By Jennifer Carrasco

This year was another big move for me– just up my street to Providence St. Vincent. At least this time it wasn't to another country like our fraught move in '72 to Taiwan...

 On September 21, 1972, I had just walked through our compound gate on Taft Avenue, Manila with my 2 month old baby Carlos when I spotted my landlady, Mrs Javier, sitting on her steps with her head in her hands. “What’s wrong?” I called out.

“Marcos has declared martial law,” she moaned.

Havoc. Marcos had militarized the entire nation of 7,641 islands. Many "enemies" (sound familiar) were jailed, and our plans came to a screeching halt. Ricardo, my husband, myself and little Carlos, were all set to fly to Taipei, and from there to the southern city of Tainan where I would teach art to K through 12 in a small Department of Defense school. The problem for us was that Marcos had cancelled all visa applications except for his cronies and his wife Imelda so when she had the urge she could fly to NYC and buy more shoes.

My visa and Carlos’s visa were ready, and Ric had his passport but no visa. Our household goods had already been shipped to Tainan. What to do?

We heard that visa applications were available at the Manila stadium on Espana Avenue. We bused out to the stadium and were treated to the sight of soldiers throwing application papers in the air above a scramble of 800 Filipinos. Ric said, “This is useless.”

We returned to the Manila Ermita neighborhood and walked around, racking our brains. We passed St. Paul’s College, where I had taught a semester of art and Ric had performed in several of their musicals. Ric said, “Let’s go in and see if we can talk to Soeur Benjamin (the head of the college) about our problem. Maybe she'll have an idea.”

We were able to catch her in her office, and we told her about Ric’s visa problem. Soeur Benjamin paused for a moment, adjusted her granny glasses, and said, “I’ll write a letter to my brother, Ponce Enrile, the Minister of Defense.” Ric and I gaped at her. We had no idea she was “connected” to anyone in the government.

 For years I have kept the copy of the letter she wrote to her brother. “Dear Ponce, please allow Ricky to join his little family in Taiwan.” It worked. In two days Ric had his visa.

We left via Clark Air Base three days after, and landed in Taipei the night before the Taiwanese celebration of Double Ten. We all were exhausted and slept straight through the night in our hotel. The next morning we walked out to see musicians marching down the streets and long lines of Dragon Dancers. So joyful, Such a relief!

The next day we flew south to Tainan, were placed in a nice hotel, and the following day I was teaching art to my new pupils.

After school Ric and I went house hunting.We found a 3 bedroom house down a lane in the University district.  Our new home had lots of windows, a nice yard, and floors covered with Japanese tatami mats. The bathroom had a huge PINK bathtub, which we thought quite piquant. 

We moved in, arranged our furniture and art, and I placed our awful black and white official Dept.of Defense photo of Richard Nixon above our toilet. Then we settled in for two peaceful and happy years in Taiwan.