The Beginning of It All
Melchor Waje introduced himself as a Melbourne couturier who had come from the Philippines via the United States. He was obviously a successful one, as we later found out that he was catering for the fashion needs of the ladies in Melbourne's high society. I remained quiet as he made himself known to us. Having found out that my surname was Vergara, he said his mother's maiden surname was the same and that we must be related. When I expressed objection, he disclosed that his mother had been keeping a family tree that showed the origins of the first Vergaras in the Philippines.
Accordingly they were seven brothers who had come from China and had initially settled in Santo Tomas, Pampanga. To avoid harassment and persecution from the Spanish authorities, their descendants eventually adopted the surname of Vergara long time before the Spanish Governor, Narciso Claveria, decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames by the inhabitants. The eldest of the seven brothers, a habitual drug addict, was eventually disowned after several unsuccessful rehabilitation attempts by his siblings. From him would emerge the impoverished Vergaras to whom Mel adamantly claimed he and I belonged. So the story goes. Mel revealed that his ambition to redeem the 'lost place and honour' of our branch has egged him on to work his guts out. He also disclosed a remarkable fact on the impoverished Vergaras - the females greatly outnumbered the males.
Initially, I skeptically showed little interest and disbelief at Mel's fantastic story. Any fellow migrant to Australia who knew any Vergara from where he had come from, would always say something laudable. I would always jokingly interject that if they were wealthy, I was not related to them. I had always thought there was nothing exciting in my paternal ancestors. For I had been more interested on my mother's side, the Mag-isas.
Before World War II, some uncles and cousins of my mother had joined a religio-peasant-millenarian revolutionary movement whose leader was probably so charismatically convincing that they followed him in his ascent of Mt. Arayat to wait for the expected end of the world. It was a total disaster! Only three Mag-isa children would survive this religious experience.
During the war, my mother's brother, Gaudencio, enlisted in the 'Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon' or Hukbalahap, the People's Army Against the Japanese. This peasant movement would continue after the war and my uncle died in the Sierra Mountain ranges near San Miguel, Bulacan. Many relations were either members or sympathizers of the peasant rebels in Central Luzon before, during and after the Second World War.
During school holidays, my brother, Ceferino, and I would discover unexploded grenades under the house of our maternal relations' place. There was nothing exciting like this on my father's side, so I had thought. Later on, my brother would become a soldier and be decorated by the future President of the Philippines, General Ramos, for getting wounded in the successful defense of the republic in a coup during the presidency of Cory Aquino. A non-commissioned officer, my brother was always lucky to find himself in the winning faction of the military during the numerous coups that plagued the Aquino presidency.
Mel Waje became very close to my family and would always treat my children at McDonald's. I asked my brother in the Philippines to investigate the Vergaras on our side. He sent me back a family tree, which went up only up to my great grandfather. I had two brothers and five sisters. My father, Domingo, had a brother who died in infancy and six sisters. His father, Perfecto, had five sisters and no brother. Perfecto's father had a brother, Hilario, but it could not be determined whether they had sisters or not. Hilario produced a son, Felipe who fathered four daughters, and a daughter, Teodora, who had five daughters. Even we, my brothers and sisters, do not have more sons than daughters. Mel's claim that females greatly outnumbered males was proving true in my own family.
Mel Waje's untimely death in July 17, 1991 left me wondering as I never came to get hold of the family tree which he had claimed to be in the possession of his mother. Inquiries about his family members proved futile. This fired my imagination more.