1947–1972
PHILIPPINES
Estrellita Taguba was born on Thursday, March 26, 1947 in the barangay (i.e., district or political unit) of Estefania in the Municipality of Amulung in the Cagayan Province. Her parents were Tomas and Maria (née Batulan) Taguba. We hope you will have time to read Tomas & Maria’s remarkable stories and especially what each parent endured during World War II.
In 1947, Estefania was a rural agricultural area on the east side of the Cagayan River, part of the much larger geographic region referred to as the Cagayan Valley in far northern Luzon. Even today Estefania’s population only consists of a few thousand people. Luzon is the largest and most populated of over 7,600 islands in the Philippine archipelago. The Republic of the Philippines had achieved full independence from the United States less than a year earlier, on July 4, 1946, with the signing of the Treaty of Manila (formerly known as the Treaty of General Relations and Protocol).
[Insert interactive map of Luzon with enlargement of northern provinces]