by Nunilo M. de Leon
This happened when I was once in Dada’s bedroom where there were two large color portraits hanging on the wall; one of a pretty young lady and the other of a more mature lady who looked like Dada. “Ako iyan”, she said, pointing at the younger lady’s picture. “Ako” was my grandaunt Dada Ninay, Catalina Gonzales de Leon. “At iyan ang ina ko, ang Impong Biyang mo”, waving towards the other picture, which was that of her mother, my great-grandmother, the late Maria Gonzales de Leon, Inkong Tasio’s wife. Then she took me to the adjoining bedroom, indicated another portrait on the wall, that of another young lady, and said “Siya naman ang Lola Juli mo, asawa ng Lolo Ramon mo”. “Lola Juli”, Juliana Santos Pantangco de Leon, was my late grandmother, the first wife of “Lolo Ramon” Gonzales de Leon, my grandfather and Dada Ninay’s elder brother.
This happened when I was once in Dada’s bedroom where there were two large color portraits hanging on the wall; one of a pretty young lady and the other of a more mature lady who looked like Dada. “Ako iyan”, she said, pointing at the younger lady’s picture. “Ako” was my grandaunt Dada Ninay, Catalina Gonzales de Leon. “At iyan ang ina ko, ang Impong Biyang mo”, waving towards the other picture, which was that of her mother, my great-grandmother, the late Maria Gonzales de Leon, Inkong Tasio’s wife. Then she took me to the adjoining bedroom, indicated another portrait on the wall, that of another young lady, and said “Siya naman ang Lola Juli mo, asawa ng Lolo Ramon mo”. “Lola Juli”, Juliana Santos Pantangco de Leon, was my late grandmother, the first wife of “Lolo Ramon” Gonzales de Leon, my grandfather and Dada Ninay’s elder brother.
“Hindi ko alam kung saang lupalop siya nakatira. Doon yata sa Hagunoy.” That was how “Dada Ninay” replied when I first asked about her father, my “Inkong” whose name, I later learned, was Anastacio de Leon or “Inkong Tasio”, Dada’s father and my great-grandfather. Then she began to talk about other things, which was her way of saying “Subject closed! Period!”
Of course I had to ask where Inkong was. That was when she gave me her curt reply about “kung saang lupalop . . . sa Hagunoy”. I also wanted to ask her about the other portraits and the diplomas on the walls of the sala, but I knew it was not the time for more questions. Her inborn initial reticence, however, did not stop me from trying to learn more about Inkong later. Revelations would only come little by little, from many other sources, including Dada herself, and over a long time.
I was then in Grade 3, Malolos Central Elementary School and staying with Dada Ninay in the De Leon’s ancestral home in Calle Tampoy, town of Malolos, province of Bulacan. Tampoy was a narrow, short alley which began at the “municipio”, or municipal hall, ran parallel to the wide creek behind the municipio and ended in a dead-end. My parents, Roque Pantangco de Leon and Anita Macapugay de Leon, and my two younger brothers were then in Paracale, Camarines Norte, where my father was working with the United Paracale Mining Corp. They had left me in the care of Dada, who remained single all her life and was the de facto matriarch of the De Leon clan. Lola Juli had died when her eldest child, Paz, was just fifteen and the baby, Roque, only two months old. Dada had to substitute for her in taking care of the six living Pantangco-De Leon children.
The middle child of the three Gonzales-De Leon siblings, “Dada Merced”, Mercedes Gonzales de Leon Robles, was married to Marcelino Robles and lived in San Vicente, the business district of Malolos. They had five children.
One of my aunts, “Tia Monang”, Ramona Pantangco de Leon (the fifth living child), was then also in Tampoy and teaching at the Malolos Central Elementary School. Tia Monang, who was also to remain single, had just come back from her teaching stint in the town of Daet, Camarines Norte, where she had been staying with Lolo Ramon who was soon to retire as the provincial fiscal or chief provincial prosecutor of Camarines Norte. He was planning to stay in Daet after his retirement. He had a 24-hectare homestead straddling the towns of Basud and Labo and intended to devote his time to developing the property.
Uncle "Tio Carlos" Pantangco de Leon (the second oldest), who was the Asst. Provincial Engineer, his wife "Tia Helen" Shelledy de Leon, and their five children were also in Daet.
"Tia Pacita" Paz Pantangco de Leon Crisostomo, her husband Armando Crisostomo, and their four children were in Manila. "Tia Epang" Josefa Pantangco de Leon Peña (the this child), her husband Aurelio Peña and their three children were residing inside the the provincial capitol compound, also in Malolos. The fourth child, "Tio Toniong" Antonio Pantangco de Leon, was still a bachelor and lived in an apartment near his place of work, the Department of Health in San Lazaro Hospital compound in Manila.
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