The Holganza Reunion in Cebu – June 2012

We had our first-ever Holganza reunion in Cebu last June.  Planned almost two decades (?!?) ago, we finally found the urgency to make this a reality when the number of 2nd gen’er Holganzas started to dwindle. Today, with only three 2nd gen’ers left, we realized we really had to hunker down to business now.

It was Noy Benny and Suy who originally sounded the latest call for a reunion three years ago. But credit will have to go to Nang Sue and the ‘Kaliwat ni Paking’ for hosting the first meeting which really started the ball rolling. At that time, we were not really certain yet if indeed the planned reunion would push through.

And then the volunteer-workers started to trickle in. Toots busied herself with the family tree, Amy minded the purse strings (though we still didn’t have much to work with at the start), Luchi and Noy Dennis researched the events and peripheral activities, etc. In Cebu, we had Joey, Rose, Wennie, Margo and Lito providing precious time to work on the initial coordination for the venues, menus and other stuff. Suy provided all the noise from far off Texas.

Lo and behold! We didn’t realize it, but we were slowly getting over the skepticism that initially hounded our endeavor. Tio Riz and Tio Dodong, two of the 3 surviving brothers left in their generation, were always around to give us the needed moral support in our meets. They also gave us some semblance of authority to bamboozle our way through initial negative reactions and obstacles.

Finally, Reunion Weekend came.  It was a blast. The three 2nd gen’ers: Tio Rizing, Tio Rading and Tio Dodong, with the lone First Lady left – Tia Loula – beamed with pride as they scanned the Holganza kingdom in celebration-mode. The 2nd gen’ers supervised the plan, the 3rd gen’ers planned, the 4th gen’ers implimented the plan.

It was a good time, particularly for the 4th and 5th gen’ers to re-establish their roots from Cebu.  It was also a good time to impress on everyone the essence of being a Holganza. It was important for us to develop that pride in the breed, and the necessity to protect and carry the name with dignity. And it was important that we started thinking of the future, a future not as small independent families, but as a small part of a whole, a clan ready to provide support to anyone with a justifiable need.

Everyone had a great time. And now there are talks for another reunion next year.  It seems that people can not really have enough of a good thing. Perhaps it is time for the 4th gen’ers to step up to the plate now.