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Second Generation
Susana Ergino Baterna

This is my mother at her high school graduation



Planting rice is never
Bend forward til the set of sun
Can not stand, can not sit
Can not rest for a little bit


My mother too grew up in Binday, within the town San Fabian. She also was poor and did not have a lot of things to entertain her. The only thing that she had was a battery-powered radio. Since she was in a family of eight children, she had her other brothers and sisters to play with. Unlike my grandmother, my mother did not marry at such a young age. She had the opportunity to actually finish elementary and to attend high school. My mother graduated high school and also attended University of Santo Thomas in the capital Manila. My mother left Binday and had a chance to be educated, a chance that my grandmother was not able to have because she was poor and had a family at such a young age. My mom, however, was only given the chance to do these things because of her initiation. In order to go to school she started to work in the rice fields to earn money so that she could attend high school and college. High school was located in another town and in order to get there she had to have money for transportation. She started to work in order to earn money because her family could not support her to attend high school. Her working hard was the start of adulthood because she supported herself and helped out with her family. She could only attend high school if she had the money. There was no public schooling that the government supported and paid for children to attend schools. In order to attend a higher education, my mother had to pay. While attending high school, she continued to work in the rice fields so that she could put herself through the rest of high school and have the opportunity to attend college in Manila. She earned enough money to leave Binday and live on her own in the city. Working was the start of her adulthood. At a young age, she supported herself and helped with the family.

When I asked my mom what song she thought of when she first started working, she told me of a song she use to sing while working. She use to sing “Planting rice” whenever she worked because it was such a hard thing to do. The song entertained her while working in the heat from the sun of the Philippines. I could not find the song because it was only sung within the village and among the children who worked with my mom. She did not enjoy working, however, it gave her hopes of a better life. While singing this song the time went faster and it made her happy because singing was something my mom loved doing. One of my mother’s talents was singing. Even while attending high school and college she joined the choir.

The song that is playing is called “Anak” meaning child. It was a song that she would listen to while she was in college. It reminded her of her family back in Binday while she was gone away to college.

Manuela Ergino
Susana Ergino Baterna
Mary Rosanna Baterna

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