Echiverri

From Susan Concepcion Echiverri MD

My husband is Henry Echiverri MD.   His father pictured on the left is CRISPIN POBRE ECHIVERRI, MD.  Crispin was born in Paoay October 15, 1923.  His father, Gregorio, left the family to be a sugarcane plantation farm laborer in Kauai.  Gregorio was there during WW II, the time that my father in law, Crispin, was a teenager and enlisted with the US Army and fought as a guerilla in the mountains of Ilocos Norte and Sur, Abra, Mountain Province and Benguet under Colonel Volksmann.  He ran after Yamashita’s troops and to this day remembers where the treasure was buried [4 meters away and deep from the oldest Oak tree in the highest mountain north of Baguio, which is known as Mount Data, the regimental headquarters of the Japanese General].   He was part of the ‘mopping up’, a short teenager, who rode on a horse as a special favor to him by an uncle [Esteban Sadang].  He remembers such niceties, some of them lifesaving, like the malaria pills that were precious and yet bestowed on him as he was convulsing with fever and rigors [from dysentery and malaria]. My father-in-law remembers all the names of his benefactors.  He also remembers the darkest dark that were the nights when they trounced in mud, in the rain as they ran after troops to ambush or sometimes, ran away from enemies they could not muster.

He started as Premed in UP but was interrupted by the war. His ROTC unit was activated and was to be sent to Bataan.  Unfortunately, first batch was ambushed and the rest of his unit was disbanded when Manila was declared an Open City for the occupation of Japanese Military to save further bloodshed.   An aunt [Felicia Echiverri, daughter of Tomas Echiverri] hired a truck from Narvacan and came looking for the young students in Manila to take them home to Ilocos in 1942.  At 19 years of age, Crispin worked as an Intelligence operative in Ilocos region, ultimately joining the guerilla fighting unit that covered the northern part of the Philippines.    He obtained his MD degree from UST 1952 and became a Malariologist, traveling the country north to south, bringing back exotic pets, garlic or lobster or hand carved wood ornaments.  His father Gregorio came home after a long stint in those fields in Hawaii that nobody else in his family ever  saw, and he came in time to celebrate the birth of my husband.  There is a portrait of infant Henry being cradled by his grandpa [see post on Gregorio].  Soon thereafter, the Hawaii plantation worker would die.

I myself  come from a family with roots that may have run just as deep as my  husband’s.  There is also drama all around, of children being bayoneted by the Japanese,and scandals being followed by bankruptcies. Though I hold dear the textures and colors of my aunt’s retelling of fortunes lost and what could have been, I always favored the images of my father-in-law and his comrades marching into  the devil darkness of war.  I also found the mountains of the north too mysterious and the traveling imposed on my husband’s youth mesmerizing.

In 2006, I gathered up my family – 18 and 15 year old daughters, 16 year old son and my husband and went back to my country of birth.  We first retraced my roots, mostly in Manila and then we went north – to the house where my husband was born, and later to the house where his father grew up.   Paoay, Ilocos Norte is home to the centuries-old Baroque style Paoay Church where both Crispin and Henry were baptized.

As they say:

There is a saying in Filipino that goes: “A man who does not know where he comes from will never know where he is going.”  We have now come full circle.

by Henry Echiverri MD

Gregorio Canonizado Echiverri was born May 1888.  He went to Hawaii with brother Esteban in 1926, just before Auntie Connie was born.  He was a volunteer National Guard in Hawaii during the war.  He lived in the Island of Kawaii. He came home to Philippines in 1954 and died in 1958.  He smoked a lot. During the Spanish time, they grew tobacco and even while living in Hawaii, he requested the native tobacco that wife Jacinta dutifully sent.  Gregorio’s mother Eduvijes Canonizado was from Paoay.  His grandmother was Vicenta Corpuz Acantilado.  His Great grandfather was Fabian Lazaro Echiverri who was married to Angela Cleto.

Jacinta Pobre, pictured on the left, comes from a long line of land owners and politicians.   Her great grandfather was Don Antonio Martin Pobre married to Tomasa Gonzales.  Their children were Maria I, Policarpio, Maria II, Buenventura, and  Timoteo whose wife was Pascuala Pobre Duque [Child of Don Jorge Duque and Cipriana Pobre].  Their children were Maximo married to Maria Leveriza [first marriage].  Second marriage was to Manuela Acasio [from Vintar, Ilocos Norte].  Children with Manuela were Faustino, Mauricia and Jacinta.  A half brother Gavino Pobre was a councilor in Manila and lived in Intramuros beside the old Cathedral.  Gavino was a prominent business owner of a printing company who rubbed shoulders with Manuel L. Quezon.  He was killed by the Japanese during the occupation.  Jacinta was an expert weaver [“abel”] for which Paoay was well known for.   Jacinta practically raised her 3 children on her own [single parent before it became fashionable] as Gregorio toiled the land in Kawaii

Just like everyone else who came to America, Gregorio was able to provide for his family back home giving his children the opportunity to have good education.    Crispin became a Physician, Connie and Felicitas finished BS E Ed.  In the picture from left are:  Consuelo Rosete, Felicitas Cu, Jacinta Pobre Echiverri, and Crispin Echiverri.   Consuelo lives in Los Angeles, Felicitas resides in Hawaii and Crispin lives with me in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

Gregorio came to the United States as part of an exodus of barrio folks recruited from the Ilocos Region to work in the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii.  He rode the steamer President Cleveland on May 1926 with his brother Esteban.  Several other cousins came; Federico, Raymundo, Jacinto to name a few, all of them Echiverris from Paoay, Ilocos Norte [see related story on Buenaventura].  He was stationed at Lihue Sugar Company in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii.  See related post “Documents uncovered”.

Younger brother Esteban [pictured with Gregorio on the right] went to Los Angeles and remained single.  Reportedly, he was a superb violin player [Auntie Connie later meets him when she immigrated to Los Angeles in the late 50’s].  Gregorio came home to the Philippines in August 1954.  He is shown carrying me as a baby alongside Lola Jacinta who was cradling an infant Emmy.  Seated in front are Odette and Ruben.  In many ways, the genes from these intrepid explorers and strong woman rans deep in my heart and my children’s.   The one thing that burned in their heart was to make the world they lived in a better one.  Our world is now bigger and we owe it to them to make it even better!