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HIPOLITO IMPAT TANGONAN

Hipolito Impat Tangonan See Photos Polit

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ipolito Impat Tangonan was born on August 13, 1888 in Poblacion, Sinait, Ilocos Sur. He was the second child of Macario Tangonan and Juliana Impat. He and his siblings were raised in the small town of Sinait, Ilocos Sur. His known siblings were Francisco (Ikko), Filomena (Filomen), Cesaria (Sayyang), Nicolasa (Colasa) and Arsenio (Arsen).

He married Basilia Madamba Impelido and their union produced 6 children: Urbano, Artemio, Dionisio, Emilio, Antonio and Irene. The 5th child, Antonio, died at the very young age of 2. The family resided in barangay Sta. Cruz, Sinait, Ilocos Sur.

He was a trained teacher and was assigned to teach 4th graders under the Spanish government. He did have the competence for the profession but he lacked the patience in handling the school children. He was said to be a strict disciplinarian. For fear that he might hurt the children and regret it later on, he decided to give up the teaching profession and joined the police force. This was during the early American government.

Being a policeman proved to be a taxing and thankless job, not to mention, dangerous. Most notably, the compensation was not enough to support his growing family. So he shifted to farming their parcels of land scattered in several barrios. Tried as he might, the income produced from farming was also insufficient.

In 1929, he ventured and sailed off to Hawaii, to work in a sugar cane plantation. He settled in Waipahu, Oahu, Hawaii.

For the first several years, he endured the backbreaking job of a "sakada", working in the fields under the scorching heat of the sun. One time, when he collected his paycheck, the payroll master noticed that he had a very neat and legible handwriting. Since then, he was taken out from the field and assigned to an office work instead.

During this time, he also asked two of his nephews, Eleuterio and Teodorico, to join him in Hawaii. Hence, this is probably the beginning of this family's lineage in Hawaii.

Originally, Hipolito planned to work in Hawaii until all his children finish college. The Second World War forced him to stay there a few years longer. He came back after the war. His hands were visibly ravaged from working in the fields several years back.

He died in January 24, 1956 in Sinait, Ilocos Sur.

BASILIA MADAMBA IMPELIDO

Basilia Madamba Impelido See Photos Polit's Family

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asilia, also known as Iliang, was born on May 21, 1891 in Barrio Sta. Cruz, Sinait, Ilocos Sur, from parents Venancio Impelido and Juliana Madamba. Both her parents belonged to prominent families in Ilocos. Her known kins include Quintin, Carmen, Fructuoso (Tusong) and Rufino (Pinong).

Growing up during the Spanish times in the Philippines, only the boys in Basilia's family were allowed to attend school. Back then, the Spanish teachers or priests were known to use severe whipping as a means to discipline erring students. It was for this reason that Basilia's parents decided not to send their girls to school.

The girls' education were not ignored or sacrificed though. The boys in the family who were able to attend school, carefully homeschooled Basilia and their other sisters. Born in the era, when attending a few years in school was enough, this family continued to seek higher learning. One of the boys attended the University of Chicago. Most of them ended up being a teacher or professor.

Perhaps it was this high regard for education that Basilia instilled on her own children as well. Though she never attended formal schooling, her intelligence was very much evident.

When Hipolito, her husband, regaled her of his many adventures in Hawaii and in the mainland, she would usually quipped, "Yes, you've been to a lot of places, but you've never experienced coming up to the stage and receive ribbons and trophies for your kids."

In 1957, a year after her husband's death, she died after a long bout with tuberculosis.

She left behind a legacy that endured even to this day, the love of learning.

FAMILY LIFE AND THE CHILDREN'S EARLY UPBRINGING

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hey could have been 25 and 28 years old, with Basilia younger by three years. They could not have been married earlier than 1916 considering the fixed normal biological birthing among humans. Also considering the successive and close births of their six children, including Antonio who died early.

It is assumed that unless one's level of living is far above average, Hipolito and Basilia could not expect to dream and strive to climb the long, arduous, and expensive educational ladder that can ensure a professional life later.

Hipolito and Basilia started to struggle in earnest, first, with Hipolito abandoning his original government post and concentrating their joint efforts to farming their own agricultural lands, in more than five barangays - in Santa Cruz, Dadalaquiten, Sapriana, Nagbaliwartian, Masadag, and Binacud.

They became the central subject of gossip, expressing derision, cynicism, all saying that their goal of raising a family of all professional was simply an impossible dream, considering that even the neighbors of a higher standard of living could not make. Someone even challenged Basilia to cut one of his fingers if they succeeded in having at least one professional.

But instead of discouragement which was never in the vocabulary Basilia, they served the opposite as a challenge and an encouragement.

The Children's Educational Start

The nearest school where the children were expected to start was naturally the one and only public primary school in their barrio, the Santa Cruz Primary School. But it was not to be their first school.

The school authorities and the schools PTA organization decided to call on the parents, especially their fathers to render free labor in putting up the needed school buildings made of local materials.

Hipolito decided to refuse the request. He considered that such request would demean and degrade his personality as a former government policeman and a teacher himself.

Thus the children were obliged to go to another barrio school, the Binacud Primary school, twice as far from home as their said Sta. Cruz Primary School. It was there where the four boys had their first taste of school life, a year after the other.

For Urbano that was 1924 at seven years old, Artemio was next in 1925. There was to be a gap of one year intended for the late Antonio, and so Dionisio had to wait for the next school year, 1927-28, in the same school.

By the following school year, Urbano, by the pleadings of their mother, Basilia, transferred to the Sta. Cruz Primary School. He was already a fourth grader and fast gaining popularity among the school population as the bright boy and pride of the school for his high grades in all the subject curricular offerings. He would top all district contests in the academic subjects. His name was known in all the schools and barangays of the municipality.

By the time Dionisio and Artemio could also transfer to the Sta. Cruz Primary School for their last years of their primary schooling, their eldest brother, Urbano promoted twice in every school year, was already a high school eligible.

It was at this stage that started the painful separation from each other, not only among themselves, but also between them and their parents, and who would themselves separated by force of circumstance.

Their father, Hipolito, with the willing but painful acceptance of their mother Basilia, left for Hawaii on March 14, 1928 and could not return earlier than 1946, nineteen years later.

It was Hipolito who proposed to return much earlier but was prevailed upon to maintain his stay and employment in Hawaii to ensure the undisturbed momentum of their children's school and college education. It was Basilia's decision and insistence that prevailed. To avoid delay in the children's schooling, Basilia's decision was to be followed without the slightest deviation.

Artemio and Dionisio were to start their high school education at the Lagangilang Agricultural National High School, the only one of its kind in the Region. The entrance fees and other legitimate fees were affordably low and free meals were given the entire student population. It was a painful decision to be separated away from home at the early age of Artemio and Dionisio at ages 15 and 13 respectively and likewise, even more painful on the part of their mother, living all by herself in their good old Santa Cruz. And for the two brothers, some 150kms away from home, without enough money, would just stay put.

Emilio and Irene were to continue their school at the Cabugao Institute, the next town south of Sinait and at the Central Elementary School, respectively. They would come home only during weekends and, Artemio and Dionisio, only once or twice a year if they've enough money for their travel expenses.