Chapter 9- My Mother Estrella, a Dressmaker w/ Her Little Store at Home
My mother, Estrella Carvajal- Bernal cared for me when I was born. She told me father left her when she was 4 months pregnant. Father was called by the army for military training.
My mother told me that my father was ordered by the army to go to Mindanao. He was given only four days to visit his wife, mother told me. The rumors of war between the United States and Japan persisted.
Mother, whom I called Inday, was an industrious and creative woman. She finished Grade IV of formal schooling. But she learned lots of skills from her mother and other relatives who taught her various skill, including sewing dresses and trousers, gardening and tending a small store. Dressmaking became my mother’s first vocation. It was her major way to earn a living. Women and girls in the village of Dayhagan and Cawayan and nearby villages came to have their new dresses sawn or old dresses remodeled by my expert mother.
During special occasion like school graduation, Christmas season and fiestas, my mother was always busy. She saw dresses for women and girls from morning until 10:30 p.m. She woke- up at 3:00 a.m. to sew dresses again. She continues to work, helping father earn until 9 of us finished elementary grades.
My younger brother, 2nd to me, did not finished his Grade 1V. His teacher throw eraser on his face during their class. He got angry. He got the eraser and throw it back on the face of her teacher. He told our father, he would not go to school anymore. My father did not force him, but encouraged him to go back to school. But he never. Today, at 75 years, he is healthier than most of us. He never entered a hospital He never been sick. And with his wife, Liza earns more than most of us today.
Their secret? They have fruit trees. They have farm equipment and planted rice and corn. They have a little farm with different kinds of vegetables which they sold to neighbors and in the town. And they have only a son.
We helped in whatever task we could. All of us 8 children called our mother “Inday”, just like an elder sister. Only our youngest brother, Rex, called our mother “Nanay” (mother).
Life was hard in our village. All of us were trained by the mother to work and helped the family. My younger brother, Restituto Jr., and I was trained to care, feed, graze and water our 3 carabaos daily. We had few chickens and a few goats at home. On dry seasons we were trained to get water morning and afternoon from a well, more than a kilometer away for cooking and washing dishes.
We watered our carabaos at noon and in the afternoon, often at 5:00 p.m. In the evening we led the carabaos to bathe in the mud so that mosquitos, which were always plentiful would not bite them. The carabaos were our help on the farm.
Because I am the eldest, with 8 younger brothers and sisters, I was trained by mother to cook, washed dishes and washed clothes of my younger brothers and sisters. As they grow older they were also trained by mother to do different works at home – cooking, washing dishes, washing clothes, feeding chickens and goats and helping on the farm.
We were all trained to pound rice with mortar and pestle daily. There was no rice mill in our younger days. My younger sister, Mildred, the fourth among us, was always pounding rice. After pounding rice, she cooks our meals in the morning and night. I think, Meldred, whom we called Teting love pounding rice and prepare our meals. After graduating in high school, she went to the College of Agriculture in Lambunao, Iloilo and finished her college. She taught in high school in Carles High School. All my younger brothers and sisters were trained to help in gardening and works at home.
Father was a catholic but later joined the Baptist faith. He was a faithful member, later was elected President of Cawayan Baptist Church for many years. My father did not gamble. He drank little tuba, just a glass or two. He smoked before. But later, abandoned his smoking habit. He stopped when my sisters and brothers were in school. It was a decision he made to make life easier for us. The money for cigarettes would be used for our food, dresses and other needs.
The major reason for the very hard life of people in our village were gambling, smoking and drinking liquors. These vices indulged in by elder boys and adults were expensive, considering that after smoking a cigarette, another was lighted up to start smoking again. When people started drinking liquor, there were no stopping until they're drunk. Drinking, smoking and gambling were addictive vices that people live hard life.
These vices and the feudal system of land ownership were major reasons for the poverty of some 70 percent of our people in Iloilo and the whole Philippines. Most of the lands were owned by the rich and super- rich.
The rich people were able to get these big lands from the iniquitous land ownership system. The Torrens Title Law, used by the Spaniards and the educated rich Filipinos on how to own lands. Most farmers were just tenants in the land owner’s big farms. Most lands in the towns were owned by few rich and super -rich.
It was believed that only a people’s revolution, like those won by the people of Russia, China, Cuba and Vietnam can change the pattern of land ownership in the Philippines and improve the lives of Filipinos. A few years back however, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), the biggest communist country before, with Russia at the top leadership have given up communism. Also East Germany, with East Berlin as its capital left communism for liberal democracy.
Early in life, I learned the positive effect of the Convention Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventist teachings and faith. They have good values in life. The members of both the Baptist and Seventh Day Adventist churches were spiritual people. Their spiritual and moral values were quite high. Vices like drinking liquors and gambling were limited among Baptist and Adventist members.
Adventists were taught not to eat pork, fish without scales, crabs, shrimps and shells. Due to their foods, their lack of vices, many Seventh Adventists members were a bit better in their lives, health and finances. They lived longer than most Protestants, Baptists and Catholics.
The Baptists eat all kinds of pork. fish and shells, eating creatively and moderation. The moral and spiritual values of Adventists, Baptists and Protestants are quite commendable. The seem is true with Jehovahs Witnesses, where everyone who would like to join, was subjected to education process. Each has to study 15 church doctrines that they must follow before they were accepted as members. The church stood by its virtue of trust in God.
Among rich Roman Catholics, vices and corruptions were rampant, deep and heavy. Not so much with poor Filipino catholics and middle class Poor Filipino catholics were mostly honest. Among the rich, super rich and oligarchs, corruption was deep and deadly. The same with most top government officials, businessmen and politicians.
One time my father told me. Your mother & me decided to buy a 2 1/2 hectares of land from my cousin. We bought it for three hundred pesos, Philippine money (P300), in 1948.” The equivalent of P300, Philippine Peso was US Dollar $150.
The dollar exchange that time was USD 1.00 = PHP 2.00. It slowly increased. In 1961, US Dollar Peso Exchange increased to $1.00 = P3.75 when Diosdado Macapagal was President. Later, it increased to $1.00 = P7.00 in 1965. Under President Marcos, it increased steadily thru the years – US$1.00 = PHP 13.00, then US$1.00 –=PHP 17.00. And later US$ 1.00 = PHP 25.00, then US$1.00 = PHP 52.00 near the end of President Marcos martial rule. It remained today at US 1 dollar = P52.00.
What a difference! What really happened? Was this a part of what was called, the power of US imperialism? I don’t know. But as always, the poor were always at a dis-advantaged before the strong and powerful U.S.A. and U.S. dollars power. whether in war or peace.
I cannot understand why US$ 1.00 costs Philippine peso 52.00 in 2019. While, US$ 1.00 costs only Swedish Crown 6.00; also 1 US Dollar costs only 1.3 Australian dollars. More, why 1:00 US dollar costs only 1 Cuban peso. Why the difference?
Mother works mostly in her garden and her small store at home. All my younger sisters, helped my mother in the garden before class started in the morning. They returned after classes and watererd our different vegetables.
Father worked on the rice farm during the day. He went fishing at night. Years later, when he learned carpentry, he continued his farming and worked as a carpenter. He left fishing.
One of our problems at home before was water. During the rainy season, we have a well, about a 100 meters away from home. We got water from well for washing clothes, cooking and watering the gardens. But during dry seasons, from January to May, we get water from a well, 1 kilometers away. We carried the water in 2 kerosine cans on our shoulders.
What did we do to have abundant water for home use? Father decided to dig a deep well. With a young man as a helper, they dug a deep well that reached 22 feet deep, working several weeks. But there was no water. At twenty- three feet, the well was deep but no water.
Father said: “We will continue digging until 30 feet. I think, there is water at that depth. We will not stop until water comes.” At 23 feet deep, father noticed the soil down was a bit wet. They continued digging. But the rock's stones were hard to crack. Father went on digging. He persisted.
At 24 feet deep, they succeeded to make a little crack on the hard rock. In our dialect, we called this hard rock “dalipe nga bato”. “A living rock”. Father thought just a few feet more, there would be water.
But the rock was so hard. They can only dig 1/4 feet deep in the rock in one day. They kept digging. He told me, “Rudy does not surrender”. Yes, never surrender. In two more days, digging about ¼ foot deep daily, the hard rock cracked. To his great delights and thanksgiving, water came out.
At 25 feet deep, clear and cold water came out from the hard stone. Father celebrated the victory. Water at 25 feet deep. Since then, we did not have difficulties with water for home use, gardens, animals and some neighbors who came during dry seasons.
God blessed us with water. These made life easier for us. Gone were the days of carrying water 1 kilometers away to get the waters we need.
Our water is only 2 meters away from our kitchen. We were fortunate. Some families in Cawayan, Carles were not able to get water at 30 feet deep. In Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz, some families dug deep wells, 35 feet deep. But no water came out. They have water during the rainy season.
But on dry seasons, there well at 35- feet deep were dry. We thanked God for our father’s persistence and the blessings of water.
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