The Herran in My Mind

This is the best drafting I can do for now. This is the map of Herran in my head. Corrections will be appreciated. This is not to scale, at all.

I went searching to go online, to see if there were any pictures of Assumption Herran. I found none. Worse, I tried to find a map of the grounds of Assumption Herran. Again, none. But I have a map in my head. Maybe I can describe it to you, and you will remember.

Along Herran Street (now called Pedro Gil), there were 2 gates: one at the corner of Herran and Adriatico (A), and one towards Taft Avenue (B). These gates were big, black, and usually open. The corner gate had elaborate and ornate iron work. If you came very early in the morning, too early, the gates would be closed. You needed to knock or blow your horn so Mang Segundo would come and open the B gate for you. My Tita Luisa tells me that he came quickly because near this gate, beside the auditorium, was the house where he lived. Alongside one of these front gates would be a pedestrian gate. This is where the externs (the girls who went home to eat lunch) would go in and out of. The third gate (C) was in the back, along Adriatico, going towards Padre Faura.

If you entered through the first gate (A) on the corner, to your right, and behind you as you drove in, would be a large parking lot (gray), which we also used for various field activities like games and dancing. To your left, as you drove in, would be the Primary Building (1), parallel to Calle Adriatico. If you made made a right after the gate, you would be facing the Auditorium (9). Dominating the view really, perpendicular to the Primary Building, would be the Administration Building (3). On the other side of the Administration Building, parallel and facing the Primary Building, would be the high school (8). These three main buildings would form 3 walls around the area in the middle where the flagpole stood (10). There were driveways for cars, as indicated by the green lines in the figure above.

Behind the Administration Building, was the Chapel (4). Somewhat behind the chapel, parallel to Herran Street and Padre Faura, would be the Intermediate Building (5). I believe this building was newer than the rest of the school. There was also another such building (7), parallel to it, on the the other side of the chapel, almost coming out of the other end of the Adminstration Building. I believe this housed the upper grades like 5^th – 7^th. This part of the school was also newer than the rest.

The Primary Building: It was two stories high, with stairs in the middle, as well as to the right, if you stood in front facing it. Under the middle stairs was a storeroom were various P.E. materials were kept such as rings and batons. There was also a closet where they kept the games we could borrow during recess, such as jumping ropes and hoop jumps. Mrs. Estaniel also had a small cupboard here where she sold school supplies, including nice smelling yummy erasers. You could walk through the building right here, and come out in the rear play yard. The rear play yard was where we lined up after recess to go up the stairs class by class. The front part of the building had this long corridor. The first floor corridor was were we would sit and play endless games of jackstones (regular and Chinese) during recess. [Can you still sit in your jackstone position, legs forming an M on the sides of your body… and not be in pain?]

There was an extension (2) on one side of Primary. On the ground floor of the extension was the cafeteria for the bigger kids and the faculty. On the second floor, the extension contained the music room, art room, library and faculty room, as well as Mother Martha’s office during my time. The 2nd set of stairs was also in here. At the bottom of the steps on the 1st floor was the clinic. Mrs. Ibuna was our nurse, Dra. Hortaleza was our physician. Some times there would be a dentist too, and I believe her name was Dra. Villegas. Against the school wall behind Primary, the other side of which would already be Adriatico Street, was the cafeteria (pink building) for the lower grades. This is where we bought egg pie and meringue, and where they force fed us Sustagen one year.

Going back to the other end of Primary, almost between it and the Admin, was the Assumption zoo. Walking a little further, going out towards the Adriatico gate, was the walled swimming pool (aqua). Beyond it, walled even better, were the cloisters (purple) of the sisters. If you followed the driveway some more, you would get to the Adriatico gate (C).

In front of the Primary and High School buildings would be yards. The yards were fenced in, with hedges growing all around. (See Vivian’s description of the yard and the trees.) Acacia trees, what would Herran be without those trees? We were wicked but ignorant as children, since we peeled the bark so we could play piko. I wonder if they tore down the trees too. At the end of the day, you lined up in the yard, with your bag (boxy with wheels; or blue and white Assumption school bags – with wheels only if you were an Anido girl) and you moved up slowly to fill the gaps as the girls in front of you got picked up. My aunt says that during her time, they had to wait IN COMPLETE SILENCE. I do not remember that we had to do that, but we did have to stand still while waiting. The cars would come around and stop in front of the little opening in the hedge. I can’t remember how we knew our car was there: did they call us out, and if so, did the one calling know all our cars and drivers, or did our drivers say something to them? After a certain hour, if you were still not picked up, you were brought in front of the Auditorium, joined by the older girls who were also still waiting. If still, after a certain hour, you were not yet picked up, then you went to the Administration Building and waited there. If you started seeing the Boarders come out, still in their uniforms but wearing chinelas, then you knew it was really late, and someone must have forgotten to pick you up! I know it happened to me a couple of times.

The Administration Building was in a way, very forbidding to us as little children. It was a very formal place, almost inducing us to behave once we stepped foot in it. There were steps in the middle to enter the building, although there were also entrances on each side. The middle entrance was the most dramatic, including the steps. This is where we would see VIPs, whether it was the President (Marcos, since we only knew one in our childhood), or visiting Assumption Mothers General. Can you imagine Mother Immaculada standing on the steps? I still can. If there was an important event or ceremony of some sort, the steps would be where the VIPs would stand or be presented. This is also where Assumption brides would pose for their pictures.

This building, unlike the others, had two corridors running on each of its lengths, in front and in the back. In between would be rooms called parlors. Important visitors to our school were also received here. One of the parlors even had a baby grand and we held many programs there, including Christmas Nativities. Upstairs, is where the Boarders lived. Apart from the Cloisters, upstairs is one of the places in Herran that I never went into. Somewhere in the back, along the left side of the Admin was a teacher’s lounge. I went in there many times in search of lola. Her office was at the other end of the Admin, towards the high school. There was a certain ambience, a certain feeling that I associated with these parlors in Herran. I cannot even describe it fully. Now and then, I would get that same feeling in the parlors of San Lorenzo, but it was fleeting, and would be gone in seconds. I never quite felt that same hush in San Lorenzo.

The middle lobby of this building was grand and elegant. You almost wanted to speak in quiet tones any time you were in it. There was a caged window on one side, where you paid for tuition. Through this middle lobby, one could walk through and go down some steps and walk into the chapel. This is where many an Assumption bride walked through, as she brought her wedding flowers to Mother Mary after her wedding. I always wanted to do that one day and of course, it could never be.

I never spent much time in the high school building (8), but I imagine it was built in much the same way as its counterpart across the way, the Primary Building. I also know that there was a library somewhere in here, because Lola would take me in there with her sometimes. There was another building (orange) behind the high school, it was only one story perhaps, an annex of sorts. I know we would have our science exhibits in there, maybe there were labs there, I don’t remember. There was also one room there that had a bathtub. I know. I got dunked in there once to get cleaned up after getting so sick from drinking too much Choco-Vim.

We spent 4^th Grade in the Intermediate Building (5). China describes this building well in her Herran post. Behind this building was the back wall of our school, as well as the side wall. I remember that we sometimes could see the boarders, or whatever they were, in the buildings in the school next door. I cannot remember if it was U.P. Manila, or PGH.

The older girls of Grade School were in Building #7, across from our Intermediate building. We did not go there much unless we had some movie to watch. The AV room was in this building. In between, in front of the chapel, was the famous lagoon (6). Don’t forget that there was a grotto there too (did it have something in it, or was it empty?) and a bridge that spanned the lagoon.

The Chapel: Someone else, please describe the chapel. I think it needs a post of its own. Someone Anonymous posted a comment on 2/7/06 (see sidebar) and said she joined a walking tour a few years ago, and still saw the chapel, which was being used as a locker room (@#$%!) In the late 1980s, I heard that Dondi Mapa, Lorvi’s older brother, was going to get married in the chapel, and that it was going to be reconsecrated so it could be used for mass again. I don’t know if it actually happened. I just know I wished that it did. Log onto Carlos Celdran’s blog, and you will see that our beloved chapel is gone now…it was the last piece of Herran to go, and it has been torn down. Bravo to Carlos for calling what happened to our beloved Assumption Herran a DESECRATION. Indeed, indeed.

The Auditorium: Christine Carlos, where are you? Of all of us, you played in here the most, you should describe it.

Sometimes I still dream of Assumption Herran, and sometimes, I even see myself in the dream, walking around in my red plaid uniform. Sometimes, I see the buildings crumbling, being torn down bit by bit, and I am running in my dream to escape the falling pieces. When this happens, I know it to mean that there is something in my life that I need to fix, and immediately. Sometimes though I will have my Assumption Herran dream, where I am safe, and not dodging the wrecking ball. I take it to mean that I am just longing for my more simple innocent life, and that I should take a break from my present day complicated adult one. Or it might mean I just miss my childhood, so I go to the phone or email an old friend to chat.

I still grieve the loss of Herran. But then my reasoning mind takes over, telling me that without departing from Herran, there would be no Antipolo, the Antipolo that I also loved, even in her incompleteness and newness. I hear that today, there is an eco-park aptly named Pacem, that is part of Assumption Antipolo. I need to visit that park one day, see the waterfall and the butterflies with my own two eyes. Then maybe the hole in my heart called Herran, will finally heal and be at peace.