University of Santo Tomas

Our Tatay was always very proud that he graduated with his undergraduate and M.D. degree from the oldest university in Asia, University of Santo Tomas. After he served in USAFFE in his mid-teens during World War II, he finished high school and then went to Manila to study at UST. Our Lolo Ambo wanted a doctor in the family, though our Tatay's true loves were athletics and history. After graduating with his M.D. degree in the early 1950s, he stayed on at UST for 10 years as a volleyball and basketball coach. One of Tatay's most prized possessions was his old maleta from UST. It was ancient, brown, mottled leather, with UST stickers on it. In it he kept his old UST basketball shorts, his UST photo album, and all important papers. I remember thinking that the maleta held all the secrets to my Tatay's life before he married and had us, and that it smelled like the Philippines, or at least, what I thought the Philippines must smell like. When he passed away in April 2005, I immediately asked for the maleta and we opened it, finding so many treasures and clues to the person he was. One of the photographs in the maleta I loved the most was of Tatay walking on the UST campus, sometime in the 1950s.Before he passed away, I always imagined that I would one day go to UST with Tatay, so he could show me his beloved alma mater. After he passed, I resolved that I would still go, and moreover, I would find where he took this picture. Yesterday, I felt that he was with us when we arrived on campus. It is a beautiful campus, a venerable one, rich with history. At first, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the exact place where he posed so confidently, cigarette in his lips. Then we saw the distinctive main building, and turned towards what the campus map told us was the gymnasium, where I know he spent the better part of his 20s to his 40s. And then, there was the picture, and we felt as though Tatay took my shoulders and pointed us in the right direction. The trees are much bigger, there are cars now where only students must have only been allowed, but here it was. And I realized that my father was swaggering confidently in that photograph towards the gymnasium.
We were able to later go inside and watch the women's volleyball team, which my dad had coached for many years. Then we went to the Public Affairs office to buy some T-Shirts. There, I talked to Aristotle Garcia from that office, and explained why I was visiting and showed him some of the photos I had of my dad in his UST days. The office asked for digital copies of the photos for their university archives -- they loved them, especially the one of Tatay walking to the gym. Here are some of the photos I shared with the UST folks:


Tatay is second from the right in the front row.
Tatay, the coach of the UST men's basketball team, is first on the left in the top row.

For many years, Tatay (center, crouching) coached the UST women's volleyball team.
Tatay was a talented coach; here he poses at the UST gym with his trophies in the 1950s. Yesterday, we watched his former team get their puets kicked by Ateneo.
I always wondered what would have happened if Lolo Ambo hadn't forced Tatay to leave UST to come to the US; I know he loved coaching. As I was taking pictures, I imagined that the coach (in blue shirt) very well could have been my dad had he made different choices. And if he had stayed, I think the Tigers would have won yesterday, but I wouldn't be blogging this.


Being on campus helped me to imagine a certain person Tatay must have been, in a time when he was young, ambitious, passionate about sports and history and the city of Manila, a time before the work in the fields wore his body down and the frustrations of life in the United States embittered him. We love you, Tatay. Thanks for coming with us to show us your beloved UST.