In 1963, Tan Esco became the first woman elected to the municipal legislature of Saipan. She later gave up the post because “I was too busy with my business back then.” But her service and involvement in many local community projects didn’t stop, despite not serving any local position. Tan Esco says she’s been blessed and it’s her duty to give back to her community. “I am very happy. The Lord is taking good care of me,” she says. And every Thanksgiving Day, the Cabrera family reunites to give thanks for everything they have. The family begins their gathering with
a simple prayer at the tiny chapel inside their compound on Capital Hill. A devoted Catholic, Tan Esco says she would never have accomplished anything without God’s help. “I always pray to God,” she says. Daria, her third child, who flew in from Tinian to join the BRM pictorial and interview at their residence in Capital Hill, says her mother has taught them so many things and hope that she had touched the lives of others in the local community. “When I was in third grade, I was already trained as a cashier. I was already tending to our store. She taught me my math,” says Daria, wife to former Tinian Senator David Cing and mother of three soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her sister Gloria says their mother kept the family together and the virtues of honest and hard work are passed on from generation to generation. Isidoro, the only agricultural specialist in the CNMI who earned his bachelor of science in agriculture degree from Papua
New Guinea, says his mother inspired him to always strive harder in life. “My mother is a very industrious woman,” he says. Usually the man is the head of the household, especially in those days, he says. “But my mother was running our household.” Tan Esco says she looks forward to seeing again her growing family, and share with them her favorite Valenciana, turkey, ham, fruits and other local dishes this Thanksgiving Day. The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated by the pilgrims in 1621 in Plymouth now known as Massachusetts to honor their bountiful harvest. President Abraham Lincoln first declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863 and implored all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”
Isidoro Cabrera, center, with his family.
Tan Esco with eight of her 13 children.
NOVEMBER 2011
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