Capturing memories

I am going over a collection of interviews of Filipino World War II veterans in the United States . Since I have no permission to cite the source of these documents, I will refrain from mentioning the organization which is working on a project on Oral History.

However what is most relevant is that this project captures the memories of these people who, now in their advanced years, have much to tell about those days of darkness in the Philippines .

Whenever I lecture or deliver a speech on history I always suggest that we capture the memories of people, regardless of status in life because everyone has a story to tell.

Unless their memories are captured they will be lost either by death or disease. Once gone they are lost forever and the future generation will be poorer by this neglect.

I have interviewed many people and their memories are now in the books and articles I have written but there are thousands more that will eventually be lost because the person or those close to him or our government and institutions have not bothered to record these memories which collectively form our history, define our culture and explain our tradition. These are the ingredients or sinews of society, but more so of our communities and families. These are the tapestry of what we are.

One of the most satisfying works I did in capturing of memories of the war is that of Lt. Jose Villacin who tape-recorded his experience of that conflict. Though 94 years old, he was deeply concerned that his memory would be lost so his daughter, Dr. Luciene Villacin, asked me to convert this into a book. I transcribed, edited and wrote footnotes to explain the facts he narrated and the result is a book, “Ordeals of War.”

Till his last days his mind was sharp and he made further notes on our draft. In the end, he was happy that his book has contributed immensely in unraveling the puzzle of how we made contact with America after General Douglas MacArthur escaped to Australia and we were left in the dark.

Lt. Villacin never realized that his simple work on the antennae was to be a turning point in guerrilla war and helped put an end to guerrilla rivalries for leadership.

When I was writing the history of the Catholic Church in Negros , one of the most difficult parts was the source of Spanish data although there were official documents. How persons responded to the unfolding events of the Aglipayan schism were nowhere to be found until I read a letter, kept in a box for years, of Francisco Infante of Valladolid .

The owner of the letter never realized that the information left behind by Infante would provide additional insights into the last days of Aglipay. I included this in my book, “Church on a Hill.”

Going through this collection of the recollection of Filipino war veterans in the US tells me how difficult it was for them to recall so that some of their responses were sketchy and even confused. The burden of age and fading memories has started to seep in and soon this will be lost but at least this Oral History Project is salvaging whatever remains of their memories that once compiled into a readable volume will help enrich our knowledge of the war.

Capturing the memories of people is not easy. It requires patience and asking the right, provocative questions, especially when the person is already starting to lose his memory or his speech is blurred.

Whose memory should we capture? Unless one is under commission or in advocacy and intellectual pursuit, one need not go farther. Parents are best sources not only about themselves but about one's ancestry.

When I was writing the family history of the Valderramas, the family was a major source, but workers and employees and even retired house helpers did provide facts and insights. One should not underestimate the information stored in ordinary people's memories.

When I traced the genealogy of the Miraflores and the Marañon families to show how they are related, the interviews provided the links into the past and surprisingly finding out that people who had been friends for years never knew they were related by blood tracing back to five generations.

This Oral History Project intends to record for posterity whatever little memories are left of these fighters of the last war. While at first glance they are disparate they nevertheless eventually become the threads to weave a story of war and give that war of far-away time a human face.

I just hope that our own local governments and educational and cultural organizations also consider this kind of project. Many of the data that I have today are collections of memories.*

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