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Everyone has a story, a history embedded in larger, intertwined stories — the larger canvas. This story is mine. I was born in Sta Ana, Manila on 18 November 1949 at the Trinity Maternity Hospital. I was one of four girls: Rosalie (born in 1945), Rebecca (1947) and Sarah (1951). Rosalie died as an infant when she was nine months old. My parents were Angel Maño Ruiz from Manila and Eufronia de la Isla Guido from Taytay, Rizal. They died in San Francisco, California (my father, aged 80 in 1998 and my mother, aged 85 in 2003). Their remains were brought back to Manila.

My paternal line 

Angel was one of seven children of Bonifacia Maño (1883-1963) and Sergio C. Ruiz (1884-1932).  His siblings were Aurora, Geronimo, Isaias, Amparo, Antonio and Sergio Jr. Only Sergio Jr is alive today and he lives in Toronto, Canada. Most of the information about my father’s family came from my uncle, Tito Ser (Sergio Ruiz Jr) who responded to my inquiry about the Ruiz family in a letter dated 9 November 1999, which he wrote from Canada.

Sergio Jr’s recollection was that his father, Sergio Sr was born in Mindoro where he got to become the Chief of Police of Calapan, the provincial capital. Bonifacia had a sister, Clara and a brother, Nicolas. Nicolas settled in Zamboanga, Mindanao and two of his daughters became professors at the University of Santo Tomas (founded in 1611) in Manila. My uncle, Sergio Jr’s earliest recollection in 1927 when he was four years of age, was that the elders spoke Spanish most of the time. At that time they were living in a two-storey house in Langit Street, San Lazaro district of Manila’s northside where he, the youngest child was born.  Later they moved to another two-storey house in Alvarez and Quiricada streets in San Lazaro.

As a boy, Sergio remembered that his mother and father were almost always out of the house. He thought that maybe due to the pressures of the depression years, ‘the family never really got close’. His father worked two jobs, including a position with the Manila Railroad Company; his mother tended a variety store, and his Tia Clara had her Spanish dressmaking shop at home. Everyone seemed too busy trying to survive. Later his father lost a shipyard job and his mother’s store was destroyed by fire. Sergio Jr was then five years old. The family moved to Intramuros, the Walled City, where his mother rented an old two-storey apartment complex, which she sublet to tenants, including a Chinese laundry. Sergio Jr was only nine when his father succumbed to heart failure. He worked as a journalist and as a Public Relations Director in Manila before immigrating to Canada in 1968. My parents, Angel and Eufronia first immigrated to Australia and lived with my sister, Rebecca for a year in 1989 and then to San Francisco to live with Sarah, my younger sister initially, in 1991.

In 1992, we had a partial Ruiz-Guido family reunion and the whole family as well as my uncle, Buensuseso (my mother’s younger brother) and his wife, Nenita traveled around Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Grand Canyon (Arizona), and New Mexico. From there, I flew to London to attend my brother-in-law (my husband, David’s older brother), Peter’s daughter’s wedding to a Dutch fellow. From London, I flew to Amsterdam and caught a train to Rotterdam to visit Mary Rose Moltubakk, David’s sister (my sister-in-law) who married a Norwegian, Norvalt. At that time, Norvalt was the Norwegian Consul in the Netherlands. I also got to meet their daughter, Monica who married an Austrian. I caught up afterwards with my sister, Rebecca, in Honolulu then we flew back home to Sydney.

Like wind blown seeds, settling finally on alien soil, which has now become their home—a new generation sprouts.  We now experience trans-formation.

My maternal line

I now turn to my maternal line. A Filipino psychiatrist, Dr Luciano P.R. Santiago (my cousin) documented the story of Don Pasqual de Sta Ana (1762-1827) in his journal article entitled ‘Indio Hacendero’ (Philippine Studies, Vol 50 (2002): 23-49 First Quarter, Ateneo de Manila University Press, PO Box 154, Manila 1099). From his article, I have found links to my own Indigenous Malay and Spanish ancestry –  (de Sta Ana and Guido) and from Philippine Reports, Vol 12, February 4, 1909; case no. 4013) – about the outcome of litigation over the Hacienda de Angono.

My mother’s name is Eufronia de la Isla Guido. Her father’s name, Hermogenes Borja Guido, my grandfather. My great grandfather was Buenaventura Guido. My great-great grandfather was a Spaniard, Don Francisco Guido y Perez who in 1852 married de Sta Ana, oldest child of Don Jose. Doña Dominga de Sta Ana inherited the Hacienda de Angono.  She was married twice, first in 1842 to a Spaniard, Don Benancio Gonzalez de Lara, a lawyer from Toledo, Spain who worked as the asesor del gobierno y la intendencia de las Isla de Visayas. Don Benancio Gonzalez de Lara died unexpectedly in 1849 while on a business trip to Spain. She then married my great-great grandfather, Don Francisco Guido y Perez who hailed from Villafranca del Beirzo, Leon Province, Spain.

My grandfather, Hermogenes Guido was an engineer who wrote novels in the 1930s, some of which were made into films, which he co-directed. He was a film director who worked with Jose Nepomuceno, owner of the Ex’otic Films before the Second World War. My aunt now deceased, Profetiza Guido, my mother’s younger sister wrote her recollection on September 10, 1995 of her father’s life.  Basag na Batingaw was a novel which, according to my aunt, became the first talking Tagalog film. I have a copy of the original manuscript, which I would like to translate sometime down the track. His other works were: Crus na Bato, Itak na Pangal, Aang Langit sa Lupa, Lirang Ginto, Dilim at Liwanag, Alingaw-ngaw sa Gubat, Sa Paanan Ng Bayani, Nakatatakot Na Silid, Adventures of Pogo and Togo (comedy) last film shown right before the outbreak of World War II. My aunt (we call her Tita Tess) said that my grand father who died of cancer during the Japanese occupation on June 17, 1943 was a poet in Spanish and Tagalog and often won in literary contests. Some of his works were used during local and national election campaigns and celebrations of official events.

My grandfather was educated in Spanish in San Juan de Letran. My aunt wrote that before the war, her father was one of four who passed the government exam out of hundreds of examinees.  Consequently, he received certification as a plant mechanic and engineer awarded to him by the Board of Mechanical Engineering and many offers of employment by private and government firms such as by Honolulu Dock Iron Works based in Hawaii, Earnshaw Engineering Corporation, Philippine Engineering Corporation, Marinduque Mining Corporation and Cavite Navy Yard operated by the Americans. He turned them all down as he foresaw that war was about to break out.

My mother provided me some background about her mother, Aquilina de la Isla. My mother believes that she was half Chinese who was born in San Miguel, Manila and adopted by the owner of Barreto & Sons Lumber Yard. Her real family name apparently was Lopa. Barreto, another surname that she had used was taken after her godfather, the Barretos. She studied at La Concordia College and was later adopted by one called Tio Pedro Cruz.  My mother sent me a picture of the Guido clan taken on 24 de Agosto 1913 with annotations in Spanish at the back of the photograph. The group picture included her Tia (Aunty) Victoria whose nickname was ‘Pingging’. My mother was born in 1917, five years after this photograph was taken so her memory was a bit rusty. Her Tio Pedro was married to Tia Pinang or Pingging (the sister of Aquilina’s mother) and they adopted Aquilina. The storyline was that Aquilina’s household situation was so strict that she was enticed to escape the household by eloping with my grandfather when she was just fifteen years old.

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About my ‘Indio hacendero’ ancestor: Don Pascual de Sta Ana

1762 – Don Pascual de Sta Ana was born on 17 May around 1762 in Pasig. From what has been passed on by oral tradition, he belonged to a pre-hispanic nobility clan[1]

1790 – Don Pasqual married Andrea Pablo of Pasig around 1790. They had four children: Mariano, Jose, Maria Salome and Remigia.

1812 – Don Pasqual acquired his first hacienda, Isla de Talim.

1818 – Don Pasqual bought his second hacienda, Hacienda y Estancia de Angono y Lagundi (875 people’s ‘souls’, as reported by Presbitero Do Gabriel Ponce, lived in the town).

Don Jose de Sta Ana married Doña Maria Escalante, daughter of Don Mariano Escalante and Doña Rocha, son of Don Luis de Rocha, the owner of the Malacañang estate. Don Jose’s children were Doña Dominga, Doña Catalina and Don Antonio.

1842 – Don Jose’s oldest daughter, Dominga de Sta Ana went to Spain on vacation. While there, she married a Spaniard, Don Benancio Gonzalez de Lara from Toledo Spain.  He worked as ‘asesor del gobierno y la intendiencia de las Islas de Visayas’. The couple settled in Cebu.

1849 – When Venacio died in 1849, Dominga returned to Hacienda de Angono with her son, Eugenio (later called Don Genio) Gonzales de Lara y Sta Ana (1844 -1896).

1852 – Doña Dominga Sta Ana vda de Lara married a 33-year old Spanish soldier, Francisco Guido y Perez of Villafranca del Bierzo, Province of Leon in Spain. He was Capitan Graduado Teniente del Regimiento, Infanteria de Espana del Ejercito de las Islas Filipinas.

1876 -Don Francisco Guido (my great-great grandfather) died in 1876.

1885 – Doña Dominga (my great-great grandmother) died in 1885.

1886 – Don Eugenio de Lara, Dominga’s eldest son, sued the towns of Antipolo and Teresa. He became the administrator of the Hacienda de Angono.

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Don Pascual’s ancestral line

• Don Juan de Sta. Ana (great-great grandfather of Pascual)

• Don Marcos de Sta. Ana (great grandfather of Pascual)

• Don Augustin de Sta. Ana (grandfather of Pascual) – lost their ancestral lands

• Eustaquio de Sta. Ana and Doña Margarita Tagle (Pasqual’s parents)

• Bruno, Alexandra and Eustaquia (Pasqual’s siblings)

• Mariano, Jose, Maria Salome and Remigia (Pascual’s children)

According to my cousin, Dr Luciano P.R. Santiago, Don Pascual ‘methodically bought back the lands of his unfortunate grandfather as shown by the many documents which have amazingly survived at the National Archives despite the destruction wrought by wars, other calamities and human negligence through more than two centuries.’ (p. 27)

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Some background about Hacienda de Angono

1697- controversy involving Hacienda de Angono; General Don Domingo Antonio de Otero Bermudez of Manila was the first known hacendero of Angono. He apparently purchased the estate in the late 17^th century.) When he died, he bequeathed the Hacienda de Angono to his nephew, the Alferez Real Don Andres Blanco Bermudez.

1752- the commission confirmed the title to the hacienda of the Alferez Don Andres.

1754 – Royal decree approved all the decisions made by the commission

1784 – Don Joseph Blanco Bermudez, son of Don Andres endowed the church with a big bell that still summons the faithful to religious rites.

At the turn of the 18^th to the 19^th century –  the estate was sold to another Spaniard, Don Miguel Cacho of Manila,

The next owners were Don Pascual de Sta Ana, then his daughter, Doña Dominga Sta Ana vda de Lara, then her husband, Don Francisco Guido y Perez. In 1886, Don Eugenio de Lara, Dominga’s eldest son, sued the towns of Antipolo and Teresa. He became the administrator of the Hacienda de Angono. During the American colonial period, there was litigation over the Hacienda de Angono, the outcome was reported in the Philippine Reports, Vol 12, February 4, 1909; case no. 4013.

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