Mexican? Indian? German? Filipino!

My birthday marked the most exciting and fun I have had in a long time. I was swamped with so many birthday greetings from relatives, friends and people who read me. If I haven’t replied to yours, thank you very much for your birthday wishes. You filled up my heart and made me forget I was turning 78!

It was the first time in many, many years that I had lunch with this batch of Rizal cousins. We were the descendants of Paciano and Narcisa Rizal in Marlene and Esther; from Lucia in Tess and Peachy; and the rest of us were descendants of Maria.

Maria, our great-grandmother, had two children: a woman, Encarnacion (Lola Tiang to us), and a man, our grandfather Mauricio (Lolo Morris to us). Our branch is descended from him. This lunch was organized by my first cousin, Gemma Cruz Araneta, whom I have called Mimi since we were small. Her son Leon now owns Kashmir, Indian food, and New Deli, the Kashmir branch in Forbes Park, which he has renamed. New Deli serves Indian and Mexican food. It’s a good pun.

There were three of us descended from Lolo Morris — sequentially, Mimi, me, and Mia Sy-quia Faustmann, the youngest among us. Lolo Morris’ eldest was our Tita Caring who married Pedro Sy-quia, Sr. There were two descendants of Lola Tiang — Encarnita Laurel Loewen, who once married a German, and her first cousin, Dina Laurel Velasco. There were nine of us, a small segment of the Rizal women descendants. If you begin to count generations beginning with Francisco and Teodora, we belong to the fifth generation.

When we were tiny, we often played together in each other’s houses. But when we hit our teens our parents had major disagreements, mostly about inheritance, like so many families of all nationalities. But their fights and our decisions to live our own lives took up much of our time. We stopped spending time with each other and our intimate childhood relationships ended.

But now we are in our 60s and 70s, some pushing 80. Now we meet again with a lot of warmth, laughter and funny stories. We sat outside New Deli, at the back of the little mall across the San Antonio church. We were outdoors because of COVID. We took off our masks and risked our propriety because we had that porch all to ourselves. What would you like to drink — margarita or Coke? Most of us chose margaritas, that wonderful intoxicating Mexican drink. Is drinking alcohol a trait of Rizal ladies? I really don’t know. We occasionally enjoy serious drinks.

We also enjoyed the chicharon served with guacamole dip — not with suka at bawang (vinegar with garlic, like Filipinos usually eat chicharon), commented the Lucia descendants. We all laughed. Our menu was Mexican. Let me tell you, that was terrific. The chicharon with guacamole dip was delicious, and made me think I should try it with all sorts of dips. I wonder what it would taste like with my favorite, French Onion Soup dip? Very international, I’m sure. Must try it soon.

We ordered tacos. There were different kinds. Can’t remember all of them because of the margaritas, maybe. But they were delicious and different from the tacos I have tried here. New Deli is run by a charming Mexican couple — Guillermo and Patricia Skewes. Guillermo and Leon, Mimi’s son, were high school classmates in Mexico. Now they work together here.

“Do they serve enchiladas?” I asked Mimi, because I loved the enchiladas at Nina’s Papagayo when I used to go there in my 20s.

“Not yet,” Mimi said. I should tell them to make enchiladas. I liked them in Mexico.

Encarnita, or Ika, paints. Dina used to string pearl necklaces. Mia makes jewelry. I make rosaries. In the conversation we found out that Dina has a small mall in San Pablo (where Maria and her daughter Encarnacion settled). She was wondering if she could put up an exhibit of sorts there of something that the Rizal women and men had done.

“That’s a good idea,” I said, then we began talking at the same time. Finally we agreed on an arts and crafts fair. We could ask everyone who has a hobby to sell his or her goods there. “Are there good restaurants at the mall?” I asked, assuming we would try to get Manila people to come to San Pablo for lunch.

“Not exactly,” Dina said. “There’s one that makes good lechong kawali.”

“I love lechong kawali,” I said. “I order it from a nearby restaurant all the time. Maybe there are many people who love it too.”

Our temporary solution is to meet every month, at least once, to plan this exhibit. We may not end up with an arts and crafts fair but we’ll become much better friends. Sure, we’re relatives but even relatives can be good friends, can’t they?

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