Making the Connection

To me the technology of connectivity is amazing. I recieved an email from someone looking for a family member. I forwarded the information accordingly and hopefully the two long lost friends will reunite.

15 Ateneans to be enshrined in memorial

This story was taken from www.inq7.net

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http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=54434


15 Ateneans to be enshrined in memorial
First posted 04:06am (Mla time) Oct 25, 2005
By
Inquirer News Service


ON NOV. 12, at a gathering on the Ateneo de Manila University campus at Loyola Heights, Quezon City, 15 men will be enshrined in the Ateneo Heroes Memorial.

Their names will be added to those of the 112 who have been enshrined there since 1969, the year then Ateneo president Fr. Pacifico Ortiz S.J. had a modest war memorial erected to honor the Ateneans who perished in the Revolutions of 1896 and 1898 and World War II.

Three Jesuits -- Fathers James Reuter, Romeo Intengan and Francisco Perez -- are among the present honorees.

Reuter, who is currently at the helm of the Catholic Church’s National Office of Mass Media, was a prisoner of war of the Japanese interned in Los Baños, Laguna. Through the years, he has imbued his students with heroic ambitions and a passion for excellence as he taught college, coached the Hail Mary Team (the Blue Eagles), directed plays and conducted the Ateneo College Glee Club.

Intengan, former Philippine Provincial of the Society of Jesus, was arrested and detained for two months for taking part in a march protesting electoral fraud and violence committed by the Marcos martial law regime.

Perez was a guerrilla during the Japanese occupation. He was with the Matute Combat Regiment in the Bulacan Military Area headed by Gen. Alejo Santos.

To be enshrined with them are two other living Ateneans -- Dr. Alejandro Roces and Antonio Malvar Meer.

Roces was considered the youngest guerrilla when, at 15, he joined Marking Guerrillas in Rizal during WWII. A few years ago, he fearlessly faced hardened criminals, spoke to them about the importance of Literature to the nation and was able to retrieve the original manuscripts of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi Ultimo Adios that they had stolen.

Meer served the country during and after the Pacific War, joined President Manuel Quezon’s organized guerrilla force and founded Handog sa Sundalo Foundation to alleviate the soldiers’ poverty.

Among the deceased honorees are those who fought in Bataan and walked the Death March -- Antonio Vinluan, Philip Buencamino, Antonio Nieva, Ramon Pamintuan, Oscar Coscolluela and Ramon Diaz, who was tortured by the Japanese for being a member of an intelligence cell that relayed information about the Japanese to the Americans in Australia through the interned Jesuits.

For the first time in the memorial’s history, four young Ateneo graduates will be enshrined for their martyrdom during the martial law years. They are Ferdinand Arceo, William Begg, Artemio Celestial Jr. and Abraham Sarmiento Jr.

An exhibit of memorabilia belonging to the heroes will open at 1 p.m. on Nov. 12 at the Rizal Library. A documentary on the Legacy of Heroes will be shown, with Ricardo Jose as speaker. The ceremony honoring the heroes at Bellarmine Field will follow at 3 p.m.

Los Roces vuelven a Gijón

I really have been so busy trying to catch up on work. I had to hit the ground running here and it has been nonstop since we arrived. I've been meaning to post items about things that happened while in Manila along with other things that I've discovered.

Here is something that Carlos Roces emailed me from "Los Roces vuelven a Gijón."

We'll have to make some sort of future plan to try to get all the Roces family members from all the countries together.

Handwritten Notebooks

Some notes handwritten by my great grandfather Rafael Filomena Roces. The first pages deal with him writing about the family genealogy from his point backwards. It corroborates the information already known and tracked, but it's interesting to see in his own handwriting.

Crossing the Oceans

As I have just returned back to the Big Apple to go over the items I've learned about the family history I recieved an email from Carlos Roces the painter in Gijon. There were a handful of people that were able to make it to Gijon to meet and greet each other. I've got to translate the email as to who did attend which I'll do at a more resonable hour. (Jet lag is really catching up with me.)

Lolo Rafael, Lola Enchay y familia

One of the many finds that I was able to scan. There's lots of people in this picture. How many can you name?