A friar in the family
On Oct. 3, 1829, Friar Fausto Lopez, all of 18 years old, landed on our shores. In his mid-thirties, he was assigned to Baliwag, Bulacan, where the church was across the home of one of the town’s richest couples, Vicente Gonzalez and Venancia de los Angeles.
The eldest daughter of the Gonzalez family was a beautiful, feisty, unconventional woman who would ride her horse to survey her family’s lands. She had a rifle and directed her business in competition with her male peers. I think she was successful and rich enough to have her own money. Her name was Maria Amparo, nicknamed Mariquita. She apparently caught the eye of Friar Lopez, who blessed her with six children. He gave very fecund blessings.
On hearing this story and personally witnessing the traditional values of the family, I wonder how Mariquita explained herself during those times. The family whispers that there was a tunnel that ran under the street between the house and the church. Maybe, but what did she say when she got pregnant? Oh, don’t mind it, it must have been my horse. Still she got pregnant six times, had three girls and three boys! Did they call the priest Papa as short for Padre? Or tio to avoid the truth? I’m sure he baptized them himself, as that was his job. They could not carry his surname because as a priest he was not allowed to have children. So they carried the surname of their mother — Gonzalez, pronounced in Castilian as Gonthaleth versus Gonzales, which would be pronounced as Gonthalesss.
Anyway, Mariquita had six children — Soledad, Jose, Joaquin, Rita, Carmen and Francisco. Joaquin, the third child, was our family’s direct ancestor. We are all descended from him and his wife, Florencia Sioco. They had 10 children — Fernando, Jesus, Emilio, Augusto, Octavio (who died young), Virgilio, Javier (my grandfather, who died at 35), Bienvenido, Joaquin, Jr. and Fausto. Joaquin and Florencia settled in Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga, once a very genteel area, now chop-chop territory.
That is the history of our family. It will make you understand why religion either runs deep (or does not) in your own heart.
But all that was a long time ago. Fausto landed in 1829, met Mariquita roughly 17 years later, making our family around 165 years old. We can take the skeletons out of our closet and make them dance now. The description (not my words) of Mariquita — beautiful, feisty, unconventional — suits me just fine, thank you. In fact, I would be so proud of that description of me. I think we should stop being embarrassed about being descended from a Spanish friar. It is not our fault.
If anybody committed that sin — being an un-celibate priest — it was Friar Fausto, who died at the age of 54, was buried in the San Agustin church and whose remains were wiped out by the war. I am sure his sins were forgiven. He left six children who went on to have more children, who went on to have some others, and now here we are. We should be profoundly grateful that his actions produced us. I am not writing this just because we have a family reunion soon. I am writing this to make all the descendants of the friars — and there are many among us — proud of their mixed lineage. In both my mother’s and father’s family we have Malayan, Chinese, Spanish blood. Filipinos were Eurasians long before the Westerners invented the word. We should be proud of that.
Also I believe that families are the reflection of a country’s history, not history books. Those history books just house the facts — what happened, when. There are no feelings in history books. Humanity is left out and to me that is wrong. The history of any country is paved with feelings. Those should never be left out. So let us be proud of our history, our friar great-great-grandfather. I am proud of him,
But I tell that story just to pave the way to the next family reunion. If you are a descendant of any one of the nine sons of Joaquin and Florencia — Fernando, Jesus, Emilio, Augusto, Virgilio, Javier, Bienvenido, Joaquin and Fausto – please come to our family reunion on Sunday, Nov. 27, at the Philippine School of Interior Design in Fort Bonifacio. It will be hosted by the Cancios so no expense for you. Please come at 10 a.m. to register. Mass is at 11 a.m. Then lunch and program, and whatever else at 12 noon. Please R.S.V.P me at 0917-8155570. If you text me your e-mail, I will send you the map on how to get there.
