Amy Cu Unjieng remembers her Tita Paching aka Mother Espy
When Mother Esperanza was running things, you somehow felt all would go well.
If you’ve been in society for a long time and you are an Old Girl, you would know this institution of a nun, everyone’s beloved Mother Esperanza who is credited for having built Assumption College in San Lorenzo singlehandedly. According to Mother Esperanza — God’s Whirlwind, a pamphlet containing various stories written about her by her fellow Assumption nuns, faculty members and students of the Assumption, Mother Espy, as she was referred to with affection, laid the cornerstone of Assumption in San Lorenzo in 1957, established its elementary department the next year and ,thereafter, a new secondary department. In 1959, she transferred the college department from Herran to San Lorenzo.
Mother Espy’s was a caring, if strict, presence whether visible or invisible, for it is said that she eavesdropped on conversations and knew what was going on in the school premises. But then, she was also the students’ confidante and one who believed that young people should enjoy the pleasures to which they were entitled in their fledgling years, prior to their adulthood. But, of course, within the bounds of morals and propriety.
Mother Espy was also brilliant in business and, according to Amy, “was a great aid to my grandfather who came to rely on her abilities.”
Real socialite
A dear friend of mine of recent vintage, Anne Marie “Amy” Cu Unjieng, who I met first on FB, shares that her father, Dr. Benito Cu Unjieng, was Mother Espy’s brother. “The Cu Unjieng siblings were 11 in all. Mother Espy was second and my dad was tenth, but they were very close like all the siblings were.”
Amy relates, “Before she became a nun, Mother Espy was a real socialite.” Which was not surprising because the future nun’s father, Don Guillermo Cu Unjieng, was the richest Chinese in the Philippines.
“They lived in a grand house in San Miguel near Malacanan. They had a wonderful summer home by the Pasig River and there, Mother Esperanza would launch her barge parties which were considered the social event of the year.”
Mother Espy was also brilliant in business and, according to Amy, “was a great aid to my grandfather who came to rely on her abilities.”
You can imagine how the tycoon felt when his daughter announced her decision to enter the convent. “He was very upset. He even offered to put up a cathedral if she would change her mind. But she was determined and kindly and lovingly convinced him that her decision was final,” Amy shares.
To dissuade her from pursuing her vocation, Don Guillermo sent her on a trip to Europe with carte blanch expenses. accompanied by a family friend and his wife
“They rode the original Queen Mary, and believe me, she really made good the carte blanch,” says Amy, who is one of our most glamorous, yet low-key grandmothers in town. “I think that was when she got to love traveling but she still did not change her mind and entered the convent shortly after. I guess my grandfather wanted her to see what she was giving up”
Espy tactics
Amy entered Assumption for college from the year 1960 to 1964. “I had the best and most enlightening education I could have hoped for,” she recalls.
Assumption always had an elitist image, even before World War II, so that the good families sent their daughters to this most exclusive of schools. Of course, this would continue through decades and generations of girls, and with Mother Espy who was at the top of the school administration, serving as College Dean in both Herran and San Lorenzo, old families would entrust the education of their daughters to the “blue-blooded” nun.
A distinguished professor of the college, Dr. Ariston Estrada, “referred to her as an educator and she really was,” Amy remembers. “She made sure that Assumption had the best professors in the land for every subject. This she achieved by using the famed Espy tactics. Ariston Estrada for philosophy, Waldo Perfecto, Justo Albert for Political Science, Mrs. de Vera for English literature, Prof. Colayco for business Law and the list goes on. If you wanted to you could avail of the best education. I then saw for myself the power house and mover that was Mother Espy.”
Best fed interns
“When Mother Esperanza was running things you somehow felt all would go well. The powerhouse had every little detail in her laser view,” Amy recalls.
A perpetual source of wonder to Amy was how Mother Espy knew where a student should be at a certain time of the day. “’What are you doing here? You should be in Office Practice!’”
“She saw to all the school meals every day,” relates Amy. “Often, she would cook a dish or two from her family’s secret recipes and I swear we were the best fed interns.
“She had her intercom and if you did not hear that little click, you would miss that she was listening in. If the class got too jovial , a voice would come in ‘Is this a class or a party?’”
Amy remembers that Mother Espy made the school fair famous “with the yearly Kermess, an event all schools looked forward to because it was a grand fair w Tombolas n booths. For young people and their friends from other schools, as well as their siblings, it was a great way to socialize.” Of course at that time
She made sure that Assumption had the best professors in the land for every subject. This she achieved by using the famed Espy tactics.
colleges were much smaller and exclusive. The entire college had a population of 400 students more or less.
In 1962, Mother Espy took a group of 48 students, including Amuy, on a world tour. “We had eight chaperones, a doctor and travel coordinator with us. It was an unforgettable experience. We travelled Europe by bus and learned fast what being organized and rugged meant, but we crossed first class from London to New York in the Queen Mary. Then back to cross country bus rides in the USA. It was a trip none of us will forget. It was also the last worldwide tour Mother Espy would organize.”
Mother Esperanza continued with her role as Dean of College into the 1970s. But then her health issues caught up with her and she suffered her first stroke.
Tita Paching
“It was so painful to watch this power box who spoke four languages fluently, unable to speak audibly except to sign n make sounds,” says Amy of her Tita Paching, which was how her own family called the amiable nun.
“Maybe this was when I admired her the most. My father asked her to stay with us to recover. We had a compound and being with all the family and children would do her good. This was when she organized all of us and taught us to cross stitch the French way. Even my maternal grandmother loved learning from her. She also taught me how to grow flowers from seeds she would order from abroad. And of course she would have her girl, Teresa, come teach us how to do those fantastic meals.
“She was such a presence and we all missed her when she went back to Assumption. She was one of the great influences and gifts in my life. It is well known how much she did for communities and education. But it is not my place to talk about that.
“This is the Mother Esperanza, my Tita Paching that I knew and loved.”