San Andres, Bauan, Batangas: Historical Data Part I
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| Historical data from the National Library of the Philippines. |
PART I
PART I | PART II
Full transcription of the so-called “Historical Data” for the barrio of San Andres, Bauan, Batangas, the original scanned documents at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections not having OCR or optical character recognition properties. This transcription has been edited for grammar, spelling and punctuation where possible. The original pagination is provided for citation purposes.
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HISTORY AND CULTURAL LIFE OF SAN ANDRES
Part I – History
1. Present official name of the barrio - - San Andres
2. Popular name of the barrio - - - - - - - - San Andres
a. Present - - - - - San Andres
b. Past - - - - - - San Andres
Derivation of San Andres
San Andres is located between the barrios of Bolo and Apalay. The name of the barrio originated from the oldest man in the community which is very memorial with the name Andres. From that time on, strangers who came from this place and neighboring barrios have called it San Andres. Nearly all the people here are very religious, the facts show that there are many priests in this barrio. When the first school was established, it was named San Andres. The shape of the village has a great resemblance to a parallelogram. It is a lowland and sandy place. The size is more or less fifty hectares, thickly populated. Around one thousand nine hundred twenty-six people in number live in this village. According to the government census, this community has two hundred eighty-seven homes.
Names of Sitios
|
Balanga San Luis |
Talisay Balete |
3. Date of establishment - - During the Spanish occupation
4. Original families:
|
Medrano family Hernandez family Cadevida family |
Dolor family Buensalida family Daite family |
5. List of tenientes from earliest time to date:
2. Cabeza Imong Medrano
3. Cabeza Isaac Buensalida
4. Teniente Roque Medrano
5. Teniente Policarpio Medrano
6. Teniente Braulio Hernandez
7. Eusebio Medrano
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6. Story of old barrio or sitios within the territorial jurisdiction that are now depopulated or extinct.
7. Data on historical sites, structures, buildings, old ruins, etc. – None
8. Important facts, incidents, or events that took place:
a. During the Spanish Occupation:
2. The cabezas assigned persons to teach the people the proper ways of learning a little about Arithmetic, Reading and Writing in Tagalog. They used cartillas, trisajios and Kastila as their basic readers. In writing, they used the feather of the chickens and sticks and leaves of trees as their paper and pen.
3. During the Spanish regime, the Spaniards were very strict in dealing with the people. So they could exercise much of their freedom. When the people heard that the Americans would come, they evacuated to the neighboring barrios for fear they might be maltreated and their properties confiscated, and their lives harmed.
b. American Occupation to World War II
1. During the American Occupation, the people from the barrios were ordered to go to town for a period of one month to be confined in the town. Then the Americans, together with the Macabebes, came to the barrio to search for some rebels. They burned the houses of those suspected families as rebels. The Macabebes made some abuses to the people of the barrio by confiscating their money and properties. They also abused the women without the knowledge of the Americans.
2. As soon as the Americans arrived, they built schools made of light materials as nipa, cogon, bamboo, etc.
3. The sending of children to school was made compulsory. The Americans supplied the children with papers, pencils, and books so that the parents
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of the children might be encouraged to send their children to school. The people are Catholic up to the present time.
4. During this period, they changed the name of cabeza to teniente as heads of the barrios. The name teniente as the head of the barrio remains up to the present time.
c. During and After World War II
1. During this period, the people in the barrio evacuated to different places. Most of the people went to Mindoro for fear of the Japanese attack, especially because it is along the seashore.
2. The Japanese lived in some of the houses of the barrio. They got food and the boats from the people. They used the boats as a means of transportation from one place to another. There was destruction of property. Those people who did not evacuate could hardly support their living and they depended only on little food that they could get.
3. When the Americans came, the people killed some of the Japanese that were hiding in some places in the barrio.
4. Some of the people were able to have some firearms that were left by the Japanese.
5. When the Americans came, many camps were built. Steamships anchored in our harbor. Bars for amusements of the American soldiers were established. Buying and selling flourished, thus this barrio progressed and the standard of living of the people became high. Many men were employed as guards, foremen, checkers, typists, and tent boys.
9. Destruction of lives, properties and institutions during wars, especially in 1941-1945.
1. There were lives that were lost in Bataan for they fought against the Japanese. After liberation, the bereaved families were pensioned by the government. They were very much benefited.
2. Twelve natives of the barrio were lost. Nobody can tell what was the cause of their deaths, whether they were punished by the Japanese or by the guerrillas
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during the war. These persons were taking the evacuees to Mindoro, but unfortunately, they did not come back and we did not know what happened to them.
3. During the Japanese Occupation, destruction of properties of the people, especially the boats, pigs, hens, and others were taken by the Japanese. At the arrival of the Americans, they selected the rice fields, near the western bamboo groves, to be reconstructed into roads. So, they used tractors to cover the rice fields with earth, stone and sand. On it, they built their camps and tents.
b. Measures and Accomplishments toward rehabilitation and reconstruction following World War II.
1. There was a great improvement. The construction of a road from San Roque to San Andres was made. So the people of this barrio had an easy means of transporting their fish from one place to another.
2. During liberation, the school was repaired. The Americans who stayed in this place gave help to the school by repairing it. The school site was fenced with wire.
3. There were merchants due to the easy means of transportation. Both male and female sexes could travel from one place to another.
II. Traditions, Customs, and Practices in domestic, social life, birth, baptism, courtship, marriage, death, burial, visits, festivals.
Marriage
[The] Marriage festival is celebrated in the girl’s home. The parents of the boy shoulder all the expenses and responsibilities. The girl’s parents spend nothing. The girl receives [a] dowry, sometimes in land, money, animals, and jewels. There are times when the marriage is postponed, for there is disagreement between the parents of the boy and parents of the girl. After the marriage is over, the girl is taken to the boy’s house. The boy follows the next day. The couple stays at home for four days. They are not allowed to go somewhere.
Death
When someone dies in the house, the rest of the family should not take a bath for four days. They can take a bath after four days, with the belief that the flesh of
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the dead will be removed at once. In case a wife dies, the husband should not peep at the grave for if he does so, he at once sees a wife. When he could not secure at once, he will be very much troubled, and even neglect his work and children. If a husband dies, and the wife does the same, the same thing will happen.
PUNISHMENT
According to old traditions and beliefs, it is not good to punish a child by tying him with a rope to a post or wall of the house, for when he grows old, will be imprisoned.
COURTSHIP
A boy courting a lady brings wood, water and helps at all the works at home. If the girl likes him, he will not be questioned, but if the girl does not like him, she will tell her mother to tell the boy to stop helping them or stop bringing water, or wood to their home. The boy who is admired by the girl continues to help at the girl’s home. Later, the parents of the girl will call the parents of the boy to talk about the marriage.
BAPTISM
A newly-born baby should be baptized at once, otherwise some sort of anitos will take him or play with him, thus making the baby sick. The godmother or godfather of the baby selected should be the one who possesses good characteristics, for according to the belief, the boy inherits from him or her.
11. Myths, Legends, Beliefs, Interpretations, Superstitions, Origin of the World, land, mountains, and other natural phenomena:
It is said that long ago, Bathala was the god of the land, and Dumagat of the sea. Bathala had a number of pets. Of them all, he liked best was the crow and the dove. At that time, both of these birds had sweet voices and beautiful plumage.
One day, Dumagat came to Bathala and complained. He said that Bathala’s people had been stealing fish and should be punished for it. Bathala listened to his complaint, but he refused to punish the people. The two gods argued the case until they both became angry.
PART I | PART II