Throwback October 24, 2012 THE SARIAYA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL According to Doña Concepcion Herrera Vda. de Umali in her book The Tayabas Chronicles: The Early Years, the first American teachers called the Thomasiters arrived in Sariaya in April 1900. Meanwhile, Mr.Sancho Alvarez in his Pista ng Sariaya 77: Pang Alaalang Magasin wrote that they used the old Municipio as the very first school building, while the Municipal government temporarily took shelter in some residences in town such as that of the first Sariaya Presidente of the American period Ramon de Luna along Rizal corner Maningkad (now Valderas) extension going to the side door of the church, Mr. Crispulo Vargas along Bonifacio corner de la Cruz street, the house of Gobernadorcillo (Mayor during the Spanish colonial period) Venancio Rodriguez along Daliz street, and the like. Among the first Sariayahin students of the Thomasites were Maria Albufera Ocampo, Justiniana Jumawan, Aniana Palomera, Marta Religioso, Eriberto Alcance Dedace and Vicente Gagasa Alcañeses, the father of Mrs. Guadalupe Alcañeses Cadiz from whom I got the information during an interview in April 2002. As Mr.Alvarez wrote, prior to the year 1918, Sariayahin students can only avail of primary education, from grades one to four, and thereafter, they had to go to nearby towns like Lucena, Tayabas and Lucban to finish their elementary education up to grade seven. As a confirmation, Mrs. Cadiz said the at her father Vicente lived in the house of one of his benefactors, Doña Celestina Varela of Lucena, where he was able to finish his elementary education in the year 1909. As the years went by, the growing number of young people availing public school education increased an the the old Municipio cannot accommodate all of them so students held classes at the first floor of some of the ancestral houses in town, referred to as rented buildings. As Miss Juliana Dedace Rama (August 1904 - April 2004) told it, she studied grade one under the tutelage of Miss Maria Albufera Ocampo (my paternal grandmother who was among the first Thomasite Sariayahin students mentioned above) in a rented building supposedly the old Buenaventura Family house along Rizal corner Argente streets now the residence of Mr. Menandro Enriquez. Among the other such buildings she mentioned were the ancestral houses of Asuncion Luna and Mameng Religioso in Muntingbayan, that of Manuel Galas family along Magtigas (now Rodriguez) corner Daliz streets, the house of Mr. Teofisto Remo along Magdami corner del Pilar (now owned by the family of Mrs. Gregoria Racelis Luna - Bitong), and the house of Mr. Felimon de Luna along Talavera (now Quezon Avenue) corner Maningkad (now Valderas) streets, the present building of the Colegio de Santo Cristo de Burgos. Mr. Alvarez wrote that the Sariaya Elementary School Gabaldon Building was finished in 1917 and it accommodated grades I and II during the school year 1918 - 1919. By 1919 - 1920, all the elementary school year levels were complete in that building and the very first School Principal was Mr. Eriberto Alcance Dedace (my paternal grandfather who like his wife Maria Ocampo was among the first Sariayahin Thomasite students). And among the very first graduates of Class 1920 were Juliana Dedace Rama, Eduvigio Espinosa Antona, Asuncion Luna, Mameng Religioso, Julio Albufera, Marciano Quejano, Eriberto Quejano, Manuel Gala, Teofisto Remo, Felimon de Luna, Eulalia Decena, and others. With not enough classrooms in town despite the presence of the 1917 Gabaldon Building, the use of the rented buildings as temporary schools still continued decades hence, as told by my father Ernesto Ocampo Dedace, now 86, who studied grade onein the `1930s under Mrs. Filomena Zalameda - Quejano in another rented building along Bonifacio corner Argente streets, just across the street from the then big and beautiful house of Gobernadorcillo Roman Reynoso, now in ruins. And perhaps, a direct understanding and concern to alleviate such inconvenience in those early days most likely explain why some of the rented buildings mentioned were apparently owned by the families of Miss Juliana Ramas classmates. Photo by Danny Galera Maffiotte DeLuna
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 23:06:40 +0000
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