Kabanata Kabanata 6 · Chapter VI

Capitan Tiago

Thy will be done on earth.

While our characters are deep in slumber or busy with their breakfasts,

let us turn our attention to Capitan Tiago. We have never had the

honor of being his guest, so it is neither our right nor our duty to

pass him by slightingly, even under the stress of important events.

Low in stature, with a clear complexion, a corpulent figure and a

full face, thanks to the liberal supply of fat which according to his

admirers was the gift of Heaven and which his enemies averred was the

blood of the poor, Capitan Tiago appeared to be younger than he really

was; he might have been thought between thirty and thirty-five years of

age. At the time of our story his countenance always wore a sanctified

look; his little round head, covered with ebony-black hair cut long in

front and short behind, was reputed to contain many things of weight;

his eyes, small but with no Chinese slant, never varied in expression;

his nose was slender and not at all inclined to flatness; and if his

mouth had not been disfigured by the immoderate use of tobacco and

buyo, which, when chewed and gathered in one cheek, marred the symmetry

of his features, we would say that he might properly have considered

himself a handsome man and have passed for such. Yet in spite of this

bad habit he kept marvelously white both his natural teeth and also

the two which the dentist furnished him at twelve pesos each.

He was considered one of the richest landlords in Binondo and a

planter of some importance by reason of his estates in Pampanga and

Laguna, principally in the town of San Diego, the income from which

increased with each year. San Diego, on account of its agreeable

baths, its famous cockpit, and his cherished memories of the place,

was his favorite town, so that he spent at least two months of the year

there. His holdings of real estate in the city were large, and it is

superfluous to state that the opium monopoly controlled by him and a

Chinese brought in large profits. They also had the lucrative contract

of feeding the prisoners in Bilibid and furnished zacate to many of the

stateliest establishments in Manila u through the medium of contracts,

of course. Standing well with all the authorities, clever, cunning,

and even bold in speculating upon the wants of others, he was the only

formidable rival of a certain Perez in the matter of the farming-out of

revenues and the sale of offices and appointments, which the Philippine

government always confides to private persons. Thus, at the time of

the events here narrated, Capitan Tiago was a happy man in so far as

it is possible for a narrow-brained individual to be happy in such

a land: he was rich, and at peace with God, the government, and men.

That he was at peace with God was beyond doubt,--almost like religion

itself. There is no need to be on bad terms with the good God when one

is prosperous on earth, when one has never had any direct dealings with

Him and has never lent Him any money. Capitan Tiago himself had never

offered any prayers to Him, even in his greatest difficulties, for

he was rich and his gold prayed for him. For masses and supplications

high and powerful priests had been created; for novenas and rosaries

God in His infinite bounty had created the poor for the service of

the rich--the poor who for a peso could be secured to recite sixteen

mysteries and to read all the sacred books, even the Hebrew Bible, for

a little extra. If at any time in the midst of pressing difficulties

he needed celestial aid and had not at hand even a red Chinese taper,

he would call upon his most adored saints, promising them many things

for the purpose of putting them under obligation to him and ultimately

convincing them of the righteousness of his desires.

The saint to whom he promised the most, and whose promises he was

the most faithful in fulfilling, was the Virgin of Antipolo, Our

Lady of Peace and Prosperous Voyages. [32] With many of the lesser

saints he was not very punctual or even decent; and sometimes,

after having his petitions granted, he thought no more about them,

though of course after such treatment he did not bother them again,

when occasion arose. Capitan Tiago knew that the calendar was full of

idle saints who perhaps had nothing wherewith to occupy their time up

there in heaven. Furthermore, to the Virgin of Antipolo he ascribed

greater power and efficiency than to all the other Virgins combined,

whether they carried silver canes, naked or richly clothed images of

the Christ Child, scapularies, rosaries, or girdles. Perhaps this

reverence was owing to the fact that she was a very strict Lady,

watchful of her name, and, according to the senior sacristan of

Antipolo, an enemy of photography. When she was angered she turned

black as ebony, while the other Virgins were softer of heart and more

indulgent. It is a well-known fact that some minds love an absolute

monarch rather than a constitutional one, as witness Louis XIV and

Louis XVI, Philip II and Amadeo I. This fact perhaps explains why

infidel Chinese and even Spaniards may be seen kneeling in the famous

sanctuary; what is not explained is why the priests run away with

the money of the terrible Image, go to America, and get married there.

In the sala of Capitan Tiago's house, that door, hidden by a silk

curtain leads to a small chapel or oratory such as must be lacking

in no Filipino home. There were placed his household gods--and we

say "gods" because he was inclined to polytheism rather than to

monotheism, which he had never come to understand. There could be

seen images of the Holy Family with busts and extremities of ivory,

glass eyes, long eyelashes, and curly blond hair--masterpieces of

Santa Cruz sculpture. Paintings in oil by artists of Paco and Ermita

[33] represented martyrdoms of saints and miracles of the Virgin;

St. Lucy gazing at the sky and carrying in a plate an extra pair

of eyes with lashes and eyebrows, such as are seen painted in the

triangle of the Trinity or on Egyptian tombs; St. Pascual Bailon;

St. Anthony of Padua in a _guingón_ habit looking with tears upon a

Christ Child dressed as a Captain-General with the three-cornered hat,

sword, and boots, as in the children's ball at Madrid that character

is represented--which signified for Capitan Tiago that while God

might include in His omnipotence the power of a Captain-General of

the Philippines, the Franciscans would nevertheless play with Him

as with a doll. There, might also be seen a St. Anthony the Abbot

with a hog by his side, a hog that for the worthy Capitan was as

miraculous as the saint himself, for which reason he never dared to

refer to it as the _hog_, but as the _creature of holy St. Anthony_;

a St. Francis of Assisi in a coffee-colored robe and with seven

wings, placed over a St. Vincent who had only two but in compensation

carried a trumpet; a St. Peter the Martyr with his head split open

by the talibon of an evil-doer and held fast by a kneeling infidel,

side by side with another St. Peter cutting off the ear of a Moro,

Malchus [34] no doubt, who was gnawing his lips and writhing with

pain, while a fighting-cock on a doric column crowed and flapped his

wings--from all of which Capitan Tiago deduced that in order to be

a saint it was just as well to smite as to be smitten.

Who could enumerate that army of images and recount the virtues and

perfections that were treasured there! A whole chapter would hardly

suffice. Yet we must not pass over in silence a beautiful St. Michael

of painted and gilded wood almost four feet high. The Archangel

is biting his lower lip and with flashing eyes, frowning forehead,

and rosy cheeks is grasping a Greek shield and brandishing in his

right hand a Sulu kris, ready, as would appear from his attitude and

expression, to smite a worshiper or any one else who might approach,

rather than the horned and tailed devil that had his teeth set in

his girlish leg.

Capitan Tiago never went near this image from fear of a miracle. Had

not other images, even those more rudely carved ones that issue from

the carpenter shops of Paete, [35] many times come to life for the

confusion and punishment of incredulous sinners? It is a well-known

fact that a certain image of Christ in Spain, when invoked as a witness

of promises of love, had assented with a movement of the head in the

presence of the judge, and that another such image had reached out its

right arm to embrace St. Lutgarda. And furthermore, had he not himself

read a booklet recently published about a mimic sermon preached by an

image of St. Dominic in Soriano? True, the saint had not said a single

word, but from his movements it was inferred, at any rate the author of

the booklet inferred, that he was announcing the end of the world. [36]

Was it not reported, too, that the Virgin of Luta in the town of Lipa

had one cheek swollen larger than the other and that there was mud

on the borders of her gown? Does not this prove mathematically that

the holy images also walk about without holding up their skirts and

that they even suffer from the toothache, perhaps for our sake? Had

he not seen with his own eyes, during the regular Good-Friday sermon,

all the images of Christ move and bow their heads thrice in unison,

thereby calling forth wails and cries from the women and other

sensitive souls destined for Heaven? More? We ourselves have seen

the preacher show to the congregation at the moment of the descent

from the cross a handkerchief stained with blood, and were ourselves

on the point of weeping piously, when, to the sorrow of our soul, a

sacristan assured us that it was all a joke, that the blood was that

of a chicken which had been roasted and eaten on the spot in spite

of the fact that it was Good Friday--and the sacristan was fat! So

Capitan Tiago, even though he was a prudent and pious individual,

took care not to approach the kris of St. Michael. "Let's take no

chances," he would say to himself, "I know that he's an archangel,

but I don't trust him, no, I don't trust him."

Not a year passed without his joining with an orchestra in the

pilgrimage to the wealthy shrine of Antipolo. He paid for two

thanksgiving masses of the many that make up the three novenas,

and also for the days when there are no novenas, and washed himself

afterwards in the famous _bátis_, or pool, where the sacred Image

herself had bathed. Her votaries can even yet discern the tracks of

her feet and the traces of her locks in the hard rock, where she dried

them, resembling exactly those made by any woman who uses coconut-oil,

and just as if her hair had been steel or diamonds and she had weighed

a thousand tons. We should like to see the terrible Image once shake

her sacred hair in the eyes of those credulous persons and put her

foot upon their tongues or their heads. There at the very edge of the

pool Capitan Tiago made it his duty to eat roast pig, _sinigang_ of

_dalag_ with _alibambang_ leaves, and other more or less appetizing

dishes. The two masses would cost him over four hundred pesos, but

it was cheap, after all, if one considered the glory that the Mother

of the Lord would acquire from the pin-wheels, rockets, bombs, and

mortars, and also the increased profits which, thanks to these masses,

would come to one during the year.

But Antipolo was not the only theater of his ostentatious devotion. In

Binondo, in Pampanga, and in the town of San Diego, when he was about

to put up a fighting-cock with large wagers, he would send gold moneys

to the curate for propitiatory masses and, just as the Romans consulted

the augurs before a battle, giving food to the sacred fowls, so Capitan

Tiago would also consult his augurs, with the modifications befitting

the times and the new truths, tie would watch closely the flame of

the tapers, the smoke from the incense, the voice of the priest,

and from it all attempt to forecast his luck. It was an admitted

fact that he lost very few wagers, and in those cases it was due to

the unlucky circumstance that the officiating priest was hoarse,

or that the altar-candles were few or contained too much tallow,

or that a bad piece of money had slipped in with the rest. The

warden of the Brotherhood would then assure him that such reverses

were tests to which he was subjected by Heaven to receive assurance

of his fidelity and devotion. So, beloved by the priests, respected

by the sacristans, humored by the Chinese chandlers and the dealers

in fireworks, he was a man happy in the religion of this world, and

persons of discernment and great piety even claimed for him great

influence in the celestial court.

That he was at peace with the government cannot be doubted, however

difficult an achievement it may seem. Incapable of any new idea and

satisfied with his _modus vivendi_, he was ever ready to gratify

the desires of the last official of the fifth class in every one of

the offices, to make presents of hams, capons, turkeys, and Chinese

fruits at all seasons of the year. If he heard any one speak ill of

the natives, he, who did not consider himself as such, would join in

the chorus and speak worse of them; if any one aspersed the Chinese or

Spanish mestizos, he would do the same, perhaps because he considered

himself become a full-blooded Iberian. He was ever first to talk in

favor of any new imposition of taxes, or special assessment, especially

when he smelled a contract or a farming assignment behind it. He always

had an orchestra ready for congratulating and serenading the governors,

judges, and other officials on their name-days and birthdays, at the

birth or death of a relative, and in fact at every variation from the

usual monotony. For such occasions he would secure laudatory poems

and hymns in which were celebrated "the kind and loving governor,"

"the brave and courageous judge for whom there awaits in heaven the

palm of the just," with many other things of the same kind.

He was the president of the rich guild of mestizos in spite of

the protests of many of them, who did not regard him as one of

themselves. In the two years that he held this office he wore out ten

frock coats, an equal number of high hats, and half a dozen canes. The

frock coat and the high hat were in evidence at the Ayuntamiento,

in the governor-general's palace, and at military headquarters; the

high hat and the frock coat might have been noticed in the cockpit,

in the market, in the processions, in the Chinese shops, and under the

hat and within the coat might have been seen the perspiring Capitan

Tiago, waving his tasseled cane, directing, arranging, and throwing

everything into disorder with marvelous activity and a gravity even

more marvelous.

So the authorities saw in him a safe man, gifted with the best of

dispositions, peaceful, tractable, and obsequious, who read no books

or newspapers from Spain, although he spoke Spanish well. Indeed,

they rather looked upon him with the feeling with which a poor student

contemplates the worn-out heel of his old shoe, twisted by his manner

of walking. In his case there was truth in both the Christian and

profane proverbs _beati pauperes spiritu_ and _beati possidentes_,

[37] and there might well be applied to him that translation,

according to some people incorrect, from the Greek, "Glory to God

in the highest and peace to men of good-will on earth!" even though

we shall see further along that it is not sufficient for men to have

good-will in order to live in peace.

The irreverent considered him a fool, the poor regarded him

as a heartless and cruel exploiter of misery and want, and his

inferiors saw in him a despot and a tyrant. As to the women, ah,

the women! Accusing rumors buzzed through the wretched nipa huts,

and it was said that wails and sobs might be heard mingled with the

weak cries of an infant. More than one young woman was pointed out by

her neighbors with the finger of scorn: she had a downcast glance and

a faded cheek. But such things never robbed him of sleep nor did any

maiden disturb his peace. It was an old woman who made him suffer,

an old woman who was his rival in piety and who had gained from many

curates such enthusiastic praises and eulogies as he in his best days

had never received.

Between Capitan Tiago and this widow, who had inherited from brothers

and cousins, there existed a holy rivalry which redounded to the

benefit of the Church as the competition among the Pampanga steamers

then redounded to the benefit of the public. Did Capitan Tiago present

to some Virgin a silver wand ornamented with emeralds and topazes? At

once Doña Patrocinio had ordered another of gold set with diamonds! If

at the time of the Naval procession [38] Capitan Tiago erected an

arch with two façades, covered with ruffled cloth and decorated with

mirrors, glass globes, and chandeliers, then Doña Patrocinio would

have another with four facades, six feet higher, and more gorgeous

hangings. Then he would fall back on his reserves, his strong point,

his specialty--masses with bombs and fireworks; whereat Doña Patrocinia

could only gnaw at her lips with her toothless gums, because, being

exceedingly nervous, she could not endure the chiming of the bells and

still less the explosions of the bombs. While he smiled in triumph,

she would plan her revenge and pay the money of others to secure the

best orators of the five Orders in Manila, the most famous preachers

of the Cathedral, and even the Paulists, [39] to preach on the holy

days upon profound theological subjects to the sinners who understood

only the vernacular of the mariners. The partizans of Capitan Tiago

would observe that she slept during the sermon; but her adherents

would answer that the sermon was paid for in advance, and by her,

and that in any affair payment was the prime requisite. At length,

she had driven him from the field completely by presenting to the

church three _andas_ of gilded silver, each one of which cost her

over three thousand pesos. Capitan Tiago hoped that the old woman

would breathe her last almost any day, or that she would lose five or

six of her lawsuits, so that he might be alone in serving God; but

unfortunately the best lawyers of the _Real Audiencia_ looked after

her interests, and as to her health, there was no part of her that

could be attacked by sickness; she seemed to be a steel wire, no doubt

for the edification of souls, and she hung on in this vale of tears

with the tenacity of a boil on the skin. Her adherents were secure in

the belief that she would be canonized at her death and that Capitan

Tiago himself would have to worship her at the altars--all of which

he agreed to and cheerfully promised, provided only that she die soon.

Such was Capitan Tiago in the days of which we write. As for the past,

he was the only son of a sugar-planter of Malabon, wealthy enough,

but so miserly that he would not spend a cent to educate his son,

for which reason the little Santiago had been the servant of a good

Dominican, a worthy man who had tried to train him in all of good

that he knew and could teach. When he had reached the happy stage

of being known among his acquaintances as a _logician_, that is,

when he began to study logic, the death of his protector, soon

followed by that of his father, put an end to his studies and he

had to turn his attention to business affairs. He married a pretty

young woman of Santa Cruz, who gave him social position and helped

him to make his fortune. Doña Pia Alba was not satisfied with buying

and selling sugar, indigo, and coffee, but wished to plant and reap,

so the newly-married couple bought land in San Diego. From this time

dated their friendship with Padre Damoso and with Don Rafael Ibarra,

the richest capitalist of the town.

The lack of an heir in the first six years of their wedded life

made of that eagerness to accumulate riches almost a censurable

ambition. Doña Pia was comely, strong, and healthy, yet it was in

vain that she offered novenas and at the advice of the devout women

of San Diego made a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Kaysaysay [40] in

Taal, distributed alms to the poor, and danced at midday in May in

the procession of the Virgin of Turumba [41] in Pakil. But it was all

with no result until Fray Damaso advised her to go to Obando to dance

in the fiesta of St. Pascual Bailon and ask him for a son. Now it

is well known that there is in Obando a trinity which grants sons or

daughters according to request--Our Lady of Salambaw, St. Clara, and

St. Pascual. Thanks to this wise advice, Doña Pia soon recognized the

signs of approaching motherhood. But alas! like the fisherman of whom

Shakespeare tells in _Macbeth_, who ceased to sing when he had found a

treasure, she at once lost all her mirthfulness, fell into melancholy,

and was never seen to smile again. "Capriciousness, natural in her

condition," commented all, even Capitan Tiago. A puerperal fever put

an end to her hidden grief, and she died, leaving behind a beautiful

girl baby for whom Fray Damaso himself stood sponsor. As St. Pascual

had not granted the son that was asked, they gave the child the name

of Maria Clara, in honor of the Virgin of Salambaw and St. Clara,

punishing the worthy St. Pascual with silence.

The little girl grew up under the care of her aunt Isabel, that good

old lady of monkish urbanity whom we met at the beginning of the

story. For the most part, her early life was spent in San Diego, on

account of its healthful climate, and there Padre Damaso was devoted

to her.

Maria Clara had not the small eyes of her father; like her mother,

she had eyes large, black, long-lashed, merry and smiling when she

was playing but sad, deep, and pensive in moments of repose. As a

child her hair was curly and almost blond, her straight nose was

neither too pointed nor too flat, while her mouth with the merry

dimples at the corners recalled the small and pleasing one of her

mother, her skin had the fineness of an onion-cover and was white as

cotton, according to her perplexed relatives, who found the traces

of Capitan Tiago's paternity in her small and shapely ears. Aunt

Isabel ascribed her half-European features to the longings of Doña

Pia, whom she remembered to have seen many times weeping before

the image of St. Anthony. Another cousin was of the same opinion,

differing only in the choice of the smut, as for her it was either

the Virgin herself or St. Michael. A famous philosopher, who was

the cousin of Capitan Tinong and who had memorized the "Amat," [42]

sought for the true explanation in planetary influences.

The idol of all, Maria Clara grew up amidst smiles and love. The

very friars showered her with attentions when she appeared in the

processions dressed in white, her abundant hair interwoven with

tuberoses and sampaguitas, with two diminutive wings of silver and

gold fastened on the back of her gown, and carrying in her hands a

pair of white doves tied with blue ribbons. Afterwards, she would

be so merry and talk so sweetly in her childish simplicity that the

enraptured Capitan Tiago could do nothing but bless the saints of

Obando and advise every one to purchase beautiful works of sculpture.

In southern countries the girl of thirteen or fourteen years

changes into a woman as the bud of the night becomes a flower in the

morning. At this period of change, so full of mystery and romance,

Maria Clara was placed, by the advice of the curate of Binondo, in

the nunnery of St. Catherine [43] in order to receive strict religious

training from the Sisters. With tears she took leave of Padre Damaso

and of the only lad who had been a friend of her childhood, Crisostomo

Ibarra, who himself shortly afterward went away to Europe. There in

that convent, which communicates with the world through double bars,

even under the watchful eyes of the nuns, she spent seven years.

Each having his own particular ends in view and knowing the mutual

inclinations of the two young persons, Don Rafael and Capitan Tiago

agreed upon the marriage of their children and the formation of a

business partnership. This agreement, which was concluded some years

after the younger Ibarra's departure, was celebrated with equal joy

by two hearts in widely separated parts of the world and under very

different circumstances.