(Manila)
Dear Sharon,
Tonight is one of those times when I feel lonely, sort of incomplete. So, I thought I’d begin a diary.
My birthday was November 21, 1947, two years after Philippine Independence. Now, I’m almost fifteen years old. I was baptized, as my sister, said, a week later, as Cecilia Catalina Cuenco Manguerra. I added one more to a family of five.
My father, Mariano Flores Manguerra studied in Valparaiso University in Chicago. He became a professor at the young age of twenty-one. He was a civil engineer. He taught at the University of the Philippines.
My mother, Concepcion Cuenco, was a student at the U.P. My father was around fifteen years older than my mother. For this reason, my grandfather (Cuenco) didn’t allow their marriage. He turned my father down three times. One Sunday, my Mama went to church. My father met her. They were going to elope! My Mama kept saying no but followed him just the same. They finally got married. My Mama was twenty years old.
I’ll continue tomorrow.