The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER VI 47
pretty young woman of Santa Cruz, who gave him social position and helped him to make his fortune. Doña
Pia Alba was not satisfied with buying and selling sugar, indigo, and coffee, but wished to plant and reap, so
the newly-married couple bought land in San Diego. From this time dated their friendship with Padre Damoso
and with Don Rafael Ibarra, the richest capitalist of the town.
The lack of an heir in the first six years of their wedded life made of that eagerness to accumulate riches
almost a censurable ambition. Doña Pia was comely, strong, and healthy, yet it was in vain that she offered
novenas and at the advice of the devout women of San Diego made a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Kaysaysay
[40] in Taal, distributed alms to the poor, and danced at midday in May in the procession of the Virgin of
Turumba [41] in Pakil. But it was all with no result until Fray Damaso advised her to go to Obando to dance
in the fiesta of St. Pascual Bailon and ask him for a son. Now it is well known that there is in Obando a trinity
which grants sons or daughters according to request--Our Lady of Salambaw, St. Clara, and St. Pascual.
Thanks to this wise advice, Doña Pia soon recognized the signs of approaching motherhood. But alas! like the
fisherman of whom Shakespeare tells in Macbeth, who ceased to sing when he had found a treasure, she at
once lost all her mirthfulness, fell into melancholy, and was never seen to smile again. "Capriciousness,
natural in her condition," commented all, even Capitan Tiago. A puerperal fever put an end to her hidden
grief, and she died, leaving behind a beautiful girl baby for whom Fray Damaso himself stood sponsor. As
St. Pascual had not granted the son that was asked, they gave the child the name of Maria Clara, in honor of
the Virgin of Salambaw and St. Clara, punishing the worthy St. Pascual with silence.
The little girl grew up under the care of her aunt Isabel, that good old lady of monkish urbanity whom we met
at the beginning of the story. For the most part, her early life was spent in San Diego, on account of its
healthful climate, and there Padre Damaso was devoted to her.
Maria Clara had not the small eyes of her father; like her mother, she had eyes large, black, long-lashed,
merry and smiling when she was playing but sad, deep, and pensive in moments of repose. As a child her hair
was curly and almost blond, her straight nose was neither too pointed nor too flat, while her mouth with the
merry dimples at the corners recalled the small and pleasing one of her mother, her skin had the fineness of an
onion-cover and was white as cotton, according to her perplexed relatives, who found the traces of Capitan
Tiago's paternity in her small and shapely ears. Aunt Isabel ascribed her half-European features to the
longings of Doña Pia, whom she remembered to have seen many times weeping before the image of
St. Anthony. Another cousin was of the same opinion, differing only in the choice of the smut, as for her it
was either the Virgin herself or St. Michael. A famous philosopher, who was the cousin of Capitan Tinong
and who had memorized the "Amat," [42] sought for the true explanation in planetary influences.
The idol of all, Maria Clara grew up amidst smiles and love. The very friars showered her with attentions
when she appeared in the processions dressed in white, her abundant hair interwoven with tuberoses and
sampaguitas, with two diminutive wings of silver and gold fastened on the back of her gown, and carrying in
her hands a pair of white doves tied with blue ribbons. Afterwards, she would be so merry and talk so sweetly
in her childish simplicity that the enraptured Capitan Tiago could do nothing but bless the saints of Obando
and advise every one to purchase beautiful works of sculpture.
In southern countries the girl of thirteen or fourteen years changes into a woman as the bud of the night
becomes a flower in the morning. At this period of change, so full of mystery and romance, Maria Clara was
placed, by the advice of the curate of Binondo, in the nunnery of St. Catherine [43] in order to receive strict
religious training from the Sisters. With tears she took leave of Padre Damaso and of the only lad who had
been a friend of her childhood, Crisostomo Ibarra, who himself shortly afterward went away to Europe. There
in that convent, which communicates with the world through double bars, even under the watchful eyes of the
nuns, she spent seven years.
Each having his own particular ends in view and knowing the mutual inclinations of the two young persons,
Don Rafael and Capitan Tiago agreed upon the marriage of their children and the formation of a business