TAN MARIA'N MAK

 

TAN MARIA'N MAK

María Lizama Tolentino Ignacio

She was perhaps the most influential person in Santa Rita in the 1950s and 60s. In the opinion of some, more powerful than even the village Commissioner (what is called the Mayor now).

Her name was María Tolentino Ignacio, but everyone called her Tan Maria'n Mak, after her father Máximo Tolentino, married to her mother Tomasa Lizama. She was the village nurse and midwife (pattera).

What gave her all that power and influence was her constant, direct contact with all the families in Santa Rita, right into their living rooms and bedrooms. She didn't wait in her village dispensary for the people to come to her. They did come to her, but she also went into the homes of the people. She knew everyone in the village; their particular health concerns; their habits and lifestyle; their vices and flaws.

She was a health enforcer. She got into people's faces and told them what they needed to do, whether they liked hearing it or not. But people respected her for it. They listened to her and sought her advice on many things.

She told parents, "Ennaogue' na man malålångo i famagu'on-miyo sa' man sin dodogga." ("That's why your children are sick, because they go around without footwear.")

"Na' fan o'mak åntes de u fan maigo'." ("Shower them before they sleep.")

Parents would warn their children when they saw Tan María walking or driving in their direction, telling the kids to run into the house and put on shoes or slippers.

Tan María would administer the inoculations to infants and children, and give them their anti-worm medicine. As a pattera (midwife), she assisted in many births right in the home. Whenever there was a problem birth, she baptized the newborn right then and there, and later told the village priest about it for the records.

She drove a jeep to visit the homes, and even conduct sanitary inspections. She also had an "ambulance" of sorts; not the hi-tech ones we have today but something to transport people to the hospital when needed. Her ambulance wasn't used just for emergencies; she'd drive villagers to their medical and dental appointments up north in the ambulance or at times her jeep. One day the brakes gave out on her ambulance and it was going downhill in that hillside village of Santa Rita. Her options were limited, so she jumped out of the ambulance and allowed gravity to take the ambulance into a home where no one was at the time and there it stopped. The crashed ambulance was taken away and never seen again nor replaced.

Her daughter Emilesia, now in her 80s, told me, "Guihe na tiempo, yanggen håfa ilek-ña si nanå-ho gi sengsong, ma gof osge." "At that time, whatever my mother said in the village, they really obeyed her."

HOW SHE STARTED

TAN MARIA (with X) AND OTHER VILLAGE NURSES

1950s

Tan María was always interested in sickness and healing since she was young. She had the disposition for nursing, too. Her daughter Emilesia said, "Ti måssa' si nanå-ho ha pacha i chetnot para u espia håfa." "My mother did not hesitate to touch sores to find out something." She was willing to get blood on her, handle bedpans, bandage wounds, put up with unsightly wounds and foul odors. While others shrieked in horror at these things, Tan María said, "Mientras mås hao askurosa, mås hao chetnot." "The more repelled you are, the more diseased you become." Even back then, they knew a thing or two about exposure to viruses and building immunity.

She learned from older pattera and the Navy also gave her midwife training and by-and-by she learned basic nursing skills and obtained her license to work as one. 

MORE THAN MEDICAL; MORE THAN "WORK"

TAN MARÍA WITH DAUGHTER EMILESIA

Taking care of people was more than taking care of their physical health for Tan María. She was almost like a priest or nun in the way people took all kinds of problems to her. A husband once was mistreating his wife and they called on Tan María to intervene. She went to talk to the man and he did not resist. He listened and his behavior improved.

When she assisted at the second or third birth of an unwed mother who was still connected to the father of the children, she would tell the man and woman, "Esta dos pat tres famagu'on-miyo. Håfa na ti malago' hamyo umassagua?" "You already have two or three children. Why don't you two want to get married?" and she herself would bring the matter to the village priest to get them married.

One time she was called to talk to a young lady who was pregnant for the first time. The young lady was not only not married; no one could even identify a boyfriend. The young lady refused to name who impregnated her. Tan María tried to coax it out of her, but she still refused. So Tan María finally said, "Hu tungo' håye muna' mapotge' hao. I cha'kan guma'." "I know who made you pregnant. The house rat." The startled young lady said, "Åhe' ti i cha'kan guma' na si....." "No, not the house rat but rather...." and she let the name of the man slip out. Tan María knew reverse psychology before she ever heard the name for it.

She considered herself a full-time servant of the village, 24 hours a day, and she gave up her own home to help others when needed. She had a man who became a widower move to her house and stay on the kahida (front porch). When a pregnant woman from a far away village came to her because they feared a breech baby (humuyong dågan), after she moved the baby to a normal position inside the womb, she would say, "Mungnga humånao sa' yanggen barångka i chalan siña i nene tuma'lo ha' tåtte." "Don't leave because if the road is bumpy the baby might go back again." So, the pregnant lady, even with the husband at times, would move into Tan María's house for the night.

INFLUENCE ON FUTURE NURSE

At least one young Santa Rita girl, Rosalia Tolentino (married name Perez) was inspired by Tan Maria'n Mak to become a nurse herself. She frequently talked with Tan María about being a nurse and pattera; about how hard the work was, especially since the villagers were very åguaguat (stubborn) about health issues. But, Tan María said, the work was very satisfying. She made a positive contribution to people's lives; what a great example for all of us!

Tan María passed away in 1974 from breast cancer at the age of 67.  She had been married to Luís Taitague Ignacio who passed away after her in 1982. May they rest in peace.

Photos courtesy of Emilesia Anderson and Terry Concepcion