A woman, our pride

Natividad P. Buenavista, Then and Now

I visited her one afternoon after my class. Evidently, she was resting. I noted some changes in her.

When she was my instructor at St. Paul College, she had been healthy, strong, and active. Now she had become thin, weak and slow in her movements.

"A biography? I am honored. This is the first time I am asked to talk about myself. I prefer to talk about other matters," she said.

Miss Buenavista is the second of eight children of the late Estanislao Buenavista, a retired District Supervisor, and Salome Berzabal, one-time elementary school teacher.

She was born in Cervantes, locos Sur on December 25. 1922. She spent her first three years in the primary grades at the Cervantes Elementary School.

She graduated from Candon Elementary School after finishing the seven-year curriculum in five years.

She was salutatorian when she graduated from the Magsingal Institute and obtained her Elementary Teacher Certificate from the Far Eastern University.

She finished the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Education and Bachelor of Arts from the Rosary College now St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur.

She finished the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language at the Philippine Normal College.

Even though she finished all the academic requirements for a doctoral degree, her dissertation remains a dream.

In her teaching career, she rose from the ranks. She became an elementary teacher at Cabugao Elementary School in June 1940.

At the outbreak of war, the Division Superintendent of Ilocos Sur sent her to Manila in July 1941 as a trainee for the teaching of Niponggo.

The training lasted for five months with delegates from Batanes to Sulu. She would never forget that national training.

Miss Buenavista held the positions of head teacher, principal, district super visor, Educational Media Supervisor and General Education Supervisor in English in the Division of Ilocos Sur before her assignment as Assistant Schools Division Superintendent of the Division of City Schools of Dagupan City where she retired in January 1989.

It was during her time as General Education English Supervisor when Mrs. Carmeling Crisologo, then Provincial Governor of Ilocos Sur, asked her to write the lyrics of the locos Sur Hymn.

"I realized the magnitude of the task. I pondered about it, meditated, and stayed awake at night planning on what to write. I pictured our whole province in my mind, thought about the places I have seen the scenes I love.

I recalled stories and songs that I had heard about our people, our past and present".

"I love Ilocos Sur," she continued. "It is the only province call my own." "And so the llocos Sur Hymn was written with Mr. Anselmo Pelayre composing the music."

She feels deeply elated when she hears it sung at the Provincial Capitol every Monday morning and when marching bands play it during parades.

She also wrote the lyrics of the Region I Hymn with Mr. Jose Valledor, a former teacher of San Juan District, composing the music.

Miss Buenavista hears the holy mass every morning and attends weekly meetings of the SISA (Simbaan Sangakarrubaan) of Purok IV Cuta and monthly meetings of the Barangay IX Senior Citizens Organization of Vigan.

Somebody asked her "Aren't you bored in your present life?" She answered. "No, I'm not'. I find joy in my relatives, especially in taking care of my grandnephews. One is never bored when there are self-assigned things to be done."

She lives in her own house in the neighborhood of her brother, Judge Arturo Buenavista, retired Regional Trial Court Judge. "You asked for my biography. That would be a thick book. The things I told you are but excerpts," she ended.