Some time ago, I was reading up on Corazon Aquino to see her connection to the Confederate marching song-The Yellow Rose of Texas (Yellow was the color of her party); I came across her famous address to the joint house of congress following her ascendancy to the Presidency of the Philippines. I remember her speech because I used it for a paper on rhetorical criticism decades before but this was the first time I watch her in video, thanks to Youtube. Previously, I was only able to watch part of her speech on TV and to read her entire speech in print. Anyway, I enjoyed the speech that brought back memories of the tensed and eventful days during 1986 when I followed the travails of that tragic country that saw the ultimate fall of Marcos. I later surfed the other videos and it slowly dawn on me that some of the photos of Cory Aquino do rather resembled mum... Then other details of her life came to me and I started to do a little research. For example, her great-grand father came from China over a century ago to seek his fortunes in the Philippines. He was originally from Hongjian village which was near to Xiamen in Fujian province. Cory Aquino went on a state visit to China in 1988 during which she dropped into her ancestral home village and seek out her distance relatives.
Mum's ancestors, as we know; came from Putian (Paternal) and Hockchia or Fuqing (Maternal) which was also not that far from Xiamen. The other similarities are that mum and Cory were both born in 1933 and they both experienced Japanese occupation during World War II. Finally, they both were stricken with cancers although mum's was breast while Cory's was colon. In fact, mum also share a common experience with Cory in that she also visited The US Congress back in1986 when she along with my sister and myself visited Washington D.C. We were given the security clearance to observe the Senate Chamber via the visitors gallery. Cory and mum both also shared the character of unassuming traits, humility, decency, kindliness, etc. The thing is... perhaps they might be of common ancestry? If we take the theory that if we go far back enough, we all ultimately share a common ancestry; so this is not something impossible if mom and cory in fact shared common ancestors generations ago. After all, scholars are in agreement that the human specie ultimately came from the "Eden" of Africa long long ago... Anyway, this is not really a serious thought but its just that I admired and respected both of these women who did much good during their lives although Cory's stage was of a national and also international scale while mom role loomed large within our family.
Note: Mum was wearing a wig in this photo.
Below was the historic speech by President Aquino to the Joint Houses of the Congress.
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