National Artist - Lucrecia R. Kasilag

It is amazing what you find when you try to build your family tree.

From the Philippine Government Website of National Commission for Culture and Arts, I found one of the National Artist is Lucrecia R. Kasilag. She was Dean of the Philippine Women's University College of Music and Fine Arts. She served as Artistic Director and as president of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines from 1969 until her retirement in 1986.

Details of her are as follows:

"National Artist for Music (1989)
(August 31, 1918 – August 16, 2008)

Lucrecia R. Kasilag, as educator, composer, performing artist, administrator and cultural entrepreneur of national and international caliber, had involved herself wholly in sharpening the Filipino audience’s appreciation of music. Kasilag’s pioneering task to discover the Filipino roots through ethnic music and fusing it with Western influences has led many Filipino composers to experiment with such an approach. She dared to incorporate indigenous Filipino instruments in orchestral productions, such as the prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and Winds, Divertissement and Concertante,” and the scores of the Filiasiana, Misang Pilipino and De Profundis. “Tita King”, as she was fondly called, worked closely as music director with colleagues Lucresia Reyes-Urtula, Isabel Santos, Jose Lardizabal and Dr. Leticia P. de Guzman and made Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company one of the premier artistic and cultural groups in the country.

Her orchestral music include Love Songs, Legend of the Sarimanok, Ang Pamana, Philippine Scenes, Her Son, Jose, Sisa and chamber music like Awit ng mga Awit Psalms, Fantaisie on a 4-Note Theme, and East Meets Jazz Ethnika."

This is how we are connected in the family tree:

Senator Macario Peralta Jr.

I have learned that there is another Senator attached to my family tree. He is the husband of the cousin of the wife of my great grand uncle Senator Esteban R. Abada. His name is Macario Peralta Jr.

According to the Senate of the Philippines website:

Senator Peralta was born in Manila on July 30, 1913.

He was educated in a public school where he quickly learned to take care of himself in the rough and tumble of the streets and became a student leader in a various activites. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws, valedictorian (cum laude) at the University of the Philippines in 1936 and passed the bar examinations with flying colors.

Senator Peralta served in Cebu for two years as Commandant of Cadets of the Visayan Institute now University of the Visayas and was later on transferred to Adamson University and sent to various military school where he graduated with honors.

With the invasion of Japan, Peralta was sent to the Commander and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to acquaint himself with the latest military techniques. He was promoted as Brigadier General and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in late 1945.

Senator Peralta was the youngest member of the Senate in 1949, at the age of 36. Among his creditable achievements as a Senator is the authorship of the resolution which investigated the notorious Tambobong – Buenavista Estate deal and also giving priority to veterans in employment in the government and then compelling members of the Senate to bore their assets and liabilities and his term expire at the end of 1955.

He married Natividad Kasilag.

The Descendancy Charts below are how they are linked: