania. We come from the lineage of Don Lucas Armayan Espiritu, who married_____ Yutuc. Their children were Victoria, Ines, Luis, and Maria. Victoria married Don Gabriel Reyes from Malolos, Bulacan, and had Emiliano Armayan Espiritu Reyes (Tito Toy’s father). Dona Ines married two times, first to a Sta. Rita with whom she had 2 children, Dona Asuncion E. Sta. Rita (never married), and Atty. Emilio E. Sta. Rita married to Dona Rosario Dayrit of Magalang, Pampanga. Ines was widowed and married the 2nd time to a school teacher, Don Roque Punsalang Galang, of Apalit too. The 2nd marriage children were Dr. Ricardo E. Galang (an anthropologist), Virginia married to Eleuterio Santos with children Priscilla Manalang (UP Professor in Education) and Adelina S. Rodriquez (mayor of QC 1976-1986). Paciencia (HS Biology and Spanish teacher) married to Engr. Manuel T. Soriano, Sr. with one child, Dr. Manuel G. Soriano, Jr.. The youngest daugher of Ines was Dr. Remedios E. Galang (never married). Don Luis Armayan Espiritu married Tiburcia Arnedo with 3 children: Lucas, Jose (Pepe) (UP College of Law, Dean), the father of Dr. Lourdes Espiritu-Campos, married to Dr. Paulo Campos, the founder of the Aguinaldo College of Medicine, now acquired by De La Salle University) and Emilia, who married Don Benjamin Cruz of San Simon, their children were Godofredo, Benjamin and Carmen. Yes indeed, Ati Carmen Cruz Sexton was ranked as an ambassador by the time she retired from the service. The youngest of the children of Don Lucas, Maria “Mariquita” Armayan-Espiritu married Don Wenceslao Mercado with children: Concha (married of Bibiano Reyes, a teacher, with children Justo, Arnolfo and Manolo), Maria Paz (married Don Vicente Cacnio with children Herminia, Corazon, Milagros, Lucing, Wilfredo, Oscar. Esther and Romualdo), Josefa married to Don Francisco Javier Gonzalez, you probably know them all but those I remember are Cong Dedi, Ardalion, Benjamin, Ati Jo, and Ati Titang. And lastly Domingo, I only know the name but he moved and married in Pangasinan.
Gino Gonzales said,
January 24, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Toto,
Today, I read your profile aloud to Rafael (over the phone). We enjoyed it immensely!
We just had to go through your La Naval article and the readers’ comments (in spite of my incessant coughing).
Will definitely be back for more…
Gino
toto gonzalez said,
January 24, 2007 at 3:03 pm
cousin paz:
Yes, Don Lucas Armayan Espiritu y Macam married Dona _____ Yutuc [ her name was probably Maria, since every woman was named Maria then *lolsz!* ]. If I remember right, Imang Miding mentioned that she was from San Fernando. Quite likely, since Yutuc is a surname I still come across in the San Fernando and Bacolor axis.
I look forward to Tito Noli Soriano’s visit to this blog. It’s always a pleasure to have relatives around.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
January 24, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Tito Noli:
Thank you for finding your way here!!!
Thank you so much for sharing the genealogy of your side of the Espiritu family, that of Don Lucas Armayan Espiritu and Dona _____ Yutuc. So generous of you!!! There are so many distinguished relatives on your side of the family.
I discovered the names of our ancestors Don Calixto Armayan Espiritu and his wife Dona Maria Macam only last June 2006, when Tita Linda [ Dr. Erlinda Arnedo Sazon-Badenhop ] gave me a very old copy of the Last Will and Testament of Don Pedro Armayan Espiritu y Macam [ + 1905 ], our Espiritu forebear and the first owner of the image of “Apung Iro” San Pedro / Saint Peter. Don Pedro mentioned his parents, his three wives [ successive of course ], and his children at the beginning of his declaration, as was the custom of those days. It was quite obvious that his favorite among his children was Lola Orang, Dona Ysidora Espiritu y Dungo, who married Don Dr. Jesus Lope Gonzalez y Sioco. He really bequeathed the image of “Apung Iro” to her, but as we all know now, she didn’t want it at all because she refused the “fiesta” responsibilities, and that is how the image eventually devolved to the descendants of her eldest sister, Dona Maria “Maruja” Espiritu de Arnedo, the Arnedo-Espiritu, our side of the Espiritu family.
Keep in touch, Tito Noli!!!
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
January 24, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Gino:
*Laughsoutloud*
It’s about time you guys got here!!!
Isn’t “About Toto Gonzalez” absolutely hilarious???
Our dear friend Rafael [ del Casal ] was, and still is, such a big help with the “La Naval de Manila” post. He shared a lot of information about the image of the “Santo Rosario” and he generously translated the old Spanish articles for me. Would you believe that I’m still not yet finished with that [ bestselling ] post???
Friends, this is my dear friend Gino Gonzales. He is the top, and needless to say the most sought after, production designer in the country today. He was a Fulbright scholar and took his postgraduate studies at NYU New York University. I am so proud that he visits my silly blog!!!
You should read the many comments of this blog, Gino. Utterly fascinating!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Manuel G."Noli" Soriano,Jr.,MD said,
January 24, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Hi Toto, The eldest of the daughters of Don Lucas Armayan Espiritu y Macam, Victoria married Don Gabriel Reyes of Malolos, Bulacan. Their only child was Emiliano Armayan Espiritu Reyes married Florentina Maglalang Pangan and their children are Florante P. Reyes, CPA and retired insurance executive, Dr. Eulalia P. Reyes, ret. col. USAF Med Corps, and Emiliano P. Reyes, Jr., retired bank executive.
The sister of Don Pedro and Don Lucas, Estefania Armayan Espiritu y Macam married a Carlos, which you claim that we lost tract; their offsprings are still living in Sulipan and Capalangan. There are a lot of Carloses who were 2nd cousins of my mother and Uncle Manong (Emiliano), like Don Benigno Carlos, the father of Conchita Carlos Pangan, Atty. Amado Carlos (owner of Toppers), Atty. Conrado Carlos, Amelia Carlos Paras, also the father of Virginia Carlos Garcia (teacher), Soledad Carlos, Augusto Carlos, the father of Felipe Carlos and Florencia Carlos Sunga, Felicitas Carlos de Guzman, and Guillermo Carlos, father of Mariano and Maria Guadalupe (Gading) Carlos Pangan. These are all offsprings of Carloses who are 2nd cousins of my mother and Tatang Manong, so their grandparents are sisters or brothers. They are the apparent offsprings of Estefania Armayan Espiritu y Macam.
toto gonzalez said,
January 25, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Tito Noli:
Thank you so much for the Carlos [ Sulipan, Apalit ] genealogy. It will serve as the groundwork for tracing their line to Don Calixto Armayan Espiritu and Dona Maria Macam.
I always knew that we were related to the Carlos through the Sioco and the Arnedo. The Arnedo, Escaler, and Gonzalez progenitor, Don Josef Sioco [ o 1786 - + 1864 ] first married his Sulipan neighbor Dona _____ Carlos [ at the age of 73, he made a second marriage to Dona Matea Rodriguez y Tuason of Bacolor ]. They had a daughter, Dona Maria de la Paz Sioco y Carlos, viuda de Tanjutco, who became the second wife of her late husband’s first cousin, Don Joaquin Arnedo Cruz y Tanjutco. Don Joaquin Arnedo and Dona Maria Sioco were the parents of Don Macario Arnedo [ o 1868 - + 1941 ], who became a Governor of Pampanga during the American regime.
I was not sure of how we were related to the Carlos through the Espiritu line, specifically through Dona Estefania Espiritu de Carlos, because everytime I asked Imang Azon and Imang Miding Cacnio, they would say “retang Carlos carin” [ "those Carloses there" ]. I am so glad that you have given the definitive answer. Thank you so much.
In our family, Atty. Amado Carlos is famous for an urban legend regarding his “package.”
Toto Gonzalez
Gino said,
January 26, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I think your calling is to be a writer. I’ve been reading your articles (and the comments) for 4 nights now. It’s my new (if you don’t mind) “guilty pleasure.” You must have these published!
betty mahmoudy said,
January 27, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Guilty pleasure for Gino, addiction for me! Mas, por favor!
toto gonzalez said,
January 30, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Gino:
Thank you very much!!! Coming from you, that’s a real compliment!!!
Yes, I’ve had offers from publishers. But who would be interested in reading these frivolous things, aside from our circles???
I am nothing compared to C*nstance Bro*ke San Lorenzo de Pendl*ton, Kit*y Go, s**zyhopper, and their uberstylish kind…
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
January 30, 2007 at 12:44 pm
betty:
Thank you, thank you!!!
I’ve had difficulty completing the “Coming Out” Party post because everytime I remember what happened to Adi Wang at his first ever party I just ROTFLMAO!!!
Also, there have been too many gatherings lately. I’ve had no time to sit down and write!!!
Friends, betty mahmoudy is no black lady. She is, in reality, an intelligent, sophisticated, beautiful, and affluent Filipina lady [ A-lister, according to The Philip*ine Tatl*r magazine ] who literally lives on the other side of the world. I am very honored that she is amused by all this…
Toto Gonzalez
betty mahmoudy said,
January 31, 2007 at 12:01 pm
i’ll graciously accept all the other compliments but ********? you are too kind but it’s simply not true. not after the *** settlement!
i still HEART you though!
Gino said,
January 31, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Toto,
… but you are uberstylish… you just prefer surrounding yourself with style and eating in style (over carrying the latest “it” bag). And you know your Art, History and Genealogy. Go and grab the offers!
By the way, you must continue the Adi Wang saga. It’s the new Harry Potter.
toto gonzalez said,
January 31, 2007 at 4:33 pm
betty:
You are who you are. You were already a fabulous lady even before that prince-turned-ogre came along. Nothing can change that!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
January 31, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Gino:
Thank you so much!!! You have more faith in me than I do in myself!!! *lolsz!*
How did you know that “Adi Wang” is the new “Harry Potter”??? Do you know that I’m about to become as rich as J.J. Rowling courtesy of the Manila Chinese community, Manila Society, and The World???
Bwahahahahah!!!
ROTFLMAO!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Adrian Lizares said,
February 2, 2007 at 5:23 pm
My dear Toto!
Upon the recommendation of Gino Gonzales… je suis la!
Your articles and various commentaries are making for very good and entertaining reading when one is not feeling compelled to imbibing proper books by proper authors! Am enjoying them (and the comments of your readers, count me in as a BIG FAN!) immensely SO please do not ever stop at anything, just keep writing! Its almost like having you right here beside me!
xoxo
adjie lizares
toto gonzalez said,
February 4, 2007 at 10:34 am
Adjie:
Ah, but my silly writings should not distract you from reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabell Allende, and Umberto Eco. I’ve been told that I’m a novelist of manners… on “Xenical”!!! *lolsz!*
I’m glad you are enjoying the posts as well as the comments, which are frequently controversial!!!
As long as you are amused by the stories of my droll existence, I’ll be here…
Friends, this is my dear friend [ and almost an in-law ] Adjie Lizares. He is the most blueblooded of the Negrense bluebloods. He is a [ great ] grandson of the legendary sugar tycoons Don Efigenio Lizares and Dona Enrica Alunan of Talisay, Negros Occidental, a town where there are only The Lizares and The Lacson. He is singlehandedly leading the cultural renaissance in his ancestral town [ of Talisay ] and is also a leading cultural force in Bacolod City. I’m very honored that he’s enjoying all this…
Toto Gonzalez
Mario Feir said,
February 5, 2007 at 1:15 am
(personal to TG)
Just noted your beautiful homes blog. I have recently moved back home to an apartment in Bonifacio Global City (inflated name for Fort Bonifacio) and I collect old books, maps, and ephemera on the Philippines for my library, which will be open to readers ( I also have opera DVDs etc. ). Any books [ and other things ] which you might want to sell?
Mario Feir, 856 0957
toto gonzalez said,
February 5, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Mario:
Thank you.
What a wonderful collection you have.
I will certainly let you know if I come across the things you are interested in.
Toto Gonzalez
jun macam said,
February 8, 2007 at 1:18 pm
dear toto,
it’s goosebumps after goosebumps when i was reading your blog. ha ha. now i know where the macams came from. now i know how come i’m not rich but i’m always mistaken as one. it’s in the blood pala. ha ha ha. my dad had lost his father when he was still young and never had the chance to see some of his relatives in pampanga. his father was Felixberto
Macam married to Feliza Gatbonton Corrales of Pangasinan, the daughter of Don Simon Corrales, the last gobernadorcillo of the spanish government. that is according to historian Basa. i’m fascinated with old houses. everytime i pass one, it seems i would hear the tinkling of the cobiertos from the grandiose kitchen, the piano, and the laughter of the days gone by. why do u call yourself toto? are you an ilonggo? please visit my blog http://www.lunaismad.blogspot.com and http://www.driftingsand.blogspot.com . congratulations! u got a great blog.
toto gonzalez said,
February 8, 2007 at 3:04 pm
jun:
Thank you for finding your way here.
The Macam are an old family from Calumpit, Bulacan. It just so happened that a great great great grandfather of mine [ Don Calixto Armayan Espiritu of Apalit, Pampanga, o +- 1780 ] married one of them [ Dona Maria Macam of Calumpit, Bulacan ]. That is why there are Macam descendants in Apalit, although they no longer carry the surname.
Macam is obviously an adapted Chinese name, probably “Mah Kam.” My late father used to take me along to some Macam relatives; they were invariably pretty and handsome Chinese “mestizos.” As a “principalia” family of Calumpit, they most probably married into the Villena, the town’s most prominent clan, and to the Roxas, a branch of the prominent Roxas Clan of Manila.
Now, the Gatbonton [ "Gat Bonton" ] are not just an old Pampango family, they are an ancient Pampango family. They are descendants of “Datu _____” and the Spaniards dutifully recorded their genealogy for their hereditary tax and forced labor exemptions [ research "The Balagtas Will" ]. The descendants of the “datus” [ chieftains ] are the nearest we have to Filipino Royalty. As they were really descended from the Malay royals, their lineage can be traced to the Madjapahit Empire!!! The Macapagal are also Filipino Royals for the same reason of their ancient ancestry.
It’s good that you have a fascination for old houses. Perhaps you can, in your own way, help stem the tide of destruction of our architectural heritage.
My old-fashioned father gave me the diminutive “Toto” as my Christian name is Augusto Marcelino III. No, I am not an Ilonggo or a Negrense. I am a red-blooded Capampangan. With the Rubensesque figure to prove it.
Toto Gonzalez
jun macam said,
February 9, 2007 at 4:35 pm
good evening,
you mean we’re relatives? and then you’re right. yes, the macams are good looking. not all, but most of them. but it’s to my disadvantage. i’m always frisked in the airports and double checked, since they say i look like bombayin. tirurista was the undertone. one incident in taiwan, the immigration officer was always staring at me. then he brought me to a corner and asked me what i will do in taipei. i said i’m an artist, i’m a participant for the asian performing arts festival. not convinced he opened my bag. there, right before him were masks and masks and masks that i made. ha ha ha. the officer was laughing. well, same thing when i was in europe, the indians in my neighborhood would always approach me to ask a question or two.
thanks for that wonderful blog of yours. and i guess you are a wizard in the kitchen. hmmm?
jun
Darkroom Hobbit said,
February 9, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Hello
I normally don’t do this to the blogs that I stumble upon since I still have this notion that bloggers (like myself) just do blogs for the sole purpose of wanting to be ’someone’.
But then thinking about it, everybody, in this ambiguous world also feels or must have felt the same thing. I like your blog. Do you mind if I link your blog to mine? I don’t blog that much because of my schedule but I update it occasionally.
Darkroom Hobbit
toto gonzalez said,
February 9, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Darkroom Hobbit:
Well, I was always Someone from Day 1, way before this blog. Just joking!!! *lolsz!*
Thank you for enjoying my silly blog. You’re very welcome to link this blog to yours. I know it’s been linked a gazillion times, by whom I don’t know.
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
February 12, 2007 at 2:13 am
Gosh Toto, we are bumping into long lost relatives everywhere. Keep blogging!
toto gonzalez said,
February 12, 2007 at 2:39 pm
cousin paz:
I know…
I’m still waiting for our cousins “Yeti” The Abominable Snowman, The Sasquatch, The Loch Ness Monster, and other beloved family members!!! *lolsz!*
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Gino said,
February 14, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I was just about to suggest the inclusion of photos, but there they are…. You must include one of you as m*ly h*chanova at Floy’s party!
toto gonzalez said,
February 14, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Gino:
Bwahahahahah!!! *guffaws while pounding floor ala early 1970s Elvira Manahan*
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
February 16, 2007 at 2:55 am
Hi Toto,
Wow, we are really going hi-tech ha… with photos to match! Can’t wait to see more photos!
Cousin Paz
cousin paz said,
February 16, 2007 at 3:00 am
Toto,
Just wanted to ask you. I was in Apalit last Friday to check on the “Barbies” and I saw all of these campaign posters/streamers all over the place. There is one candidate named Inaki Escaler who is running for councilor. According to our dear old reliable Luding, he is a close relative of the Escalers and he has been living in Cansinala for years. Do you know who he is?
Cousin Paz
toto gonzalez said,
February 16, 2007 at 6:14 am
cousin paz:
Yes, we have some pixes now. But apart from “About Toto Gonzalez” the only post with pixes is “The Arnedos of Sulipan: nouveau riche in the 19th century, nouveau pauvre in the 20th, nouveau riche in the 21st?”
Scanning is tedious. I’m going to have the secretaries do it.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
February 16, 2007 at 6:19 am
cousin paz:
Inaki Escaler Sainz. Of course. He is a grandson of Tito Jose “Peping” Ocampo Escaler and Tita Antonia “Nonang” Nakpil-Escaler, the son of Oying Nakpil Escaler-Sainz. He is an accomplished equestrian. He has been managing the remaining Escaler spread in Cansinala, Apalit for many years now.
Another cousin of ours.
Toto Gonzalez
ana said,
February 16, 2007 at 4:44 pm
hello!
wow! nice blog! definitely interesting and something i can relate to!
your blog is far more pleasing than those society columns which just feature people who have money, if not the proper connections.. this is way different from how true high society should be.
Que horror! how come a car salesman (”german” haha.. bmw), a general’s mistress who simply displays her jewels (clue: e. come-come haha!) chefs of five star hotels, and even a coiffed, internationally-famous thief with a movie by her name (haha) or any indio, is given the privilege of being called part of philippine high society if that’s what we call it!?
What happened to all the convent schools in our country like assumption, maryknoll (later miriam), ateneo, la salle and other supposed to be prestigious educational institutions? i hate to say this, but at present, studying at these schools isn’t as prestigious as before. Some say that poveda is the new assumption, excuse me, but it just isn’t! Some students from these schools don’t even have manners or etiquette for christ’s sake!
Simply put, almost everything right now is just “infiltrated”.
and that’s why it’s nice to have something like your blog which gives importance to good taste, lineage, etiquette or manners, and all other things associated with old wealth and society!
Thanks to you! 
but then again, everything wouldn’t be as interesting if not for the nouveaux riche… haha! .
Congratulations toto gonzalez for the great blog! keep up the good work!
- writing about old wealth simply reminds me of Dona Nati Romero Meer Millar. It’s not that i’m namedropping but i think you should actually meet her. I guess she’s one of the last left of old Philippine Society (with a capital S). Now in her 90s and soon turning a century year old (maybe because she never worked a day in her life), she quietly lives in her mansion (built by the Ilocos syquias and formerly occupying a block in vito cruz) only with an army of servants and chauffeurs (they have all been made stockholders in st. scho because of their loyalty, having served her for more than fifty years) because she bore no child. Her mansion is a testament to old wealth: heirloom wood and ivory santos, antique furniture suites shipped from abroad with the help from her cousin, amb. roxas and with paintings by amorsolo and hidalgo. she barely leaves her house yet on ordinary days, visitors would include roxases, madrigals, escuderos, levistes, apacibles, or nuns from st.scho (maybe because she will be leaving her whole estate to the benedictines and being a major benefactor of st.scho.. hehe). Like reading this blog, talking to her would feel as if you are brought back in time. Right now, she is just waiting for her time to meet the creator once more. (this just gives me chills)
p.s. i was just wondering if you know anything about SOPHIA LAZATIN. I’m in the process of compiling all the old pictures of my family for a reunion and i want to put captions on each picture. (i assume she’s a pampanga lazatin because this picture was taken during a 1930s bal in Baguio, the old baguio i must say (pre-war), when it was still an exclusive summer retreat where members of philippine high society maintained summer mansions (much like Newport, RI of yore or palm beach and the hamptons). She’s seen in the picture with other heiresses/ society ladies of her time: asuncion jocson (later married to a Lacson in the Visayas), aurora alegre nee aurora de apacible (alegre apacibles of batangas), manolita camacho (another person i have to research on), and lilia dulay garcia (dulay of nueva ecija and la union).
Garganta Inflamada said,
February 17, 2007 at 10:28 pm
This is to ana, toto, or any other knowledgeable reader…
After reading Ana’s otherwise very interesting entry, I couldn’t help wondering about this Nati Romero Meer Mil*ar. If she is a big “stockholder” of St. Scho, and has deeded her faithful vassals shares of St. Scho, BUT will deed her other more tangible assets to the nuns, then what the hell are the servants really getting? I imagine, unless I am horribly wrong, that St. Scho — like all the other convent schools and those run by the orders — are NOT-FOR-PROFIT entities. Therefore, what good is having stocks in these institutions since they do NOT declare dividends. Or do they?
I mean, if you are a Not-For-Profit, then any ’surplus’ (as the profits from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games were called), would really NOT go to the shareholders but go back to the maintenance and expenses of the school or institution. So, as I said, unless I am grossly uninformed — and Toto, since your uncle was head honcho of De La Salle, then you would obviously be in a good position to elucidate on this matter — then such bequests such as those supposed ones of Mme. Mil*ar to her loyal retainers would be worthless. I mean you would be a “part owner” of St. Scho on paper — but so what, if it won’t bring you a couple of hundred pesos to even buy a pair of “bakya”? Am I right or am I wrong?
Can somebody shed some light on the matter, please? Thanks.
G.I.
cousin paz said,
February 18, 2007 at 4:22 am
Hi Toto,
He probably uses the Escaler name instead of Sainz as it definitely rings a bell in old Apalit.
I’m looking forward to seeing more photos. See ya!
Cousin Paz
toto gonzalez said,
February 18, 2007 at 6:03 pm
ana:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Thank you for your kind words. *overwhelmed*
Whoa, I thought that all of the grand ladies of Old Vito Cruz had already passed on. How surprising to find out that there is still one of them alive!!!
The three best persons I can think of to ask about Sophia Lazatin are Tita Carmen “Mameng” Singian Lazatin, Tito Pablo “Pabling” Dayrit Panlilio, and Tito Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
February 18, 2007 at 6:06 pm
cousin paz:
Of course, it’s the venerable Escaler surname — and money — that will get him that post. The Sainz are from Cebu.
I’m currently “excavating” all sorts of pictures…
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
February 18, 2007 at 6:25 pm
ana:
A reader, “Garganta Inflamada,” would like to know exactly how it is that Saint Sch*lastica’s College has issued “shares” and how Dona Natividad de Mil*ar will effectively pass these on to her loyal household help…
Kindly enlighten us on the matter.
Toto Gonzalez
ana said,
February 19, 2007 at 3:39 pm
to tell you guys honestly, i don’t exactly know how that happened. This actually made me think if that is even possible since st.scho might not even issue shares in the first place. It’s just what I heard and what her household help claims. I would like to make an apology then for posting something i am not yet sure of. but I wouldn’t dare ask the matron though.. what i am sure of is that she’s a major benefactor of st.scho. I even remember seeing her receive an award during the centennial musical of the st. scho.
toto gonzalez said,
February 19, 2007 at 3:58 pm
ana:
Thank you for the clarification.
As I told “Garganta Inflamada,” it is quite possible that her various bequests to her household help are managed by financial institutions closely allied to the Benedictine nuns. I just hope that the poor household help will not be deprived of their bequests eventually by an unscrupulous Executor / Administrator of the Estate who will claim that the funds are non-productive, or worse, non-existent!!! Beware because it happens All The Time!!! [ I should know: It has happened in our family several times and it is still happening!!! ]
I’m sure The Truth is somewhere there.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
February 19, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Garganta Inflamada:
There’s your answer.
Toto Gonzalez
Garganta Inflamada said,
February 19, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Thanks. I was just merely curious what “value” shares to NON-PROFITS (whether in the RP or the US) really amount to? I mean, they’re not exactly shares of San Miguel or Microsoft. But thinking about it further, the only worth “Non-Profit” shares can really offer are voting rights when it comes to ratifying or settling some organizational matters. (And as I said in my reply p.e. to you, T: otherwise they are NADA, insofar as yields.)
I’m sure Mme. Mil*ar’s intentions were very altruistic. Except this is the first time I’ve come across any sort of shares to a Non-Profit being passed on — and I just wondered what they would really be worth, monetary-wise. Should I be lucky enough in the future to be the recipient, I might just say: “Muchas gracias, para que?” (just kidding.
Well, interesting little discourse, and we learn something new every day.
G.I.
doris sanchez cacnio said,
February 19, 2007 at 8:12 pm
greetings in-laws/relations
my husband Jose Cacnio (son of Oscar Cacnio) brother of Cousin Paz. I have shown him the threads and finds the exchange absolutely interesting. As we are in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. An excellent way to keep in touch. greetings to Cousin Vemil.
doris
toto gonzalez said,
February 20, 2007 at 3:09 pm
doris:
Thank you for finding your way here. Welcome to the club!!!
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
February 23, 2007 at 2:21 am
Hi Toto,
Can’t believe that Doris posted a comment. Yes of course, I know Doris Sanchez Cacnio. She is the wife of my first cousin Jocoy. I am glad that she found her way through your blog. You have provided us a great way to trace our roots on the Espiritu-Mercado side and to some extent a bit of the Cacnios. Appreciate this considering that Jocoy’s and Doris’s family have been long-time residents of Canada and their 2 children have not seen much of their grandfather’s relatives except for the immediate ones who are “Canadians” too.
Thanks Toto!
Cousin Paz
Chris P. Alipio said,
February 26, 2007 at 7:10 am
Dear Sir,
I would like to ask if I could quote your blog on the Virgin of La Naval on a blog that I’ve created for Our Lady. Thank you very much, your text was really fascinating.
Chris
toto gonzalez said,
February 26, 2007 at 9:53 am
Chris:
You’re very free to do so. We are online to share. However, I have to tell you that the post “‘La Naval de Manila’ at the Santo Domingo Church” isn’t finished yet. I have so much material I can’t put it all down. Also several old pictures.
The article is basically derived from three written sources: the articles “Coronacion” and “Salvamente” in the 1957 “La Naval de Manila” souvenir program, the articles “The Glorious Image of the Virgin” and “Our Lady of Guadalupe” in “The World of Felix Roxas,” the “Recena Historica,” etc.. Invaluable information was shared by my good friend, the artist Rafael del Casal, who has worked with the Dominicans and on the image of the “Santo Rosario.” Rafael also generously translated and annotated the Spanish texts.
I’ve been told that the post “‘La Naval de Manila’ at the Santo Domingo Church” has been quoted on Flickr.com, but I’ve never seen it.
Call me Toto.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
February 28, 2007 at 2:07 am
Toto,
Just saw the teasers on your blog. Write them na please…
Paz
Chris Alipio said,
March 1, 2007 at 2:17 am
Toto,
Thank you very much! I’ll be checking your blog for that update and those pictures.
Chris
mcm said,
March 7, 2007 at 7:06 am
toto,
ganda naman your collection of antiques, chinas, silver wares, chandeliers, etc. kaya lang parang daming kaluluwang nakamasid, pakiramdam mo rin ba? wala lang, impression ko lang! nope, i do not have a third eye.
mcm
toto gonzalez said,
March 7, 2007 at 2:13 pm
mcm:
A “Haunted House,” you mean??? Yes!!! *lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
LOUIE DISON WEST said,
March 9, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Toto,
I was told that Dr. Mayorico Sandico passed away and that the burial is on
Sunday. He is at the Sanctuario in Green Hills.
Louie
toto gonzalez said,
March 9, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Louie:
Thank you.
We were told yesterday afternoon by his sister-in-law, Tita Belen Lazatin Garcia-Diokno [ youngest sister of Tita Jane Lazatin Garcia-Sandico ]. He was 91 years old. He was probably the last surviving grandson of Don Saturnino Hizon y David and Dona Cornelia Sison.
I shall always remember him as a Perfect Gentleman of the Old School and his emphasis on the kinships that bind certain Capampangan families. He always described these families as “Galing sila sa mabuting familia…”
I am going to the wake but I am not so sure of bringing a Mass Card because I know the Sandicos are “Jehovah’s Witnesses” or “Born Again” Christians. I’m actually surprised that his wake is at the Catholic “Sanctuario de San Jose” Church in Greenhills.
Toto Gonzalez
Tisha Sugui said,
March 12, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Hi Toto!
I love reading your stories! The first time I visited your site was last Oct 2006, around 2am when I was trying to finish a report and doing my research through the internet. Somehow, a search engine linked me to your site. And I just started reading your highly interesting stories one by one. I slept at 4am, not because I finished my report, but because I could not stop myself from reading your entries! I got hooked since then. So keep them fresh, and keep them coming! And I do hope you get to write a book someday. That would be priceless. =D Cheers!
toto gonzalez said,
March 12, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Tisha:
Thank you very much!!!
The whole blog is about The Past: the 1800s, the 1900s, The War, the 1950s, 60s, 70s, the 2000s, last year, last month, last week, yesterday even!!! But what is amazing is that Human Nature is the same whenever and wherever… and Human Foibles the best subject matter a writer can have!!!
Make sure to read the comments as well as the posts. The comments are getting more and more controversial and revealing as time goes by… from bad to worse to worst!!!
I am so flattered that you stayed up until 4:00 a.m. reading my “nonsense” the first time you found this silly site!!! *lolsz!* But don’t do it often, because you’ll end up having to go to Dr. Vicki Belo for your eyebags afterwards!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
April 11, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Hi Toto,
Mom just came from Apalit to check on the Barbies. According to her, Tita Miding is okay. Her loss of appetite is traced to mere “irritability” of Tita Zon’s “kakulitan.” Luding says she fusses over Tita Zon’s endless questions. And after a while, she gets so irritated that she loses appetite. In other words, psychological. What a funny pair! Mom said they are “contra pelo” in old age! Oh gosh…
Anyway, Tita Miding shared with me some of the “argellanas” you gave them last Good Friday. They are really good. Thanks!
Paz
Arthur Tolentino said,
April 20, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Would someone please get me in touch with my cousin, Erlinda Enriquez Cruz who works for the Holy Angel University. My email address is a_tolentino@yahoo.com .
dama said,
May 3, 2007 at 7:58 am
hello again toto! your blog is simply addicting! *lolsz*
pls. share. hehe
i was just thinking if you have stories about some old batangas families?
Gino Gonzales said,
May 5, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Hmmm… any Santacruzan or Flores de Mayo article ? Afterall, it is May…
toto gonzalez said,
May 5, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Arthur:
I have already forwarded your email address to Ache Erly Cruz at the Juan de Dios Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
May 5, 2007 at 5:39 pm
dama:
Thank you very much!!! *lolsz!*
I do have upcoming posts on two Batangas families… Both are rather unbelievable!!! But both are authoritatively related by their family members. The first is about the intergenerational, inheritance “karma” of a Batangueno-Ilonggo family. The second is about a forgotten incestuous union in a Spanish mestizo Batangueno family.
Stay tuned.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
May 5, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Gino:
Hi there!!!
I will try to recall stories of “Santacruzan” and “Flores de Mayo” gone awry…!!!
*lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
chong mo said,
May 13, 2007 at 11:05 am
hello Mr. Toto,
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. Regarding the Simon Flores paintings, it was my grandmother who had those paintings for a long time and sold it I think in the late 80’s or early 90’s.
I know she had those paintings for a while and it was always there when we were growing up. They came from Mexico, Pampanga.
cheers
toto gonzalez said,
May 14, 2007 at 11:22 am
chong mo:
Thank you for finding your way here.
WOW. I never thought I would ever come across a Davao Hizon.
Should you have the time, could you please send me a short history of your Hizon family and the pair of Simon Flores portraits??? And the pictures of the portraits as well??? They are very important parts of Pampanga History. I would like to file them at the JDN CKS HAU Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga.
You can email me at augustomrgonzaleziii@yahoo.com .
Thank you very much!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Natty said,
May 25, 2007 at 3:43 am
I revisited your blog again. Quite interesting especially about the 70s era. Some names seem familiar, with interesting stories.
I’ll try to check again tomorrow.
connie said,
May 26, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Reading your blog brings back memories during my growing years in Apalit.
Here’s sharing some of those moments…
Often we would gather in “baleng matua” after attending the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in St. Peter’s Church. One of the aunties would prepare a simple breakfast while the younger generations goes and gestures for a “mano” towards the older generations.
The words that ring through to this day during the process of attaining “mano” is… “ Ika dadagul ka… aku lalati ku…” … were the words spoken to me by a dear aunt as a response to my gesture for my “mano”. It was never “God Bless” you. But it gave me a sense of equality on my part, since I felt that I was on the same playing field with this dear aunt… although she seemed like she was beyond my world of existence at the time. Unbeknownst to me … I would come across this same words written in a different language during my grown up years. They gave me courage and the power to endure the trivial things that builds up one’s character.
Someone used to nickname me “always” since I wore the same best Sunday outfit for church in one of the several stages of my growing years.
While others kept me in toe with the technical progress of this world by their sharing and / or demonstrating the up to date gadgets and / or toys that seemed to mesmerize the current society.
I also experienced some prophetic words spoken by some… such as… “Kagastus nanaman ning planu dang magtalakad a nuclear plant king Bataan… potang kayi kanyan edeman a gamit.”
When I got to the stage of being a slave to fashion, I was enticed to buy the current fashion in footwear during one of our visits in a mall in Makati. My parents obliging bought me one… life was good at the time… monetarily speaking. I wore them in one of the visits we often had in “baleng matua”… a conversation came about as to where and how much was spent. One comment I lovingly remember was… “Kalupa de reng bakyang sasalwan ku king palengki.”
I remember the crispy peso(s) given by some during Christmas and a ham and/or the keso de bola given to our side of the family. And my dad telling the young ones not to give the left overs from the ham to the family dog since it was not good for the pet’s health.
One auntie, I vaguely remember use to pick flowers upon her arrival from church and place them in front of a Divine Mercy picture.
These are some of the fond memories I have while growing up in Apalit during my visits in “baleng matua”.
By the way… the words that still ring through to this day is… “Have the courage to stand up and speak and the wisdom to sit down and listen.”… written beside a picture of a young boy standing straight… wearing a jumpsuit and a baseball cap backwards… with his back turned showing both hands behind his back holding the handle of a red wagon… his face looking at his puppy riding the wagon… and the puppy quietly sitting down gazing beyond the horizon.
Oh! ya …, if my DNA serves me right… I would be related to you through my dad’s Mercado side of the family… making me one of your abominable snowman relatives… smile.
And by the way…
When I first read your blog… the word Pascual reminded me of words I use to hear during my growing years in Apalit. Can someone elucidate on what “Asung Pascual” was all about… was it a legend of some sort? Thank you. If not… that’s OK… smile again.
Natty said,
May 26, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Came across with the name of Rom*aldez, the ambassador, is that the same B*jo Rom*aldez, the brother of *melda? He was once married to a Sioson, I don’t know if you remember that BAS*CO shipping company. The Sioson wife of B*jo has a brother, who was once married to Paz de la Cr*z. Paz was the sister-in-law of B*jo and became his mistress later on. B*jo and Paz had a daughter, Joy Rom*aldez. He gave her a house, I think that’s the one in BF Homes. B*jo was one corrupt politician and seems to me until now.
paul brinkley-rogers said,
May 27, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Hello Toto. I greatly enjoyed your website this afternoon because much of the fine detail reminded me of a friendship I had with one of your friends – Teresita Favis Olbes (Diokno) – in the mid-1970s. I was a war correspondent for Newsweek in those days and often spent time in Manila. Teresita’s family, with a Spanish past, was living in Makati at the time. Your mention of Teresita caused me to do an on-line search for her today and to my delight I found a fairly recent photo of her at a St. Scholastica site celebrating families which had sent at least 3 generations to the school. I was amazed: she has barely aged!! I wonder if it would be possible for you to pass my name and details to Teresita?. I live in Arizona nowadays and retired after winning a Pulitzer Prize with the Miami Herald in 2001. My name is Paul Brinkley-Rogers. My e-mail address is rog39@yahoo.com. My phone in the USA is 602-380-5540. My mailing address is 659 N. MacDonald Street, Mesa, AZ, 85201, USA.
Sincerely
Paul Brinkley-Rogers
cousin paz said,
May 30, 2007 at 6:52 am
Hi Toto,
I think the “Connie” who wrote you a comment is our cousin, Tito Oscar’s daughter.
Cousin Paz
toto gonzalez said,
June 10, 2007 at 7:44 am
Natty:
Thank you.
Ah, the 1970s!!! Everything was a Mess!!! Nothing like it again!!! *lolsz!*
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
June 10, 2007 at 7:45 am
connie:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful recollections of your early life at the Cacnio “Baleng Matua.” It is also a place which I regard with deep affection.
As for “Asung Pascual,” wasn’t It A Disobedient Son that turned to A Big Black Dog [ I now imagine that he looked like a pedigreed, big Black Labrador
] — which roamed and howled frighteningly at night bringing Sadness and Death — which the elders used to scare us children with???
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
June 10, 2007 at 7:45 am
Natty:
Oh, that’s interesting, but hardly surprising. I also have an uncle [ Arnedo side ] who impregnated his sister-in-law while his own wife was pregnant with their child. Their Son is “Everybody’s Son” and “Everybody’s Cousin.” Quite an advantage for future business networking!!!
Famous People are always interesting. The Rom*aldezes of Leyte are always interesting.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
June 10, 2007 at 7:46 am
Paul:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Thank you for enjoying my silly blog. I am embarrassed, but simultaneously very much honored, for a Pulitzer Prize winner to be reading this!!!
What a small world it really is… You were here in Manila in the mid-1970s as a war correspondent for “Newsweek” magazine. That was a very interesting time to be here as President Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law was in full steam, the entire Southeast Asian region was threatened with Communism and the Vietnam and Cambodia Wars were at full gear, and Col. Muammar Qaddafi lorded it over the Middle East. I remember that time, with all its issues and idiosyncracies, all too well.
At that time [ from the late 1960s ], Ters’ maternal grandmother Dona Ramona “Monay” Gonzalez de Favis resided in a commodious house in Forbes Park in Makati. That was the epicenter of the family life of the Gonzalez-Favis [ Tita Beatriz's / Betty's ], the Olbes-Favis [ Tita Teresa's / Ters' family ], the Gomez-Favis [ Tita Cecilia's / Cecing's ], and the Favis-Ledesma [ Tito Asterio's / Astering's ] in those heady days.
I have already forwarded your contact information to our friend Ters Favis Olbes.
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
June 10, 2007 at 7:46 am
cousin paz:
It was very nice of your Cacnio cousin Connie to share those wonderful recollections of her early life at your beloved “Baleng Matua.”
Toto Gonzalez
Alfredo said,
June 12, 2007 at 4:50 am
speaking of capampangan families, i read an article in a widely circulated daily written by a Pamintuan about his roots. It was his story about succeeding in business and he casually mentioned that his family had some kind of 18th century curse attached to them, they would be well-off but would live tragic lives, as a result of wealth generation through usury.
cousin paz said,
June 12, 2007 at 5:31 am
Yup, Connie Cacnio (now Mrs. Stanley Kus) is now based in Canada. She is the youngest daughter of Tito Oscar (mom’s late brother). She lives quietly in a huge country house with her husband and her daughter, Lana.
connie said,
June 13, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Cousin Paz intro made me smile. Thank you.
With regards to our dwelling place… it all depends on one’s perspective. If one compares it to the palatial homes… it could easily be the size of the servants cottage. Smile. We try our best to make it a home.
Since we’ve been kindly introduced by our cousin Paz… please allow me to also address you as cousin Toto… thank you.
I do remember “Asung Pascual” as you did. And since my recollection got the best of me… I tried to Google some info and also asked an older Apaliteno about it. Putting two and two together I’ve come to a conclusion that it was man’s way of coming to grips with his humanness.
Your name reminds me of Toto in the “Wizard of Oz” and cousin Paz reminds me of Dorothy… smile.
Cousin Connie
toto gonzalez said,
June 16, 2007 at 11:14 am
Alfredo:
Yes, the Pamintuans are an old and prominent Pampango Family. Although they figured in the registries of Bacolor and San Fernando towns even in the 1700s [ and earlier ], towards the end of the 1800s many family members had settled in the newer town of Angeles.
I am also a Pamintuan by descent through the Gonzalez-Sioco-Rodriguez-Tuason-Pamintuan line. A Chinese forebear, Gregorio Tuason [ a younger brother of Antonio Ma. Tuason who was the forebear of the Manila Tuasons ], settled in Bacolor, Pampanga and married Maria Pamintuan around 1764. The elder of their two daughters [ the younger was Maria Juana Tuason-Hilario ], Escolastica [ + 1850 ], married Olegario Rodriguez [ o 1806 - + 1874 ] also of Bacolor and they became the progenitors of the Escaler and Gonzalez [ Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga ], Santos [ Malabon; Prudential Bank ], and Guanzon Families of Pampanga.
As for “wealth generation through usury,” I guess most Old Pampango Families would have been guilty of that through the “pacto de retroventa” and agricultural financing. Yes, their lives had the usual share of human tragedies, but really, hardly more so than the average Filipino, who is weighed down with tragedy — big or small — everyday. Realistically, it is more tragic not to have the necessary resources to go through Life. The Bottom Line is that Everyone tries his Best to Survive.
Toto Gonzalez
Ginger Tabora said,
June 18, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Hi Toto,
I’m a great granddaughter of Jose Escaler y Sioco and Aurea Ocampo y Hizon. I was hoping that you could give me more information on the siblings of Lolo Jose. I’ve been compiling his biography for the last few years, and haven’t found information on his siblings.
Thanks!
toto gonzalez said,
June 23, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Ginger:
Hi Rich Cousin!!! I’m glad to see you here.
Lolo Jose “Pepe” Escaler y Sioco [ + 1927 ] was the eldest of five siblings. The others were Marina, Josefa, Carolina, and Federico. Jose Escaler y Sioco married Aurea Ocampo y Hizon; Marina Escaler y Sioco married her maternal first cousin Augusto Gonzalez y Sioco; Josefa Escaler y Sioco married her maternal second cousin Rafael Fernandez y Santos; Carolina Escaler y Sioco was a spinster; Federico Escaler y Sioco died young.
Their parents were the maternal first cousins Don Manuel Escaler y Rodriguez of Balanga, Bataan and Dona Sabina Sioco y Rodriguez [ o 1858 - + 1950 ] of Barrio Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga. Don Manuel’s mother Dona Prisca Ines Rodriguez y Tuason was the eldest sister of Dona Sabina’s mother Dona Matea Rodriguez y Tuason [ + 1918 ]. They were the two eldest of the five daughters [ Prisca Ines, Matea, Marta, Juana, and Maria ] of Don Olegario Rodriguez [ o 1806 - + 1874 ] and Dona Escolastica Tuason y Pamintuan [ + 1850 ] of Bacolor, Pampanga [ after Dona Escolastica passed away, Don Olegario married Dona Jacoba Bautista of Malabon [ + 1874 ] and begot another branch of the Rodriguez Family of Bacolor ]. Dona Escolastica Tuason y Pamintuan was the daughter of the “Sangley” Chinese Gregorio Tuason who married the Pampanguena Maria Pamintuan. Gregorio Tuason was a younger brother of the famous Antonio Ma. Tuason, the progenitor of the affluent Tuason Clan of Manila.
I will try to recall more information about the Escalers as we go along…
Toto Gonzalez
Boojie said,
July 6, 2007 at 7:27 am
I’m just working on trust here but would it be possible if you email me the profile of infamous Filipinos that you said you wrote? I’m just after stories here and gossip. Thanks.
toto gonzalez said,
July 6, 2007 at 8:48 am
Boojie:
If I tell you, then whatever fun you will have will be lost.
They are all sooooo recognizable anyway…
Toto Gonzalez
Darla said,
July 6, 2007 at 9:57 am
Hi Toto!
This is really interesting. can you tell me more about Nemesio Yabut? thanks.
toto gonzalez said,
July 6, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Darla:
There is a long and interesting comment on the late Makati Mayor by a Yabut family member in the Comments section of the post “Width and Girth.”
Toto Gonzalez
Irma Mutuc said,
July 8, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I found your blog by accident. I was googling Inma Mutuc ( some people get confused about the two of us for obvious reasons), there wasn’t much about her here but I stayed on reading the very interesting articles and comments.
I couldn’t stay long since I have to have some work done but I will be back to peruse your essays.
I agree, you must have your work published. Keep on writing.
iRma mutuc
toto gonzalez said,
July 9, 2007 at 1:00 am
Irma:
I’m glad you found your way here.
Inmaculada “Inma” Zaragoza Ortoll and her husband Jose Maria “Chito” Mutuc are dear friends of mine, although I do not see them often. My paternal grandmother Rosario Arnedo-Gonzalez knew Inma’s father, Don Jose Antonio Ortoll; he created the beautiful furniture of her house. My parents knew Chito’s parents, Ambassador Amelito Mutuc and Blanca Alejandrino Medina-Mutuc.
I also know the Medina first cousins Antonio “Tony” Medina Claparols and Mark Calo Medina.
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
ryan said,
July 11, 2007 at 5:51 am
hi toto,
just like you i’m also fascinated with the “finer things in life” and also kinship and genealogies. I’m a pelaez from iloilo. the first time i stumbled on your blog, i was amazed by the stories you wrote about the “old rich” of iloilo. i can relate to most of your stories because i’ve heard them from family gatherings and i think every ilonggo household in iloilo knows about the stories, serious or otherwise.
i’m just wondering, since you are a gonzalez (dos zeta or doble zeta), if you have any information about the gonzalezes of zamboanga? i have a friend whose mom ( a gonzalez) is from there. and they have contact with some of the gonzalezes.
thank you very much.
toto ryan
toto gonzalez said,
July 11, 2007 at 6:00 pm
toto ryan:
Thank you for finding your way here.
The post “Patrician Iloilo” recalls my first trip to Iloilo City and province years ago. I’ll never forget the time I actually ate one sack of fresh oysters for lunch!!! They were so fresh I didn’t get the usual stomach ache. As usual, I haven’t finished the post yet, because that first trip had so many comic incidents.
I have been back to Iloilo several times since then, and each visit only makes me like the place more.
As for the GonzaleZes of Zamboanga, I am not sure if we GonzaleZes of Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga and Baliuag, Bulacan have a connection. But as I said previously, as far as I am concerned, All GonzaleZes and GonzaleSes are related!!! Do read my lengthy comment in the post “Slurping Soup” for more information.
A cousin of my Gonzalez-Gala first cousins, Vina Gala Alava, is married to Noel Pelaez, a son of former Vice-President Emmanuel Pelaez.
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Elen Jison-Golez said,
July 14, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Hi Toto,
Sorry for the long delay. Inviting you to Nelly Gardens next week. Call Ampy’s mom for my tel..
Elen
toto gonzalez said,
July 15, 2007 at 11:00 am
Elen:
Hi!!! I’m glad to see you here!!!
You know how I absolutely adore the “Nelly Gardens”!!!
Toto Gonzalez
afaceinthecrowd... said,
July 20, 2007 at 1:19 pm
hello toto!
Seems you have been very busy lately. I just can’t wait for your next entry. Your blog has totally become a guilty pleasure! I hope all is well with you. Best regards!
paul brinkley-rogers said,
August 3, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Hello Toto…Thanks for your comments and for forwarding my request back in June to Ters Favis Olbes. She immediately got back to me and we have spent the last few weeks swapping long emails and also many photos as we bring each other up to date on all that has happened since we last saw each other more than 30 years ago. These exchanges are like chapters out of a novel about la vida loca. Ters continues to look scintillating. She still has her impish sense of humor and, like me, she has grown up courtesy of the vicissitudes of life.
I have not been to the Philippines since the mid-1970s but my renewed contact with Ters (again, thank you so much for contacting her) has caused me to start making a plan to fly to Manila later this year. Your blog has the color and scent of nostalgia, which is why I am continuing to enjoy reading it, and as you can imagine, the thought of revisiting your city and seeing my friend again is nostalgia ultra. Somewhere in my house here in Phoenix I have an audiotape I recorded in about 1975 when I was writing for Newsweek. It is a jailhouse interview I did with Ninoy Aquino after Marcos locked him up, and I think I am going to bring that tape with me. I hope you maintain this blog for a long time, Toto………Sincerely, Paul.
Muriel said,
August 13, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Hi Toto, I bumped into your blog because I’ve been trying to research my lineage…Lopez. I ended up reading your other writings and would end up at the edge of my chair in giggles and nostalgia of the old Spanish Philippines. Thanks!
I tried the Lopez’ Museum but could not trace my grandfather to Basilio Lopez. I guess I just don’t know enough of my grandfather even…except that there’s mystery, jealousy, women, alcohol, and murder involved, the kind that makes a really good book! Sadly, the last Lopez aunt died recently and I was much too late to ask.
My grandfather was Jofar Ayalin Lopez of Silay in Negros. His father was Eustaquio Lopez of Silay as well. Jofar apparently wrote poems in Spanish, loved the social scene, drank a lot, and flirted with other people’s wives. This flirtation got him in a jealousy and fight. He was found dead floating in a river one day. Somehow, the name Villanueva was involved here though I don’t know how.
My aunt who recently died (Anisia Lopez Aldeguer) remembered being picked up as a child in a big car with darkened windows and spending a few Christmas dinners in Vice President’s Lopez’ house. In her labored breath, my aunt simply said we are related to the big Lopez but she had trouble explaining the lineage. So this is all I know. In your infinite wisdom and knowledge of the social scene, please let email if you know of any person or any piece of knowledge that can help me trace this messed up ancestry or clarify how that murder took place. One day perhaps, I’d have enough material to write a book. Next month, I’ll be going to Silay’s cemetary to look for Jofar’s and Eustaquio’s grave….that’s a start.
Thanks for being a source of knowledge!
toto gonzalez said,
August 14, 2007 at 11:00 am
Muriel:
The Story in the prominent Lopez Clan of Iloilo is that their progenitor, Basilio, started as a poor young boy in Batangas or Mindoro and found his way to Iloilo, where he was employed by a Spanish businessman, who gave him the surname “Lopez.” Before the Spanish businessman returned to the motherland, he endorsed the hardworking and reliable young man to a rich couple surnamed Jalandoni. Basilio “Lopez” prospered under the Jalandonis’ employ and married their adoptive only daughter and sole heiress Sabina Jalandoni y Jaranilla, who was the daughter of their laundrywoman. In Jaro, the hardworking couple prospered with the manufacture of native textiles and were able to accumulate adequate capital for their sixteen [ or fifteen ] children. Two of their sons, Eugenio and Marcelo Lopez y Jalandoni, married two affluent sisters from nearby Molo, Marcela and Julita Villanueva y Felipe, engaged in the burgeoning sugar trade, and spawned the various rich Lopez descendants known in Manila Society today.
Toto Gonzalez
Muriel said,
August 14, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Hi Toto, I think I found something. I was so wrong! Eustaquio Lopez is a descendant of Graciano Lopez-Jaena. Although the murder of Eustaquio’s son, Jofar, is still an intrigue! …thought I’d let you know…
toto gonzalez said,
August 15, 2007 at 8:00 am
Muriel:
Yes, the great writer patriot Graciano Lopez Jaena seemed to be from a different Lopez clan than those descended from Basilio Lopez and Sabina Jalandoni y Jaranilla.
Toto Gonzalez
fgd said,
August 20, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hello Toto, I came across you blogs by accident. Do you have by any chance any information about Mercado-Gonzalez/s (where Mercado is the maternal surname and Gonzalez/s is the paternal surname) clan that originates in Maasin, Leyte? I’m told my gramps grandfather was a Spanish mestizo that came from Manila (or Luzon). My gramps was born August 1, 1909, just to illustrate a starting time line and he love Spanish ballads. To add a larger “search grid” my mother said she have Gonzalez cousins in Manila, Baguio, Cebu, and Agusan del Norte. Right now my mom’s retired and based in Cagayan de Oro City.
MC Cuyugan said,
August 21, 2007 at 6:36 am
Hello, Toto, this is a marvelous blog you’ve set up. With your encyclopedic knowledge of clans, perhaps you would be able to shed some light on the bifurcation of the Manila and Pampanga Cuyugans.
I am a grandchild of Manuel Cuyugan ( who was the brother of Carlos — father of Tita Nuning Oppen ). They were the sons of Vicente Cuyugan, legal counsel of the Arzobispado de Manila in the mid- to late 19th century. They had one sister, who was a Carmelite ( in the convent featured in Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere” ).
Manuel Cuyugan married, in the 1900s, Consuelo Granda of Bacolor, who was related to the Resurreccion-Hidalgos. She was the one who spoke Capampangan, and not my grandfather Cuyugan, who had grown up in Manila! Would you happen to know of any clan details about Consuelo Granda de Cuyugan? She had a sparkling, extravagant personality, was an accomplished painter and singer, and was part of the Ermita social whirl c. 1900-1920. And would you have any information on our branch of the Cuyugans going further back than Vicente Cuyugan, and when they may have moved to Manila?
Would be very grateful for any leads. Please continue with your wonderful blog.
cousin paz said,
August 21, 2007 at 7:11 am
FGD,
What was your grandfather’s first name?
Paz
baguioluxe said,
August 21, 2007 at 5:19 pm
fgd:
I am not sure as to where the Gonzalezes of Baguio are really from but I am certain that they own a large piece of land in the legarda road area. They are among the prominent families in the city.
Also, The tragedy of the very controversial Gonzalez Massacre in australia is still fresh in the minds of baguio’s upper crust. It was all over the news. Teddy Gonzalez, his wife Loiva Claridades, and their daughter Clodine were brutally murdered by their son, Sef Gonzalez, in their north ryde home in australia on 2001.
Since then, most of the Gonzalez family members became “less visible” in the social scene.
baguioluxe said,
August 21, 2007 at 5:36 pm
MCCuyugan:
How are you related to the Garcia-Cuyugans in Baguio? I am sure that they came from a landed family from the lowlands…
I believe your tita margarita “nuning” lichauco cuyugan – oppen also “socialized” in Baguio since the 1930s – a time when spending summer in Baguio was very exclusive and fashionable. Some of the more prominent and pioneer matrons of Baguio actually have made friends with her. The Oppen summer house in Leonard wood road is one of the few summer mansions in Baguio that is obviously still well-maintained and still remain in the possesion of its original owners.
Do your cousins still maintain the oppen estate in pasay? I really like the understated grandeur that the residence exudes.
XXXXXXXXX said,
August 21, 2007 at 5:43 pm
The social whirl in ermita including dewey boulevard, taft, malate and other old manila areas involves so many interesting stories about manila’s old gentry… ( or maybe “new” during that time but considered by some to be “old” by today )… Toto, i am sure you have so much to contribute…
toto gonzalez said,
August 21, 2007 at 7:00 pm
MC Cuyugan:
Thank you for finding your way here.
As much as I would like to, I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of All Filipino Clans. But I do know a little about Most Everybody, mostly from after-dinner conversations with the family elders.
Dona Margarita Cuyugan de Oppen “Dona Nuning” [ nee Margarita Cuyugan y Lichauco; Mrs. Ernesto Oppen ] was a very elegant lady. She was an avid gardener in the aristocratic fashion. She had French black truffles on her table long before the gourmet wannabes came on the scene. “Dona Nuning” knew her family history. She would have known about the connection between the Manila and Pampanga Cuyugans. She always lamented the fact that her parents’ home was burned during The War and that was why She had no pictures from her youth or childhood.
If I am right, Cuyugan, despite its Manila associations, is a Pampango surname. There are many Cuyugan descendants in San Fernando, Pampanga who carry other surnames. Among them are the Rodriguez-Dayrit Family who live in a very well-preserved 1920s residence — popularly called “The White House” — along MacArthur Highway in San Fernando.
The Granda are a patrician, Spanish mestizo family of Old Bacolor. As with all old and affluent Bacolor families, they are descended from the Chinese mestizo Joven Family [ originally "Ho Bang" ]. I do not know of their blood relations to the Resurreccion-Hidalgo of Manila but it might help to look into the Padilla Genealogy, since the wealth of the Resurreccion-Hidalgo originated from the venerable and enduringly affluent Padilla Family of Old Manila [ although the Padilla Family originated in 1700s Lingayen, Pangasinan ].
I hope I was of some help.
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cilgigig said,
August 22, 2007 at 12:42 am
Toto, I must ask… do you know what happened to Carmen? Apo’s Carmen…
toto gonzalez said,
August 22, 2007 at 6:00 am
XXXXXXXXX:
Oh, indeed there was a very social whirl in PreWar Manila that did center around posh Taft Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods of Ermita, Malate, and all the way to Pasay!!! Everybody who was Anybody lived within that magical axis!!!
The Queen of Manila High Society during PreWar was the young Dona Victoria Lopez de Araneta [ nee Victoria Lopez y Ledesma; Mrs. Salvador Zaragoza Araneta ]. She was known for her philanthropy, her elegant receptions with the most distinguished guests at her Hispano-Moresque “Victoneta” villa outside the city, and her haute couture dresses by the redoubtable Ramon Valera [ Manila's answer to the Spanish couture maestro Cristobal Balenciaga ]. The other grande dames were, of course, Dona Aurora Aragon de Quezon and Dona Mercedes Zobel de McMicking. Very popular were the young Conchita Chuidian Sunico and Pacita Ongsiako de los Reyes.
Manila High Society turned out in their finest dresses, jewels, and suits for the annual balls of the various prestige clubs and organizations. The Iloilo “Ilonggo” sugar barons had their annual “Kahirup” Ball. The Pampanga sugar barons had their annual “Mancomunidad Pampanguena” Ball. The exclusive [ off-limits to the average Filipino ] Manila Hotel was the preferred venue for both events.
The affluent Chinese mestizo community gathered at the residence of The Palanca Family [ Tan Quien Sen ].
The various embassies also held wonderful, cosmopolitan receptions, mostly during the New Year holidays, which were much anticipated events in social calendars.
The affluent Spanish mestizo community congregated at the Casino Espanol. The most elegant and most awaited parties were given by Dona Angela Olgado de Zobel [ Mrs. Jacobo Roxas Zobel ], who was Manila’s most well-dressed lady.
Grand parties were also given by the Elizalde-Ynchausti and the Soriano-Roxas Families who were the preeminent members of the Spanish mestizo community in PreWar Manila. At least during their months of residence in Manila, as they were constantly traveling to and from Europe: Paris, Saint Jean-de-Luz, Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities.
The Fun stopped abruptly on 08 December 1941…
I would really appreciate it if you can share your family elders’ memories of PreWar Manila…
Toto Gonzalez
fgd said,
August 22, 2007 at 7:44 am
Hi Paz, sorry I forgot to mention it in my previous post. His full name is Pedro Mercado Gonzalez (b. 1909, d. 1987). Thanks for checking it out, if you have some leads to share please contact me through email ( duronf@yahoo.com ).
toto gonzalez said,
August 22, 2007 at 1:00 pm
cilgigig:
“Apo Lakay” had two ladies in his life named “Carmen” [ at least, as far as I know
]. Which one are you referring to???
Toto Gonzalez
kong said,
August 23, 2007 at 3:35 pm
hi toto, in the old ancestral house of the de castros in san vicente, santa rita, pampanga, there is a painting done by emeterio de castro, and the main trunk is that of angel pantaleon de miranda… our line is just a small branch, my father is just a leaf… but a lot of the main branches and twigs have the family names ticsay, henson, miranda, etc… no one lives in the house right now, but it is maintained by mrs. sylvia r. de castro…
toto gonzalez said,
August 24, 2007 at 4:00 am
kong:
Thank you for finding your way here.
That Family Tree painting made by Emeterio de Castro sounds interesting. Has it been documented, as in photographed??? A copy of it should be furnished to the JDN CKS – HAU Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University in Angeles City, which is the official repository of All Things Pampanga.
Of course, Don Angel Pantaleon de Miranda and Dona Rosalia de Jesus were the progenitors of all of Culiat’s / Angeles’ several “principalia” families. And consequently, those Angeles families married into the “principalia” families of other towns, like Santa Rita’s [ which is really near Angeles ]. Until the PostWar vicissitudes of 1940s – 50s Huk Rebellion and 1970s Agrarian Reform, those same “hacendero” / landowning families comprised what was regarded as the Pampanga Aristocracy.
Keep the comments coming!!!
Toto Gonzalez
anonymous said,
August 28, 2007 at 7:04 am
i am one of the grandchildren of Amelito Mutuc and Blanca Medina. The seven siblings are (not in order): Chito, Corinna (R.I.P.), “Tap-tap,” Vicky, Marie, Paul & Peter.
toto gonzalez said,
August 28, 2007 at 7:00 pm
anonymous:
Noted!!! Thank you for the clarification.
Toto Gonzalez
cickilslslsudgas said,
August 29, 2007 at 3:13 am
Of course Toto my dear, Carmen to whom Marcos built the little palace by the cliff near Agoo. Carmen, Dona Pepang’s recognized daughter-in-law.
Merrily Cacnio Sumera said,
September 8, 2007 at 2:49 am
Nice reading your blog… I found out so much interesting information about the Cacnio clan… I am a Cacnio from Malabon ( Hulong Duhat ) and one of the twin daughters of Florentino Cruz Cacnio and Avelina Reyes Cacnio. My grandparents were Flaviano Cruz Cacnio and Telespora Cruz Cacnio, but they are not related by their middle name. My Inang Porang is from Panghulo, Bulacan and as far as I know, my Inkong Anong is from Malabon. They have six sons: Angel, a famous painter back home, Ricardo, Herminio, Florentino, Tenong, and Enso… I don’t remember the full names of the two daughters, Esther and Florencia. They are hacenderos in Visayas ( fishponds ) and encargados too. I don’t know if all the Cacnios are related. There are only a few Cacnios in Malabon and they are all related. I have my Lolo David who is married to Lola Maria. There are two half-brothers and also two half-sisters, whose names are Asuncion Cacnio-Velasquez ( the husband is from Pampanga ) and Lydia Cacnio, whose married name I forgot.
My Lolo David Cacnio also had daughters: [ one also named ] Remedios, a lawyer; Tia Minyang, a nurse; and also Tia Meding and Tia Belen, who both are spinsters. Also three sons: Tio Danny, Tio Ben, and Tio Ruming.
Will you please inform me if you have relatives in Malabon? You might be one of my long lost relatives.
I also have two cousins who are famous sculptors in the Philippines. They are Tio Angel’s sons. They are all UP alumni…
LPT said,
September 17, 2007 at 5:21 am
hi! i came across your blog because i googled my grandmother, tomasa picache. how do you know her, and how do you know she lives in that house? i grew up there, and lived there all my life. anyway, it’s funny seeing her name on your website. by the way, she’s turning 94 this december.
AVK said,
September 20, 2007 at 8:08 am
Dear Mr. Gonzalez,
I came across the post on the incident on P*toy M*reno and Oscar de Zal*meda (where a former cage icon was involved), but can’t remember where I found it. Please refresh me.
Many thanks,
AVK
cousin paz said,
October 2, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Hi Toto,
I tried to get in touch with Merrily Cacnio Sumera via the email you sent me and she has not responded. I just hope I typed the right address. Although to date, the email has not bounced back so I am assuming that it is the right one. Hope you are well.
Cousin Paz
connie said,
October 4, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Cousin Toto… thanks for providing this site…
Cousin Paz…J
Just watch… Charlotte’s Web… from Lana to me to you… ((( hugs )))… “miracles”… smile.
Take Care,
Cousin Connie
Tomas L. Sunico Eleizegui said,
October 28, 2007 at 2:45 am
hi, what is new in Manila?
toto gonzalez said,
October 28, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Tomas:
Nothing much: 1 ] Palace loot bags; 2 ] A FART that was mistaken for a BOMB; 3 ] Erap scot-free.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Jan S said,
November 1, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Hello Toto,
I came across your site yesterday, when I began searching about my surname… My father’s surname. and lo and behold… i read a lot about it… memories of Bacolor and Apalit, the nice house in bacolor where we would feast on “hito” and “buro,” the rebultos, and procession, the food, memories of growing up with the family traditions, christmas, la naval, etc.. My Titas and all the Tatangs, my lola, my cousins and other relatives… and then I lost track… but I still continue the legacy I’ve learned from my father and his family…
More power to your column… at least here I get to read something Kabalen…
Janice
toto gonzalez said,
November 2, 2007 at 5:40 am
Janice S:
Thank you for finding your way here.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts on “The Pampanguenos.” What is your father’s surname? Are we relatives through the Bacolor Rodriguez line?
Toto Gonzalez
Jan S said,
November 2, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Hello Toto,
My surname is Sarmiento. My father is the late Dr. Rodrigo Lugue Sarmiento, of Bacolor, Pampanga.
More power to your site!
Kind regards,
Janice
toto gonzalez said,
November 2, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Janice S:
Small world!!!
I didn’t know that “Tatang Rod” had already passed away. My condolences. I know / knew your aunts and uncle: Ating Eling Sarmiento, Ating Luz Sarmiento-Panlilio, Tita Coring Sarmiento-de Jesus, Tita Peng Sarmiento-de Leon, Sister Ines Sarmiento, Tita Fely Sarmiento-Aguila, Tita Fe Sarmiento-Panlilio, and Tatang Malio Sarmiento.
I know some of your Sarmiento cousins: the Panlilio Santos Joven-Sarmiento, the Aguila-Sarmiento, the Panlilio-Sarmiento, and the Sarmiento-Gonzalez. The latter are actually my third cousins through Tita Edith Gonzalez-Sarmiento [ a second cousin of my father, Augusto Beda Arnedo Gonzalez ].
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Janice S said,
November 3, 2007 at 2:27 am
Hello again Toto,
Well, yes, small world indeed… now if you are related to Tita Edith… I had some schoolmates before at St. Joseph’s College, like Charmaine, Bikoy… and yeah, Wally Gonzalez of Juan de la Cruz band. Then I remember Tito Gaston’s office on EDSA before.
My father passed away I think sometime in 1998. I miss him. My mama is still alive though, Tita Tels, she is currently living in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna with my sister.
Wow, you are to me a historian… not only of Pampanga and other cities… but also of families. Last night I was reminiscing growing up with the Sarmiento traditions… “Noche Buena” at Tita Edith’s, Christmas lunch at Tita Luz ( I loved her potato salad and yes, my cousin Jorico’s sprucing up the place ), Christmas dinner at Tita Fe ( I remember always participating in the program, I would sing… then of course, I got extra “aguinaldo,” she was my “ninang” ), New Year’s Eve at Tita Fely’s… and to add to the blank Tita Peng Sarmiento-de Leon and another, Tita Kuring Sarmiento-de Jesus… dami nila ano?!
We lived in Lola Inang’s house on Cordillera Street until it was sold. I still have dreams of that house… makes me think maybe may nakabaon na alahas pa dun si Lola Ines… hahahahaha!
I will be a regular reader of your blogsite… very interesting… very educational… very nostalgic…
best regards,
Janice Nieva Montilla Sarmiento-Indreboe
dptayona said,
November 7, 2007 at 10:21 am
i was looking for sites where i can research about about “letras y fguras.” i figured i’d type down “turn of the century philippines” when lo and behold, i came upon this most interesting blog of yours. i’d say, this has been the most engaging blog i have come across.
thanks for writing down your wealth of knowledge.
totally engaging.
i cheer you sir, for the wealth of memories you have. *clink* ( sound of crystal glass “clinking” )
toto gonzalez said,
November 7, 2007 at 10:30 am
dptayona:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Well, I just write, write, write what I can remember. If it amuses other people, then well and good!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
jennie said,
November 9, 2007 at 12:19 pm
dear mr. toto,
i couldn’t stop laughing… what a way to get in touch with your relatives, huh? And by the way, I am not a member of your- oh-so-big-clan ( eyes rolling )… just a passerby…
fully entertained and satisfied…
toto gonzalez said,
November 9, 2007 at 2:06 pm
jennie:
I’m glad you’re enjoying my silly blog.
And a reader does not have to be a family member to have fun with this blog. As long as one can read!!!
Cheers!!!
Jeselle Ledesma said,
November 11, 2007 at 9:03 pm
My Dearest Toto… where have you been all my life? I sink to my knees ( it is after all a Sunday ) and thank lovely fate… but more on why later.
My eccentric young soul is hooked on the smell of Chanel and Marcella Borghese lipstick, one is never too young to neglect beauty. And in another life perhaps we would have shared a fussy little chateau ( think the St. Martin bibliophile in Johnny Depp’s “Ninth Gate” ). Francophiles, Filipinos, and Madame Olenska… aristocracy’s downfall is rooted in the Madonna-Whore syndrome. The moment women’s bloodlines become more important than her beauty, creativity or intelligence the next generation is bred ignorant with the horribly annoying side effect of extra appendages. After all, money is left for the men to make. Women remain fanciful creatures who eventually migrate into the patrician domicile.
I’ll drive my point straight home if you don’t initially acquiesce: The Shahs of Persia and the courtesans of Venice. Not to mention unattractive, excessively boring English Viscounts.
So I hope you can see why I have little compassion for mousy May. Mrs.Mingott was amused by her gossipy young granddaughter but held out special affection for Ellen. Yuck, May reminds me of why Louis Vuitton became so bourgeois. The sheep of the world follow the Mays.
So here is my request. Hopefully I have not managed to offend you.
Father’s Side: Kapitan Simon Ledesma’s (of Jaro) youngest and purportedly most beautiful wife. Of whom was born my great grandfather, Maximino Ledesma. and the Golez beauty whom he married. Don’t bother looking in the registry, they became impoverished past the 1930’s.
Mother’s Side: I actually don’t know enough of my grandmother ( Marietta Diaz Doctora ) except that her own mother ( Cristeta ) was a Javellana-Jaranilla and in her prime was one of the most beautiful women in Bacolod.
Fortunes are made and lost, stories of beauty and love and legacy and loss… that’s the core of the Filipino spirit.
toto gonzalez said,
November 11, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Jeselle:
Thank you for finding your way here.
I am happy that someone likes the same things I do.
The history of Jaro, Iloilo is dominated by the Lopez and the Ledesma families. All the information is readily available. Whenever I have to ask anything about the Ledesma family, I refer to Zafiro “Zaffy” Laguda Ledesma, who is a most authoritative source on anything about Iloilo’s history. Whenever I have to ask anything about the Golez family, I refer to Elena “Elen” Lopez Jison-Golez.
The history of Bacolod, Negros Occidental derives directly from that of Iloilo because the pioneer sugar planters came from there. Whenever I have to ask anything about Bacolod, Talisay, Silay, and its principal families I refer to Adrian “Adjie” Villasor Lizares, Alexandra “Alexie” Javellana Claparols, and Monsignor GG Gaston.
I will ask around.
Toto Gonzalez
Jeselle Ledesma said,
November 15, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Sigh, you are the best =) Met a lola who visited from Iloilo here to Irvine very recently. She was equally besotted.
Jeselle Ledesma said,
November 15, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Hey Toto, check this page out, this guy is GOOD =) Not your typical horoscope stuff. Just thought you’d appreciate it!
http://astrologywithdrz.com/index.htm
Ditas Gomez said,
November 17, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Hi Toto! Just a quickie to let you know today is Tita Betty’s 569th birthday. She is serving merienda-cena to whoever drops by.
Anyway, I know you enjoy her company and I thought you might want to go.
Ditas
PS – What’s your email address?
Jeselle Ledesma said,
November 25, 2007 at 6:42 am
Dearest Toto, any luck so far?
toto gonzalez said,
November 25, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Jeselle:
No luck thus far.
We will continue trying.
Toto Gonzalez
baby kramer said,
December 2, 2007 at 11:37 pm
felicia ravago led me on to your blog. last i saw u was in guise of Gonk (circa 84). when i used to chaperone ged bondoc to rehearsals of some musical. and i day at your place ghost story recounting…… high tea one of these days??? at your living museum of course!
toto gonzalez said,
December 3, 2007 at 6:52 am
baby:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Felicia Ravago is a great friend of mine, even if we see each other infrequently. I admire her intelligence and wit immensely; the Ravagos are a brilliant family!!! I have known her since the early 1980s, when she was a classmate of my cousin Claudette Gala Gonzalez, along with Bledes Fores, Chubby Lopa, Liz Jalandoni, Nini Barrera, Bea Recto, Chola Celdran, Nina Peralta, et. al. at the Assumption Convent in San Lorenzo Village. If She visits this blog, she should drop me a line !!!
Yes, of course I remember Geraldine “Ged” Bondoc. Such a pretty and intelligent girl in those days, and probably still is. And the CUE Dramatic Guild at La Salle Greenhills… Bwahahahahah!!!
Of course, we should see each other one of these days. “Living Museum”??? If you’re referring to the beautiful “Museo De La Salle” in Dasmarinas, Cavite, yes. If you’re referring to my home, it’s… a “Living Mess” !!! *lolsz!*
The Kramers are descended from the Montillas, aren’t they?
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
zarah said,
December 4, 2007 at 7:48 am
my name is paz hernaez, great granddaughter of jose hernaez and paz singson-ch. veloso-hernaez… does that mean we’re related in a way? =) i love your blog. please do keep on writing. it’s a different world, yet the stories and people seem all too familiar… stories from my grandparents and dad… wonderful to read about.
toto gonzalez said,
December 4, 2007 at 8:00 pm
zarah:
Thank you for finding your way here.
Well, we are “connected” although not directly related. Your cousins through the Singson-Chiong Veloso line, The Gonzalez Singson-Chiong Veloso [ Nelly Gonzalez Galvez, Charo Gonzalez Cancio-Yujuico, Sylvia Gonzalez Cancio-Campos, Karen Gonzalez Cancio-Litre, Mark Gonzalez Cancio, Dr. Vicki Gonzalez Belo, David Gonzalez de Padua, et. al. ], are also my cousins through the Gonzalez line. Also, another cousin of yours, Architect Augusto “Toti” Fabella Villalon, is a good friend of mine.
Oh yes, it was a different, albeit marvelous world…
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Maria said,
January 6, 2008 at 11:09 pm
This is a an excellent blog. I cant stop reading your wonderful stories about the Philippines foremost families. Would you be able to write a piece about the Car*ana movement when you have the time? Thanks.
Lourdes Brion Alba said,
January 9, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I dare say this is one of the few highly engaging blogs I have read- it has all the elements of the total blog- personal enough to empathize with, nostalgic enough to reminisce by, hilarious enough to laugh yourself dizzy with, irreverent enought to be entertained by and yet, sufficiently introspective and reflective to make one think and sigh and celebrate!
I enjoy reading your stories and “bumping into” folks we have known-
My sister, Pilar, was Inma Ortoll’s classmate. Our grandaunt Pilar Camahort, was the classmate of Inma’s mother. Our mother Pilar Camahort was in Blanca Medina’s and Celia Diaz-Laurel’s class. Celia’s daughter Celine was in mine. I could go on- you have such a way of linking names and stories that’s fascinating and of great historical value as well.
Yesterday, I somehow found my way into the Aug 19, 2006 Hello world! comments in your Uncategorized link and my name was there! A dear childhood friend, Lidia, from our Assumption Convent grade school days has been looking for us from her country Indonesia. I responded to her October, 2007 comments yesterday but I worry she will not read that anytime soon. Can you send her my email address and my full name- she’ll know it’s me.
Thanks, Toto. Through your blog, you are touching and linking so many people. God bless you!
Lourdes
april yap said,
January 14, 2008 at 3:16 pm
toto! i stumbled onto your blog and learned so much about our family hehe! didn’t know more than half the stuff you have in here. thanks!
toto gonzalez said,
January 15, 2008 at 2:17 pm
April:
Hi, Great Writer Cousin!!! Great to see you here!!!
I’m almost embarrassed that you’re reading this silly blog. You’re such a good writer!!! I really enjoyed your first book, it had me ROTFLMAO for days!!!
Our Quiason cousins Aye Yap-Azurin and Tintin de Mesa-Yap also visit this blog.
Warmest regards to Tito Manoling and Tita Erlinda.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Jerry R. Gutierrez said,
January 26, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hello Mr. Toto,
I’m really enjoy reading your articles / blog, if I have vacant time during my office hour here in Saudi your blogsite is my favorite. I found your site when I was searching for my family’s origins, “Gutierrez” from Santa Monica, San Simon. My grandfather’s name was Nicanor Gutierrez Sr. and he was married to Luminada Tuason of San Matias, Santo Tomas, Pampanga ( both decessed ), and my father’s name was Regalado T. Gutierrez Sr., he passed away April 5, 2004. My Lolo was a businessman before Prewar ( owner of Panotsahan, Rancho & delivery tracks ) but those were confiscated by the Japanese. The descendants of my Lolo up to the present I have records of but from my great-grandfather backwards I have no idea at all. Because there are so many surnamed “Gutierrez” in Pampanga — in Bacolor, Lubao, and Masantol, I cannot trace the exact origins of our family. I hope you could help me trace the origins of “Gutierrez” from Santa Monica, San Simon. More power to your website. God Bless You.
Your usual kind consideration is highly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Jerry R. Gutierrez
toto gonzalez said,
January 26, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Jerry:
Thank you for finding your way here.
As I have said several times before, I do not know the histories of All Filipino families. I only know a few…
The only Gutierrez I know is the old and prominent Gutierrez David Clan of Santa Ines, Bacolor, Pampanga. They married into the other prominent families of that town like the de Leon, the Granda, the Angeles David, et. al.. The Gutierrez David Clan produced several distinguished lawyers, doctors, statesmen and other professionals. Also artists, writers, and poets.
I visited the Gutierrez David ancestral house once in the late 1980s with a descendant, Dr. Rafaelita Hilario-Soriano. It was a lowish, Geometric Style, All Wood 1850s house. It was furnished with beautiful antique furniture. I remember the life-size, full body, family photographs in wooden, Filipino “Art Nouveau” frames everywhere. There was a highly unusual, sectional dining table with marble tops [ the only one I had seen in the whole Philippines ] and two big glass Chinese lanterns in the dining room. There was a noteworthy, intricately-carved, 1860s four-poster matrimonial bed in one room. Unfortunately, when Lahar first swept into Bacolor town in 1991, the ancestral house was destroyed and the furnishings dispersed. Afterwards, I saw the sectional dining table and the glass Chinese lanterns in the Mabini antique shops. I was saddened to see another era pass away.
Fortunately, the Clan flourishes to this day in the four corners of the world.
Toto Gonzalez
Jerry R. Gutierrez said,
January 27, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Mr. Toto,
I really appreciate your response, maybe our family origins relate to them but I need to dig deeper… ha… ha.. you’re right, it was sad that the ancestral houses in Bacolor were destroyed by lahar and disappeared. I remember when I was studying Engineering in DHVCAT for five years I used to walked around Sta. Ines and the town proper nearby during my vacant periods and I enjoyed seeing the beautiful old houses with Spanish architectural designs without any idea of the owners. But now I know who the owners of those houses were through this blog. Even my alma mater school DHVCAT was destroyed by lahar — at nakung kalungkut nyang akit ke kayari na ning kalamidad. Anyway, thank you very much for your time and I will try to find a way to trace my family origins later. I keep reading your very exciting, educational, & historical blog. More power and wisdom to your website. GBU.
Best Regards,
Jerry
Lonn Taylor said,
February 7, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Dear Toto Gonzalez,
I stumbled on your website while looking for something else and found it most enjoyable. I am a decorative arts historian, recently retired from the Smithsonian Institution, and I am fascinated by your references to antique (and modern) Filipino furniture. Is there a book on this subject, or is someone (possibly you) working on one? I would cetainly like to know more about it, having some twenty years ago written a book on Spanish New Mexican furniture.
Sincerely,
Lonn Taylor
toto gonzalez said,
February 8, 2008 at 1:49 am
Dear Mr. Taylor:
Thank you for finding your way here. I am so honored that a historian from the Smithsonian Institution has visited this blog.
On the subject of antique / classical Filipino furniture, I would recommend four books, two are local publications and the other two foreign: “Household Antiques and Heirlooms,” “Consuming Passions,” “Filipino Style,” and the recently-published “Asian Furniture.” “Household Antiques and Heirlooms” and “Asian Furniture” have good articles by Martin I. Tinio, an authority on Filipino furniture. “Consuming Passions” has an incisive article by Ramon N. Villegas, an authority on Filipino material culture. The article in “Filipino Style” was written by Rene Javellana, a respected historian. For further research, I can refer you to my good friend Ramon N. Villegas, who can enlighten you much more on the subject as well as bring you to all the major private collections in the city.
On the subject of ethnic / primitive Filipino furniture, which is of great interest to Westerners, I could refer you to Ramon N. Villegas and Florencio “Floy” Quintos, two authorities on early Filipino material culture.
If you have further inquiries, feel free to email me at augustomrgonzaleziii@yahoo.com .
Toto Gonzalez
rina_ledesma said,
February 8, 2008 at 10:57 am
toto. nice blogs..\
i read somewhere in your postings about you having an aunt, a hernaez-dela rama woman married to your uncle named joaquin gonzalez… it’s so confusing… there is also an imelda de la Rama in bacolod who married joaquin gonzalez…… which is which?so there are two de la rama women married to one joaquin gonzalez?
thanks and more power to your wonderful blog…
toto gonzalez said,
February 13, 2008 at 3:30 pm
rina:
Is this my friend Rina Aleta Ledesma – Villalon?
toto gonzalez said,
February 13, 2008 at 3:40 pm
rina:
A first cousin of my father, Joaquin Tomas de Aquino “Jake” Valdes Gonzalez of Bacolor, Pampanga married Lourdes “Ludichi” Hernaez de la Rama of Bacolod, Negros Occidental in 1946 [ at the De La Salle College Chapel along Taft Avenue ].
Tito Jake died in an airplane crash in Baguio.
Some years after, Tita Ludichi married Ignacio “Igna” Eleazar Gala of Sariaya, Quezon.
First names are often repeated in old families. In our Gonzalez de Sulipan Clan, there were several male members named “Joaquin Gonzalez” and I believe that there are even members of my “young” generation named as such.
Also, there is another Lourdes de la Rama who is the mother of Maria Victoria “Minnie” de la Rama Osmena.
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
February 23, 2008 at 2:15 am
Toto,
You should post more photos too.
Paz
fgd said,
February 23, 2008 at 8:11 am
Hello Everybody,
It’s been six months since my last post and tracing genealogies is very interesting (especially if your just starting .. there’s no family historian in my case). Anyway, I found my misplaced copy of family tree and I want to share it. Others may have some leads that will help fill the tree.
My grandfather is the 7th of 8 siblings born under the union of Dalmacio Mangle Gonzalez and Florencia Luza Mercado. These are the siblings: Emiliano, Ana, Pastor, Dorothea, Buenaventura, Januaria, Pedro (my gramps), and Victoriana. They were born at Southern Leyte.
Dalmacio was the son of a Spanish mestizo – I’m not sure if he comes from Manila – this is the missing link that I can’t trace and Eustaquia [middle name] Mangle.
Florencia was the daughter of “Imo” [middle name] Mercado and [first name] [middle name] Luza. “Imo” have two other siblings “Acoy” and Juana, there’s a certain Antonio [middle name] Marqueda in my record that I can’t link with.
This ends my record, if you have any information about these names please feel free to contact me.
Toto, I hope your blog will have more posts. I enjoy reading it. Until next time.
Cristina said,
March 17, 2008 at 2:25 am
Toto,
Please tell us about your life…!!! Your blog has become a favorite pastime of so many. Some common friends know. Please tell us about yourself, how does your day start? What is your routine schedule? Are you self-employed or work for your family business?
Btw, please tell us — drum roll please — your sex life? Or do you practice the art of celibacy like the “Dalai Lama”?
toto gonzalez said,
March 17, 2008 at 3:19 am
Cristina:
*LOLSZ!!!*
Thank you for enjoying my silly blog.
As I’ve said previously, my droll life is splattered all over this blog. The blog posts that are not about current events are inevitably about ME.
I just finished a light article for a “social” magazine about a dear friend who is one of Manila’s most important patrons of the arts and culture and one of its very best-dressed. She said: “Do write about me but don’t reveal anything about me.” Perhaps some readers of the blog feel that way, that I have said much but have not revealed much as well.
Sex life? Nothing could be more boring as everything has been sublimated into antique furniture, china, silver, crystal, etc.. I certainly can say that my sex life is nothing compared to those of the “Guc*i Gang”!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Cristina said,
March 17, 2008 at 4:38 am
toto… sorry i’m in austria now.
is it the philip*ine t*tler magazine? please tell me the name of the magazine and the issue so i can have my cousin buy it and send it over to me.
did you write about *melda coj*angco?
HRH said,
March 25, 2008 at 4:30 pm
toto, are you the one who wrote the article on Mary Pr**to..for T*tl*r’s feb issue?
shinobi said,
April 1, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Toto…love your blog site.
Yes, Toto, We are addicts . ; – )
We arise each morn, to devour the latest “news” and end each night wondering what comments we might have missed.
Seriously, we think you’re doing a great public service. We—second, third, and fourth generation pinoys—still hunger to hear the entertaining foibles and events of our kababayans back home, regardless if we know them or not; regardless, if we understand it or not. Worse, many of us are rarely satisfied, so we hunt for more blogs, online newspapers and tabloids, and forums to join, or that allow us to be voyeurs.
Unfortunately, we’re still hungry…for your eloquence…for your recommendation…or for any site that has a touch of class, like yours.
toto gonzalez said,
April 2, 2008 at 8:30 am
shinobi:
Thank you so much for enjoying my silly blog.
It is so amazing, and heartening, to hear that some of the second, third, and fourth generation Filipinos in the United States could actually still be interested in their Filipino heritage and the events in their homeland!!! I think it is a great thing because there is so much good in our traditional Filipino culture — oftentimes at odds with contemporary, frequently decadent Western culture, which really isn’t all bad as Westerners would have us believe — which keeps expatriate Filipinos grounded, industrious, progressive, and prosperous in their adopted countries. We Filipinos acknowledge God as the center of our lives, perform our religious duties, and our inherent spirituality lays the groundwork for surefire success in our endeavors. We Filipinos consider a good, encompassing education — if not a great one — top priority. We honor our elders because they take their responsibilities of caring and educating for us seriously, and with much affection at that. As professionals, we work hard and deliver full value, and in doing so, contribute much honor to the community. We save our money for the things that matter most — food, clothing, housing, education, business, investments — and do not spend it recklessly on passing pleasures. We are patriotic because we send our hard-earned resources back to the motherland: to our families so that they can live decently, earn a good education, and find gainful employment; if that isn’t patriotism, I don’t know what is.
Putting aside class, elegance, and eloquence, take a look at the post “Misunderstood Privilege” and its comments, go to the controversial blog, and see what All of Manila — and I mean All of Manila!!! — has been yacking about for the past two weeks…
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Tess Lopez said,
April 3, 2008 at 8:55 am
Toto! I am so impressed with your articles!! I did not know you write so well! Joey and I had a good time reading them. By the way, Joey’s birthday today.
I also read that a long lost friend, Lourdes Brion Alba wrote to you! We have been looking for her. Do you have her e-mail address? We are the ruby jubilarians next year and we are looking for classmates for our reunion.
Thanks and more power to you, Mr. Ernest Hemingway!!!!!
Tess Lopez said,
April 3, 2008 at 8:59 am
hi toto! me again! I also need Lidia Pamontjak’s email? Wow! This is exciting!
toto gonzalez said,
April 3, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Tess:
Hi there!!! Great to see you here, my friend!!!
Your Lopez cousins have long preceded you here: Bettina Araneta Teodoro, Regina Lopez Araneta-Teodoro, Sandra Laguda Sotto, Elen Lopez Jison-Golez, Gia Lopez Gonzalez, et. al.. It’s so nice that you have come to join us in the fun.
I certainly would appreciate your personal input about the Lopez de Iloilo.
Yes, indeed, it is Jo P.’s birthday, 03 April.
Thank you so much for enjoying my silly blog.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Tess Lopez said,
April 4, 2008 at 12:14 am
Toto, please don’t forget my requests! Thanks!
toto gonzalez said,
April 4, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Tess:
I have already emailed ASAP to you Lourdes Brion Alba’s and Lidia Pamontjak’s email addresses.
Have fun reconnecting!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Tess Lopez said,
April 6, 2008 at 9:32 am
I got it Toto! Thanks so much for the connect! Will try to post something on Iloilo although Zaffy will be a better person. I am more knowledgeable on Negros Oriental as I have been working on a coffee table book of that province with Ronnie Alejandro and Mike Santos. Do you know anyone interested to publish it? I can assure it will be a good book!
jude said,
April 7, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hello Toto. One word of advice, buy a better camera. Sayang the stuff that you have, they can be photographed better.
toto gonzalez said,
April 7, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Jude:
Is that you, my good friend Jude Mancuyas??? Great to see you here!!!
Friends, this is my good friend Jude Mancuyas, one of Manila’s top style arbiters. He is every bit as discerning, sharp, and fashionable as his peers in the world’s best fashion houses, magazines, and circles.
The photos above were taken eons ago. Actually, i already have better digital pixes but i still have to decide where to place them. Procrastination as usual…
I really miss you guys!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
jude said,
April 7, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Yup! C’est moi!
Brian Concepcion said,
April 8, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I think we might be related based on the things I’ve read on your blog. I am a descendant of the Gonzalez Clan originally from Baliuag, Bulacan. They relocated to Umingan and Urdaneta, Pangasinan during the turn of the last century. The Gonzalez Clan recently had a reunion about two years ago and it consisted of the Mondragon-Moran-Gonzalez family. Please let me know if you are familiar with these surnames as we might be long-lost cousins.
My father is also from Baliuag, Bulacan from the Nunez de la Concepcion or simply Concepcion Clan. They were a working class family that produced Portuguese “narra” wood inlaid furniture with the cane backing that was popular 100 years ago. The house I grew up in is filled with this ancestral furniture that clearly shows the changing styles due to the passage of time. We don’t need too many pictures since our furniture holds the memories of the great uncles or grandfather that created the beds and chairs that we use everyday throughout the good and bad times it has seen in the last century. Most of the PreWar pictures were lost in WWII.
toto gonzalez said,
April 8, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Brian:
As long as you trace yourself to the “GonzaleZ de Baliuag” who transferred to Pangasinan — to Bayambang and environs to be exact — then we are related.
According to the 95 year-old Tita Beatriz “Betty” Gonzalez Favis-Gonzalez, it was her mother, Dona Ramona “Monay” Gonzalez de Favis — a daughter of the “GonzaleZ de Pangasinan” Patriarch Don Francisco “Balbas” Gonzalez y Reinado — who declared that the “GonzaleZ de Sulipan” / “GonzaleZ de Pampanga” were her “primos.” How exactly, no one remembers. It is the theory in the “GonzaleZ de Sulipan” Clan that our ancestress Dona Maria Amparo “Mariquita” Gonzalez y de los Angeles — who had a relationship and six children with Fray Fausto Lopez OSA of Valladolid, Spain — was a sister of the three “GonzaleZ de Baliuag” brothers who transferred to Pangasinan and became the patriarchs of the family there, all named Francisco Gonzalez but with different diminutives: “Francisco Balbas,” “Francisco Bungo,” and “Francisco Pugot.”
Yes, the Mondragon and the Moran families are descendants of the extensive “GonzaleZ de Pangasinan” Clan.
Of course, you’ve seen the Comments section of the post “Slurping Soup.” We GonzaleZes and GonzaleSes are All There.
Brian, I am a researcher on classical Filipino furniture. Please share with us pixes of your beautiful heirlooms. You can email me at augustomrgonzaleziii@yahoo.com .
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Brian Concepcion said,
April 9, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hello Toto,
I am a descendant of Lolo “Barba” or Francisco “Balbas” Gonzalez. I am from the “Gonzalez de Pangasinan” branch. As for your request for images of old Tagalog furniture, I will try to scan in older pictures from the 1980s and 90s and possibly get digital pictures of the furniture currently from my sister. The house has not changed interiors since I left more than a decade ago. They are all intact in our house in Paranaque and I will ask permission from my mom.
Thank you for responding.
Ricky Gonzalez said,
April 17, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Dear Toto,
I too am a descendant of Francisco “Barba” Gonzalez originally from Baliuag, Bulacan but subsequently settled in Bautista, Pangasinan. Always been fascinated by the life of Mariquita Gonzalez de los Angeles who I suspect was the sister of Francisco Gonzalez. She was said to be very beautiful and spoiled — and got away with having six children with the parish priest of Baliuag!! Can you imagine what sermons father Fausto Lopez would give? And going to him for confession? By the way, he is reported to have arrived in the Philippines from Spain as a fully ordained priest, at the ripe old age of 16 ( overflowing with hormones, no doubt ). He did come from an aristocratic family who in those days considered it fashionable to field at least one of their children to become a member of the clergy.
Could you please inform me where you got the information about three “half brothers” by the same names respectively identified as “Balbas,” “Bungo,” and “Pugot”? Also, would you have any information about the parents of Francisco Balbas? According to our information ( from other Gonzalez elders ) his parents were Vicente Gonzalez and Venancia de los Angeles Reinado? We are unable to confirm this or trace Franciso Balbas’ lineage back to where his parents came from originally.
By the way, I have the family tree of the Gonzalez de Baliuag family in a CD. It contains almost a thousand names and was painstakingly constructed by Mike Gonzalez. If you are interested I can send you a copy via Courier.
Enjoyed reading your blog. Thanks, cousin.
Ricardo “Ricky” Gonzalez
son of Dindo Gonzalez and Nelly Lacson of Silay
grandson of Manoling Gonzalez married to Pacita Tuason of Mariquina
Great grandson of Matias Gonzalez married to Carmen de la Concha of Sibul, Bulacan
Great great grandson of Francisco “Barba” Gonzalez y Reinado married to Feliciana Esperanza Mondragon
toto gonzalez said,
April 17, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Ricky:
PRIMO!!!
The Story of the three Francisco GonzaleZes — “Balbas,” “Bungo,” and “Pugot” — of Bayambang / Bautista, Pangasinan came directly from Tita Beatriz “Betty” Gonzalez Favis-Gonzalez during her sharper days some 15 years ago [ She tells me that she can no longer remember those diminutives now.
]. Therefore, it must have come from her mother, Dona Ramona “Monay” Gonzalez de Favis and the latter’s sisters.
Our cousin Betsy Rohling-Malca also asked me about the parents of Don Francisco “Balbas” Gonzalez y Reinado. I told her that they were surely mentioned in the Last Will and Testament of “Balbas,” of which Ters Favis-Diokno has a copy which she will share with the “Gonzalez de Pangasinan” relatives.
A “Gonzalez de Sulipan” cousin, Carlo Lopez Gonzalez, had spoken with the eminent Filipino genealogist Dr. Luciano Santiago and it was from him we got the information that the parents of our “Gonzalez de Baliuag” ancestress Dona Maria Amparo “Mariquita” Gonzalez y de los Angeles were Don Vicente Gonzalez and Dona Venancia de los Angeles. If our “Gonzalez de Pangasinan” cousins came up with the same information then we are getting nearer to the exact blood relations of the “Gonzalez de Sulipan” to the mother clan “Gonzalez de Pangasinan”!!!
Of course, I would be very interested in the CD of the “Gonzalez de Baliuag” Family Tree. But only if it will be no trouble to you. The best way for it to reach me would be through my brother’s law office:
Augusto M.R. Gonzalez III [ Me ]
c/o Atty. Adolfo M. Gonzalez
Rualo Gonzalez Ong & Romero Law Office
Atlanta Center Bldg., Annapolis Street,
Greenhills, San Juan
Your father, Dindo Tuason Gonzalez, was a popular character in the “Gonzalez de Pangasinan” Clan. His name was mentioned every now and then by my uncle Bro. Andrew Gonzalez F.S.C. during Sunday after-dinner conversations. He was also mentioned occasionally by Tita Betty Favis-Gonzalez.
Give my regards to your sister, Rica Gonzalez-Gabaldon. We first met at a small wedding of one of Patis Tesoro’s assistants years, perhaps even a decade, ago.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Jake said,
April 20, 2008 at 3:08 am
Hello Toto, my friend here in the bay area loves your blog so much. He’s been bugging me to check your blog, and so he finally emailed me the link, and surprise, surprise! It’s “Towtow”, sabi nga ng mga Kano, LOL!
I called him and I told him that I know you. I don’t know if you still remember me though. Remember our “Noli Me Tangere” adventure in Vigan? LOL!
You have a great blog! I’m going to be a regular visitor!
Jake said,
April 20, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi Toto,
Its me again Jake ( de Asis, not related to Viring
). May I get your full name and your email address? I want to nominate your blog to the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards ( http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph/ ). It’s part of the nomination process, I need it ASAP, plz??? Unless you were nominated already? Please email it to: jakedeasis@gmail.com .
Thanks!
toto gonzalez said,
April 20, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Jake:
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
ms. dayrit said,
April 21, 2008 at 12:42 pm
where did you get the name rosario dayrit, i know this woman very well,
ms. dayrit said,
April 21, 2008 at 12:52 pm
hi toto, maria marcela de panlilio dayrit is the full name, rosario dayrit is my mother.
toto gonzalez said,
April 21, 2008 at 2:46 pm
ms. dayrit:
A certain “Rosario Dayrit” was mentioned in Comment # 71 by my Espiritu uncle, Dr. Manuel “Noli” Soriano Jr., M.D.:
“”Dona Ines Espiritu y Yutuc married two times, first to a Santa Rita with whom she had two children: Asuncion Espiritu Santa Rita ( never married ), and Atty. Emilio Espiritu Santa Rita married to Dona ROSARIO DAYRIT of Magalang, Pampanga. Dona Ines was widowed and married a second time to a school teacher, Don Roque Galang y Punsalang, of Apalit too. The children of the second marriage were: Dr. Ricardo Espiritu Galang ( an anthropologist ), Virginia Espiritu Galang married to Eleuterio Santos, with children Priscilla Santos-Manalang ( UP Professor of Education ) and Adelina Santos-Rodriquez ( Mayor of Quezon City from 1976-1986). Paciencia Espiritu Galang ( HS Biology and Spanish teacher ) married Engr. Manuel T. Soriano, Sr. with one child, Dr. Manuel G. Soriano, Jr.. The youngest daughter of Dona Ines was Dr. Remedios Espiritu Galang ( never married ).”"
Could it be that the “Rosario Dayrit” of Magalang, Pampanga who became Mrs. Emilio Espiritu Santa Rita was different from your mother, “Rosario Dayrit”???
The Panlilio-Dayrit I know of is the family of Don Vicente Panlilio y Hizon and Dona Nicolasa Dayrit y Pamintuan of San Fernando, Pampanga: Luis “Sitong” Dayrit Panlilio [ + ], Pablo “Pabling” Dayrit Panlilio, Carlos “Carling” Dayrit Panlilio [ + ], Teresa “Teresing” Dayrit Panlilio-Luciano, and Lourdes “Lurding” Dayrit Panlilio. I’m sure they are your relatives, for Everyone in Pampanga is related.
Toto Gonzalez
shinob said,
April 29, 2008 at 12:16 am
Aloha Toto,
More than curious, have you considered making a separate entry for… the ( gasp ) anak ng “partidas”… the natural children of the friars… the celebrated ones… the disposable children of the elite? Like you, I am a descendant of a friar and an unknown Chinaman, but many generations removed. Considering our “blessing and curse” legacy, isn’t it about time that this “romantic notion” be open for more discussion?
As scandalous as this may sound, my generation is more than ready to embrace the unknown reality of the actions of our forebears, and better; willing to accept past grievances and make them our own. Not the grievances, but the joy of knowing for certain, who we are and where we came from.
Families that I am currently researching include: the Trinidads, Liongsons, Adrianos of Bulacan; the Samaniegos, Pamintuans, Valdeses, Sicats, Gomezes, Lacanlales of Pampanga; the Sorianos, Fernandezes, Quintoses, Padillas of Pangasinan; the Gonzalezes and Zaragozas e Araquinzas of Ilocos Norte; the Burgoses, Syquias, Querubins, Marquezes of Ilocos Sur; the Floirendo, Ortega, Laigos, Dumpits, of La Union; the Valeras, Paredes of Abra; and the Alesnas, Ledesmas, Aranetas of Cebu.
Toto, if you know anyone who might be doing the same or similar research, can you tell them to email me. The above families are my extended kin, the spouses of my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. cousins.
Mahalo and maraming salamat po.
Shinobi
toto gonzalez said,
April 29, 2008 at 12:30 pm
shinob:
Ahahahah!!! There are really several Filipino Clans descended from the Spanish friars from the 1500s to the 1800s. I have not bothered to keep track of them since I [ and many members of our Gonzalez Family ] have always thought that Sex is a primal urge and that it spares no one — men nor women. Hence, having a Spanish Augustinian Friar for a Clan Progenitor is No Big Deal.
I already grew up in the time of “openness” [ like "glasnost"? ] in the family [ the 1970s, so how open is that!!! ], where our being descended from a Spanish Augustinian friar was taken as matter-of-fact and as a mutual source of great amusement. During our first official “Gonzalez Doble Zeta” Reunion [ "Gonzalez de Sulipan" and "Gonzalez de Baliuag" ] in December 1978, my uncle, De La Salle Brother Andrew Gonzalez F.S.C. commissioned an oil painting of the Clan Progenitor Fray Fausto Lopez O.S.A. and gave it as a prize — to the rousing laughter of everyone — to the closest lookalike descendant, who happened to be quite a philanderer / playboy himself!!!
But our “holy” lineage was, at some earlier point in time, indeed a source of shame / embarrassment. I still have an old “Gonzalez de Sulipan” genealogy from the early 1900s constructed by an eminent personality in the family which described “Don Fausto Gonzalez” as “a lawyer from Spain who settled in Baliuag, Bulacan” which of course, was utter bullshit.
However by all accounts, during Fray Fausto Lopez’s and Dona Maria Amparo “Mariquita” Gonzalez’s lifetimes [ from the 1830s - 90s ], the relationship was “open” to all of Old Baliuag, Bulacan. Their six attractive, Caucasian-looking children — Soledad, Jose, Joaquin, Rita, Carmen, and Francisco, all surnamed “Gonzalez y Lopez” — were brought to the Baliuag “convento” everyday and were free to play there with their father. The eldest boy, Jose known as “Pepeng Mariquita,” would ride a horse up the “convento’s” interior “escalera” stairway and roam around the main halls. Because “Pepeng Mariquita” was the son of a Spanish friar, he could take incredible liberties with other Spaniards and not suffer the consequences: he once threw the Spanish “cura parroco” Fray Ysidoro Prada out of his mansion for sitting improperly in the presence of his beautiful wife, Dona Francisca Carrillo y Arriola, who, ironically enough, was also the daughter of another Spanish friar, Fray Arriola!!! When asked why they, the “Gonzalez de Baliuag,” did not marry into the other “principalia” families of the town like the Rustia, the Ponce, the Fores, et. al., they rudely answered “Kasi pangit sila!!!” [ "Because they are ugly / native-looking!!!" ]. *LOLSZ!!!*
By my experience, it is easy enough to link the old families of a town and a province in the Philippines because they are invariably related.
There are Adriano from Malolos, Bulacan. Still extant as the MERALCO office in Barangay Santo Nino [ formerly "Pariancillo" ], Malolos is the splendid 1910s mansion of Dona Solita Adriano de Canizares. I always thought that the Liongson are from Bacolor, Pampanga, but I could be mistaken. Yes, the Trinidad are from Bulacan. Madame Imelda Romualdez-Marcos’ mother, Remedios Trinidad, was a Bulaquena.
There are Gomez from Angeles, Pampanga; a clan of beautiful ladies. Yes, there are ValdeS [ with an "S" ] from Pampanga, both the Don Basilio Valdes [ of Floridablanca ] of the Tuason-Legarda-Prieto-Valdes Clan and the Valdes Clan [ originally de Jesus ] which now has Henson, Quiason, Guanzon, Lilles, Reynoso, Tinio, Fabella, et. al. descendants. [ The ValdeZ with a "Z" are usually of Ilocano origin: Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan. ]
There are Spanish mestizo [ Fernandez de "Compania Maritima" ] and Filipino Fernandez in Manila and elsewhere. Quintos is a Pangasinan name. Yes, the affluent Padilla are among the earliest documented and most venerable of Pangasinan families, originating in 1700s Lingayen; they reestablished themselves in Manila in the late 1800s.
I do not know about the Spanish mestizo Zaragoza originating from the Ilocos. About fifteen years ago, my dear friend Architect Ramon Zaragoza purchased and renovated a 1700s mansion in Vigan’s Old Chinese mestizo quarter as a weekend house; he has since deaccessioned it. According to him, his great grandfather, Don Jose Zaragoza y Aranquizna, and the latter’s many brothers were born in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, the sons of an official of the “Tabacalera.” They settled in Manila, made good marriages, and became part of the prominent Spanish mestizo community.
The Syquia were the most important Chinese mestizo family of Old Vigan. Their 1830s mansion is well-preserved. The Burgos were an old “natural” [ Filipino ] family of the town. Many surnames beginning with “Que…” originated in Old Vigan.
According to the Old Vigenos, the Davao Floirendo are actually descended from the Chinese mestizo Florendo of Old Vigan. The “i” in “Floirendo” was added later to differentiate the name from its antecedents.
Yes, the Valera and the Paredes are from Old Abra.
The Ledesma are most associated with Old Iloilo; along with the Lopez, they defined Old Iloilo. The Araneta originated in Spain: their ancestors first landed in Zamboanga, the descendants established themselves in Molo, Iloilo, and then on to Bago, Negros Occidental and further to late 1800s Quiapo, Manila. Today, the most famous Araneta are the Cubao Araneta of big business fame and also the prominent Spanish mestizo ones of Old Quiapo.
Good Luck in your research!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Presy Guevara said,
April 29, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I just stumbled on your page and got engrossed reading most of its contents. You describe the grandeur of the Philippines I once knew. I am totally taken by your writing style and your vast cultural knowlege. Please write on.
I am also looking for leads on the life story of a Filipino nun whose brother, Raymundo, was married to a “C” Lopez of Bacolod. The nun’s name was Margarita Hourmont Heredia, better known in her younger years as Margot. She joined the Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd ( R.G.S ) and died in Guam after helping many people from 4 continents. She has done wonderful deeds and her story must be known. I hope you can help.
toto gonzalez said,
April 30, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Presy:
Thank you for finding your way here, for your kind words, for finding my silly blog interesting. If I know a little something about Filipino culture, it is because of my mentors who are the most accomplished scholars and collectors in the land: [ my late uncle ] Bro. Andrew Gonzalez F.S.C., Ramon “Boy” Villegas, Marie Theresa “Bebe” Lammoglia-Virata, Ma. Cristina “Kit” Ongpin-Roxas, Lamberto “Ambeth” Ocampo, Eleuterio “Teyet” Pascual, Nicanor “Nick” Tiongson, Fernando “Butch” Nakpil Zialcita, Josefina “Nening” Pedrosa-Manahan, Martin “Sonny” Imperial Tinio, Conrado “Ado” Escudero, Alberto “Albert” Salgado Paloma, Basilidez “Dez” Bautista, Ramon Zaragoza, Antonio “Tony” Martino, et. al..
I will ask lady friends in the Lopez de Iloilo Clan for leads about Raymundo Heredia who married “C” Lopez, about his sister Margarita “Margot” who became a saintly nun.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Ods Banez said,
May 1, 2008 at 10:55 am
Dear Toto,
Could you please forward this email to Presy Guevara? I took my doctorate at DLSU and in writing my dissertation on R. Zulueta da Costa, I came across the name of Margot Heredia. She was mentioned to me by “Zulu” himself when I spoke to him several times at his San Lorenzo home. Margot was his first love. He had dedicated his earliest poems written while he was teaching at La Salle and dedicated them to ‘M’ — Margot. He had told me that she was the most beautiful young woman he had ever met, but that she had not reciprocated because she had intended to enter the religious life. He had sent books and flowers, but they were returned by her family.
I wrote a letter addressed to Sister Margot at the Good Shepherd Convent in Guam (on a wing and a prayer, since I knew how small the island of Guam is) and she wrote me back! She thanked me graciously.
Ods Banez
Presy Guevara said,
May 1, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Toto, you just brought me delight in connecting me with Ods Banez. Thank you very much.
I had classmates from Cebu, Bacolod, Ilo-ilo and Negros at UST College of Architecture some 50 years ago. We have lost contact after graduation and now I am hearing there is a plan to have a reunion. Some of the names include Emily Gaston, Cecilia Arguelles, Shirley Yulo, Rodolfo Climaco, Norman Campos, Luis Sirilan. I am uncertain on the true status of Jose Coscolluela and Leocadio Sirilan. Perhaps any one of them can update me on the plans for the reunion. I live in Rockville, MD. You have the liberty to forward my e-mail address to them.
Thank you again for your informative writing. You fascinate me with your style and the rich content of your stories. More power to you.
Sincerely ,
Presy
A-LL-S said,
May 1, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Toto:
I just remembered that Pachuca Javellana Jalandoni is a Lopez-Heredia. I already put out an inquiry from her first cousin. She must know something.
A-LL-S said,
May 1, 2008 at 6:22 pm
“C” Lopez is Consuelo Lopez not to be confused with Consuelo Rufino-Lopez who is the wife of Oscar Lopez. She was married to Ray Heredia. I don’t know if his sister was a nun. Her nickname was “Mimi Soling” and she was the mother of Pacita Heredia Javellana Jalandoni, mother-in-law of Inday Vargas and also of a Sison, cousin of Rick Teodoro.
MRGL-LL-A-T said,
May 1, 2008 at 6:26 pm
“Manang Soling,” as mother [ Victoria Lopez-Araneta ] called her, was famous because she was a good pianist but an accident caused her hand to be damaged ( fingers badly cut up ) and her father, a doctor, patiently and successfully “sewed” it back. One of the daughters of Pachuca Javellana married Dickie Sison, my husband’s [ Rick Teodoro's ] first cousin. But they split up years ago.
Presy Guevara said,
May 1, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Thank you A-LL-S and MRGL-LL-A-T. The descendants of Pacita and Antonio Heredia should be happy to know that Sr. Margarita Heredia was highly revered in Guam to the point that some commented that she deserved to be canonized. Sr. Margarita helped establish the strawberry preserve industry of the RGS in Baguio City during here stay there. She continued to support that industry even though she was in Guam from the money she earned giving piano lessons and from cashing the empty aluminum cans she picked up from wherever she can. It was while picking up these cans that she was sticken ill leading to her death in April 1995.
I would llike to add in her life story some episodes from her childhood until right before she evaded notice when she boarded a Dutch merchant ship to join RGS in Angers, France.
Eugene said,
May 3, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hello Toto,
Your blogs embrace your readers and will never alienate them. Your narratives are very well put together. You present your readers with awesome imagery; captivate them with your very engaging choices of words; leave them craving for so much more with your vivid accounts of a lifestyle in an era when “high society” was strictly high society. Must I even say anything about the thorough process of tracing familial lineage? Now you remember why this question will eventually be asked: “Are you by any remote chance related to… ?”
You are incredible!!! Indeed the personification of substance and style.
Smooches.
toto gonzalez said,
May 4, 2008 at 6:00 am
Eugene!!! It’s been ages!!!
Friends, this is my good friend Eugene Loanzon, one of the GREATEST WITS I have ever known!!!
Best regards to your sister Vicky.
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
May 6, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hi Toto,
Just in case you were unable to read Tweetums’ column last Saturday, May 3, another Mercado-Gonzalez relative passed away. Jerry Gonzalez, the son of Ardalion “Tito Ardy” Mercado Gonzalez passed away late last month. Wake and burial was in Bacolod where he was based. I think he was married to a Deen.
Paz
Ramon Lagtapon said,
May 6, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Hello. I stumbled upon your blog while searching for Philippine history. Well done! I’m a Filipino-American, born and partly-raised in Bacolod, but I’ve lived more than half of my life here in the US. Unfortunately, here in the States we don’t really have a lot of Philippine “high society” types.
Also, as a Hispanophile, I spent a year teaching English in a primary school in Madrid, Spain. Wonderful experience — excellent food, very gracious people! But what a contrast to the Filipino stereotype of Spaniards ( and Spanish “mestizo” types ) as snobbish, aristocratic people. No, I found modern-day Spaniards as comfortably bourgeois, classy but down-to-earth, elegant but informal.
At the same time, las Filipinas is but a distant historical memory to most of them. When I was there, I was constantly referred to as “el americano,” never “el filipino” ( well, after all, I was representing the US ). A couple of them did tell me that their respective grandfathers served in the Spanish army and navy during the Philippine Revolution – 1898. While for some, the only other memory is the story of “Los Ultimos de Filipinas” — the Spanish soldiers who were holed up in the church in Baler, Quezon. Otherwise, they asked me more questions about my adopted country rather than my native country.
We definitely need better marketing for the Philippines abroad. So, keep up the good work!
toto gonzalez said,
May 7, 2008 at 4:30 am
Ramon:
Thank you for finding your way here “searching for Philippine history.” That made me laugh *LOLSZ!!!* because I never thought of this silly prattle as “Filipino History” [ what would the eminent historian Ambeth Ocampo say??? ], just bits and pieces of Filipino Life gone the wrong but usually amusing way. And I have to insist that it is not about Filipino “High Society.” It is merely a record of human foibles, and the fact that many of the subjects are affluent should not detract from the basic silliness of it all. And so now I find myself with a blog that is considered an archive of old and contemporary Manila…
So you spent some years in Bacolod… you must be part-Ilonggo then. There are many of your “palangga” lurking in this blog.
You’re a Hispanophile!!! Very interesting. What you said is true, contemporary Spaniards are elegant but informal and even laid-back. Even here in Manila, the contemporary affluent Spanish mestizos retain all the natural elegance of their forebears but are in reality among the city’s most casual denizens.
Hahahah. I do not see how I could possibly contribute positively to the marketing of the Philippines abroad!!!
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Leonard Cervantes said,
May 15, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hi Toto,
I’d imagine that you’re probably tiring of randoms finding your page and using you as a personal historian — but you really do have something special here and I wonder if you know how special it is for some of us “abroad Filipino kids” to find someone who might hold the keys to curing our amnesia about where we come from.
I was just in the Philippines last week for my Lola’s funeral in Alaminos, Laguna. I was able to unlock a lot of the past but one of the most interesting things I found out was that it wasn’t my Lolo ( Leonard Punzalan ) who was the owner of many hectares of coconut and pineapple plantations, but it was my Lola ( Eden Bicomong ) who held the “pamana” to the land, of which one day I am heir to as well.
I wanted to know how far back my Lola’s roots goes into the land, and a friend of mine whom I was staying with in Manila, Carlos Celdran ( also a fine historian ) told me that it could be Spanish Friar land… and before that Tagalog land.
Any info kicking around about the families of Laguna, San Pablo City or the areas surrounding?
Leonard Cervantes
Leonard Cervantes said,
May 15, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Oh, by the way, Dad’s side is Ilonggo too… Cervantes! So I’ll be looking around for the “palangga” you mentioned.
By the way, I’m writing to you from Toronto, Canada.
toto gonzalez said,
May 16, 2008 at 5:00 am
Leonard:
The first surname which comes to mind when Old Alaminos, Laguna is mentioned is Fule. They are an old family there.
Punzalan is usually an Old Kapampangan surname. Have you inquired with your relatives?
Yes, of course Carlos Celdran is right: During the Spanish Era, there was a lot of agricultural land in Laguna that belonged to the religious orders, and the more memorable ones were the Dominican “haciendas” that spanned the towns of Binan, Santa Rosa, and Calamba [ remember the travails of the Rizal-Mercado family of Calamba??? ]. And before the Spaniards in 1521 / 1571, of course the “indios” natives had the total run of the land.
Old San Pablo de los Montes, Laguna was dominated in the late 1800s by the affluent Marasigan family. They were not natives of the town; they were industrious and prosperous roving merchants who decided to settle in the town and invest their resources in the surrounding farmlands and trading activities. The Marasigan spawned the fortunes of the affluent Azores and Marino families. From the richest branch of the Marasigan family sprung the famous “hacendero” Escudero-Marasigan family of Laguna and Tayabas / Quezon.
Good luck with your searches, Leonard…
Toto Gonzalez
toto gonzalez said,
May 16, 2008 at 5:30 am
Leonard:
There are lots of “palanggas” who lurk and comment in this blog. There are many members of the Lopez, Ledesma, Jalandoni, Javellana, Hofilena, Villanueva, Araneta, Gonzaga, Lacson, Claparols, Lizares, Locsin, Gaston, Montilla, Montelibano, Benedicto, et. al. clans who “lounge” here. Quite like an online “Kahirup.” *LOLSZ!!!*
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Germelina Mercado said,
June 6, 2008 at 8:40 am
Hi! My brother recently posted our family tree in http://www.geni.com. On my mother’s side we were able to trace up to our great great grand parents (Cecilio Manzano and Gaudencia Florentin) but I am finding it hard to do so on our father’s side. All I know is that my great grand father was a mayor of Apalit, Pampanga..looking at Apalit’s history in the internet the name Tiburcio jumps at me as the one..he married a Ceballos. They are buried in the Apalit cemetery with one of their daughters (if they had more than one, that is) who never married. Their son, my grand father, was christened Eliodoro Ceballos Mercado. I hope you could help me as I was scanning the postings I read some Mercados and a Tiburcio.
toto gonzalez said,
June 6, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Germelina:
If I remember right, yes, there was a Tiburcio Mercado who married the beautiful Spanish mestiza Esperanza Ceballos. They were the parents of Lourdes “Udes” Ceballos Mercado-Kho and Luz “Lucing” Ceballos Mercado-Espino, whose daughter, Belen Mercado Espino-Silverio, is the mother of Catherine “Kitkat” Espino Silverio-Zobel.
If I can only find my notes…
Toto Gonzalez
ivi said,
June 10, 2008 at 9:51 am
hello! what an interesting blog you have! and the comments are equally interesting, haha! i haven’t read all the posts yet. it will probably take me weeks (months?) to finish everything. it’s great entertainment though, and highly educational. incidentally, i’m also kapampangan, but born and raised in manila. i’m a descendant of the nepomucenos of angeles city.
cousin paz said,
June 11, 2008 at 4:52 am
Hi Toto,
I think the first name of _____ Ceballos Mercado-Espino is Luz ( her nickname is “Lucing” ). Mom would mention her a few times. Tiburcio Mercado I believe is related to Crisanto Mercado to whom we both trace our roots. They could be brothers? I am sure your notes can verify this.
Cousin Paz
toto gonzalez said,
June 11, 2008 at 5:12 am
cousin paz:
Yes!!! Her name is Luz / “Lucing” alright!!!
Thank you so much!!!
Toto Gonzalez
Blue-Blooded Yapster said,
June 11, 2008 at 6:40 am
Hi Toto! Finally I have a new website to add to my favorites!!!! I am enjoying this with all my heart! allow me to digest muna all of them kasi i am still awestruck…when i’m settled, you’ll hear loads from me!!!! hahahahahahaha
atb -nons
toto gonzalez said,
June 11, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Antonio / Nons:
Great to see you here, my friend!!!
How wonderful to have a descendant of Don Guido Yaptinchay of Old Binan, Laguna around here!!!
When am I featuring — with your help — the histories of the families of Don Guido Yaptinchay and his brother Don Pablo Yaptinchay as well as Old Binan’s other grand, “principalia” families???
Cheers!!!
Toto Gonzalez
cousin paz said,
June 12, 2008 at 2:03 am
Toto,
Mom said that Tiburcio Mercado who became Mayor of Apalit was nicknamed “Botong.” He was a cousin of my great grandfather Wenceslao Mercado y Arnedo Cruz. Small world.
Paz
Felix Surya Mangunpratomo said,
June 14, 2008 at 7:57 am
Hi Toto Gonzalez,my name is Felix S Mangunpratomo,from Jakarta Indonesia,I have been trying to locate my long lost friend ;Jose Maria Chito Mutuc,fortunately I read Your name in Google.I lived in Manila in 1979 till 1988,then I went back to Jkt since,and lost contact to Chito,could you please pass my celfone nbr to him (+62-81806851991)and my email address.Muchas Gracias.
Felix Surya Mangunpratomo said,
June 14, 2008 at 8:10 am
Dear Toto,This is my other email: felixsm.pratto@yahoo.com
Felix Surya Mangunpratomo said,
June 14, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hi Toto Gonzalez,my name is Felix Surya Mangunpratomo from Jakarta Indonesia,I have been trying to locate my long lost friend Jose Maria Chito Mutuc,I lived in Manila in 1979 till 1988,and I lost contact to Chito since.Fortunately I read your name in Google,so could you please pass my celfone numbre to him: +62-81806851991 or my email:felixsm.pratt@cbn.net.id or felixsm.pratto@yahoo.com…Muchas Gracias.
Ron Mercado said,
June 15, 2008 at 3:02 pm
There are other siblings of Eliodoro Ceballos Mercado, i can’t recall all of them there are Lolo Oheng and Lola Seyang.
Paolo said,
June 16, 2008 at 5:27 am
Felix Surya Mangunpratomo,
hi. if we are talking about the same Chito Mutuc the son of Ambassador Amelito Mutuc and Blanca Alejandrino Medina-Mutuc….. sad to say he passed away last night from a motorcycle accident.
Paolo said,
June 16, 2008 at 5:33 am
Chito’s body is at Sanctuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park, Makati
toto gonzalez said,
June 16, 2008 at 10:59 am
Paolo:
Thank you for the information. I learned about Chito’s untimely demise at 2:00 a.m. this morning by email from a dear friend in Vancouver who is a Zaragoza cousin of the Ortolls.
I mourn Chito’s passing because he and Inma are dear friends of mine and we have had many good times together.
Toto Gonzalez
Germelina "Chachi" said,
June 17, 2008 at 2:27 am
Thanks Toto! You’re right..Ate Kitkat, Ate Chichi and Kuya Jojo (siblings of Ate Kitkat) are second cousins of ours..by the way, the Ron Mercado that also posted a comment about other siblings of Lolo Oching, Lola Lucing and Lola Udes is the brother that I mentioned in my first posting. I do hope you get to find your notes, we have this “bug” growing inside of us that erupted when our lola (Natividad Guevarra Nepomuceno married to Eliodoro Ceballos Mercado) died recently (May 6, 2008), giving us the feeling that connections to our roots are dwindling..fast. Even the aunts are not that versed in the clan genealogy, especially if they have no contact with relatives. So it really was heaven sent that I found your site..
Teka..is it Luz Ceballos Mercado-Espinosa or Luz Ceballos Mercado-Espino? I think its the latter..
Our Lola Naty is one of the daughters of Rosa Guevarra and Graciano Nepomuceno (the sculptor). I just don’t know if these Nepomuceno’s of ours are from Pampanga..if they are then Ivi may be a distant related..or maybe not so distant after all..
Germelina "Chachi" Mercado said,
June 17, 2008 at 3:29 am
hehehe..re-read my first entry here..”They are buried in the Apalit cemetery with one of their daughters (if they had more than one, that is)..”..I must have been dizzy from tracing my mother’s side of historical and “hysterical” genealogy..of course Lolo Tiburcio had other daughters!!! Kya nga second cuz sila Ate Chichi eh..Sows! I guess just the story of my father being that aunt’s favorite stuck to me..:)
Blue-Blooded Yapster said,
June 20, 2008 at 2:39 am
hi toto! anytime you say you want….. you know i am at your beck and call when it comes to documenting these stories. Lemme’ know when you want to sart with it. hehehehe… kuya jimmy (y) and i were just talking about you and joey….. and we plan on visiting him probably in la salle just to touch base…..i don’t know when but that could be anytime from now to eternity. but i’m sure we can start collaborating on an online coffeetable book…. whatchathink?
antonio
Jurelle said,
June 21, 2008 at 3:43 am
Hi sir, I’m an Information Technology.. from Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades.. I enjoyed reading your blog…
Rob Y y Dizon said,
June 21, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi Toto,
I chanced upon your blog in trying to search for info on relatives. Anything you can share on the DIZONs of Angeles? The late Adela Paras Dizon is my grandmother.
I enjoyed reading your blog and have “bookmarked” it.
KUDOS!
Rob
Oriel said,
June 25, 2008 at 11:51 pm
This is a very interesting blog Toto.Keep up the good work.Do you know any Montojo and Villaruel clan from Kalibo and Sibuyan Island?from Chile perhaps?
Wilfredo Panlilio Jr. said,
June 27, 2008 at 9:02 am
Hi Toto. My name is Wilfredo Panlilio Jr. I am 20 years old and I was raised in Mexico Pampanga. I am now in the US but I still treasure my Pampanga memories. I came across your blog by accident and I think that you’re ideas, experiences and memories are really interesting. I read almost all of your posts and I really visualized them in my head. Wow. You are a good writer and I admire you for that. I love to write too. Hopefully you can find the time to read some of my work and you can email me your comments on them.: ) My email address is jayrpanlilio@yahoo.com and my blogs are at http://jayrpanlilio.multiply.com. Thank you and God Bless.
Wilfredo Panlilio Jr. said,
June 27, 2008 at 9:07 am
By the way, my dad is Wilfredo Panlilio Sr. and His dad is Eusebio Lazatin Panlilio and my lolo’s dad I think is Judge Alejandro Panlilio and my family used to own the biggest rice mill in Mexico Pampanga. My lolo married my lola, Teresita Mendiola of Angeles. My mom is from Florida Blanca and she is from the Bituin family. Hopefully you have some interesting information/stories about my heritage that you can share with me. I would really appreciate that. Thank you and God bless.
raymond see said,
July 9, 2008 at 5:51 am
i just stumbled on your blog… i am a new antiques collector wanting to find more about the “senorita”-type dressers and google pointed to your blog. i am very impressed with your write-ups. thanks so much. continue the good work…
luningning balles lariosa said,
July 16, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Hi Toto,
Have been reading your blog for the past few weeks…just have a question regarding the mercado lineage. My maternal great grandmother was Segundina Mercado who married Mamerto Balles. They came from Angeles Pampanga. We are trying to locate relatives from my maternal grandfather side….i hope you could help us. I have no other information available as of this time….
Thanks in advance….
luninigning
Blue-Blooded Yapster said,
August 5, 2008 at 8:49 am
Hi Toto!!!!!
I was reading through this again and your conversation with Leonard caught my fancy…. My mom happens to be a Marasigan descendant, my grandmother and grandaunt who gave us the Imaculada oil painting in my flickr were Marasigan sisters and daughters of merchants who were not native to Binan, Laguna.. (if i am not mistaken, they were Rizal natives…and the lake was a popular route for merchandise during the 18th and 19th centuries).. …in our case the laguna de bay…. i was wondering if there was any connection…….
tracing roots is such a daunting task! I’m far from half-way with the Y@pt!nCh@y stuff and here comes another interesting dish….tsk tsk
cousin paz said,
August 9, 2008 at 5:48 am
Toto,
Looks like these Mercados are everywhere!
Cousin Paz
vic said,
August 9, 2008 at 8:18 am
Hi, i stumbled upon your Blog while searching for information about Oscar Zalameda. Do you happen to know if he is still alive? I have not heard about him being featured in the newspapers or nor have i seen any shows of his works. Your articles are very interesting. I just finished some of your posts and will continue with the others. Thanks!
Sunshine Gonzalez said,
August 20, 2008 at 7:43 am
I was searching for the yahoo groups of the Gonzlez de Pangasinan and stumbled on your Blog. Hi my name is Sunshine Gonzalez the grand daughter of of Leopoldo Gonzalez Sr. the son of Don Alejandro Gonzalez… I am the daughter of their youngest daughter Marlene Gonzalez Buerano. Would you know more about them? would we be related in some way? My lola “Auring” Aurora Gonzalez y Udarbe isnt much help in the history area. I was to attend the grand reunion bout 2 years ago in Alabang i think, but due to work i was unable to do so. Although my Lola Auring and the rest did attend, infact they were part of the organizers of that event. Hope to hear from you soon.. Thanks and have a nice day!
Diana Espiritu Colby said,
August 22, 2008 at 6:26 am
Hi, I came upon your blog while searching for information about my father’s (Leonilo Romualdo Espiritu) family…perhaps from Pasay City. I have a found a little info on my mom’s (Veronidia Valmonte) side: Florentino Garcia and Isabel Yu, both of Nueva Ecija. I’m wondering what you can tell me about both these grandparents, especially Isabel Yu (or Yuzon)…Chinese. I don ‘t know anything about my dad and the “Espiritu” family history. My parents moved the family to California, so I didn’t grow up in the Philippines. I hope you will know someone who can help. I am currently living in Mexico City. Many heartfelt thanks.
Estela Gonzalez Lozada said,
August 29, 2008 at 2:30 am
hello toto,
this is great! now , i will be able to track down my family tree. been wanting to do it for ages, just didn’t know where and how to start. we came from the baliuag clan and although i have spoken with bro andrew sometime in 2004, i couldn’t keep track of all the names because there were just to many names to remember. to start with, my father: francisco jose gonzalez y gonzalez, grandparents: lolo beto and lola nena lloret gonzalez. i got to meet my uncle and aunt in los banos, tita minda lauron, auntie tita estrada and the other siblings. i also attended (my first and last) reunion of doble-zeta at greenhills sometime in the 80’s but aside from the estradas and the laurons, bro andrew of course, all were new faces to me. oh, the gonzalezes are a bunch to be reckoned with, great news, happy people and lovers of great food!!! I read that ricky has a cd of the baliuag clan, may i request for one too? Incidentally, i grew up in mindanao that’s why, everything was a blur to me..and still is. pls help…. thanks so much. God bless
Btw, we are cousins, right??
estela
michelle dongallo said,
September 11, 2008 at 1:08 am
for a change, is the judy ann santos and ryan agoncillo love affair for real? or just for showbiz?
Monica C. Hall said,
September 16, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I love the pictures.
Cousin Paz said,
September 18, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Hi Toto,
Finally, you wrote something na for September. I just became a member of “Facebook” and touched base with a classmate from Poveda and she is a regular reader of your blog. By the way, you didn’t write for the anniversary issue of T&C?
Cousin Paz
Jose Lazatin Lorenzo said,
September 21, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Just happened to find your blog trying to find more information about my family history.
I know this blog was not made for those intention but since you are so well informed about the people of pampanga, who else to ask.
My grandfather was Esteban Lazatin ( brother of Rafael Lazatin ) and his wife was Angela Simpao-Lazatin.
How do you know that the Lazatins have a history since the 1700s? Would be nice to know.
Also my mother married a Lorenzo from Guagua Pampanga, but can never find any information about Lolo Jovino Lorenzo.
Also read your article about the Lizares-Alunan ancestral home, very well written as all the rest. I met AL through my cousin MO; I thought he was a very nice guy.
I certainly hope you don’t feel insulted by my asking.
Thank you so much.
Joey
Nando Crame said,
October 2, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Hello Toto,
You have one of the most interesting websites for people like me who love to know the ancestry of my good/close friends. My ancestry in the Philippines goes back to 1835 (that is the last documented date we have in record) when my Grandfather’s grandfather Joaquin Crame, was the Gov. General of Spain in the Philippines. My Grandfather was Gen. Rafael Crame, the first Filipino General of the Philippine Constabulary. Most of the family records were burned during the 2nd WW and what we have are just written memories of some members of the family and other documents presented by the Constabulary during the past years. The likes of Felipe Calderon y Roca who was the writer of the Malolos Constitution. Gen. Hipolito Fernandez, who was the uncle of my Grandmother ( Gen. Crame’s wife). Other than that, all we have is the family tree from the early 1900’s. Is there someone who could help me secure any information of the Crame family Pre/Post 1835? Kindly let me know. In the meantime, please accept my best wishes in your endeavours to make us (your avid readers) more knowedgeable about our roots. Best personal regards, Nando
P.S. You mentioned in one of your comments that Bro. Andrew was your cousin. I knew him from school but he was a bit older than me. I too, went to La Salle from GS/HS/ and College.
vickie perez de tagle said,
October 3, 2008 at 6:13 am
wish i had more time to read–this cuz to cuz dialogue sounds like something out of noli me tangere or el filibuster…the family tree-ing is amazing-how can you know all your relatives.ok dumb question. i never make comments on other people’s blogs but can’t help it this time…
and don’t you think sarah palin is a moron?
Isis said,
October 3, 2008 at 10:17 am
Hi Toto: I must say that your blog is a wonderful read. I usually skip paragraphs in my desperate search for “the point” but not your blog. Can’t believe I’m reading everything you’re writing! You write well. Happy to have met you at the Martha Stewart launch. Am back in town. Let’s do lunch…
Blogger said,
November 17, 2008 at 2:42 am
Hi! We are currently doing a study on blogging and would like to invite you to fill out a survey that we have prepared regarding this topic. This will only take 5-10 minutes of your time.
popscan said,
December 18, 2008 at 2:11 am
Aloha Toto,
I have been inspired by you.
I, very recently, created a wordpress photo-blog about the Filipinos in Hawaii and I would like your feedback.
I’m still learning how to use the interfaces, so I tend to publish before I revise them. As a “gift” to you, I posted two Sarrat (Ilocos Norte) parish entries of baptism of D. Luis Zaragoza and D. German Manuel Zaragoza, premature infant children of D. Manuel ZARAGOZA e Aranquinza and his first wife, Da. Juliana del VALLE y Pimentel. Remember, D. Manuel was the youngest brother of the famous painter D. Jose ZARAGAOZA e Aranquinza; as both were the sons of D. Rafael ZARAGOZA and Da. Gregoria Aranquinza.
Here’s the links:
http://popscan.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/premature-baby-d-luis-zaragoza/
http://popscan.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/premature-baby-d-german-zaragoza/
Hope all is well, and I wish you a very Mele Kalikimaka a me ka Makahiki Hou!
Appreciatively yours,
Bryan
Mari said,
January 2, 2009 at 7:59 am
Happy Birthday!!!
Anna de los Reyes said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:23 am
Hi there!
I was researching about something when I came across your website/blog. I am married to Antonio Miguel Gonzalez de los Reyes, Jr. He is the only son of Florencia Maria (Marieflo) and Atty Antonio (Tony) de los Reyes.
As I get to read bits and pieces of your blogs and have mentioned Pampanga and the names of relatives whom I knew as well…I realized that you could be a close relative of them…maybe perhaps we’ve already met through reunions/social gatherings in the past =)
Keep it up and I hope to read more of your blogs…soon.
Anna de los Reyes
ANDRES said,
January 6, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Hi… I recently went home in La Carlota City (Hacienda Salamanca), Negros Occ. to visit my relatives… My “iloy” told me of her childhood years there with the Ledesmas…
Visiting the old bahay na bato (which the locals call, Balay Dako) piqued my imagination on how life was back then among them (including the Ledesmas who stayed there) sans the concrete roads and electricity…
Perhaps, you might have some stories din about these hacienderos in La Carlota, Victorias, Silay or Negros in general…
I am rediscovering my roots… and thank God for your blog!
XoseDiaz said,
January 13, 2009 at 5:26 pm
My name is Xose Diaz, from Spain. I would like to know more about Teodora Salgado Ullmann. Alex R. Castro told me that you were the right person.
Can you send me an email and I’ll explain in detail the purpose of my search?
Regards, Xose
Francis said,
January 14, 2009 at 12:01 am
Hi Toto! I stumbled upon your blog and I am really enjoying reading it. I am based in Madrid, Spain and reading about the old families and their histories brings back the nostalgia of old Manila.
Francis said,
January 14, 2009 at 12:03 am
Oops! I forgot to add this query in my previous message. Do you have any information on the Navarro clan from Mindoro? I myself am a Navarro and am ashamed that I don’t know that much about the history of my family. Thanks!
Andrea Lizares Si said,
February 10, 2009 at 1:24 am
Hi Toto. I read your blog on Enrica Alunan, the Lizareses of Talisay, and 2 blogs on Lola Dicang’s house in Talisay. Fantastic. Thought you were a primo and wondered how any primo could have so much information. Actually, I wanted to post your blogs in the family’s geni.com pages. A 2nd cousin posted a link to the blogs but at least a few paragraphs with a link to more in your actual blog should be more enticing for readers. Hope you’ll agree to my using some paragraphs and linking to your blogs for the rest of the articles.
mia faustmann said,
February 10, 2009 at 2:17 pm
dear toto:
I just came back to look Bacolor history — read through your blog ad read that people were looking for Tita Margot Heredia – I don’t think we were actually related but she was a good friend of my mother as well as the Alunans – I remember as a kid visiting her with my mother at the Good Shepherd in Baguio — that particular visit she was curing a ham – i recall being fascinated with the way she injected the curing solution into the ham.
You must be a cousin of Tweetums who is also my first cousin on my mother’s side — the world is really very small. I also noticed your reply to my earlier comment mentioned Bill Daland – his mother is also my first cousin and also a Michels de Champourcin as she is also the grandaughter of Asuncion Michels de Champourcin y Ventura, sister of Africa Ventura Santos. Tito Gats and Tito Dorito were first cousins of my dad, Pedro M.Sy-Quia.
Our branch of the family actually got to know the remaining Venturas who had returned to Spain as well as the Spanish branch of the Michels de Champourcin. I have actually been to Champourcin in France — just to see where they came from!
Now I need to go to Bacolor and all the other Pampanga places mentioned in our family lore!
Regards,
Mia
Martha 'bidang' Moreno-Orros said,
February 24, 2009 at 3:30 am
Dear Toto, It’s been such an interesting morning for me since 3am, its now 11am…I am so amused…..its been an amazing trip, reading about everyone.
What an interesting person you must be. Just like Lisa Araneta (relative) were I got connected to your site.
FYI, maternal line Foz -Zaragoza -Ravago (Vigan/Bulacan, i think ).
paternal perez samanillo- mascunana -moreno.
Yes, tita paching mascunana married to tio ricardo, is my paternal grandmothers brother.
I don’t have much for the Ravago’s and the Moreno’s….all I have about Ravago is that Manuel Ravago was a professor of a girls school near Malacanang, his son Resureccion ‘Rety’ was a periodista. that’s all i know.
For Agustin Moreno, its that he was a civil engineer, he erected the Asucarera in Batangas. He spoke 6 languages: Spanish, Filipino, English, Chinese, French, German.
Mascunana-Moreno had a farm past the farm of the Zobels in Batangas.
The Ravago sisters (3 of them) are all in Sydney,Australia. The eldest is now 85yrs who married a Guttierres (deceased), 2nd is 83yrs married a Merlo (deceased) and last mom 80yrs married to Ernesto Mascunana Moreno.
Now more so am so interested to continue the stories of our families. With the help of lisa and you, i can do it for my children and nieces/nephews especially those in Sydney/States/Canada.
I love this technology….the connection is a lot faster and easier.
always grateful,
bidang
yloylo said,
February 25, 2009 at 7:10 pm
toto,
FYI:
+Rizal “Dondi” Laguda Ledesma,
Son of the late T.S. Zafiro Ledesma and Gilda Laguda
and
youngest brother of Celso, Baby L. Jamora, Hope Ledesma de Sagaz, Paz L. Zaldarriaga, Vanessa L. Suatengco and Zafito passed away February 24, 2009.
sisigman said,
February 28, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Since you’re a Francophile, wouldn’t you be interested in making films, the art in making of which originated hugely from France? Haha.
Ala mu. Just wanted people to join the Cinekabalen Kapampangan Film Festival. Maybe you would be interested.
Details in the URL i provided along with my name
Dakal a salamt!
dina maglalang said,
April 18, 2009 at 1:51 am
Dear Toto,
I was browsing through different sites of the Santo Entierro and looked you up and saw your space. I was fascinated with all the relations and how you can trace all of them from way back. I marvel at your sense of family history. How did the pictures from Sta Rita come out? We were waiting for you Friday although you said you had other appointments. Please try to make it next Year.
Dina
toto gonzalez said,
April 18, 2009 at 4:55 am
Tita Dina:
How wonderful of you to get in touch with me!!! Again, I want to thank you and Tita Lisa for warmly welcoming me to your ancestral home in Santa Rita and showing me your beautiful “Santo Entierro” last Holy Thursday afternoon, 09 April 2009. It brought me back to the better times when our own family elders were still alive and kept house in Capalangan and Sulipan, Apalit. You are so lucky to still have your ancestral home and have harmonious relations with your relatives as well.
The pixes I took of the “Santo Entierro” and your home turned out well, although I still wish I had pixes of the “Santo Entierro” “calandra” when fully assembled with all its beautiful decorations. I haven’t downloaded them from the camera yet. I did show the pixes to Basilides “Dez” Bautista the historian [ of Malolos, Bulacan ] and he opined that your “Santo Entierro,” judging from its features, is not only from around 1850, but possibly from 1750-80. Of course, the exquisite embellishments were added through the years all the way to the early 1900s. I tend to concur with Dez B. that your “Santo Entierro” [ and its "calandra" ] is the oldest among Pampanga’s four most beautiful “Santo Entierro” [ with Arayat the second oldest ]: Miranda-Maglalang, Santa Rita; Medina-Samia, Arayat; Mercado, Sasmuan; Ynfante-Velez, Guagua.
We were talking about family connections and it was only afterwards that I realized that we do have a blood connection, albeit distant, way up the tree through the Miranda of Bacolor / San Fernando / Culiat. My late mother Pilar was a Quiason-Henson of Culiat / Angeles through her mother, descendants of Angeles founders Angel Pantaleon de Miranda and Rosalia de Jesus.
I can’t wait to visit your home in Santa Rita and enjoy your wonderful hospitality again next Holy Week 2010!!!
Please send me your email address and contact numbers so I can easily get in touch with you. You can email me at augustomrgonzaleziii@yahoo.com .
Thank you so much!!!
Toto Gonzalez
dina maglalang said,
April 19, 2009 at 7:07 am
Dear Toto,
Since discovering your blog yesterday I have started your articles and found them really fascinating. My mom started reading an article about Bacolor and started telling us about the old families. She studied at the trade school for a year and stayed with our relatives there.
I saw a picture of the “Dolorosa” of Bacolor in the article. The “Dolorosa” of Bacolor is owned by the Malig family who according to my uncle was given by the friars who stayed in the “Bale Sim” while the church was under construction. The image of the “Dolorosa” was left with the family. I am sure you might already be familiar with the story but just in case a little trivia.
We will expect you next year and you are definitely welcome.
Thank you for taking the time to show the pictures to Dez Bautista. At least now we have an idea of how ancient the caro is.
Please continue your writings and regards.
dina
ayesha zaragoza said,
April 20, 2009 at 12:49 pm
good day! i got very interested reading your blog as i happen to pass here by accident… I am from the same family line of FOZ-ZARAGOZA-RAVAGO… My father, Antonio, who is already 82 yrs old said to me that his father is ERNESTO FOZ ZARAGOZA, who was lawyer during 1920’s is the brother of LOURDES ZARAGOZA-RAVAGO… As far as i can remember, he also told me that his roots are from Vigan. My grand grandfather, Vicente FOZ, is one of the authors of the Malolos Constitution… I have lots to say… but all i need is some confirmation from my other relatives out there!!! so excited!
ayesha zaragoza said,
April 20, 2009 at 12:59 pm
miss martha moreno-orros!!! i just talked to my dad… he knows ur lola, lourdes… and even her children! here’s my email add: zaraye@yahoo.com
bidang said,
April 21, 2009 at 4:41 pm
dear toto, somehow I just recalled that I used to go to this big house in Harrison St, Pasay which belonged to Lola Nishang Rivera. The house beside the house they lived was our Haunted House for Halloween and her other son was into some pottery. I once went to their home in Arayat. His son Tito Gines Rivera used to live in Shaw Blvd. Wasn’t one of the Rivera’s the one who designed the La Salle Greenhills Gym? Maybe you know this family.
Where are they now?
bidang said,
April 21, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Toto…..If there’s anyone who could help provide the Family line of the great Manuel Ravago Jr, a professor of Centro Escolar and Far Eastern University, around the year 1917 ?. I’ve tried for so long to check who he married and how many children he had. His name comes up often in the Arts/Literature sites but nothing about his family. There’s a Dona Nena Telechea but I don’t know what is the connection.
Hoping someone can add some information. Many thanks
mike said,
May 4, 2009 at 5:03 am
MR TOTO,
IM JST WONDERING IF UR CRUZ FAMILY RELATED TO MY GREAT LOLO’S DON BENITO LUNETA CRUZ FROM PAMPANGA ???
THANK YOU!!!
MIKE TIONGCO
Jules Ledesma said,
May 9, 2009 at 8:56 am
Toto,
Goodness gracious me. You are a resource of the 1st Order. Im doing research on Philippine architecture, particularly Carriage houses, and I like dorothy- otot we aint in kansas no more… ambot kag yoga – and wow. And your indulgence on the pun -whilst appropo is vested with only the noblest of admiration. Do you realize what you have HERE? This is WHY WE ARE WHAT WE ARE warts and all. JMJ, OMG its all here and the bits that are missing or are yet to be filled are on their own by the sheer gravitas of this blog -akin to the VOID – drawn IN and SWALLOWED. Ive been bouncing hither- dither
my eyes are sore and brain numb but PLEASE -let this meander however and wherever it shall. My cousins are on this very thread, my goodness, and please do come and visit -my piece of heaven on earth-san carlos. Ask my uncle Zaffy our estates over here are almost faithful to our homes in Jaro-next to each as if- transplanted en toto, mea culpa but I had to. Only in the Philippines. I would’nt have it or want it any other way. sincerely julesledesma. pardon the vernacular- I am truly floored. And happy THAT THESE are already CHRONICLED FOR POSTERITY AND AS REMEMBRANCE…. indeed. The MAKER bless you and keep you. Your indulgence when I come by and NOT LURK what the hell we are the Abyss jump in… lurk though they may land they must. Its inevitable. BRAVO..
wgonzaga said,
May 9, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Hello Toto!
I really enjoyed reading your blog. Be swinging by more often.
More power!
Candido "Dido" Miranda said,
May 10, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hi Toto,
I came upon your blog a few minutes ago.
I wrote about it at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RP-Bacolor/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RP-Bacolor/message/90
As I find time later today I will revisit your blog and devote more time to reading your entries. (I was able to only skim through a couple of entries and very briefly at that.)
I hope you will have time to visit “RP-Bacolor” and find it “promising” enough for you to post something there and pique the interest of your readers on things Bacolor.
Perhaps someone might even want to take over it as I am sure someone else can do a better job.
Dacal a salamat!
Dido
Candido Pamintuan Miranda
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RP-0/
James Alcasabas Espiritu said,
May 12, 2009 at 8:44 am
Hi cousin Toto!
I would like to thank you profusely for maintaining a blog that is so engaging and replete with with genealogical information, among other things. I consider your work a great example of modern Philippine cyber-literature, touching on a range of topics as serious as family trees and Philippine history and as flippant and irreverent as our forbears’ indiscretions and the question of whose familial line(s) descended from the local Spanish parish priest:)
There are so many things about our family worth knowing about and learning from. On the flipside, there may be some opportunities to tread on dangerous waters in one’s search for the truth. For example, I had always believed that the Espiritu spirits are actively showing those of us among the living a way to rediscover our past. However, based on our private emails to each other before I wrote this comment on your blog, it may be possible that it’s actually the Arnedo spirits that have guided me to find you, if the Elders are right about role played by the local “cura parroco” in contributing to the improvement of our family’s genetic pool. As you have indicated in your email to me, the Espiritus are characteristically moreno (dark). But my grandfather, Lucas and father Felixberto Sr were not. All of us eight siblings are relatively fair and some of my sisters are really fair. Hhhmmm…do you think I need to redirect my search in the rural churchyards of Spain? By the way, how were Macario Arnedo (your branch) and Tiburcia Arnedo (my branch) related? Are you beginning to sense some trepidation on my part
?
I am digressing. After landing on your blog, I next found your profile at http://www.Geni.com. That’s how I knew exactly why we became fourth cousins. This genealogical website is so amazing that every one of your readers interested in family histories should know about it. Your vivid accounts of each family’s story provide the beautiful imagery and entertainment value; the Geni.com serves as the tool to find our roots with pinpoint precision.
For today, my work is complete. I have now become a part of “Remembrance of Things Awry”. Keep up the good work, cousin Toto. In time, with the barrage of contributions from families outside of our own, this ever-growing, living piece of literature may very well become every Filipino family’s blog.
James Espiritu
San Dimas, California USA and Angeles City, Phils.
Cousin Paz said,
May 14, 2009 at 6:29 am
Hi James,
Thanks to cousin Toto, I was able to read your email on the Espiritu family.
We have not met. I am a direct descendant too of Lucas Armayan Espiritu y Macam our great great grandfather who married Maria Yutuc. You are a descendant of his son Luis while I am a descendant of his sister, Margarita (Mariquita) Espiritu y Yutuc who later married Wenceslao Mercado y Arnedo Cruz. My grandmother is Maria dela Paz (my namesake) Mercado y Espiritu and became the wife of my grandfather Vicente Cacnio y Garcia. Their youngest daughter, Esther is my mother and she is now Esther Cacnio-Atienza.
I hope that you could keep in touch. My mom would be delighted to know that we “met” through Toto’s blog. She is quite close to some Espiritu relatives from Sulipan, the descendants of her grand aunts, Inez and Victoria.
Best regards,
Cousin Paz
James Alcasabas Espiritu said,
May 15, 2009 at 11:19 am
Dear Cousin Paz,
Hello there! Where do you live? I’m so glad to find you in cyberspace. I hope to meet you and your mom someday. Weren’t you two at Toto’s for a wedding party?
This blog is soooo wonderful. I had never been quite conscious about my family tree until my dad Felixberto Sr passed on last year at the age of 86. Out of eight siblings, only one of them, Fernando “Dandy” Espiritu is still alive. My only recollection of the Apalit days were the June fluvial parades and the yearly trek to the “Kampo Santo” that we never missed as kids. My favorite fiesta delicacy was the sugared “santol” that my aunt Ima Esyang cooked in huge cauldrons. Huge “santol” trees surrounded her house that was situated several steps from the river. Yes, I remember “Apung Iro” and the stone houses. Never did I realize that these important relics are part of our colorful family history. My elders seldom discussed matters of the past. The only two things that they touched upon were (1) our grandparents (and great grandparents, etc) owned land as far as the eyes can see and (2) we were related to the Arnedos. Nothing else.
Our generation (children and grandchildren of Lucas Espiritu and Rosa Raymundo) did not get to enjoy the wealth that we were told the Espiritus possessed. The stories woven around my father while he was pursuing his education was replete with accounts of self sacrifice (like he walked several miles to school). His three female siblings, who were the eldest in the brood and he were the only ones who got a solid education. All four of them gravitated in either public service or the academe Their legacy to our generation was academic excellence. mutual assistance and the pursuit of well-ordered lives. The younger four male siblings had to find employment as overseas workers. Maybe the reason why my generation’s elders never had the time nor enthusiasm to recount the glory days of the Espiritu clan was that they were too busy eking out a living and trying to make life a little more comfortable for us. So for me, the “wealth” part of the Espiritu story remains to be a myth. That’s OK. I think it brought out other good aspects of our gene pool that otherwise would have remained dormant.
When I visit the Philippines (next year?), I will make it a point to stay for a few days in Apalit. I wonder if Sulipan Bridge is still there? I was a grade schooler when I last saw the place. I remember always passing through that bridge on our way to Manila. When the traffic was diverted to the superhighway, I never saw Sulipan Bridge again. I am not sure who I’ll meet or what I’ll see, but I will definitely walk the streets where our ancestors used to roam and replay in my mind the accounts that I’ve read in this blog. I think I’ll print a copy to get my historical facts right. I’ll visit the cemetery, the church or whatever is left of the town. Cousin Paz, when I embark on that trip, knowing what I know now about our family, I’m sure I will see everything in a very different light.
Keep in touch! There’s so much to talk about…
Cousin James
Cousin Paz said,
May 18, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Hi Cousin James,
Good to hear from you! And thanks to Toto (our other cousin) for making this possible. You have great memories of Apalit huh?
Yes, please email me in my personal addie – pancakepaz@yahoo.com. Would be glad to reconnect. My mom would be delighted. She is now 80 years old. She has 2 other surviving siblings, Corazon who is now 94 and Romualdo II who is LA based and is 76 years old. Please keep in touch!
Cousin Paz
LOURDES ( LULU) ALCASABAS ESPIRITU said,
May 18, 2009 at 7:57 pm
HI DEAREST BROTHER JIM… THIS IS ATE LULU, YOUR TRAVELLING SIS, WHOSE FAVORITE HOBBY IS TO TRAVEL THE WHOLE WORLD, MEET ALL TYPES OF PEOPLE, EXPERIENCE THEIR LIVES, ENJOY THIER COMPANY AND HAVE FRIENDS ALL OVER THE WORLD.
TO ALL MY RELATIVES , ESPECIALLY TO THE MOST POPULAR ONE, TOTO GONZALEZ, PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH. I LIVE IN DUBAI, AND HAVE SPENT THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE HERE… IN THE U.A.E. .. DUBAI USED TO BE HEAVEN IN THIS WORLD, BUT NOT ANYMORE. ALTHOUGH IT IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES IN THE WORLD, LIFE IS NOT AS GOOD AS IT USED TO BE… WE CAN SEE THE BEST IN THIS WORLD HERE IN THE UAE.THEY WERE ABLE TO BUILD ALL THEIR DREAMS , NOWHERE IN THE WORLD TO FIND… IT IS A PERFECT PLACE TO VISIT BY TOURISTS, BUT NOT A PLACE TO STAY FOREVER BECAUSE LIFE IS SO EXPENSIVE.
KEEP IN TOUCH ALL RELATIVES. VISIT DUBAI, AND I WILL BE YOUR TOURIST GUIDE.
SEND ME AN EMAIL IF YOU PLAN TO VISIT… OR CALL ME UP… +971504841084
WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM ALL MY RELATIVES.
THANK YOU MY BROTHER JIM FOR DISCOVERING OUR FAMILY TREE….
LOVE,
ATE LULU
LOURDES ( LULU) ALCASABAS ESPIRITU said,
May 19, 2009 at 2:18 am
TO ALL OUR RELATIVES…. IT IS GREAT TO BE IN TOUCH. WE HAVE KNOWN ONLY OUR CLOSE RELATIVES, SO THIS IS THE BEST CHANCE TO KNOW ALL THE OTHER RELATIVES, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE.
I WONDER IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO ALSO LIVES IN DUBAI… IF NOT, THEN, I AM THE ONLY ONE. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE OUR YOUNGEST BROTHER GELO ( ANGELITO ALCASABAS ESPIRITU ) USED TO WORK AS A HOUSE ARTIST IN THF …. DUBAI INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AND IT IS IN THE SAME HOTEL…. and IT IS THE SAME HOTEL WHERE OUR YOUNGEST SISTER GINIA ( VIRGINIA ALCASABAS ESPIRITU) ALSO WORKED.. AS A FRONT OFFFICE EXECUTIVE…. BECAUSE GELO NOW STAYS IN NEY YORK and GINIA IS BACK IN ANGELES CITY, PHILIPPINES….
WOULD TO HEAR FROM EVERY ONE….
TO ALL OUR RELATIVES WHO LIVE IN LOS ANGELES, IT IS A NICE PLACE TO MEET EACH OTHER WHEN WE VISIT MY BROTHER JAMES….. WHOSE HOME IS IN SAN DIMAS , LA.
LULU ALCASABAS ESPIRITU
DUBAI U.A.E.
Gia Reyes Mendoza said,
May 25, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Dear Toto,
I chanced upon your name as I was researching my forebears, the most identifiable of whom was Anastacio Hilario, who begat (begot?) Hilario and Cecilio. I knew none of my immediate antecedents who could explain how my mother (Eden Reyes) and Grandmother (Africa Hilario Reyes) descended from Cecilio, but my deceased aunt and older cousin had some knowedge of this fact. I was too young at the time (mentally) to be interested in genealogy and therefore did not take advantage of memories of past lives of those who knew, but who are now deceased. I saw your name as the ‘manager’ of the Anastacio Hilario genealogical line, but did not know how to access it. Assuming you have enough faith in the genuineness and earnestness of my request, will you kindly share the information of the Anastacio family treeline with me and my siblings (I have three brothers living).
With many thanks,
Gia from Seattle, WA
(By the way, your blog is quite interesting, but possibly beyond my material experiences, but I would love to see the paintings and porcelain and furniture some day, to have a brush with exquisiteness.)
Rochelle said,
May 28, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hi there. I stumbled upon this website when I was researching about my family history. I treasure my roots, and this blog is great. It brings back the memories when I stayed with tita Miniang, tita Miding and Tita Zon when I was in College (UA) back in 1988. I am the daughter of Josefina Cacnio, daughter of Wilfredo Cacnio.
Keep it up, I learned a lot about my mother’s family side history from here I haven’t known before.
Tita Vemil, hellow!!!
Cousin Paz said,
June 1, 2009 at 6:15 am
Hello Rochelle!
Am so happy that you chanced upon this blog of your uncle, Tito Toto Gonzalez. He is a cousin of your mom and me. Please email me at pancakepaz@yahoo.com.
Toto,
You are really all over. Rochelle (aka Michelle to us) is now married to a British engineer and is based in Saudi Arabia (where her hubby’s work takes them). Her mom, Ate Jo is based in Switzerland and is doing well in the corporate world.
Paz
mic cal said,
June 1, 2009 at 5:07 pm
dear toto,
I have sad news to share Zafiro “Zaffy” L. Ledesma passed away this afternoon after suffering from a massive heart attack.
He didn’t come out for lunch, their old mayordoma went into his room to check but discovered him slumped on the bed. Beside him were his history books and magazines.
He was brought to the hospital but was pronounced DOA.
I was a close friend of his and he often spoke kindly of you. He was expecting you to visit Elen and said that we should get together but I guess that won’t happen now.
My condolences to the Lopez, Laguda, Ledesma families for losing one of their favorite cousins.
Zaffy was just 54.
Red said,
June 1, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Dear Toto,
I was searching for a music license for a certain song on the internet and I came across your articles. I kept reading and reading and reading. I was humbled by what I read. So intelligent, so insightful, so true (and so eloquently done). You have done your good deed for the day by educating me.
I have bookmarked your page and I look forward to continue reading your past articles. You have put a window in the soul of our (Filipino) society.
Thank you.
Red
manuel g. "noli" soriano, jr. md. said,
June 5, 2009 at 6:31 am
Dear Toto,
This is Tito Noli, Paz Cacnio Atienza emailed me about the children of Coyang Felixberto Espiritu wanting to reconnect to their relatives, Cong Berting is my 2nd cousin, since my Mom and his Father are 1st cousins, I would refer them to read the entries on you blog, from #70, 71, 74 up to 77. They could get in contact with me on my email address.
Thank you,
Noli
manuel g. "noli" soriano, jr. md. said,
June 5, 2009 at 6:36 am
Manuel G.”Noli” Soriano, jr., MD. email address is
James Alcasabas Espiritu said,
June 5, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hi Tito Noli,
I got your email and will respond to you separately. Yap! I know all the relatives you mentioned and I’ve got a very long update to write you. So sorry for the late response. I got a little too busy and neglected my Geni.com connections. It’s growing very fast, though, and I’ve got my cousins from all over the world reconnecting with me. Thanks, Cousin Paz, for forwarding my info withTito Noli. CousinToto’s blog is really doing great things for the family!
Cousin James
Betty Burgos-Bael said,
June 26, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Dear Toto,
Fortunate to bump into your site…one of the best I’ve read so far from the Philippines. Entertaining, fun, it brings us back to the grand old days that we only heard from past generations. Your interesting style of writing makes some fantasies a reality. I will not be surprised to have your coffee table book as the centerpiece of my living room…someday!
Hats off to you!
Betty Burgos-Bael
USA
Linda Jernigan USA said,
July 4, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Dear Toto
I was wondering if you have any information about the Enriquez Family of Sampalocan Caloocan Prewar.