July 27, 2005 Quezon City. Today I will begin to compose the family tree of Felipa Lozada Gonzales starting from Pedro Lozada of Capiz. I am viewing her tree in relation to Congressman Jun Lozada's family tree website, which is very valuable and informative in discovering the entirety and extent of the Lozada clan. I will therefore introduce our family tree by visiting the website of Cong. Lozada with the following letter:
"Dear Congressman, I had been surfing through your website for quite sometime, particularly your family tree of the Lozadas. It is very interesting and absorbing not only for being comprehensive, organized, and colorful -- but above all because my ancestors were also revealed in the family tree! Actually I was led to your website through Michael Lozada's website of their family tree that stream back to Graciano Lozada, their great grandfather, and his brother Valeriano Lozada. My nephew, Leo Calma Gonzales in USA, asked my elder brother, Samuel Alcopra Gonzales of Toronto Canada 'who was Michael Lozada?'. Obviously at the time Mike Lozada created their website, they were not aware of Felipa Lozada Gonzales, the sister of Graciano and Valeriano. I was delighted in their website because Felipa Lozada Gonzales was my great grandmother, and I knew much from my father about Graciano and Valeriano's children. I was happy to see in your website our great great grandfather Pedro Lozada was from the Lozada (Capiz). Since then I wondered why your great great grandfather Pedro Lozada from Dumanjug was about the age of our great great grandfather who was also named Pedro Lozada. Why was he from Dumanjug where my father Antonio Lozada Gonzales from Barili said he has relatives? I will also send a copy of this letter to Jeanie Lozada Portus because Mike Lozada said his sister know a lot of Lozadas in Barili, and perhaps in Dumanjug also. Anyway last July 4, 2005 I met for the first time in almost 63 years since I was born my first cousin, Dr. Carlos Zosa Delgado who informed me the first husband of our grandmother Consolacion Lozada Gonzales Vda. De Lozada, Vda. De Delgado, Vda. De Torres was Juanito Lozada of Dumanjug. Noy Carling (he is 80 years old now) said Lola Conching and Juanito Lozada had a daughter, Esperanza, who died early in life. Because of the lack of medical facilities at that time Juanito Lozada also died of tubercolosis very early in his married life to Lola Conching. I asked Noy Carling who was the father of Juanito Lozada? He could not tell the name but the father of Juanito Lozada, he said, was a half-brother of Felipa Lozada Gonzales and therefore half-brother also of Graciano and Valeriano. Of course I remembered why my father earlier said Lola Conching's first husband was her first cousin -- that is Juanito Lozada of Dumanjug. My inevitable conclusion and question is: if the father of Juanito Lozada was a half-brother of Felipa Lozada Gonzales, then the Grandfather of Juanito Lozada of Dumanjug was Pedro Lozada of Mambusao or Capiz! But why was Pedro Lozada of Mambusao or Capiz in Dumanjug to become the father of Felipa's half-brother and grandfather of Juanito Lozada of Dumanjug? The following may provide the answer. My father related to me another brother of Felipa was Vicente Lozada and I don't know whether he was a full brother or a half-brother of Felipa, Graciano, and Valeriano. I only know from my father's story that he was not mentioned among those (families of Felipa, Graciano, and Valeriano) who fled in a batil from Capiz to Cebu when Lola Conching was about 7 years old and Santiago, the eldest son of Felipa was about 15 years old. Was Vicente Lozada left in Mambusao when this event occured, which was about the same time as the Philippine Revolution in Panay Island about 1897? History of the Republic of the Philippines, Revised Edition by Gregorio F. Zaide and Sonia M. Zaide, page 233 confirms this event about the same time as the "Nineteen Martyrs of Aklan" in March 23, 1897. In a history book that I have lost track of, I read there were 12 Filipino commanders about the same time in Iloilo or Panay who were defeated by the Spanish commander, and who were all executed consequently, except one, whose beautiful wife kneeled and pleaded for his life before the Spanish commander. The brave Filipino commander was Manuel Gonzales. He could be a brother or relative of Felipa's husband (a Gonzales) who is my great grandfather from Capiz. I never heard from my father or any of my relatives why Felipa was so silent about her husband. Did he perish in the Panay revolution fighting against the Spaniards? At this point in time, I can only speculate that when Pedro Lozada, Gobernadorcillo of Capiz in the 1830's rowed a small banca from Capiz to Manila to appeal to the Gobernador General -- otherwise he would be lashed for not attending a general meeting called by the Alcalde Mayor -- he probably could not go back to his estate in Capiz and to his family with Leona Bauzon. That was a long time from the 1830's to the Philippine Revolution in Panay about 1897. Again the same book in page 158 about the peninsulares and creoles may provide the explanation to the hostilities of Alcalde Mayors (preferred for peninsularis) against Gobernadorcillos (allowed to creoles and mestizos). But where did Pedro Lozada go? With Noy Carling's latest information, I think Pedro Lozada of Capiz settled in Dumanjug, Cebu and was forced to have a second family there. This is only speculation, but what is SURE is that Felipa, Graciano, and Valeriano KNEW their half-brother (the father of Juanito Lozada) in Dumanjug, Cebu during the "batil exodus" from Capiz circa 1897. My father had this first hand information from his grandmother Felipa Lozada Gonzales, who took care of him from 7 years old or younger when his mother was remarried to her 4th husband. Felipa also told my father, her grandfather was a sailor from Acapulco. She did not specify which grandfather -- father of Leona Bauzon or Pedro Lozada. However, from Mike Lozada's website and yours, their family tree -- showing the lion passant oof the Lozada Coat of Arms -- it is quite obvious to me the sailor from Acapulco was the father of Pedro Lozada and who settled in Cavite. This is all for now, Cong. Lozada. I desire to share the information in this letter to my expanded relatives who are interested in their family tree, and I think it is fitting to address it first to our Congressman from the 5th district of Negros Occidental. Of course I am CURRENT with our political history, nowadays, but I prefer to look in the future when you will be SENATOR of our land!Truly Yours,
FRANKLIN A. GONZALES
P. S. I would like to outline here my Family Tree from Pedro Lozada of Capiz, who may have moved some time in the past to Mambusao and then to Dumanjug. In the future, I will publish this outline in a better form in my website at http://www.geocities.com/franklin_alcopra. Correct me on this matter, but I thought the town of Capiz was renamed to Roxas City not long time ago in our modern history of the Philippines. When our Lozadas from Tanjay, Negros Oriental reported Pedro Lozada was Gobernadorcillo of Capiz (the equivalent of town mayor in the 1830's) they mean Roxas City while it was yet the former town of Capiz in the province of Panay."