(Speech as
delivered, entered Nov 15, 2006)
HOMAGE
Message of Dr. Ernesto M. Vergara, Guest Speaker
80th
Anniversary of the Founding of the
San
Esteban Circle of California
Burlingame, California, November 11, 2006
You have no idea
how happy and proud I am to be with you this
evening, to meet with people I have known for a
long time, and to get acquainted with many of
you for the very first time. I’m especially
moved by the presence of folks who traveled to
this occasion from Sacramento, and far places
such as Los Angeles, San Diego, and New Jersey.
This gathering
feels like a family reunion. For San Esteban is
a small town and its people are all related to
each other in many complex and entangling ways.
xxxx
But first of all,
let me thank you, Luz, for the kind words you
said in your introduction of myself. After the
barrage of negative ads we saw on television
during the recent elections, your gracious words
are soothing to the ears and calming to the
nerves.
For my part, I
would like to commend you for all the work you
have been doing for the San Esteban Circle. With
your boundless energy and enthusiasm beyond
compare, you are indeed indispensable to every
group to which you belong.
What the audience
should also know is that Luz Benitez Espejo is a
busy grandmother of 7 children and drives the
car like the very devil --- a “cascasera”, I may
say. I remember that when she came to
Washington, D.C. to visit the Philippine
Ambassador Ernesto Maceda in 1999, she drove all
the way from Chicago. Where she finds all that
amazing energy to do such things is beyond my
understanding.
xxxx
Before proceeding
any further, I would like to express my
gratitude to Mrs. Josefina Benitez Carreon, the
hardworking Vice-President for Membership of
SECC, for the warm hospitality that I am
enjoying as a guest at her lovely home, and her
son, Kevin, who picked me up at the airport
yesterday.
But a sad thing
happened on my way to California. As you all
know, Sefin’s husband, Fred, recently passed
away, rather unexpectedly. I would like to
express in public my sympathies with the Carreon
family – to mention the rest of the children ;
Adler, Minda, and Gilbert – and their own
families. Fred was a loving man, father, and
grandfather. Full of life and good-humored, he
used to spread joy to everyone around him. He
was a good friend of mine. I miss him very much.
xxxx
I would like to
thank the Officers and Members of the San
Esteban Circle of California for inviting me to
be with you tonight. Most of all, I would like
to extend my special thanks to President
Benjamin Dequis Jr. who has been a most able
leader of the Circle for the second year in a
row. I learned that the SECC will have a new
election of officers in a week or so. I hope
that he is still available to renew his service
as President of the organization.
xxxx
I don’t usually
admit to humility, but tonight I do. I am
humbled, and most delighted, to share the
spotlight with the alluring Queens and
Princesses of the Festivities of recent years.
Although many of them have already reached the
stage when they can be called “the Golden Girls”
(the words of Luz, by the way), they have not
lost their luster and vitality. They are still
beautiful and distinguished-looking, especially
as they are wrapped in their elegant gowns. In
their faces, we see self-confidence, maturity,
and fulfillment wizened by experience. The
younger ones in the Royal Court symbolize with
their fresh beauty the best of the youth that
San Esteban families can offer.
xxxx
The occasion this
evening is a very special one. As we all know,
it celebrates the attainment of a milestone of
historic significance. It marks the 80th
Anniversary of the founding of the San Esteban
Circle of California, among the oldest organized
groups of Filipinos in America. The 1920s saw
the establishment of several Ilocano immigrant
organizations as a rallying point against the
discriminatory acts that they suffered at that
time.
The pioneering
people from our town were among the first
Ilocanos, and Filipinos for that matter, to
migrate to this country. Isuda nga agpayso
iti immuna. The father of Luz, Tomas
Espejo. arrived as early as 1918.The San Esteban
Circle which they formed shortly was a
manifestation of the spirit of unity,
cooperation, and community which has
characterized our folks early on.
That spirit has
withstood the test of time, and tonight we are
all witnesses to its durability. The San Esteban
Circle thrives and prospers up to this very day.
Having lasted eighty years, eighty eventful
years, it is indeed a proud and remarkable
legacy.
The presence of
San Esteban folks in America is a heroic
immigrant story yet untold. Tonight, we remember
fondly the intrepid pioneers who blazed the
trail for us. They did the spade work, in a
manner of speaking, such that those of us who
were to follow would find it much easier to sink
our roots in a new land.
xxxx
I’d like to make
special mention of someone who was typical of
the pioneers --- Celestino Empleo Mendoza. He
was the first president of the San Esteban
Circle of California. He served in 1926-1927. We
are fortunate tonight to have in attendance his
niece, Nelia Mendoza Vergara Escalante, who came
all the way from New Jersey.
You will please
pardon my indulgence and vanity if I also let
you know that he happened to be a cousin of my
grandfather, Eulogio. This is one reason why I
am doubly proud and honored to be with you
tonight. To me, it feels that the San Esteban
Circle has turned a full circle indeed, so to
speak.
As a young man,
Tata Celis wanted to go to medical school but
economic circumstances of his family disallowed
it. He came to America out of necessity and
impelled by a sense of adventure, just like all
the others. I met Tata Celis several times in
New York in the early 1960s and during the
1970s. He was a witty and intelligent man,
robust in build, firm of voice, and pleasant of
disposition.
xxxx
The pioneers ---
our own private heroes ---- were tough and hardy
men, as tough and hardy as the granite rocks in
the hills of San Pablo. As the Civil Rights
Movement still lay in the future, they came to
America against all odds (racial prejudice, for
one), with only their courage and determination
to pull them through.
They arrived with
just a few years of schooling --- they were
hired precisely because of this lack of high
education. Actually, some of them had more than
adequate years in school --- they were
“overqualified”, as we say it today --- and had
to tone down their applications. Manong Crescing
Vergara, the uncle of your guest speaker last
year, once mentioned to me that he understated
his educational attainment, otherwise he would
not have been able to come to America then. To
mention some kinds of employment that were
allowed them at that time: they worked
back-breaking jobs in the sugar cane fields of
Hawaii, the salmon canneries of Alaska, and the
vineyards, the orchards, the strawberry fields,
the vegetable farms of California. Terra Bella
and Stockton were among the popular places to
start a new life. During the Second World War,
many of them served in the military. They were
as patriotic as anyone else; some of them rose
through the ranks eventually.
They were
diligent, frugal and yet generous men and women,
our very own close relatives ---- our parents
and uncles and aunts, our grandparents, grand
uncles and grand aunts. With their limited
earnings they supported their families at home
in San Esteban --- providing for their
sustenance, sending the children to school,
spending for other basic necessities.
They came to
America to pursue their dreams and succeed they
did. They opened doors for us, latecomers ---
navy men, nurses, doctors, and other medical
personnel, teachers, lawyers, engineers,
computer specialists and many, many more people
of other professions and occupations. They
facilitated our migration to this country. If we
came in our own accord, it is because they had
stirred within us the desire, the yearning to
follow their footsteps. Because of them, life is
surely better for us today in America than
yesterday in the old country,
It is altogether
fitting and proper, therefore, that we should
pay homage to them. It is altogether fitting and
proper that that we should remember them always
and that we should never forget what we owe
them. It is altogether fitting and proper that
we should offer thanks for the sacrifices they
endured in our behalf, and that we should sing
praises of their grit and daring as they
overcame the obstacles that beset them.
As we celebrate
together the achievements of the pioneers, we
take the opportunity this evening to affirm our
solidarity, to magnify our collective soul, and
to strengthen and assert our identity in this
diverse, adopted land of ours.
Here and now, we
deepen our spiritual ties with the town of our
origins, whether we were born there or
elsewhere. However far from San Esteban we may
be in real distance, just being here makes the
town ever so close at hand --- in the mind.
For us of the
older generation, this celebration affords a
chance to recall once again the happy memories
of younger days in San Esteban, memories of the
white beaches of coral sands and cool breezes,
and coconut trees reaching out for the red
sunset beyond the sea.
Meantime, I urge
the younger generation to uphold and carry on
our wonderful traditions and heritage, and to
take a sentimental journey to the town ---
someday --- if they have not already done so.
I conclude by
congratulating the Officers and Members of the
San Esteban Circle for the terrific success of
this tremendous enterprise. I wish everybody to
have a joyful and memorable evening.
Thank you.
