Transcript - Silverio Escrupulo - Under the American Sun: Camp Roxas Documentary Film Project
Severo Castilla Escrupulo
My name is Severo Castilla Escrupulo from Janiuay, Iloilo. I came to Guam in June 1951 from Iloilo to Manila and from Manila to Guam. We were three special employees recruited by Marianas Stevedoring Company brought in by plane and assigned exclusively to the company's Station 18 office.
I went to college because my mother died while I was young. I was an only child, no sister, no brother. My father was a carpenter who worked in Mindanao to send me to school.
I was the one processing checks for 2,800 H-2 Filipino aliens in SRF alone. At Navy Public Works there were something like 500 contract employees and at Naval Magazine about 12 employees digging for bombs. We were processing paychecks for all those who worked at SRF, Public Works, Naval Station and all agencies of the federal government.
Severo Castillo Escrupulo, seated, with wife Priscilla Fejeran Escrupulo, Bernadette Provido Schumann and Burt Sardoma Jr.
I was doing the IBM processing, doing the key punch of the checks of all the aliens working for the company. We get the money at the Guam bank and tally with paycheck with pay slip in them. Then we give them cash money in the window.
I was at one of the payroll paycheck distribution windows. There were one, two, three, four windows of the company. So everybody was in a very long line for two days. Ordinarily, the workers send their family money. But, you know, there’s a lot of happiness outside so probably they enjoy outside.
On the side, I had my own company, Purong’s Taxi. For one rider, $1. If there are five of you: $5. From Camp Roxas to the movie in Tamuning, back and forth, $5 again. I had a driver so I was not the one doing the driving.
In those days, there was no retirement. When you quit, that’s the last. You go home to Manila or Iloilo or wherever. We just process your ticket.
I worked for Marianas Stevedoring Company for 21 years. I married a Chamorro lady from Agat, and we celebrated our 50 years of marriage. We have eight children, five girls and three boys.
- - - Excerpted from 8/16/08 video interview by
Bernie Provido Schumann and Burt Sardoma Jr.
Transcribed Dec. 8 through 15, 2008 by Josephine M. Garrido
Severo Castilla Escrupulo is the nephew of Leon Mallada, interviewed by the Camp Roxas Film Project at the same location.
Name: Severo C. Escrupulo
SSN: 586-01-4377
Last Residence: 96928 Agat, Guam
Born: 18 Oct 1929
Died: 26 Mar 2009
State (Year) SSN issued: Guam, American Samoa, Philippine, or Northern Mariana Islands (1956-1961)
Source Citation: Number: 586-01-4377;Issue State: Guam, American Samoa, Philippine, or Northern Mariana Islands;Issue Date: 1956-1961.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration.
