Past and present

Nowadays, we certainly get an unusual dose of bad news that sometimes it is good to go back into the past. A traditional Filipino saying is that a person who does not know where he came from will not arrive to where he wants to go. Today is meaningful to my past because it has the earliest historical mention of my oldest known ancestor.

On March 18, 1872, the following Filipino prisoners were placed on board a boat to serve their prison terms in the Marianas Islands for complicity in the Cavite uprising: Jose Maria Basa, Antonio Maria Regidor, Balbino Mauricio, Ramon Maurente, Maximo Paterno, Fr. Jose Maria Guevara, Fr. Agustin Mendoza, Feliciano Gomez, Pedro Dandan, Anacleto Desiderio, Miguel Lara, Miguel Rodriguez, Miguel Fernandez, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Pio Maria Basa and Fr. Mariano Sevilla.

It happens that Balvino Mauricio was my very first Filipino ancestor. The very first Roces who arrived from Spain married the sister of Balvino Mauricio. All the Roces’ in the Philippines are descendants of Balvino Mauricio. The Encyclopedia of the Philippines has this short item about him: Merchant and patriot, born in Kawit, Cavite in 1823; son of a rich family; educated at Sto. Tomas University in law, but commercially inclined, managed family’s business successfully, arrested in 1872 and exiled to Guam with Basa. Died in 1872.

I have the good fortune to have inherited something that is truly a Balvino Mauricio connection. I am referring to a letras y figuras painting of Balvino Mauricio that showed the house that he lived in during the Spanish times. It was the house incidentally that Jose Rizal described in the opening chapter of his novel.

There are other historical incidents that happened on March 14. In 1930, the first Manila Times, which was an American publication closed down after 32 years. And in 1947, the Military Bases Agreement was signed at Malacañang Palace by Ambassador Paul V. McNutt and President Manuel A. Roxas. The agreement granted 22 military, naval and air bases in the Philippines to the United States of America for the mutual defense of both countries. Today, we are examining this agreement to see just what to do regarding four American soldiers accused of raping a Filipina girl.

It is good to go back to the past if only to understand the present. The Spanish and American past is very much part of our present. And today, the world is a global village. We are happy to say that Filipinos are welcomed everywhere.