The U.P. we knew
MANILA, Philippines - I entered UP Cancer Institute in 1946. I was a hybrid freshman, often attending my UP classes still clad in my Holy Ghost College (HGC) uniform since I was finishing my course in Music there. For this reason, I was taking only 12 units or even fewer per semester in the Padre Faura campus so I could spend more practice time in preparing for my graduation recital scheduled for 1948 at the Mendiola school.
It is really a minor miracle that I managed to finish all the units necessary for an AB degree and march at graduation rites in Diliman even with a little bulge underneath my toga, courtesy of my marriage to Felisberto G.L.Reyes at the start of my last semester of studies. This was only the second marriage performed in the old UP Chapel officiated by Fr. John P. Delaney, S.J., UPSCA chaplain. But that’s another story.
The years spent in Cancer Institute were spartan in all aspects. Chairs were rickety, rooms were dark, the faculty mostly dressed in drab post-liberation khakis. Many of us girls still wore dresses from the relief goods sent over by charitable organizations abroad.
The laboratory classes in chemistry were held in the east side rooms of the institute because they had the best natural light. There was a wooden elevated walkway going to the Chemistry department. And outside the classrooms were the inevitable wooden bench chairs where we could sit and eat and gossip before class.
In the afternoons, the boys from Engineering down Florida Street would come strolling down and drape themselves all over the sun-dappled steps of the Cancer Institute. They were the original “porch lizards” and they were the ones who made first use of tambayan, the word as we know it today. I used to scurry around the side entrance facing the old Infirmary so I wouldn’t have to go up the front steps wondering if I would stumble or fall flat on my face right before all those boys out there.
After class at Malcolm Hall, 1950: (from left): Gloria Quiros, Mae Lachica, Rosa Menguito, Flora Libay, Josephine Garcia, and Carmen Barcinas. The old Infirmary was just as bullet-marked and grim as the Cancer Institute. Dr. Josefina Ayuyao was the chief there and the EENT had nurse Inday Bote, who later wed Dr. Nestor Santiago, the Infirmary head in Diliman, Dr. Lily Juinio and Dr. Asuncion Fernando. The transfer to UP Diliman included all of them too. It was fearsome to catch a cold because once you sat down in that examining chair, there goes two long swabs up your nostrils It was enough to cure you of anything worse.
It was the English and German classes that got the rooms on the dark north side. Madame Nowacka was the German teacher and members of her classes were the pre-med students who later were to become famous doctors of the ’80s and the ’90s, while English 1 was handled by a young bachelor, Felixberto Santamaria.
I had spent my Cancer Institute years taking subjects leading towards a BA degree, cannily avoiding taking a single math course all that time. I took Chemistry 15 with Dr. Amando Clemente as my professor. My other science subject was zoology because it would not require the fine drawings done by the Botany students. I also tried to steer clear of Spanish so I took four semesters of German instead. But no, I still had to take three units of Spanish and had the misfortune of having to take it under my future husband’s aunt. I really had to pass this one!
My second UP was in Diliman. Our family was one of the pioneers there. We transferred house in 1949 to three different locations: an officer’s cottage on the present site of the Arts and Sciences Building today, a duplex row house from Signal Corps of the US Army days in Area 2 and finally to T-1005 in Area 1.
Dr. Hilario Lara was our closest neighbor in the first cottage. He was a frequent golfing partner of my Tatay in the UP golf course nearby. On the other side of the duplex row house was the family of Dr. Leopoldo Clemente. We had Miss Salud Rafols, Prof. Wico and the Abads from the Spanish Department across the street in the Area 1 cottage with Dr. Ignacio Salcedo’s family beside us. This last home was near the swimming pool where Luz von Einsiedel reigned supreme. This was where I got my one-and-only grade of “1” – in swimming! Mrs. Einsiedel must have gotten completely fed up by her students’ ineptness in the water. Her final grade for the semester: complete two laps of the pool lengthwise without stopping and you get a “1”. Otherwise, you get a “5.”
Laying of the cornerstone for the UP Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice, circa 1955. Standing are: First Lady Luz Banzon-Magsaysay, Mrs. Gregorio Hernandez, Mrs. Jose Crisol, Jose Crisol, UP President Vidal Tan, Rodrigo Guillermo (Chem Class ’51), Dr. Patrocinio Valenzuela, and Dr. Presentacion Perez. Secretary of Education Gregorio Hernandez signs the document to be placed in the time capsule. My years in UP Diliman were the happiest years of my college life. Not only was I a student with a comfortable load of units every semester, I was also a member of the UP community that was built around the Chapel, a community that comes closest to an ideal community of students and faculty members and their concerned families, where everyone knew who their neighbor was and everyone took the time to help each other with their physical and spiritual needs. Our chaplain was the dynamic Fr. John P. Delaney, S.J.
Because I lived on-campus, it was not a problem staying out late for church activities or for last-minute cramming for research papers. One had to think twice before cutting classes in Diliman. To get out, we rode the red JD bus to Quiapo. One time, Rene Dawis and the irrepressible Eudaldo Reyes persuaded me to go with them to watch a movie in Capitol Theater in Escolta. We ended up after the movie in MaMon Luk for some mami before getting back before dusk. Finally too, I was allowed to stay out at supervised parties beyond 10 p.m., but still always before midnight. What freedom!
It was also in UP Diliman where I finally was immersed in library doings. There were only seven of us at graduation time — Mae Lachica, Angelina Raval-Tamesis, Gloria Quiros, Flora Libay, Estela Beredo, Rosa Menguito-Vallejo and myself. We also had those who minored in Library Science — Sister Carmen Barcinas, Josephine Garcia and Fe Saura. At that time, we were still huddled in a corner of the Law building. Our library was not yet under construction Our director, Professor Gabriel Bernardo, or Lolo Bembe when we were sure he didn’t hear us, was constantly disturbed by his dealings with the university architects because he felt that they did not give much credence to his input in the design and construction of “his” building. It was almost a one-to-one teacher/student relationship with Prof. Bernardo himself, Mrs. Natividad Verzosa, Miss Concordia Sanchez, Miss Marina Dayrit, Mrs. Santiago,Mena Mercado, even Mang Porong who taught us the rudiments of bookbinding at the very end of our last semester.
Four years after graduation, we returned to UP T-1005, once more a part of the UP community. I was taken in as Assistant documents librarian at the UP library. Bert also started teaching in the CE Department of the College of Engineering under Dean Crisostomo Ortigas. His wife was Prof. Teresa Zavalla-Ortigas from the Math Department. Their three sons, Gasty, Victor, and Ruel were as shy and taciturn as their father and since they lived only a stone’s throw away from us in Area 1. I was quite successful in getting them into active work in UPSCA.
Delta Lambda Sigma sorority ball, 1950: Hermie Alfonso, Tessie Fronda, Charo Roxas, faculty adviser Honesta Guiang, Lory Velez, Lily Shau, Fely O. Zafra, and Viring Sarayba. At one time during my lone UP stint, director Ramon Tapales asked me to do the bibliography for his textbook on music for the elementary grades. I was very glad to be able to do this for him as it was he who conducted the orchestral accompaniment for my culminating recital held as a requirement for my music teacher’s diploma from Holy Ghost College back in 1948. His orchestra was top-heavy with well-known luminaries in the Strings section from the UP Conservatory of Music like Rizalina Exconde-Buenaventura, the young Sergio Esmilla, Gonzalo Malay and Rizal Reyes. After a year working in the library though, Prof. Bernardo called me and said that he could not afford me as he said I would go on maternity leave all the time. True enough, I ended up with 11 children, four of whom are graduates of UP, too.
Those were interesting times for us then. I had our fourth child the day after a total eclipse of the sun in June 1955. Bert took an active part in the construction of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice which was to be the first thin-shell concrete building in the Philippines structurally designed by his later Dean, Prof. Alfredo Juinio. The present TOKI jeeps were only IKOT jeeps. The fare was only 5 centavos on the big red buses however, if you were just going from Education to the UP Chapel, the conductress would let you ride free usually. Most times we walked and that was fine.
The buildings were not as far-flung as the buildings today. We had our Little Quiapo which made the best halo-halo hereabouts in the little mall called Dilimall. I think that’s why when Ben Miranda and Salome Reyes had their first child, she was called Dilliegirl. We still could get fresh, still-warm carabao milk in recycled catsup bottles from behind the cafeteria which was manned by Amparing Uichanco, Adela Fernando who had only one eye and a baker who perfected those famous bite-size fluted empanadas, blitz torte and pineapple pie.
Looking back over the last 60 years, I truly regret not having preserved a single copy of those Euthenics lectures which were mimeographed for us by our teachers, Mrs. U.U. Clemente and Miss Salud Rafols Today they would be gems from another age. I also regret the loss of old traditions of the UP Women’s Club like the Cadena de Amor ceremonies where the seniors passed on their garlands of Cadena de Amor to the juniors, all clad in their lovely long gowns. We girls also had more feelings of caring and concern from those older than us and which we unconsciously passed on to our younger friends.
And so, here we are – the class of 1951. We are practicing our song – Hello UP! It’s so nice to be back where we belong. All of us are 80 and above, blurry eyes, failing ears, shaky knees and members of the Baston Brigade. Surprisingly, there are enough of us to make up a mini-chorus line come UP Homecoming Day. We count a former UP president, a National Scientist, a noted lawyer, a UN librarian from NYC, among us. And yes, also a mother of 11.
A National Artist has undertaken the unenviable task of whipping this geriatric chorus line into shape. We’re not going to mind being the possible comic relief of the show because we believe in our lyrics — “We’re happy to be back; we remember the old days at Gregory Terrace… The ROTC band playing over and over again Pomp and Circumstance for our graduation march… UP will never fade away.”
And neither will we.
