The Young Grown Ups – Part I; Guerilla Leader and War Hero

Here’s a group picture of some of the young adults in San Narciso taken about 1935 (click on the photo to make it larger). Lola Pinay is #10 and you can see mom in #17 and Auntie Luz #16. Note that there are only two guys here, and one of them, #4 Lolo Jose Firme, was deaf and mute. So that leaves #1, Atty. Ceferino Firme Evangelista, with a huge advantage among all these pretty women. More on him later, but kidding aside I like this picture because it shows many of the people I’ve always known as old in the prime of their lives.

Lolo Jose was the only brother of Lola Pinay (she had four sisters) so his disability was especially unfortunate. I remember him as a craftsman working on furniture, and he even built that proverbial better mousetrap – a design with a spring loaded door that closed to capture the mouse alive that he would show to us kids. He was away from home for several years because he was taken by American missionaries to study reading and sign language in Manila. That’s why mom still knows the sign language alphabet to this day. In his older years he was blown away by the modern way of sign language of not explicitly spelling each word. Admitted he never learned it, but then again there was no one there to use it with. For a living he cut people’s hair and made salakots, the traditional Filipino farmer's hat, but didn’t charge them if they didn’t have any money.



The other guy is the photo is Atty. Cef. Finished law school in Manila and practiced in San Narciso. Settled with his family in San Antonio, but because San Narciso was larger and had more judges and courts, he was there during the weekdays. When the war broke out he became a guerilla leader fighting against the Japanese. There were escaped British soldiers, captured guerillas, and sacrificing lives to fight the enemy – I’m not going to repeat the stories here so buy the book! Atty. Cef was a true war hero. He left a young wife, Esta, and two kids, Ceferino Jr. and Ruth. Esta was taken out of town to a prison and the kids were left with Lola Pinay to take care of, despite the fact that she wasn’t the closest blood relative. It was just that Lola Pinay was financially better off and she also didn’t have to take care of Lolo Satur, away during the war, in the household. They weren’t the only kids who were raised by Lola Pinay. Other relatives not so well off left their kids with her. She also supported, with rice and food, the guerillas that would come down from hiding in the mountains.

Mom and Auntie Luz became close to Cef Jr. and Ruth since they had to babysit them. Cef Jr. turned out to be a doctor and Ruth a nurse.


Later picture of Cef Jr. and his mom Esta. This may have been when he graduated from medical school.

In the next blog entry, #9 features in the story of Marcos hiding in San Narciso. I just couldn’t put the ex-president’s name and the words “war hero” in the same title lest search engines find it, so I’ll save that for the next blog entry.


1. Atty. Ceferino Firme Evangelista
2. Encarnacion Fontecha-Tajon
3. Soledad L. Firme Damaso (Lola Soling)
4. Jose Labrador Firme (Lolo Jose)
5. Modesta Labrador Firme
6. Azucena Firme Adamos-Fuertes
7. Librada Delos Reyes-Aquino
8. Virginia Fortaleza-Fernandez
9. Julita Firme
10. Josefina L.Firme-Farrales.(Lola Pinay)
11. Adelina Labrador-Aquino.
12. Elisa Fortaleza Firme Fontelera
13. Moning Aquino-Pampo.
14. Felicidad Labrador-Eugenio
15. ---------- Bernardino-Fernandez
16. Luz Firme Farrales-Villanueva
17. Minda Firme Farrales-Bello
18. Carmelita L. Firme Maranon (Lola Carmeling)
19. Florencio Fernandez Adamos
20. Rosalina Galvez
21. Cleopatra Adamos-Carbonel (Auntie Cleo)
22. Amanda L. Fernandez-Adamos