Mr. Silverio Gutierrez was my English Teacher. he gave me a good grade. I might have flattered his ego. In 1952 I was assigned as Law Instructor in the Philippine Constabulatory School in Camp Crame by Gen. Florencio Solga. Then in 1957 I was transferred to the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City to teach Law and other Social Science subjects.
At night time I also taught Biology, Economics, and Philippine History in the AFPSEM (Armed Forces School for Enlisted Men) in Fort Gregorio del Pilar. It was there where I retired in 1965 with the rank of Major.
5. Our teacher in 2nd year H.S., Miss Lea Bringas, for Science subject, told us to submit a project of any kind that is useful. I saw a MISAL (bookstand) for placing a book like the one used for the Bible in church and I asked my mother who owned it as it was lying idle under our house in our store room. She said that it belonged to my cousin, Loreto Bravo, who left for America and she said that when he saw a shooting star at night he pointed at it and shouted AMERICA!
Since then I watched for a shooting star because I wanted very much to see America. At that time the influence of the movies and magazines to young people in Abra was very great. Miss Bringas gave me a good grade for my project of a hand-made MISAL or bookstand, saying that I did it myself unlike those of others which were made by carpenters.
I was about to be sent to the M.P. School in U.S.A. as a military “pensionado” or student-officer in 1951 buy my alternate, who was a finance officer, was sent instead of me. I was very much disappointed because I saw my dream burst like an air bubble! After my alternate returned to Manila from the M.P. School in U.S.A. he went on AWOL. It was found out that he had mismanaged so much money and he was suspected of malversation. Then I made my own conclusions why I, the Principal, did not get it.
After my retirement my only remaining unfulfilled ambition before I die was to see America. Then came my chance in 1971 when I came to America as a tourist to see my American-born grandson, Chris, the first child of Jojo.
When my visa expired I filed my application for American citizenship in 1972 after hiring a lawyer in New York who raised his fees to $3,000 from $400 after I showed him a newspaper clipping that a Filipino, an ex-USAFFE like me, was granted citizenship in California. Because I can’t afford his fees, I said: “Lord you are the best lawyer up there. Nothing is impossible with you. With your help I can be an American citizen.”
I got my papers from the New York lawyer and filed my application with the Immigration and Naturalization Office in Philadelphia where I lived with my daughters Betty and Jojo. To make the story short, my petition was granted and I became an American citizen in 1973. Aside from the $25 filing fee, I only spent a $1 fine for over-parking in front of the courthouse in Tampa where I took my oath before a judge. PTL! And so with the help of God I realized my ambition to see America and also became an American citizen. Had I seen America in 1951 I could have lost my desire to see it again, but God has a plan for everyone.
It is said that the long wait before a prayer is answered is to make us prepared to receive, with a bigger basket, the greater blessings he has prepared for us. I did not only see America, I became an American citizen, organized the Pilipino-American Association of Tampa, of which I became its founder and first President. The Lord also used me to help build a chapel of the Philippine Independent Church in Tampa as its first President for two terms. When my wife, Pat of Bangued, died in 1982, the Lord gave me a beautiful, loving and faithful second wife who is of Italian-Spanish ancestry from Chile, S.A. In 1983 we went to South America where we stayed for two months with the relatives there.
What more can I ask for from God?
"This is my story, this is my song
Praising my savior all the day long,
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my savior all the day long."
In this connection, I would like to add that it was when I was making my devotion to St. Joseph that he interceded for me to realize my ambition to see America, that I came to America. When I visited New York City I asked my nephew-in-law to buy me a Bible. He bought one from the St. Patrick's Cathedral, a Catholic Bible, St. Joseph Edition.
It was in that church where I concluded my devotion to St. Joseph. Somebody in Manila told me that St. Joseph is a strong intercessor for the fulfillment of an ambition. It was in Stella Maris in Cubao, Quezon City where I started my devotion to St. Joseph.
Two unusual incidents happened there. One early morning on my way to the six o'clock mass I saw a UFO hovering over the Ateneo de Manila like a brightly-lighted football, then it shot up perpendicularly with a great burst of speed and disappeared. During the part of the mass wherein we extend our greeting of "Peace be with you" inside the church, I saw across the aisle my former girlfriend in H.S. whom I haven't seen since the Japanese occupation of Manila. We had a short conversation before I left for U.S.A.
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