Copyright Quisumbing Family 2007. All rights reserved.
On the night before their day of departure, the pensionados of 1903 were the guests of honor during a special musical performance of an opera at the largest theater in Manila. In the morning of their departure, a large crowd gathered at the headquarters of the Federal Party where Civil Governor Taft, Commissioners Smith and Tavera and other prominent Filipinos delivered speeches to the crowd. From there, ninety eight31 (not ninety three according to his grandfather) students accompanied by six brass bands, numerous civic organizations and thousands of citizens led the procession to the pier.32 Among those students in the parade was Emilio33 who was in Los Banos, Laguna when informed of his selection. He had to travel by land from there to Manila to be on time for departure. His mother, Ciriaca, was particularly worried for him due to the uncertainty of public transportation at that time. Luckily he reached the wharf on time to board the ship before departure from Manila.34
Ninety eight of
them35 boarded the Japanese ship S.S. Rohilla Maru from
Manila to Hongkong. The only
inconvenience they experienced was that all of them had to be accommodated in a
room for only eighty persons. In Hong Kong, they
transferred to S.S. Korea bound for the United
States on October 13, 1903.
While on board this ship, Mr. Sutherland continued his lectures on table
etiquette and personal manners to the students as he had done before in
Manila. Once or twice a day the
students were subjected to military drills under Sutherland. Upon landing at
San Francisco on November 9, 1903, the military
training they had on the ship was clearly demonstrated by their behavior from
the wharf through the Customs to the shops and the railway station. Without this
training it would not been possible to handle these students.
In San Francisco Sutherland
had to purchase the necessary clothing for these students and two days later all
of them departed for southern
California on board the special
Southern Pacific Railway cars. Since there was no time to buy suitcases for the
new clothing, the paper bags containing them were totally wet from the rain and
most of them were scattered everywhere from San
Francisco to San
Diego.
In Los
Angeles the students on November 12 and 13 were
distributed to Santa Barbara,
Ventura, Hueneme,
Santa Paula,
Claremont,
Redlands,
Riverside,
Santa Ana, San
Diego, National
City, Compton
and Whittier. Prof. Bernard Moses of
the University of
California, a former member of the
First Philippine Commission, helped in the admission of the students in the
public schools of California’s
seven southern counties. The climate in southern
California was similar to that of
the Philippines
and therefore it was advantageous to the students. Furthermore, according to B.
Moses, California’s public schools
were among the best in the United States.36
As noted above, the students in the different locations of southern
California attended public schools
for their remedial classes taught in English for the entire school year since
they were tutored in Spanish during their schooling in the
Philippines.
Emilio in particular had his remedial classes at
Compton High
School in Compton,
California for one school
year.37
In the summer of 1904, the students
were reunited in Santa Barbara where
they spent their time for morning classes on the different subjects, afternoon
sport events of basketball, baseball, tennis and sipa, and evening literary and
musical entertainments. On July 29,
1904, the students gave a performance as final entertainment in honor
of Santa Barbara citizens.
On August 5, 1904, all of them arrived at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis,
Missouri where they were billeted in several
rooms at the Philippine Constabulary quarters. While there for this month, they
served the Philippine Exposition Board to perform clerical work, compile juries’
awards and to act as tour guides for three hours everyday. Here they learned
from the Philippine Exposition so many things about their country, of its
products and industries than they had known before leaving the
Philippines. On
August 13, they participated in a parade of several miles reviewed by the
Secretary of War and other officials in the exposition grounds. Since that day
was really hot, many soldiers and sailors except the students became dizzy or
fainted. As the students passed on review, they greeted the Secretary of War
with shouts, one of which was “Taft, President 1908!.”38
From there, they proceeded to their respective assigned universities in eastern United States. Emilio took limelight as he enrolled for his bachelor degree of science in civil engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He graduated from that University with the said degree majoring in hydraulics on April 22, 1908.39 After his graduation, he participated in a watercolor painting competition at New York City where he was awarded the first prize for his entry.40 Then he returned back to the Philippines in the same year.
His Homecoming and Marriage
On his return, he worked with Manila City Hall as a civil engineer, one of the first Filipino engineers to graduate from the United States. One of his early assignments was to accomplish a road survey which is presently the Taft Avenue. At that time, land in this area was sold at fifty centavos per square meter. He told Tomas Arguelles, a prominent architect, who was his uncle being an elder brother of his mother Ciriaca, about the matter. But the latter being young and inexperienced in real estate business refused to listen to his nephew’s suggestion and missed the golden opportunity of owning large tracts of land presently worth several million pesos. The former did not have the financial resources to invest in land since his salary was only eighty pesos a month.
On the following year, an important event that ended his bachelor days and changed his lifestyle was the Manila Carnival. It was held at the Nozaleda Park where the prewar Deparments of Finance and of Agriculture buildings were located. This park was bounded by San Luis Street (now T. M. Kalaw) in the south, Padre Jose Burgos Street in the north, General Antonio Luna Street in the east and Luneta in the west.
During this carnival, Maria Purificacion Z. Corrales was part of the entourage of Queen Julieta I, with Emilio A. Quisumbing as Maria’s escort. Among the guests present during the coronation night were Maria’s parents, Carlos G. Corrales, Assemblyman of Misamis Oriental, and Filomena Zamora Corrales. Her grandmother was Filomena Quisumbing Zamora.41Hence, Emilio and Maria were second degree cousins on both paternal and maternal affinities.42
The couple were married under Catholic rites on September 23, 1909.43 Their principal nuptial sponsors were Leonardo Osorio, former Governor of Cavite, and Felicidad Z. Garcia, the bride’s first cousin.44 The bride’s parents, Carlos and Filomena Corrales, were present during the wedding rites on this date in Manila. They received two invitations to attend the inauguration rites of Governor General William C. Forbes and
