Sunday, June 12, 2011

First Impression

There have been so many things written about Silay City, it's history and origins that I thought to myself...do I have a different perspective about my city? The Silay in my consciousness began in the early 60's.  We lived in Manila from 1956 until mid-1959 when my father was asked by his uncle, the late Jose "Pitong" Ledesma to come home to run for public office. I was just a toddler then and my mom was pregnant with their second child (my brother) and I do not remember anything about the move back, nor my father winning a seat as councilor (he was the only one among his party who won).  I have good memories of the many people coming to and from my grandfather's house and the many stories I would listen to, unbeknownst to the adults around me. I remember as a child up to my early teen years how aristocratic Silay society was...the gap between the haves and the have nots was not just palpable but accepted as the norm. Even the church seating was not spared from class distinction. The old rich, the landed, the buena familia sit from the right side of the altar during mass, while the working class, the common people and the nouveau riche took the left side with the middle aisle as the dividing line.  One personal experience of mine was when I saw someone, probably a visitor to Silay take a seat in one of the front aisle pews.  Soon after, a maiden aunt (several times removed) who regularly occupies that seat arrived and haughtily told the occupant to remove herself and transfer to another pew!  My young mind absorbed all these behavior prompting me to ask loudly enough if "Tita" owns the seat...of course, my mom shushed me and that was that.  Later on as a young adult, I went back to that seat just to check if there was a bottom imprint of my aristocratic relative for her to own it...hahaha.   Of course, now-a-days this is no longer true.  After the 70's and due to a reform-minded parish priest, these attitudes and behavior came crashing down to earth so that today, stories like this are unheard of and may even be unbelievable.

1 comment:

  1. Let your thoughts pour out. I know you've a lot of things to write, of ups and downs of your life since childhood to what you're now, of observations in and out of your historical, cultural rich hometown, Silay. I'm one of those of your followers in blogging realm.

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