Luisita’s legacies

Yesterday we attended a mass celebrated for the late Luisa Medel Howard whose cremated remains have been brought home to Bacolod by her daughters, Ricci and Greer, according to her wishes. The mass was held at the Social Hall of the Redemptorist Church in Bacolod where her ashes will stay until the interment rites at the Sacred Heart Memorial Park in Sum-ag on Saturday, after Holy Mass to be offered at the Redemptorist Church at 9 a.m.

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“Luisita” or “Inday” as she was fondly called by relatives and friends here, died in New York City in May last year, but, her husband Henry Howard, and her daughters had decided to bring her home for burial now. Members of the Medel family who include the Elizaldes, Galangs, Panganibans, Aros, and the Reyeses, as well as the Dalaos and Ibañezes, are expected to be here, but those who can’t make it and are in the United States, had already paid their final respects and send-off to her.

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Being at the mass, and seeing some of Luisita’s friends, students and sisters from La Consolacion College, where she had spent a good part of her life as speech and drama instructor, made me reminiscent on the influence of this very outstanding woman, who made such a great impact on her students, as well as on LCC, her alma mater, that she loved very much, and went to any length to promote and develop. I have much to recall about her LCC days, because we were at the school at the same time, although she was some years ahead of my sister Perla and our class.

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But she also became my teacher when I was on my final year in college, when those of us majoring in English, were required to undergo speech classes under her. She had then taken up her college course at the then Holy Ghost College-Manila and had become one of the star students of the famous Fr. James Reuter of Ateneo, who honed her talents in drama, and ability that she passed on to her own students, among whom were the queen of Philippine movies, Susan Roces, and the likes of Lilia Tacardon, who took over her teaching role at LCC.

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It was through her perseverance and daring that LCC was able to stage such memorable presentations as “The Lark”, a play about Joan of Arc, the Greek play “Antigoné”, pageants like the multi-cast “The Desire of All Nationas”, “Noli-Me Tangere,” that was also staged very successful, within the walls of Intramuros in Manila, and which got wonderful reviews, and so many brilliant productions she directed, in tandem with the late award-winning Bacolod artists, Jess Aiko, who took care of backdrops, props and costumes. Those were wonderful days for LCC, indeed.

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But Luisita was also one of the first activists in Bacolod, and was a harsh critic of the Marcos administration. When Martial Law was declared, she fled to the United States where she joined other similarly-inclined Pinoys. I recall that she had even met with the late Nino Aquino and attended his meetings with Filipinos there. When the Marcos couple went to the U.S. on an official visit, she was shown among the placard-carrying rallyists, scaring her folks. And when EDSA happened, and the Marcos fled the country, she went outside her house and jumped on the show (it was February, remember) and broke her leg.

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She came home for the first time, soon after, wearing crutches. I had a chance to interview her on TV – I had a program then called “Sugar and Spice”, a short-lived one – and she confirmed what happened, and we had a good laugh over it. Anyway, she quipped, “It was worth it!” Even then, she continued to express her longing to come home, but family strings pulled her back to the U.S. where she continued to move in art circles and cultivated many friends there. A few years ago, she came back to Bacolod and stayed for a while, and then returned to the U.S. after she suffered a stroke.

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But home sweet home called again, and soon she was back, organizing people, staging “Tertullas”, and forming the group called Circulo de Bacolod, that gathered art and country-loving people interested in conserving and promoting the values and culture of her native land. She may gone to her just reward now, but surely, LCC’s “Miss Medel” has left a lot of indelible marks in her province and city, and even in her country.”*

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