Old Hagåtña
We all have our low moments and Joaquina's was one night in September of 1902. That's when she allowed herself to drink too much. That she remembered. What she didn't remember, so she claimed, was the ruckus she caused that night.
Around 830 one Sunday night, a woman screaming obscenities could be heard in the streets of Hagåtña.
"Puñetera! Karåho! Demonio!" Very dirty words in Chamorro.
Not only were these words echoed in the neighborhood, the shouting woman was doing it in front of the Protestant chapel, right when the Protestants were conducting Sunday night services!
Security officials were alerted. Pedro Mendiola Delgado and Mariano de los Reyes came on the scene and saw Joaquina in the middle of the street, shouting these profanities. The two officers moved her along and told her to be quiet. She acquiesced for the moment.
But Joaquina was just biding her time. She took her intoxicated noise down to Calle Numancia, a street right in the middle of San Ignacio barrio, the heart of the capital city. Today, it would be just west of the Agaña Post Office.
Location of Calle Numancia in San Ignacio, Hagåtña
"Puñetera! Puta! Kochina!" More foul words.
"Huyong ya este ha' mågi na hu yamak hao ya un tungo' håye yo'!"
"Come out and right here I will break you and you'll know who I am!"
Filomena was in bed. It was around 9PM now. She had no idea who was making all the noise. She opened her window and saw that it was Joaquina. She could tell that Joaquina was drunk. Filomena closed the window and went back to bed, even though Joaquina started yelling all over again.
José Cruz Fejarang and José Castro Aflague were also awakened by the noise and went to see what was going on.
In time, Joaquina was taken to court. The officials called in various witnesses. This story is taken from those court records.
One witness was José Blas Pangelinan, a carpenter whose house faced the Protestant house chapel. When asked what he knew of the incident, he said all he knew was that Joaquina was shouting obscenities in the street, but he didn't know to whom Joaquina was directing her attacks because he was in the habit of closing up his house as soon as the Protestants started their services!
Joaquina told the court that all she could remember was that she got drunk. What she did in her inebriated state, she had no recollection of. If she did those things she was being accused of, she begged the mercy of the court, as she had no intention of doing them.
The court levied a fine on her, or prison days if she had no money.
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