Carnival Queens and Their Daughters- Dinner at Marily Orosa's home

l-r: Cecilia Brainard, Maribel Paras, Marily Orosa

My friend Maribel Alvarez Paras and I had the chance to see Marily Orosa's new place. How nicely Marily has decorated her space! She found a place for her antiques, original paintings, books, and plants.



Her cook, Cora, prepared a lovely dinner for us: green salad with fruit, salmon, chicken pastel, fruit, and brazos de mercedes dessert.

Marily, Maribel and I were friends in college at Maryknoll, but in fact my connection with Maribel goes back farther. Her mother and mine were friends and were both Cebu beauty queens at the same time (1931). I'm posting pictures of them courtesy of manilacarnivals.blogspot.com, which has a wonderful write-up and pictures about the subject matter. 

Isn't it interesting to see the pictures of our mothers when they were young? I wonder what they thought, what their dreams were. Did they ever imagine that two of their daughters would be friends and remain such for years?

If you look closely, you can see traces of Concepcion and Rita in the faces of Cecilia and Maribel.

Just to honor them, here are their bios, courtesy of manilacarnivals.blogspot.com:

1931, CONCEPCION CUENCO y ALESNA
The charming Concepcion Cuenco (b. 18 Feb. 1912), daughter of Sen. Mariano Jesus Cuenco and Filomena Alesna, reigned as the 1931 queen. Her consort was Dr. Protacio V. Solon. Concepcion also snagged theMiss Free Press Cebu titles two years in a row, in 1931 and 1932. She married Engr. Mariano F. Manguerra of Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Her 4 surviving children (Victoria, Mariano, Ana Maria, Cecilia Catalina) are all professionals. The youngest, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, is an accomplished Fil-Am author.


In that same carnival, another beauty was named “Bito-on sa Babaye”—Rita V. Pañares, daughter of Bartolome Pañares andManuela Villaflor of Barli. Rita was a valedictorian of her elementary and high school classes at Colegio dela Immaculada Concepcion At the University of the Philippines, she was a champion debater together with the 1929 Miss Philippines, Pacita delos Reyes. She married a UP professor, Atty. Alvarez.

Read also

These site have information about Philippine Carnival Queens, updated by Cecilia Brainard in 2022. 

Cebu Carnival Queens Philippines from 1914-1941 - https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/01/cebu-carnival-queens-philippines-from.html

Cebu Carnival Queens and Other Queens, Philippines - Part 2 - https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2022/01/cebu-carnival-and-other-queens.html

Death of a Carnival Queen
Thinking of Mama, Cebu's Carnival Queen 1931
Four Generations of Filipina Women

tags: Manila, Cebu, Philippines, Carnival Queen, Rita Panares, Concepcion Cuenco

I didn't have internet for two days, dear Readers, so bear with me! This is all for now,
Cecilia