Panalig Gomez Jose
Grandma Pam was born March 14, 1925.* She was born in Nandacan, Bautista, Pangasinan (which is right across the Agno River from Bayambang, where her mother, Heliodora, was born.
Google Earth screenshot showing Bayambang on the left, where Heliodora was from, and Nandacan in Bautista on the right, where Grandma Pam was born. This area would have been very close to, if not a part of, Mangabol Marsh, which I yap about more in another post.
Grandma Pam and her siblings spoke Ilocano** in addition to Tagalog, which we know 1) because they’re from Pangasinan and 2) because a Tito remembers them speaking Ilocano with domestic workers.
I think when she was 6, the family moved to Baguio in 1931 as Felipe E. Jose launched his campaign and became a city councilor. She was the baby of eight older siblings: Armando, Lualhati, Luningluning, Liberato (Toots), Felipe Jr. (Peets), Dalisay, and Ligaya (Lil).
The Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941 (ten hours after Pearl Harbor) and occupied Baguio until 1945. Grandma would have been ages 16-20. Does anyone remember her stories of dressing like a boy and hiding in chicken coops? Does anyone know the story of her mom, Heliodora, being shot by the Japanese and falling down the mountain?
When she was 24 (in 1949), she got a Filipino passport (with visas for the US in March and China in April). See below for a lethal face card.
Like so gorgeous it’s unreal.
Okay, some rapid-fire timelining:
She married _____ Bennett in ____?
She had Uncle Scott in 1951.
She was naturalized as a US Citizen in 1954.
She had Auntie Kwan in 1959.
She married David H. Mangle in 1961 in Las Vegas.
She had my mom, Cindy, in 1963.
Grandma Pam and Uncle Scott
Grandma Pam, Auntie Kwan, and my mom, Cindy
* This is according to her passports, but there is one Municipality of Bautista registrar document, which “copied from the original on file,” that says 1923. However, as I’ve researched, I’ve found that all these historical documents get dates and name spellings incorrect a lot of the time.
** Because Ilocano and Pangasinan are mistakenly conflated, there is a small question in my mind about whether we are Iloko and/or Pangasinense.