Just Call Me Rose

Early this year, I whimsically googled my great grandfather’s name, “Sabas Gaerlan.” I was not expecting a result. I thought perhaps a mention of a Sabas of Hispanic and/or Latin American origin but certainly, not one who was related to me.

What google brought up was this entry:

 http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000258867

Sabas Gaerlan’s journal, as translated by Jane G. Guerrero. The synopsis confirmed that the book was my great grandfather’s journal. He wrote it in deep, deep Ilokano (a regional Filipino dialect) that the author could not translate the whole journal, but just sections of it.

I immediately bought the book (and several copies for relatives) and I am taking my time reading it. I cannot find enough words to express how important this gift was to us, his descendants. It is a wonderful insight into who he was as a person, what our family was like, how involved our family was in helping communities rebuild right after the Spanish-American war and more importantly, a documentation of how life was for Filipinos right before the turn of the century.

Thank you Sabas.

Thank you Jane Guerrero.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 25th, 2010 at 3:40 am and is filed under History and Heritage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.