Johnny Luces
I am Johnny Luces from the province of Aklan. I went to Iloilo to be recruited for Guam and I arrived here Dec. 4, 1950. I was able to lie about my age. They said, You cannot go there, you are only 18. So I said, can you add it up to 20, so I will be qualified? So they added.
Before I went to Guam, I was recruited as a Luzon Stevedoring, working in Iloilo. I was working in Iloilo from 6 to 6. And then at 9 o’clock in the morning, I am able to get my own salary for that one day. I don’t think you will understand like how the work of stevedoring is. The Luzon Stevedoring, when I was there in Iloilo, we were unloading salt, fertilizer, lumber. You name it. See how heavy that is and I am only 18 years old.
I had the experience of getting so dizzy in the ship because we had been on the ship for five days from Iloilo to Guam. When we arrive, the first transportation that we have from the pier going to Camp Roxas was a trailer. It was supposed to be a cargo transportation by the Navy. But when the Filipinos came to Guam, they started building up trailers and put a roofing and put a siding so that it becomes a personnel transportation.
When I arrived in Camp Roxas, there was already a lot of people over there from Philippines. And everybody was excited to meet their friends and relatives that just came in. Our barracks, which I was brought to, was about 50 feet long, a two-story building.
And then when I came in the second story, it was crowded with all kind of cubicles made with tin, plywood, cardboard partitions. All of us from a certain town in Iloilo, naturally, we get together in one cubicle. Everybody is using mosquito net because there’s a lot of mosquitos. If you don’t have a mosquito net, so it’s just tough luck for you. So, there we are. We are about four, all our cababayan and our townmate are in that one cubicle.
In the morning, we are awakened by the sound of horn at 4 o’clock and we are made to have a breakfast. After we eat our breakfast, here comes different trailers in the parking area waiting. One of the trailer s is going to Naval Hospital. One of the trailers is going to PWC. One of the trailers is going to Naval Mag. One of the trailers is going to NCS. One of the trailer is going to NAS.
There was also recreation. If you want to go bowling, there is a bowling place in our camp. If you want to go for a drink, there is a place for a drink. If you want to go the Exchange, you got the Exchange. Right there in the camp. And if we want, you want to go to church on Sunday, you got the church. You want to see the movie every night, we have our movie every night about 7 o’clock.
When I came here, I became also an altar server assisting at the mass. They don’t have no altar server except two of us. Our priest at the time is Father (Jose C.) Montano. The priest before him, Father (Eusebio) Parcon, died. He is the one who brought our patron saint, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Every Sunday, we have three masses. One 6 o’clock. Another 7 o’clock in Busanda, the other side of the camp. And then, 9:30, back to the camp.
So the chapel, if you look at it right now, it is just outside the fence where the Government of Guam school buses are parking. The chapel is not there any more. That is where my work also at that time. The PWC Motor Repair Unit. My work was a storekeeper, receiving and issuing automotive space parts.
There were a lot of Chamorro ladies coming in to attend mass in our chapel. Why? Because we are attracting them with 5,000 to 6,000 men. And our nurses there are from six to 12. On and off, is because some of them want to go home for good. Some of them want to be recruited.
After a big typhoon, a lot of local Chamorro people would come to the gate of our camp, asking for help. Rebuild their house, repair their house because it is broken. Whatever. The St. Francis church was broken by Typhoon Lola. Father Montano was our chaplain and the head of the Holy Name Society. The priest outside the camp, whoever they are, if they want their churches rebuilt, they go to Father Montano. Father Montano got the crew ready to share that with them.
We used to work at St. Francis Church. All the ladies there are feeding us and at the same time attracting themselves to us. We are attracted to them, too. We eat their food but we work hard labor. Happy labor. Piti, too, is one that we built. And the Cathedral we built. Even Santa Rita is one. That’s why I think that God is really wonderful, the Creator. He knows how to reward people that are working hard for nothing. He knows how to reward people that are sacrificing a lot for other people.
When you came to Guam, if you don’t have any skill and you want to learn skill, they ask you what kind of trade you want. Okay, you say you want a carpenter. They train you as a carpenter so that you will become a carpenter. If you want to be welder, they train you as a welder. So you work as a welder, you work as a carpenter, you work as a plumber, whatever you want.
So, I learn my skill. I become a plumber, I become a carpenter, I become electrician, I become . . . you name it. in the end, I retired as a planner estimator, structural. And if you don’t challenge all those kinds of things in life, you will never become successful. You become successful if you work for it. And that’s what I believe in.
And that’s why I believe that my seven children is the proof that, with that sacrifice of me and my wife, we were able to let them finish their college, each one of them. Because after they graduate from high school, I said: If you don’t go to college, you end up with an ax and shovel. So, you listen to me. And I receive very much in my prayers.
---Excerpted from 8/16/08 video interview, Agat, Guam
by Bernie Provido Schumann and Burt Sardoma Jr.,
transcribed by Josephine M. Garrido
Camp Roxas
Fiesta Celebration
(The annual Roxas Village fiesta was held on the weekend
closest to the November 27
Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.)
The Roxas Village Chapel started from a Quonset hut, and upon its completion in 1947, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal was chosen as patroness of Roxas Village by Father Eusebio Parcon, the first Catholic chaplain of Roxas Village.
Since then, and every year thereafter, devotees of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal from Camp Roxas and the neighboring villages honor the village patroness on her feast day with apropos devotions.
The present chapel, however, was created in 1951 and was solemnly dedicated in November 1951 with the Most Rev. A.W. Baumgartner, OFM Cap., Bishop of Guam, officiating during the dedication ceremonies.
Then in December 1st, 1951, Father Jose C. Montano arrived on Guam and the day after his arrival, he sung his first mass in the village chapel in conjunction with the village fiesta.
We can very well imagine that our barbecue pits in most every area in the village will be busy that day and spare ribs or roast chicken can very well substitute for the taste of lechon.
Excerpted from “Barangay: The Voice of Roxas Villagers,” Vol. IV, No. 2, November 1959 (from the private collection of Itsue Hino)
