Antique Pictures Lourdes Cuenco of Cebu Philippines

Per­haps because I’ve always been inter­est­ed in fam­i­ly geneal­o­gy, rel­a­tives and friends have been for­ward­ing old fam­i­ly pic­tures to me.  Many pic­tures were dam­aged or lost in the Philip­pines dur­ing World War Two, and there­fore old fam­i­ly pic­tures are rare.

I’m fea­tur­ing pic­tures of my aunt, Lour­des Cuen­co, old­est sis­ter of my moth­er Con­cep­cion Cuen­co.  Lour­des remained unmar­ried as was her younger sis­ter Car­men.  They were known as the Old Maids liv­ing on Man­go Avenue, Cebu City. I should per­haps add that Lour­des Cuen­co had an avid suit­or whom she turned down so she could take care of Car­men who had health issues. They ran the Monte de Piedad Pawn shop in down­town Cebu, plus oth­er businesses.

Togeth­er my old maid aunts pre­served many of our fam­i­ly (Cuen­co) tra­di­tions. They host­ed noche bue­na (Christ­mas Eve) fes­tiv­i­ties for instance. They served home­made pas­tel de lengua, lechon, bam‑i, ice cream, and many oth­er Cebuano dishes.

For the chil­dren, they did the “sab­wag” — the scat­ter­ing of coins and can­dies which we chil­dren scram­bled on the floor for.  They gave each one of us mon­ey in envelopes which we hap­pi­ly spent on Christ­mas day — on a movie and some snacks per­haps. They host­ed many oth­er fam­i­ly events at their home. Lour­des gave me mon­ey before I immi­grat­ed as a stu­dent to the US.  She left me a sap­phire and dia­mond jew­el­ry set upon her death.

Tiya Oding or Lour­des Cuen­co was one of those who gave me old pic­tures when I used to ask her ques­tions about the fam­i­ly.  Recent­ly my cousins Man­ny Gon­za­lez and Celine Gon­za­lez Cone­jos sent me many fam­i­ly pic­tures that came from their mom (Tere­si­ta Cuen­co Gon­za­lez).  These pic­tures of Lour­des came from the Gon­za­lez sib­lings.  Thanks Man­ny and Celine.

I am shar­ing these to hon­or my Tiya Oding. She was born April 5, 1909 and died on May 12, 1985.

l‑r: Con­sue­lo Cuen­co, Con­cep­cion Cuen­co, Lour­des Cuen­co, cir­ca 1922

Chil­dren on the floor l‑r: Car­men Cuen­co, Con­sue­lo Cuenco

Seat­ed l‑r: Lour­des Cuen­co, Filom­e­na cuen­co, Reme­dios Lopez-Cuen­co, Reme­dios Cuen­co Bor­romeo, Con­cep­cion Cuenco

Stand­ing l‑r: uniden­ti­feied broehr, Dr. Teofi­lo Bor­romeo, Mon­sign­or Jose Ma. Cuen­co, Sen­a­tor Mar­i­ano Jesus Cuen­co, Con­gress­man Miguel Cuenco

Pic­tures tak­en at Assump­tion Col­lege 1929; Lour­des Cuen­co is far right in the mid­dle row

Lour­des Cuen­co 1923

Lour­des Cuen­co 1929

Lour­des Cuen­co 1937

Lour­des Cuen­co 1937

Lour­des Cuen­co 1939

Seat­ed l‑r: Con­sue­lo Cuen­co Reyes, Tere­si­ta Cuen­co Gon­za­lez; Stand­ing l‑r: Lour­des Cuen­co, Car­men Cuenco

Lour­des Cuen­co 1957

Com­ment from my niece Lia Feraren:

“Liafer Aren I remem­ber Tia Ding and Tia Ming and the home­made ice cream, sab­wag and also the clean­ing of the car­rozas. We kept the car­rozas of the Madre Dolorosa and the Nazarene Christ in a big shed behimd the gar­dens. For Holy Week, they would pol­ish them with Glo and dec­o­rate them with flow­ers. When I was small, they would alsp dress me up as a May angel (I can’t remem­ber the reli­gious occa­sion) with a dress and home­made met­al-backed paper wings strapped on my shoulders.”

Read also “My Aunts, Lour­des and Car­men Cuen­co”: https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/07/cebu-philippines-my-aunts-lourdes-and.html

This arti­cle is also in my Trav­el Blog:  https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2019/12/antique-pictures-lourdes-cuenco-of-cebu.html

Tags: Cuen­co fam­i­ly, Cebu, Philip­pines, pol­i­tics, antique pic­tures, real pho­tos, Filipina