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Copyright 2005 by Maximo V. Soliven All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the author and the publisher.

Published by Philstar Daily Inc. 2002 Railroad St., Port Area, Bonifacio Drive Manila ISBN 971-93206-0-5 Printed in the Philippines 2005

Table of Contents A Preface By Her Eldest Son Introduction

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Autobiography

7

Photographs Appendices

197

A Preface By Her Eldest Son ~

Maximo V. Soliven<.l1

~~ Ii

ow can the strength, loving heart, and resilience of the Filipino woman be best defined? Admittedly) my opinion is biased-but) for us) this is by remembering Mama. A line from the Holy Bible, from the Book of Proverbs says it all. "Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies)) (3:10).

Mama was a ruby beyond price. She won)t just sparkle) she will shine in our hearts-and our memories-forevermore. I won)t ever say goodbye to her. She never left. She lives! God in His infinite mercy and love took her soul) wearied by caring) and many sorrows) and made it whole) vibrant-and young-again.

Papa) who came home from war and a Japanese prison camp) left us to Mama) s care-a brood of nine small children. On his dying day he reminded us: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.)) Mama taught us to pray) but beyond that to strive and to dare. In the last years of the war and enemy occupation) she was in the underground in Ilocos Sur. When Liberation came) the Americans provided "back pay)) to Filipino guerillas and the fighters in the resistance. Somebody had forged Mama) s signature on the "back pay)) roster and collected what had been earmarked for her-literally

robbing a widow and orphans, I'm tempted to say, but this sounds overdramatic. Mama didn't even shed a tear over this misfortune.

Sure, we could have used the "pay," but she had never fought for money. She said to me: "Son, remember this-you never put a price tag on what you do for our country."

A ruby beyond price.

This is why, in our family, we rejoice in remembering Mama.

In doing so, our tears, if you glimpse them, are a manifestation of JOY¡ Thanks to the prodding of Mama's first grandchild, now proudly a Jesuit priest as she had prayed for, Fr. Luis Soliven David, S.J., Mama wrote her story, dedicated to our Papa, Benito T. Soliven, and to us, her sometimes wayward kids.

My sister, Mercy, helped put together this little book.

We hope to share it with you.

Introduction '"'-' James B. Reuter, S.J.<.IJ

d!agia Soliven, to me, was an inspiration.

She was all heart, all love, all courage.

I met her when she was thirty two years old, beautiful, with long hair below her waist, the mother of ten children.

Her husband, Benito, was a Congressman. In Congress, in the House of Representatives, he was an honest man. That is a superlative.

When he ran for Congress, in the Ilocos region, where everyone knew everyone else personally, he defeated Elpidio Quirino so badly that Quirino retired from politics temporarily.

Benito had courage and was a genius. He was a good man.

And one of the remarkable things about him was that he fell in love with a girl who was twelve years his junior. He was already in the Assembly, but he knew that he loved this girl and wanted to marry her. Out of all the girls whom he had ever met in Ilocos Sur and in Manila, she was the loveliest and the best! Then he courted her and

married her. The girl was Pelagia Villaflor who lived to be 81 years old. She was beautiful even in death.

In the last months of 1941, just before the war swept over us, Benito Soliven was designated speaker at the end of the procession for Christ the King. That procession was very big, in those days. All men. No women. It ended, in that year, on Tayuman in Tondo, in the parish of Monsignor Jovellanos, who was a saint.

The final Eucharistic celebration was conducted, not inside the church, but out on the street, on a wooden platform that had been put up for this occasion. Benito was the spokesman for all the Catholic men in the Philippines-and he deserved this honor!

When the War broke out in December, 1941, he went to Bataan, though he did not have to go. He was in the Death March, which culminated in the Japanese prison camp at Capas. It was possible for him to be released, if he would join the puppet government. But Benito said-lying on the floor of a makeshift shack in the prison camp-"No. If! go into the government, under those conditions, I will be compromised; I will have to do what I am told. I have never been compromised; in my life ... No ... I will get out of here when everybody else does ."

When he was released, finally, he was so sick with complications from malaria that he died. He left his wife, Pelagiawho was young and beautiful-with nine children. The tenth, Benito, Jr. had died of malnutrition on Sept. 3, 1942, a few months before his father, who died on January 10,1943.

Pelagia singlehandedly raised her brood of nine little ones.

She became a seamstress. She made the white habits which the Jesuits wore. She never thought of marrying again. Her husband, Benito, 2

was only a picture on the wall. But she kept telling her children what a good man their father had been, and how much he had loved them.

Because of Benito-who was a Congressman, a member of the American Legion, and a Knight of Columbus-scholarships came to the children. All nine went right through college.

I remember that during those years of the Japanese occupation there was a typhoon and a flood. Four of us, young Jesuit scholastics, were sent from the old Ateneo on Padre Faura, where we resided, to the little house of the Solivens, on the corner of San Marcelino and Herran streets, which was flooded. We carried all the things which could have been destroyed by the water, from the first floor to the second.

Pelagia Soliven offered us merienda, all four of us Americans!

Food was so precious in those days! We did not want to take it, but we did. Because she was a lady. She was a gracious lady even in her poverty, even when she was wet with the water, even in her bare feet.

She wanted to serve her guests. We could not refuse.

The children were all going to good schools because Benito had been in government and he had been a Knight of Columbus. For all he had done for them, the schools were grateful to him ... However, the family remained poor.

But during the years when her children were growing up, on Sundays, she would take them, three at a time, to the Aristocrat restaurant. They would dine out. She really was struggling to make ends meet, but she did not want the children to think that they were poor. Having lunch at the Aristocrat, even if it was very simple, made them feel good. That is what she wanted.

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Pelagia never gathered her children to say to them: "When a woman loves a man, she loves him not only until death, but for all eternity!" She never said that ... But that is what she did. And the children absorbed this lesson.

Much later, when one of her sons was preparing to be married, he asked the girl whom he loved, "If! die, would you marry again?"

The girl had never thought about this. She said: "I don't know."

Pelagia's son was so upset. His thought was: "What kind of a girl is this? ... She is not like my Mommy!" Eventually, with counseling, he married the girl on schedule. The counselor said: "Your mother is exceptionaL She is a heroine, above and beyond the call of duty. You cannot hold a bride to anything after death!"

Pelagia Soliven is the only woman that I have ever known who celebrated her Golden Wedding Anniversary 38 years after her husband was dead. She had lived with him a scant twelve years. Still, fifty years after the day on which they were married, her grandchildren marched down the aisle of the church, and then her children, with their spouses, and then she herself, in white, with a bouquet.

She was sure that Benito was with her. She was sure that he still loved her, and that she loved him. The only thing was-you could not see him. She really believed, with all her heart, that love is not only "until death." Love is eternal.

When Pelagia stands before the great white throne of God to be judged, we have only one description of that judgment. God will say to her-"Come, ye blessed of my father, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you came to me. I was a stranger and you took me in."

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Who was the stranger whose face Pelagia had never seen but whom she took into her home and cared for all the days of her life? It was her baby. Whom did she feed for nine months in her womb?

Whom did she nurse at her breast? Her baby. Who came to her naked?

Her baby. God came to her ten times, thinly disguised as a child in her womb. And that is what God will say to her, "So long as you did it to the least of these, my little ones, you did it to Me!" In keeping with the parable of the talents Pelagia will also say: "Lord, you gave me one life. Here are my ten children."

This little book is the story of her romantic, beautiful, loving life-as she saw it. It is a unique contribution to the history of the Philippines-the story of a Filipina, told from the inside. No one else could have written this particular book, except Pelagia Soliven.

We have many women heroes, here in the Philippines, who suffered and died for their country. Pelagia Soliven, certainly, is one of them. She lived for her country-laboring, caring and praying for those whom she loved.

But, you know, every Filipina can do this. She is a model for all Filipinas!

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