Fernandez-Bautista Life History in Brief

by Hugo B. Fernandez                        April 1992


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    As early as I can remember, father and mother were engaged in a small merchandising business selling an assortment of dry goods consisting of almost everything thatbthe common town folks needed for daily use as well as those they liked to wear for holy day or fiestas. Among those were slippers of leather, wooden sole or a combination and leather or velour uppers, canvas or leather shoes for men, women and children, socks and stockings, t-shirts, children's clothes, cloth, straw or felt hats and sundries like combs, pomade, face powder, shoe polish and laces, safety pins, ribbons, cheap jewlry like bracelets, rings, earrings, etc.
    Our parents were traveling merchants. They carried their merchandise in a covered bullcart. They used specially made wooden display trays that could be packed neatly in to an enclosed compartment of the cart. When all the trays were loaded into the compartment, bamboo-slatted flooring was placed over them. This flooring served as the sitting areas well as bed for mother and us, the younger children, when we went with our parents on their itinerant business, as they traveled along the gravel road from one town to another.
    During the rainy season, father and mother conducted their merchandising in our hometown and in the Mangaldan, which is a little bit farther. At the start of the dry season just before All Saints' Day, they would replenish their stock and would travel farther to conduct their business in the eastern towns of Asingan, Tayug, San Quintin, and Umingan. Using San Quintin as their base, they stayed there throughout the dry season.
    Those of us who were not yet going to school traveled with our parents during their stay of several months in these eastern towns. In San Quintin, we stayed in the house of a kind, childless couple at the invitation of the wife whom our parents met in the market, she being in the textile business.
    Later when I was old enough, I learned that the main source of our family's livelihood was our parents' merchandising business. Father, who was orphaned early in life and was raised by his maternal grandmother inherited only the lot on which stood our house and an adjacent small ricefield that was unproductive because it was shaded by two big mango trees in the adjacent property. Mother who was the oldest of three daughters of quite well off maternal grand father inherited three moderate sized ricefields in the barrio of Camaley. These ricefields, however, were in a low area, which was flooded almost every year. Whatever was harvested from these fields were barely enough for three months' supply for our family consisting of our parents, four adult young sons and five fast growing children.
    In bringing us up, our parents placed a very high priority on education. The merchandising business provided some cash for the payment of whatever school fees for the children in the intermediate grades and high school, and for the household living expenses. But much of the cash drawn out came out from the gross sales since the profit derived from the business was rather small. Consequently, whatever merchandise stock had been sold could not be replenished and gradually, the business was growing smaller and eventually, father and mother sold out their business.
    Father, early on had sensed that whatever income they were deriving from their business was insufficient to pay for both the family daily expenses as well as the expenses for the education of the children. When our oldest brother, Fernando, finished second year high school, both Crispulo and Epifanio graduated in the town's intermediate school and would be going to the high school in Lingayen the next school year. To send the three oldest children to high school at the same time was financially impossible with the income from the merchandising business. As a partial solution, our parents with the concurrence of Fernando, our oldest brother, decided that oldest son Fernando temporarily discontinued his studies and applies as a classroom teacher. This was at a time when even elementary school graduates were being employed as teachers in the lower grades. Hence, Fernando taught at the Binmaley Elementary School for the first time. Crispulo thus enrolled in first year high school taking the normal course, while Epifanio also enrolled in first year taking the general course. When Crispulo finished his first year level, he applied as a teacher and consequently was accepted and assigned to a barrio school in the town of San Carlos. Both Fernando and Crispulo continued teaching for a few years while Epifanio and later, Demetrio, were studying in the high school and we the younger children were starting in the primary grades. Eventually, the third son, Epifanio, stopped his high school studies also in order to allow either of Fernando or Crispulo to resume his studies.
    By alternately stopping to earn money as teachers, our three eldest brothers managed to complete their high school studies as well as finance the education of the younger siblings. It was also through this means that the major portion of the family expenses was defrayed.
    We, the younger children, starting with brother Demetrio were more fortunate in that we did not stop in our schooling and were able to pursue our selected college education. The exception was sister Constancia who stopped schooling after finishing the elementary grades because of poor school marks and instead took a vocational course.
    Brother Epifanio taught school for several years after graduating from high school. Then he decided to further his studies and proceeded to UP Los Banos and enrolled in the College of Agriculture. At the same time, brother Demetrio who just graduated from high school decided to go with Epifanio to enroll in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Both of them were partly self-supporting as the money from Fernando and Crispulo, who by then were already married and had families, was insufficient for their college education. Epifanio and Demetrio who stayed in a house which they themselves and a couple of other fellow self-supporting students built, took employment as student laborers or houseboys to faculty families and cooked their own food and washed their own clothes.
    After completing one year on the College of Agriculture and realizing that as a self-supporting student, he could not expect to finish his degree in four years and thinking of the financial sacrifices that Fernando and Crispulo were exerting, Epifanio decided to switch to the School of Forestry where a scholarship in the two-year Ranger Course was available. With Epifanio studying at government expense, the money being sent by Fernando and Crispulo enabled Demetrio to continue his Veterinary studies on a full time basis. In two years, Epifanio finished his studies and was immediately employed at the bureau of Forestry as a Ranger. This eased the financial burden that Fernando and Crispulo were carrying. Upon my graduation form high school, I planned to enroll also at UP Los Banos to take the Sugar Technology Course. My going to Los Banos was partly because it would have been financially difficult for the family to allow me to enroll at UP Manila. In Los Banos, I would stay with Demetrio in the house they built and join him and the other students staying in the same house in taking turns in cooking our meals. Nevertheless, my going to college meant increased financial support for Demetrio, myself and the three other younger children who were in the elementary grades.
    It was brother Fernando who as the oldest among us children exerted his utmost in making a detailed financial study of how the expected expenses for our continued education would be apportioned among the three who were employed, namely Crispulo, Epifanio and himself. This apportionment was religiously followed by each of them. Thus Demetrio and myself were able to finish our studies. And when Demetrio graduated and was employed at the bureau of Animal Industry, he too did his share in contributing to the expenses for my continued education at Los Banos and those of sister Juliana who was studying at the National University and subsequently of Buenaventura and Optaciano. When I finished my course and was able to find employment, I in my turn, contributed to the educational expenses of Buenaventura and Optaciano. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines during World War II, Optaciano had not finished his Civil Engineering studies. During the occupation, no engineering courses were offered by the universities that were allowed to operate. Optaciano married soon after Liberation. He finished his Civil Engineering degree at his own expense since he had a job to support his growing family.
    Subsequently, except for Fernando, Crispulo, Constancia, and Juliana who remained in our hometown, Binmaley, the rest of us were in various parts of the country, wherever our respective employments were located. Nevertheless, we endeavored to meet at the old home at every opportunity especially when father was already very sickly. We were all home when father died until he was buried. Mother died during the early months after liberation in 1945 when we had not yet been able to contact brother Demetrio and his family who was assigned in Bohol when the war broke out. Except for him, we were all present at mother's funeral.
    In subsequent years, we always endeavored to have a family reunion in Binmaley or in the home of anyone of us who resided in the Metro Manila area.
    The three of us who are still living, hope that all of you will exert every effort to keep the tradition Grandfather Florentino and Grandmother Ysidora inculcated in us and that you will keep alive feelings of love and kinship among you.