Metro Infanta Foundation

By Rudy Arizala

Every Infantahin knows that there is a street in Infanta, Quezon called "20 de Julio" - a street where our family house is located.

But very few know or remember why it was called "20 de Julio."

It has historical significance in so far as the people of Infanta are cocerned. On 20 July 1898, a group of local Katipuneros headed by Col. Pablo Astilla liberated the town of Infanta from the hands of Spanish soldiers and authorities.

After laying siege to the old stone "convento" for several days where a group of Spanish soldiers were holed up and made their last stand, weary and hungry, they surrendered to the local Katipuneros on 20 July 1898.

When the early Irish and American Carmelite fathers were constructing the St. Mark Cathedral, they discovered or rather dugged from one of the burried old thick stone walls of the church a coconut shell filled with grains of corn. What was that coconut shell filled with grains of corn doing inside the thick stone walls of the old church? It was surmised that said coconut shell with grains of corn was part of the meals of the masons or workers who constrcted the old Infanta stone church left inadvertently and covered with lime, sand, gravel as the constrction of the stone church progresses.

Going back to the local Katipuneros, I remember hearing from one of the local "veteranos de la Revolucion" that they used rolled several bundles of bamboo poles or trunks tied together with rattan. They used said rolled bamboo poles or trunks as mobile trenches. The Katipuneros could advance position by rolling forward the bundles of bamboo poles or trunks tied together or retreat by rolling them backward.

There was a time when the town of Infanta celebrates its town fiesta on 20th July. Later, however, as a sign of cooperation between church and state and to avoid so many local holidays, the municipal officials agreed to celebrate the town fiesta of Infanta every 25th of April, the Feast of St. Mark, the patron saint of Infanta instead of on 20th July.

So, 20 de Julio although no longer celebrated as a date for our town fiesta, it is still remembered as the date when our town was liberated from the hands of the Spanish soldiers by the local Katipuneros. It has patriotic and historical significance.