The Sta.Brigida Family of Mandaluyong



PROLOGUE

Sta.Brigida family
of Mandaluyong

The world as we know it continues to evolve in the field of communication. We are now in an age of a "shrinking world" where geographical distances are no longer reasons for not being able to stay in touch with friends and families from different parts of the world. All became possible because of the internet. What made it even easier is the coming of social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook as examples and blog sites like Blogger and Wordpress. Let us remember to use these tools or media wisely. Keep in mind that the good and bad results from using these technologies solely depend on you. Share your ideas, family photos, history, etc., without compromising your personal security. Let's make this a better way to communicate with our friends and our families around the world. Use the internet together with social networking sites to make your "mark." Here's a great opportunity to become "immortal" in a way. With the way things are going, as long as sites like Facebook or blogsites like blogger.com are around, your "mark" or presence in this world will remain alive as long as these sites remain available. This is the reason why I am posting my family history here in Facebook and/or in blogsites. In addition, this is to honor my father's 42nd year anniversary of his death (September 4, 1982).

Sta.Brigida family
of Manitoba

The Sta.Brigida Family of Mandaluyong

This is a brief history of the Sta.Brigida Family of Mandaluyong, Rizal specifically Chito and his family's life in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. The purpose of this topic here in this blogsite is to be able to provide insight of the history of the Sta.Brigida family and where they are from and to be able to trace or track down any other relatives related to the Sta.Brigida Family of Mandaluyong, Rizal. Chito is the only surviving male using the Sta.Brigida family name from Mandaluyong coming from the Perfecto Sta.Brigida (the grandfather) clan. Having this website available will hopefully, provide information on-line for other possible Sta.Brigida families, if they exist, to check if they are related to the Sta.Brigida Family of Mandaluyong.



Mandaluyong City - where is that?

The city of "Mandaluyong", from the Tagalog word "daluyong" meaning "tidal waves" or "a place of waves" was formerly a town part of the Rizal Province (named after Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippines' National hero). On November 7, 1975 (Presidential Decree No. 824), Mandaluyong became part of Manila and for a while was known as Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. Sometime in the mid-1990's Mandaluyong became what is now known as the city of Mandaluyong. The language spoken in Mandaluyong is Tagalog and widely spoken in the Philippines' Capital Region. Tagalog was derived from the two root words, "taga (from) & ilog (river)" or "taga-ilog" which in English means, "people living along the river" or "people from the river." Most of the Tagalog-speaking towns and/or provinces that are located near the Pasig River speak Tagalog (taga-ilog) and that was how the name came to be. Tagalog is the language the official Filipino or Philippine language was based on. For more information about the Tagalog language, you can check out Paul Morrow's website at http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/index.htm#baybayin.

*Paul Morrow is a local Winnipeger (Canadian) who can speak fluent Tagalog (Filipino) and Pangasinan and you can learn more of his research about Filipinos and the Filipino language (ancient & historical) from his website.



in Florida

English is the second widely spoken language in the Philippines. It is the official "business and teaching" language. Filipinos would know at least the two official languages, Tagalog & English. Other Filipinos (who are not from the Tagalog region) with different indigenous languages from their own respective provinces need to learn Tagalog and/or English to communicate with other Filipinos. There are over a hundred different languages all over the Philippines with different variations from each increasing the number of dialects spoken by Filipinos.



From Philippines to Canada - the trip

On a cold February night with a temperature of -21 C (- 5.8 F), Chito stepped out of the plane and on to the Winnipeg International Airport. Chito was the very first Sta.Brigida (Santa Bree-he-dah or Santa Bree-gee-da) to arrive in Winnipeg or in Canada for that matter. He arrived on the 15th of February 1992 just three days after his 27th birthday. During the trip (more than 18 hours flight from Manila to Winnipeg), Chito wondered what the city of Winnipeg has in store for him and his family. He had no idea what life will be for himself and his family in this foreign land.

Tito & Tatay

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the City of Winnipeg, Winnipeg is the capital city of Manitoba, Canada and affectionately called by the locals as "WinterPeg." The province of Manitoba is located in the central part of Canada and YES it's very, very, very cold here at winter time. For more information about Canada, visit http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html.



Chito “Tito” Perfecto Sta.Brigida y Lim was born in Manila, Philippines. The first of two children to Virgilio “Viring” Sta.Brigida y Marcelo (b: November 26, 1927; d: September 4, 1982) of Mandaluyong, Rizal and to Lourdes “Unding” Lim y Medina (b: September 19, 1934) of Milagros, Masbate. After a little over two months, Venus and the children (Alexis & Aleeson-Rae) were reunited with Chito on April 27, 1992. Chito's sister, Zoraida (nicknamed "Nene"), also lives in Winnipeg with her family.


Chito & Venus

Chito is married to Venus Macasieb y Ballesteros (b: November 19) of Sampaloc, Manila. Chito and Venus were married on July 16, 1988 at the San Felipe Neri Church in Mandaluyong. Venus, the oldest child of six (6) children from the Macasieb family of Sampaloc, Manila is a graduate student of The University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Business Administration. Venus' parents were originally from the province of Pangasinan. Venus' father, Marceliano Macasieb y Eliang, is from Bayambang, Pangasinan and Venus' mother, Lydia Ballesteros y De Vera is from Urbiztondo, Pangasinan. They are currently staying with their youngest daughter, Mary Ann Higgins and her family in Oklahoma, U.S.A.

Alexis, Annabelle
& Aleeson-Rae

Chito and Venus are without any sons but are blessed with three wonderful daughters namely;

Alexis (born in Manila)

Aleeson-Rae (born in Manila)

Annabelle (born in Winnipeg)

*for more pictures of the family, visit our family website at www.stabrigida.ca

*you can find our pictures also in Chito's Facebook account at www.facebook.com/dsaint65

According to Viring (Chito's father), the Sta.Brigida Family was originally from Punta, Sta. Ana in Manila. However, there are only little known facts about where the origins of the family because Chito never really met his father's parents. Perfecto (Lolo) died when Chito's father, Virgilio, was in his teenage years. Dolores (Lola) passed away when Chito was around 2 or 3 years old. Virgilio had two younger sisters only known to Chito as Tia Naty (Natividad?) and Tia Ising (Cresencia?). In the Sta.Brigida household, Virgilio is the sole "bread winner" of the family while Lourdes is a full time housekeeper. Chito and his sister grew up in and around the neighborhood known as the Highlander/Kalentong area in Mandaluyong, Rizal.

RECENT UPDATE: Not too long ago, Chito was able to get hold of 2 families from the Philippines with similar last names. Based on initial information, it is possible that they are related to Chito. Both families' origin is from Sta.Ana, Manila and in fact, one of the families is still living in Sta. Ana and the other family has moved to Bocaue, Bulacan. More updates in the future.

Virgilio Sta.Brigida

Death in the Family – “goodbye tatay”

When Chito's father ("tatay") passed away on September 4, 1982, Chito's education became uncertain. Although with full scholarship as a Don Bosco Youth Center Scholar in Don Bosco Technical College - Mandaluyong, the family can no longer afford a life with nobody taking a full time job. Sometime between 1983-84 scholastic years, Chito dropped out of school and finally decided to work full time. It was a difficult decision for Chito because he always wanted to finish his education and become a Mechanical Engineer someday... but family comes first.

Even when Chito's father was still alive, Chito always finds a way to get a part time job to supplement his educational expenses. He began working when he was 14 years old taking on odd jobs wherever it is available. Later on, when Chito can pass as an 18 year old (he was only 16 at the time), he found work in a fast food restaurant chain at Jollibee Restaurant along Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila flipping burgers. He was a working college student then.



Chito as a cook

At the age of 18 (legal age to work in Manila), a year after his father died, Chito managed to find work as a Kitchen Helper at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel (a five star hotel in Makati City) because of his football (soccer) skills. He was fortunate the hotels at that time of the year were preparing for their annual football tournament season known as the Inter-Hotel Football League. Chito was an active varsity football player in high school and went on to play in the country's National College Athletic Association (NCAA) later on in his college years for Jose Rizal College (now known as Jose Rizal University). To play for the hotel, Chito must first be an employee and since the organizers in the hotel were chefs from Germany and Switzerland, Chito ended up working as a Kitchen Helper. It was the beginning of Chito's career in the hotel industry. Within a year working in the kitchen, he became the Senior Cook ("saucier") specializing in French culinary cuisine. He once prepared breakfast for the Prime Minister of Japan, Yusohiro Nakasone when the Prime Minister visited the Philippines in the '80s. Chito remained in the kitchen for over five years until he decided to transfer in the beverage department to work as a bartender.

Inter-Hotel Football

Chito's transfer from the kitchen to the bar (as a bartender) was one of his best employment years. Chito enjoys meeting and chatting with guests from other countries and with foreign & local celebrities. After three more years working in the hotel industry, Chito made another career move by working as an Assistant Animator (In-Betweener) for Fil-Cartoons Inc. Fil-Cartoons Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons and Chito worked there for about a year.



Chito's interest to work in the Technical/Engineering field was so strong that while working at Fil-Cartoons, Chito took interest in troubleshooting IBM compatible computers. When he arrived in Canada in 1992, Chito found his niche in the computer industry. He took courses at night to quickly catch up with the new technologies and to learn the discipline required in the computer field while working full time (odd jobs) during the day and part time janitorial work at night. Life for Chito and his family were very difficult during those early years juggling with all the schedules of work and school. It was not easy but Chito's efforts paid off in the end. Chito is now a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and is currently working as an Information Technology Manager for a local law firm in downtown Winnipeg. Chito is also certified in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Foundations. Meanwhile, Venus is an Educational Assistant for The Winnipeg School Division No.1 and is enjoying working with nursery children at Laura Secord School.



Annabelle

The children, Alexis a full time piercer at a popular tattoo artist shop in downtown Winnipeg. Aleeson-Rae has moved to Gimli, Manitoba and working full time at the Lakeview Hotel & Resort as a front desk clerk. Meanwhile, Annabelle, the youngest of the Sta.Brigidas is now 22 years old and is now a student at the University of Winnipeg studying to become a teacher. Two more years and she'll be graduating. Annabelle is fluent in French, English and our own native language, Tagalog (Filipino). 

Aleeson-Rae & Alexis

Lourdes, Chito’s mother is also living in Winnipeg. The first Sta.Brigida Family is now living comfortably in what is known as the Maples/West Kildonan area.



From a small town in the province of Rizal, Philippines to a new and adopted city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, the Sta.Brigida Family has been living in Canada for 20 years. They consider themselves Winnipegers and this is their home.

*last updated on July 18, 2023
*this version was originally published in Facebook on September 3, 2010