Copyright Quisumbing Family 2008. All rights reserved.
Remembering Pop
Part II
The Life of Engineer Carlos Emilio Corrales Quisumbing
by
Jose R. Quisumbing*
1942-2007
Introduction
It is my honor and a privilege, as the eldest of nine living siblings, and a historian by profession and inclination, to write this biography, as suggested by some members of my family.
Birth and Boyhood
My father--Carlos Emilio Corrales Quisumbing nicknamed Carling--was born on September 9, 1910 in Manila. His parents were Emilio Arguelles Quisumbing and Maria Purificacion Zamora Corrales. Pop (as we called him) was the eldest of seven children, six of them (Carlos, Pacita, Emilio, Jr., Manuel, Alberto and Ricardo in descending order) reaching adulthood while one (Consolacion born between Pacita and Emilio, Jr.) dying during her infancy.
Lolo and Lola first rented a house at M.H. del Pilar Street and later an accessoria owned by Don Vicente Reyes in Pennsylvania Avenue (now Leon Guinto, Sr. Street). In 1914, together with their two eldest children, they transferred to their own house at 1020 San Andres, Malate. It was there that the rest of the children were born.
Educational Background
Pop was privileged to enroll and complete his elementary and secondary schooling at the American school reserved for children of officers on active duty in the U.S. Army. His father, Lolo Emilio, joined the Corps of Engineers, Philippine National Guard, with the rank of major on the invitation of Colonel Stroke, the commanding officer (Chief of Engineers), in 1917. Pop must have been influenced by Lolo Emilio to pursue his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of the Philippines at Padre Faura Street and graduated from this University with the said degree in l934. He took and passed the board exams for civil engineering slated in that year. One of his American female classmates upon his high school graduation wrote: “a diamond in the rough is Carlos.”
Early Working Experiences
Pop’s first construction project under Santa Clara Construction Company was the Quezon Bridge in Quiapo, Manila which was built in the mid 1930’s under the Philippine Commonwealth Government. A model of this bridge was later used to decorate his wedding cake in April 1941. I would proudly pass through this bridge with a hand salute as I walked from one end of the bridge to the other to the Manila Central Post Office in Plaza Lawton or as I rode a jeepney on my way to Pasay City via Taft Avenue to view the Rizal Monument in Luneta Park in the early 1970’s, mid 1980’s and early and mid 1990’s.
It was during the period of supervising the construction of St. Theresa’s College Auditorium in San Marcelino, Manila when Pop first saw a junior education colegiala who was destined to be his wife (and my mother). He came to know her name as Lourdes Reynes after hearing it being announced as the junior college student received the gold medal for excellence during the 1939 graduation night ceremonies.
Proposal and Marriage
After finding out that Mom’s origin was from Cebu, Pop’s family lost no time to contact the Seguras who could arrange a meeting with her family without her knowledge. He befriended the nuns and her friends. The nuns in particular considered him to be their favorite suitor for Lourdes and made it difficult for other suitors to see her.
Pop personally arranged a party for one of her friends and sought permission from Sister Edmunde, the college dean, to make sure that Mom would be present at this party. Here they were formally introduced to each other. When asked by the dean if she found anyone interesting, she said no one. When prompted further, she replied “that old engineer.” When admonished by Sister Edmunde who shared Pop’s serious intentions towards her, Mom just laughed because she considered Pop to be too old for her.
After her graduation in March 1940, Mom took her first teaching assignment at St. Theresa’s College in Cebu where Pop made frequent trips, taking a leave of absence from his work. He was persistent about getting married to her soon and to start a family. They kept in constant communication through letters in-between the months they were apart. These letters numbered more than one hundred and were arranged chronologically by Aniceto Flores (Tito Aning), her second cousin, in a wooden treasure box. Unfortunately, these were lost during the Japanese Occupation (1941-1944).
After getting permission to visit her during Christmas break from Father Emiliano, her guardian and granduncle, in Cebu, Pop proposed marriage to Mom on December 28, Holy Innocents’ Day. For her, it must have been a joke because it was customary to play jokes or make pranks to people on this day. When pressed for an answer to a marriage offer, Mom asked Pop to choose the right one of three boxes to
obtain a “yes” reply. This device was similar to that of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. These boxes, however, contained “yes” expressed in different ways. Pop refused to participate in her game, saying this was too serious a matter to leave it to chance.
Both decided to get married on a Saturday, April 19, l941 at the bride’s parish church of San Nicolas, Cebu City. Wedding preparations were arranged in three different places: in Manila where the wedding cake decorated with a replica of Quezon Bridge as mentioned earlier was baked in Manila by Leni Revilla, Pop’s second cousin; in Iloilo where the wedding gown was sewn by the Mom’s cousin, the daughter of Vicente Mercado, and in Cebu where the ceremony was to take place.
The person who was probably most emotionally involved in this event was her guardian and granduncle, Father Mercado (Iyay). It was he who woke Mom in the early morning of her wedding day to get ready to dress up and have her hair fixed and who prayed with her at the altar in the convent before the bridal march in the church. He felt it was too much for him to perform the wedding ceremony. So he asked his good friend, Monsignor Castro, of Tanjay, Negros Oriental to officiate while he quietly stood by. He wrote his dedication of the wedding souvenir album in the Spanish language.
Aside from the groom and bride’s families and relatives, a number of the bride’s classmates and many of her students were witnesses to this special happening.
After the wedding, Pop and Mom visited her mother’s grave at San Nicolas Cemetery along Vicente Rama Avenue. Here they laid a cord of flowers on her grave. Then they paid a visit to Mother Alix at St. Theresa’s College along Mango Avenue. The Belgian sister’s high esteem of the groom was instrumental on the bride’s final decision to marry him. Pop and Mom placed the wedding bouquet at the foot of the statue of Our Lady in the school chapel, a custom among Theresian brides.
Then they proceeded to the deck of Don Esteban, the site of the wedding reception on board this luxury ship. They took this boat on their way to Manila on that same day.
