Year 2006, I just realized, was the most "Cebu-filled"trip I ever had in a year. Thirteen trips in all or more than a trip a month! I had 4 social trips, 1 vacation trip and 8 business trips to Cebu that year.
I will take excerpts from my own travel journal cum diary:
"... and so I think that for so small a society, Cebu has many beautiful and gracious women! On this particular afternoon, I have observed how the gracious Annette Verzosa Osmena has not changed. Still beautiful and statuesque after all these years!" Many people find her beautiful because apart from the physical, she is also very nice. Annette Osmeña, although not really a Cebuana (she is actually Ilocana), is one of the most popular society figures of that province. She is one of the very few that I have heard nothing bad about ... almost (hey, you cannot please everybody you know! And why should you?).
" ... how I admire the very chic but very simple Onker Abad Pido. What a refreshing sight this woman is!". The saying "Simplicity is Beauty" is oh-so-very appropriate for this woman. Despite the family wars (que ba, did they ever resolve those? Que barbaridad, life is short for these frivolities, you know!), she has maintained an air of peace and an aura of contentment.
"I bumped into Marietta Cuenco Cuyegkeng at the airport. Surprise, surprise! Still very striking, this woman!". Although based in Manila, she frequents Cebu; after all, home is really where the heart is, di ba? So unlike the unica hijas of extremely wealthy couples, Marietta is actually very likeable and very warm.
" ... and her mom, Annabelle Lu Ym." Ageing gracefully, Annabelle is one memorable lady. With all the trappings of her wealth, one can see beyond that; Annabelle is very nice, very thoughtful ... very Cebuana.
" ... beside Patching de la Rama Battistuzzi. I was surprised to see Patching!". I know that Patching is now based in Bacolod with son Luigi and so at that party at the Casino Español, I was so pleased to see her. Patching belongs to another era of women altogether. If I see her, I recall the glam of the yesteryears and her society friends like the rambunctious Ensay Ford (who runs her own hotel in Banilad), the elegant Pacita Abad Shaner (herself a beautiful and elegant lady, who passed away about 15 years ago), the inolvidable Tacion Serafica Osmeña (inolvidable, si?), the effervescent Lydia MacKenzie (the fierra sister of Pacita Shaner) and Peluling Aldanese (who has also passed on).
On other trips, I also chance upon other women of beauty (beauty as defined in my previous post) like Lulu Mendietta Aboitiz, Lucy Urgello and Josie Abad Richardson. Cebu is indeed beauty-filled, also having produced unforgettable beauty queens like Annie Corrales Woolbright, Pilar Pilapil and Yedda Marie Mendoza.
In the 1950's, there was an organization in Cebu called the Bachelors-Femina, which, I understand from Chinggay Utzurrum, has been revived recently. I have an album of beautiful men and women from this era and looking at them, I am really convinced that beauty should be natural.
It is not about age; it should go beyond the physical.
It is not specific; it should be the totality.
It is not according to wealth (although nowadays, it DOES help in making one look "beautiful"!); it is about breeding.
My muy especial pero muy cargante friend Carmelino does not altogether understand my own definition of beauty.
Is it about glamour?
Then, he suggests, you might as well add Minnie Osmena, Ingrid Santamaria, Elvira Lu Ym and Amparito Lhuillier to your list. Pero yo no puedo! They are very, very glamorous but I still cannot say they are beautiful.
Is it about character?
Then the likes of Gorgonia Streegan, Didang Sadaya Paolin and Anabelle Rama should make my list, as well. Entonces?!
Is it about being mestiza?
If it is, then I should have Vicky Moraza, Margie Lhuillier, Pilita Corrales, Rosebud Rivilla Sala and Teresin Adad Mendezona in my list. You see, dear readers, Cebu is still awash (although slowly but surely dwindling) with a population of mestizas but being mestiza or altogether Spanish-looking does not make one automatically beautiful. No, no,no!
These women are very, very nice but sorry ... not really beautiful ... at least para yo.
