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Roy Gonzales
Some of Modesto Paras’ children: (top photo, left to right, seated,
Isabelo, Isabela, Julia, Jose; standing, Augusto, Catalina, Felicitas,
and Modesto, Jr., taken on July 5, 1975. Lower photos, Roberta
(of the R.T. Paras fame) and Francisco Paras (taken in 1942 after
he completed the PC training course in Manila)
earliest days of the colonial period, probably even earlier. The
name means “spice” which is an apt description of the temperament
of the clan’s members, even to this day. Like most if not all
the pioneer families in Angeles, the Parases came from San
Fernando, or from an area near the old barrio of Culiat, or from
Culiat itself when it was still a part of San Fernando. The wife of
Severino Hengson (Henson), gobernadorcillo of San Fernando in
1815, was Placida Paras; one of the first Filipino priests, Bachiller
Don Paulino Paras, and the first pastor of Angeles, Padre Macario
Paras, were her ancestor and relative, respectively. One of their
daughters, Maria Paras, married Anacleto del Rosario who was
the forebear of Kapampangan hero Isabelo del Rosario (he played
the violin moments before being executed by the Americans in
1901) and Agapito del Rosario, Socialist mayor of San Fernando
who was executed by the Japanese in World War II. Another child
of Placida Paras, Mariano Henson, was the first Filipino layman
to become a Doctor of Laws (and second Filipino lay doctor in any
field). When he married Juana Ildefonsa de Miranda, daughter of
64
Angeles founder Don Angel Pantaleon de
Miranda, he settled in Culiat (before it
became Angeles town); his children included
Petrona Henson (ancestor of
Sevillano Aquino and the two Benigno
Aquinos), Mariano V. Henson (father of
Jose “Don Pepe” Henson and ancestor
of historian Mariano A. Henson and most
of the modern-day Hensons of Angeles)
and Agustina Henson, who married Pio
Rafael Nepomuceno and started the great
Nepomuceno clan of Angeles.
From another branch of the Paras
family, Agustina Henson’s contemporaries,
Francisco Paras and Joaquina Gomez, had
three children: Modesto Paras, and the
sisters Juana Paras and Aurea Paras, who
married the brothers Ysabelo Nepomuceno
and Juan G. Nepomuceno, respectively
(Ysabelo and Juana’s children were
Marcelina, Maxima and Susana, who married
first cousin Clemente Dayrit).
Modesto Paras, who became a juez
de paz of Angeles, married Juliana
Tablante; they had four children, namely,
Roberta (who started the famous R. T.
Mrs. Avelina Evangelista
Paras couture house), Francisca, Isabela
(who became a Miss Angeles) and Jose (father of Amando and
Jiji Paras and grandfather of HAU College of Engineering Dean
Abigail Paras Arcilla). When Juliana died, Modesto married his
second wife, Maria Santos of Patling, Capas (she was a cousin
of actress Vilma Santos’ paternal grandfather). Their children
were Julia P. Espiritu (mother of HAU faculty member Avelina
“Belen” Evangelista), Francisco (Angeles chief of police in
World War II), Isabelo, Eduardo, Modesto, Felicitas, Vicente,
Catalina (pioneer student of HAU in 1933) and Augusto.
It is the story of Roberta Tablante Paras that must be retold.
She was, by all accounts, a woman of extraordinary talent
and character, very much ahead of her
times. Even in her youth, her dressmaking
skills had already made her a
small-town celebrity. She fell in
love with—and had a child by—the
town’s famous doctor, Jose Tayag,
who was very much married to
a scion of a prominent family,
Carmen Nepomuceno Dayrit,
sister of Dr. Clemente Dayrit
and granddaughter of Pio
Rafael Nepomuceno and
Agustina Henson. Disowned
and driven out of the house by
her father, Modesto Paras, she
fled to Manila. Despite her pregnancy
and later, single parenthood,
she managed to pull herself together,
open a small dressmaking
shop in Quiapo in 1912 and in
Binondo in 1918, and, because her
talent was truly extraordinary, she
became popular in no time at all.
Later she opened a dressmaking
school in Avenida.
Roberta Paras welcomed Dr.
Tayag’s children to her house in
Manila during their schooling in the