Celia: A study in contradiction

Celia Rodriguez is the perfect study in contradiction. I know a lot of people, for instance, who are intimidated by her and get hopelessly rattled just by her mere presence. And yet those who know her and know her well swear by her solicitousness, warmth and kindness.

For this casual evening interview, she goes through the arduous process of dressing up well in an all-black outfit topped by a beret – only to spoil the total look by lugging a plastic bag of egg tarts as pasalubong for his writer.

And while she looks perfectly comfortable amidst the Italian setting of the classy La Dolce Fontana in Greenhills, she doesn’t mind giving you – in between appetizers of pate – a step-by-step method on how to cook ginataang santol the Bicolano way.

During the animated talk – a four-hour long conversation covering her life, career and religion – I discovered that she is truly a woman of contrasting substances. A person so simple, who has had to face life’s various complications.

Actually, her beginnings weren’t really all that complex. Born Cecilia Rodriguez in Bulan, Sorsogon, her father, Angel, was more Castilian than Filipino; he traced his roots in the Spanish seaport province of Barcelona. He died in 1985. Her mother, Perla Obsum – also of mestiza stock – is still around and has made her home in California.

Quite well-off, the Rodriguez couple raised their eight children – all girls (with Celia coming in second to the eldest) – in a vast hacienda that covers the San Benon hot springs, now a popular resort in Sorsogon. Their house – with three huge living rooms – stood at a safe distance away from Mouth Bulusan, an active volcano that had 12 recorded eruptions. Life was good at the hacienda, the setting of what Celia described as "her perfect childhood."

When it was time for her to go to school, however, she and her sisters were sent to the Colegio de la Milagrosa – also in Sorsogon – as internas under the supervision of the Sisters of Charity. Life at the convent was too rigid for her with its rules as stiff as the starched cornets worn by the nuns who considered it a sin to be reading Bulaklak, Liwayway and Kislap.

But forbidden or not, Celia still went on reading smuggled local fan magazines in the convent, while at the same time dreaming of a career in the movies.

After she finished high school, her father decided to give up the hacienda – along with the abaca and copra business – and brought the family to the more progressive Legaspi City.

Celia didn’t get to stay long in Legaspi because when the family moved there, it was time for her to go to Manila for College. At the Centro Escolar University, she initially took up two years of secretarial and, later, two more years of Commerce. She remembers her father telling them, "I don’t care if I go bankrupt, but I’ll see to it that you all get educated." And they did. All eight Rodriguez girls actually finished college, Celia points out proudly.

As a student in Manila, she lived in a house in Sta. Mesa under the care of an aunt who gave her the liberty to socialize and meet new friends – a stark contrast to the prison that was Colegio de la Milagrosa.

It was in one of those parties where she was drafted to join the world of ramp modeling under the tutelage of then young designer Eddie Ocampo.

She counts among her contemporaries in modeling Cristy Flores, Pearlie Arcache, Tina Artillaga and Vina Cansino, who remains a good friend to her to this day.

But even if she enjoyed the company of friends in the modeling business, she had yet to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an actress in the movies. Luckily, her aunt knew Doña Adela Santiago. The Premiere matriarch was obviously impressed when presented with the young Celia and introduced her in the Pablo Santiago film, Student Canteen, a takeoff from the variety series, which was then a popular program on radio. In the movie, she was cast as the cousin of Corazon Rivas and had Paquito Toledo as her leading man.

For her second film, Shirley, My Darling, Celia played cousin this time to Shirley Gorospe, a balikbayan model-turned-actress who was then a big sensation in local movies. In this high romance drama directed by no less than the Gerry de Leon, Celia was paired opposite Eddie Mesa.

Celia Rodriguez actually had a six-year contract with Premiere Productions. But after only three years – during which she did Pagsikat ng Araw, Viuda de Oro and Konsiyerto ng Kamalayan – she decided to bolt out of the studio to go freelance.

Under People’s Production – and under the guidance once more of Gerry de Leon – Celia played a vampire in Kulay Dugo ang Gabi and won a FAMAS Best Supporting Actress in 1964. (To be continued)

She received the same award two years later when she did Passionate Strangers with Eddie Romero, who also won Best Screenplay and Best Director, but failed to annex the Best Picture trophy on his loot. The Best Picture prize went instead to Joseph Estrada’s Ito ang Pilipino, prompting the feisty Celia Rodriguez to criticize the decision and called the FAMAS members a bunch of nincompoops. "It was something that I said in a private conversation, except that people started quoting me," says Celia, recalling this.