Copyright Quisumbing Family 2007. All rights reserved.
1993 Recollections of
Carlos Corrales Quisumbing1
Born September 9, 1910
Died January 15, 1996
The eldest son of
Emilio Arguelles Quisumbing
and
Maria Corrales Quisumbing
The Start of the Clan
The first Quisumbing2 was Mariano Quisumbing, a Chinese national from Amoy, Fukien Province in mainland China. He became a persona non grata with Spanish authorities such that he had to leave Manila to return to China. Years later he returned to Manila sporting a queue (pigtail). The queue was imposed by the Manchu rulers of China on their Chinese subjects.
Lolo Mariano was a wealthy man owning properties along what is now known as Calle Nueva near the Escolta. He rode in a carruaje, a horse-drawn carriage.
His
wife was Bernardina Gonzalez, a Spaniard.
Lola Bernardina was the younger of two sisters. The elder sister was married to a
Spaniard who so maltreated her that Lola Bernardina vowed never to marry a
Spaniard. Eventually
she later married a Chinese, Lolo
Mariano.
1 This narrative was related to me by my father, Emilio, eldest son of Lola Akang (Ciriaca Arguelles Quisumbing).
2 "Qui" is the Fukienese pronunciation of "Guo," a common Chinese family name whose archaic meaning is "outer wall of a city." We do not know the characters for "sumbing" and thus cannot infer their meaning.
Vicente Veinte-Cinco
Lolo Mariano and Lola Bernardina had three children: Vicente, Filomena and Margarita. Lolo Vicente, better known as Don Vicente "Veinte-cinco", had the propensity of applying 25 lashes on the persons who committed misdemeanors. He was the master of a three-mast sailing vessel, hence lord and master of all those on board. Although there were already steam vessels, he had no use for them. He preferred the wind to power the vessels he commanded.
Lolo Vicente was such a strict disciplinarian that when Lolo Melanio, one of his sons, committed a fault by going down the vessel while it was docked in Masbate against the express order of his father, the 25 lashes punishment was meted on him3 . Lolo Melanio, then 15 years old, ran away to Australia, married there and had a son.
Lolo Vicente married Dolores de los Reyes of Capiz, a relative of the late Archbishop Gabriel de los Reyes of Cebu and Manila. Lolo Vicente and Lola Dolores had the following children (not in order): Honorato, Paulino, Alejandro (Vicentico), Gaudencio, Melanio and Flora. In addition to the daughter and five sons with Lola Dolores, Lolo Vicente, the sea captain, also had the following children: Petrona (Legaspi) Quisumbing, Agaton, Boadillo, Elias (Luis) and Flora.
Lolo
Vicente owned such large tracts of land in Masbate that Elias asked me what the
proprietarios (legitimate children) were going to do with the land that
Ex-Governor Vicente Quisumbing had appropriated for himself. Upon my return from Masbate, I mentioned
this to my father, Emilio. He replied
that he replied
that he remembered his father, Lolo Honorato, telling his mother, Lola Akang,
not to bother about the land in Masbate as they had more than enough in Laguna. "Let the Quisumbings in Capiz do what
they wish with the land." The land
included a gold mining claim in Aroroy, now being mined by Atlas Mining
Company.
3 The lashing of Lolo Melanio was told to me by Elias Quisumbing, a son of Don Vicente whom I met in Masbate. He is the father of Leonardo (Leo) Quisumbing, the current Chief of Staff of Philippine President Fidel Ramos, and the former Undersecretary of National Defense for Civil Affairs during the administration of President Corazon Aquino. Elias, who was 67 years old when I met him, was the youngest of Lolo Vicente's sons. Although my father Emilio never knew or heard of him, the Quisumbings in Capiz knew him.
THE QUISUMBING CLAN
