JMJ

Some important points on his Early Childhood and Education

Don Salvador’s childhood and early education are vividly narrated in his article-“Life with
Father”- published in the book- 1030 Hildalgo (Vol. 1- The Family) edited by Antonio S. Araneta. All the
narrations here were taken from the said book. According to Don Salvador, these early memories are
well-etched, like flashes in a quick, colorful but somewhat disconnected.

He remembered being awakened early in the morning to view Halley’s Comet streaking
across the sky. Yet this memory is mixed with being awakened early, during another morning to see
in the sky a vast red glow which, he was told, came from the first eruption of Taal Volcano.

He also remembered the excitement of a morning sometime around 1907, when the Virgin of
Antipolo passed before their house in Manila for a triumphant coronation. He remembered the big
world news of the century. He learned about the death of Edward VI, the first decrees from Pope
Pius X such as the early reception of First Communion by children, the prohibition of lay women from
singing in the choir. He also remembered following the rising star of former Civil Governor William
Howard Taft, who later became the 27 th President of the United States.

In one of his birthdays as a very young child, his parents usually organized a banquet where
the children were treated as grownups. After banquet, a few of them gave prepared speeches, with
one acting as a toastmaster. As he was the honoree and celebrant, he stood up to make the final
speech on that occasion.

The House Don Gregorio Araneta Built

During the first nine years of his parent’s marriage, they lived in a house in San Sebastian
which was owned by his grandmother. Here their first four children, including Don Salvador, were
born.

He was very young child, aged one or two when they transferred to their own very house
which was also at San Sebastian Street. His father commissioned Don Arcadio Arellano, one of
Manila’s renowned architects then, to design the house.

Aside from the house at San Sebastian, they also lived in other houses farther away from the
hustle of the city. Twice his father moved the whole family to a residential area in Santa Mesa, which
was elevated, wooded and had a fresh country air, near where the Club Filipino was formerly
located.

They lived in that vicinity in a chalet rented from Don Mariano Tuason. The first time they
moved out from the house in San Sebastian was because his Lola Chata got sickly there and needed a
change of air.
JMJ

Several years later, they transferred to another chalet which his father rented from Mr.
Hausserman. There were many interesting places for play in that house and by that time his brothers
and sisters were an active lot.

In his recollection of his childhood he told that he learned his first lesson in character and
conduct from his father as he relaxed on the couch while the children sat around him. These lessons
were about proper behavior and moral integrity.

The lesson he will never forget was the admonition of his father that a good life should be
lived from youth. A good, straight life when young means a good, straight life in maturity. Life was
compared to a life of a young tree which, if bent when young and tender would grow crooked for
the rest of its life.

Their training at home was supplemented by a very early formal education. He and his
brother Pepe attended a kindergarten school at Calle Limasana very near their house. The school
was owned and conducted by Madame Toulousse, a French lady, who came to the Philippines to be
the tutor of Don Francisco Roxas’ children. When Don Francisco was sentenced to death by the
Spanish Government in 1986 during the revolution against Spain, his family left for France.

Madame Toulousse, however, chose to remain in Manila and earned her keep by giving
lessons in English. His father, Gregorio, was one of her first pupils in English. Later on, when Madame
Toulousse established her kindergarten school, his father enrolled Salvador and his brother Pepe.
However, his father soon transferred them to what was supposed to be a better American
kindergarten school.

That American kindergarten was housed in the former residence of Perez Samanillo in Paco.
A few years later, it became the school house of the La Salle Brothers and there his brother Jose,
Antonio, Ramon and Vicente studied.

His parents soon realized that they were just wasting their time in this American school,
where the teaching was an early and crude attempt at introducing the Montessori Method. Hence,
the children’s first letters and lessons in the Bible were given to them by a pious tutor, Miss
Encarnita, who was once a novice in a nunnery.

Don Salvador’s early schooling in Ateneo

In 1909, at the age of seven, Don Salvador was enrolled at Ateneo together with his brother
Pepe who was eight. Ateneo was a logical choice as far as his father was concerned-it was his
father’s Alma Mater.

For the first year in school, the students followed a heavy schedule which required them to
be at Ateneo fifteen minutes before 7:00 am for the early mass. They went home at 7: OO in the
evening. In the first days Don Gregorio would wait for them. The father thought that this was a
JMJ

tough schedule for two young boys, so he obtained for them the special privilege of going home at
5:00 PM. This meant that the boys lost an hour of play and an hour of supervised study period. To
make up for the study period, his father asked two teachers from the public school to tutor them.
They were Pilar Zamora and Andrea Arce who became very close to them, stating to be the tutors of
almost all the children in the Araneta Family.

Don Salvador recalls that although he was fetched in evening, he had to go to Ateneo by
himself using the streetcar. He had to walk a distance from their house to Sta. Mesa street in front of
the Sta. Mesa Church. It took one hour to reach the electric car stop, one block from Ateneo. He
wakes up at 5am to get to Ateneo at 6:45am. They already had a car, but this was used only by his
father and to fetch the rest of the family from school at 5:00 PM.

Don Salvador’s greatest difficulty was in memory work and home assignment. His mother
used to wake him up at 5 A.M. in order to help him with memory lessons for the day. In later years,
his father took over tutoring from his mother when they had to memorize Latin, Greek and Spanish
verses. His father knew Latin very well because at that time Latin, was the second language of
Ateneo.

Even with his parent’s help, Don Salvador repeated third grade upon the advice of Father
Joaquin Villalonga, the Rector then, in his last two years. When memory work was at minimum and
the subjects were concentrated on science and philosophy, he brought home medals indicating his
top performance with his scholastic record.

In one important celebration at Ateneo, his father, Don Gregorio was more than a spectator;
his father was guest of honor. This was in 1910 when Ateneo celebrated its 50 th anniversary. Don
Gregorio was then the Secretary of Finance and Justice and the first Filipino to hold an important
executive office was then the most distinguished alumnus. To commemorate the occasion there was
program at the “Salon de Actas” in which Don Salvador took a part as a page.

Student programs at Ateneo then consisted of graduation exercises and Veladas, which were
really literary musical presentation, with declamation and dramatization. The first time he took part
in a Velada, he had a small oration to deliver. How patiently his father coached him and when he
finally spoke the piece during the program, his father listened with great enthusiasm. In his last four
years at the Ateneo, he took part in the annual English play and in several Spanish plays. His father
never failed to attend the Veladas where he had a part.

His love for Games, Sports and Playtime

For a long time, the tricycle was a favorite toy among the Araneta children. Outdoors they
rode the tricycle around the house; indoors they rode it around the long dining table. Roller skates
were also a favorite. They were allowed to skate around the long dining table- on the solid tiled floor
in the dining room.
JMJ

When they skated outdoors, it was at the cemented tennis court in the house of the
Legardas. Later on, as a student in Ateneo, Don Salvador took part in English football. Ateneo
students competed with Letran students during Sunday afternoons in the Sunken Gardens.

His football era preceded what he called the golf era- which took place, in part, also at the Sunken
Gardens and the old Wack-Wack club in what later was called GRACE PARK in Caloocan.

His father encouraged him and his brother Pepe to play with him frequently.

Vacation Homes

Antipolo, Malate Beach and Baguio-these were the places which beckoned them when
Manila began to wilt in the heat of Summer.

In 1906, the Aranetans rented a summer house for a month in Antipolo. Don Salvador
vaguely recalled the trip which started by train until Taytay and was continued by Jamaca up to hills
of Angono to the ridge where Antipolo is located.

Antipolo, Malate Beach and Baguio-these were the places which beckoned them when
Manila began to wilt in the heat of Summer.

In 1906, the Aranetans rented a summer house for a month in Antipolo. Don Salvador
vaguely recalled the trip which started by train until Taytay and was continued by Jamaca up to hills
of Angono to the ridge where Antipolo is located. Two men carried one Jamaca which could
accommodate one adult.

When the family spent the summer in Malate Beach, they lived in the house of Don Francisco
Roxas. Starting from 1909 to his father’s death in 1930, with but a few exceptions, they spent each
summer in Baguio.

As Secretary of Finance and Justice from 1908-1913, his father rented Government Cottage
No. 4 faced Luneta Hill. Many of the families from Manila were contented with rented government
cottage in the summer. Only the very rich started to build summer houses.

When Don Gregorio finally built a summer house for the family in 1925, he chose a place in North
Drive, next to the house of the Roxases, in front of the Teachers Camp.

His Adult Life

According to one of his brothers, J. Antonio Araneta, Don Salvador always came home with
good grades from Ateneo. He continued that both their father and mother would always treat
Salvador with more affection than any of the children but there was never any envy among the
siblings.

The following narrations were given by his daughter, Maria Lina A. Santiago from “Life with
Father”, published from 1030 R. Hidalgo (Volume 1- The Family) ed., by Antonio S. Araneta.
JMJ

She said that her life with her father started when she heard his advice in a speech. “If you
have to make decision, act on it quickly.” That was August 13, 1927. The Following day, at 5 a.m., he
exchanged vows with Victoria Lopez to the delight of his Lola Ana who adored him. He didn’t have
time to provide the bride a wedding ring (she used his Lola Ana’s). Actually, his wife had three
different wedding rings.

She continued, that it worried the groom that he had about ₱ 100.00 in his pocket, not
knowing that the bride had quickly been gifted with about ₱ 20, 000.00 just before the wedding
to commemorate the union. The wedding was so hurried, that when his wife’s Japanese
chauffer reported for work, he did not know that a wedding had taken place. The chauffer was
telling an acquaintance upon reaching Baguio, that he was driving for Ms. Lopez and Mr.
Araneta.

Early in his married life, Victoria, her wife wrote up a pledge for Salvador to sign. This was
September 5, 1929. It read, “I solemnly promise that this night’s speech will be the last I will deliver at
a public assembly. Her mother was not satisfied with the Signature S. Araneta. He had to sign once
more-this time in full- “Salvador Araneta”. That pledge was constantly broken.

Don Salvador spent his life reading, exchanging views, writing and delivering speeches to
explain his ideas and convince his listeners to the validity of his thoughts.

Since his wife could not stop him from delivering speeches, she tried to convince him: “Make
it short”. When President Magsaysay ignored her father’s long letters, her mother advised “Send him
a telegram”. He did and there was a quick response.

Don Salvador was a man ahead of his time. As early as 1954, he was trying to save on
gasoline. He changed the motor of his black car to what sounded and shook like a tractor. His
children were quite embarrassed riding his car.

Mrs. Araneta would say, “Salvador you are dreaming of Utopia”, when he expanded his
Bayanikasan Constitution”.

Don Salvador realized then, it was too early. He wrote: “To be implemented ten or twenty
years from now.”

He believed in participatory democracy, that is the participation of the greatest member of

the population in the life of a nation, with moderating powers headed by Troika, (the President,
Prime Minister, Speaker of the parliament, and the establishment of Federal Republic. The federal
republic is to consists of five states: Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Muslim Mindanao,
Christian Mindanao.
JMJ

He submitted a bill to the National Economic Council in 1956 for Bold Housing Program. He
saw it as the main pillar for our prosperity since it provides a sense of serenity and self-respect.
Today, our housing problem is beyond proportion.

Don Salvador’s insistent cries then were against indiscriminate logging that had brought
havoc and destructive floods and landslides- a cry for reforestation, a cry for world peace, through
brotherhood of man, a cry for A United Nations reborn, a cry for neutralization of the Philippines, a
cry against American Obstacles to our industrialization and a lot more.

Don Salvador advocated: “to reach the promised land of plenty, we must realize that we
have to cross the desert of austerity.” -Advocacy on Austerity

He was among the first to say “Buy Filipino”. He was one with the organizers of the NEPA-
National Economic Protectionism Association. His wife was the moving spirit.

His shoes were “Ang Tibay”. He bought Filipino; he thought Filipino. He lived and died
Filipino. He said: “I believe in the capacity of the Filipino people, in our innate good nature, in the
need of making maximum and efficient utilization of our abundant, untapped natural resources to
increase wealth of our people, to provide a decent livelihood for all.”

Salvador Araneta was pioneer in Philippine Aviation, in education, in agriculture, in the

manufacture of animal vaccine, in business and industry. He was a holy man, a man charitable man, a
generous man. He generously endowed us Araneta University, now De La Salle Araneta University.

“I believe in God, in love of our country and people, in the independence of Church and State
but not in the independence of State from God.”

Don’s Salvador’s Education

At the age of seven, he was enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila. He graduated in 1918, at the
age of 16, with the title of Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude.

He enrolled at University of Sto. Tomas in the graduate school to take-up Law, immediately
after graduation at the Ateneo de Manila. In 1922, at the age of 20, he graduated with the title of
Licenciado en Derecho, Meritissimus. In August 1922, he took the Bar Examinations and passed.

His parents allowed him to go to United States of America for further studies in the middle of
1922. As a special student, he enrolled in the Law School at Harvard University where he took
Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, and subjects in Commercial Law. He stayed in Harvard
University for one year.

Because of his achievements as a lawyer and particularly as an official of the Government, he

was conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, by Fordham University in 1946.