GUADALUPE PROFILE

            THERE is no formal and generally accepted historical or traditional record as to how Barangay Guadalupe got here name. However, a story by mouth handed down from generation to generation has it that Guadalupe got her name this way.

            The Story starts and tells the wake and a dead wealthy villager. The time was shortly after the arrival of the first Spanish colonizers when Christianity was already introduced in the colonies of Spain. As usual, the wake of the wealthy dead was attended by many sympathizers, friends, relatives and neighbors most of whom were busy drinking tuba in and around the spacious house of the wealthy dead. During one particular night of the wake, when the people were in their usual drinking and chatting, a very bright light suddenly appeared in the sky which gradually formed itself into a human figure that eventually took a distinct form of a beautiful woman with long blue and white dress. So sudden and unexpected was the apparition that one male visitor shouted, in vernacular at the top of his voice the words “ANG BIRHEN SA GUADALUPE!”. The shout was spontaneous and instinctive and surprisingly stuck in the minds of almost all of those present in the wake.

            The event was talked about for a very long time in the village until the word Guadalupe came out the most prominently talked about when the same story was told and retold. Naturally, this name was eventually attached to the said village until it finally became its official name, GUADALUPE.

THE TEACHER

            In my point of view, he is the best thing to come out of Guadalupe.

            I did not see him for decades but I heard the rumors. It seemed that he rode a roller coaster while I was away. Things got interesting and he survived.

            I came back home a few years back and we would bump into each other – the way people in small cities do. He hasn’t changed much. There are a few extra lines on his face and his curls are tinged with gray. Other than that, he looked the same.

             From what I’ve heard, he is a bit softer now, more mellow and in many ways, he has learned to take fewer risks. He is still gangly though, and the gait remained awkward. I haven’t seen hi stoop, I guess I never will.

The head-held-high, posture suits him and he has kept it. He still has the spirit, it shows in his eyes, and sometimes he lets it loose via a quick glare followed by the now familiar head-toss.

He was younger then. He doesn’t know it but he got to me the way no other mentor did – an

I had many. I still remember – and to this day try to learn, how he managed to get wackiest responses from the unlikeliest of sources. He hated losing and it seemed that for him, second place is the honor given to the first loser, I could go on but obvious reasons, I can’t and must end.