By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang
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[University Hall, Lady Mary Asuncion University] [Monday, 8:56 AM]
Dana and Sonia are part of a group of ten people presenting in today’s assignment. They are taking a religious education centering on Catholic and Christian lives.
“Hello, we are group five. My name is Bryan.” Their appointed leader introduces himself. Then, like an assembly line, everyone in the group does the same. In the end, Bryan turns to their audience, “and we’re presenting about...”
Like a chorus without harmony, our members say in a relatively louder voice and shaking our hands and arms toward our PowerPoint presentation like hula dancers but with too much enthusiasm, “the Lady Mary Asuncion, our patron saint of feminism and activism!”
“Maria Asuncion’s Spanish-descent father, Pedro, took her mother, Samaya, an aliping sagigilid, into his home as a servant. The two had a frowned-upon relationship kept secret, but when said secret bears fruit, the secret is no longer a secret. Maria was born with two parents; but grew up only knowing one.
“For Pedro’s family, avoiding this scandal was a must. What they did next was heartbreaking for Samaya.” Bryan tap right on the clicker and the next slide shows a copy of a diary page aged and looking crumbly. The only way the museum can keep its original form is by laminating it. “They married Samaya to another aliping sagigilid in Pedro’s cousin’s house who lived more than two hundred kilometers from Casa del Villanueva where Pedro’s family lived. Maria was with her.
“Forced into this marriage, Samaya’s new husband, Pablicito, outright hated her, and knowing that she came with baggage made him angrier at her. The abused mother was publicly shamed by her husband that she had to pray to Bathala for a better life for her and for her daughter. According to a diary of the daughter of her new master, Pablicito beat up Samaya with a firewood one afternoon in front of so many people, mostly kids, playing in the field where most aliping namamahay lived. The daughter of her new master was so traumatized to see blood running down Samaya’s forehead and back, and that there was a visible darkening of purplish-blue all over her face and arms, that as she wrote this in her diary, there were smudges and words erased with lines. She was shaky and tried to find the words to described what she experienced.
“And Maria, Samaya’s daughter from Pedro, grew up in this kind of household. She saw her mother’s suffering from the hand of her stepdad and vowed that she would get her mother out of the situation someday.”
The next slide depicts sketches of Maria and two other women, Gracia, the diary writer, and Juanita, her aunt, in a traditional baro’t saya outfit. “These were sketches by Maria Santos, a renowned female painter at that time and part of the Kasamahan ng mga Babaeng Maykapalaran (KBM). Maria Asuncion was only fifteen when she joined this two-year established group headed by Juanita. There, she met several women who were trying to find equality in a society wherein they were only seen as housewives, trophy wives, or breeding cows. Juanita was the oldest of three siblings and the only female. With parents putting more resources and love toward their sons, the intelligent Juanita already noticed as a young child that there was an injustice working in the system called family. Growing up, she saw more of these in the society and politics, and even in the economy.”
A more focused and detailed sketch of Juanita in the next slide shows a woman aged around her mid-thirties. Her back is straight and proud, her head tilts back a bit like she is looking down on anyone, and her arms crossed underneath her breasts. A picture of self-respect and integrity. “When Juanita was in her forties, her voice was getting heard by many women, and although it was gradual, she gained more followers.
“However, it was not until Maria and Gracia’s generation of female activists that something of importance happened. During their twenties,” another sketch of both women in pants and men’s shirts with grease on their body and rifles in their hands this time comes in with the next slide, “revolution happened. A civil war was brewing and more natives and surprisingly more mixed races and non-natives who grew discontent with the ruling government of colonizers started putting an intricate plan of rebellion.
“KBM was part of the organizers. They saw an opportunity of change.”
In the next slides, a picture of dead bodies in every path and fields and bombed buildings and shelters are shown.
“But not everything went well. War would always have casualties. At this time, Samaya was able to run away from her husband with her other children. Pablicito was drafted into the Spaniards’ army, having to fight his own people and, in one battle, his stepdaughter. Although recognition was not something anyone who was fighting for their lives can do during a battle, Maria recognized him. This was her chance for revenge. One bullet and this man who made her mother and her suffer would die. Yet Maria didn’t take this chance. No. She went to the makeshift cathedral hastily built in the middle of the battlefield and into the confession room. Maria asked what she should do. The priest told her to forgive, but she said she couldn’t.
“For three afternoons at the same time, she came and went to the cathedral to talk to the priest, and on the third day, the priest told her of a man who came to him for confession. The priest said the man wanted to ask for forgiveness for the pain and suffering he put his wife and daughter through, but he was on a battlefield and couldn’t go to them. He might die at any moment. What should he do? When Maria asked the priest what he told the man, the priest answered that the man should wait in front of the cathedral with a pair of doves and then he’ll know what to do.
“Now, it was hard to find doves during this wartime. The sounds of guns and cannons already sent loud and tingling sounds in human ears; it was not different for most animals or birds around, and doves were usually birds kept in captivity as a pet or for their meat or eggs. The destruction of their homes meant that they were not in the area at the moment. Pablicito somehow found two white doves that morning hanging out in a young guava tree. He put them in a makeshift cage and when asked what it was for, he said that it was an offering to the cathedral.
“When he arrived in front of the said place, he saw his stepdaughter on her way out. Hands shaking, Pablicito ran to her, and on his knees, he begged and cried for forgiveness. Now, at this time of the day, KBM members, mostly women, worked in the cathedral to help with the wounded, and when they saw this scene of a man kneeling in front of Maria, they had an image of the Virgin Mary giving them justice. In addition, two white doves escaped their cage and flew to the air in a helix pattern, and landed on her shoulders.
“This scene had them on their knees praying and asking for a blessing. Of course, Maria wouldn’t want this credit. To her, these were all just coincidences, but after she and her stepdad had a talk, she started to forgive him bit by bit. After almost five years of war, just three days after that happened, they declared the war’s end and the rebel’s victory. By that time, the story about Maria and her stepdad already spread and even reached her mother, Samaya, who took shelter in Pedro’s home.”
The last slide depicts a painting base on the accounts of those who see that moment. “Through a word of mouth, it came to be that Maria Asuncion was the reincarnation or image of the Virgin Mary who came to free them from the hell brought by war. There were many accounts of the story, some similar and some different, but the one general consensus was that she was a hero and a saint. Since she was born in this city, a small town previously, she became its patron saint, and the name Lady Mary Asuncion was given to honor her. Our beloved University was named after her because the cathedral inside our campus, also named after her, was the very same cathedral where all that happened.”
“Thank you for listening,” Group five bows and returns to their seats. Everyone is clapping their hands. Then the school bell rings.
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