Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Remembering Jaime Picornell by Cecilia Brainard

 

 


Cecilia Brainard Remembers Jaime Picornell who passed away last August 16, 2021

Published in Positively Filipino

 https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/the-jolly-spaniard-of-cebu

The Jolly Spaniard of Cebu

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard


Cebu in the 1950s and 1960s had small-town ways. The city was not as sprawling or as heavily populated as it is now. Families knew one another. Everyone knew the Picornell family. They were a holdover from the Spanish era, pure Spanish in blood, though they had assimilated Cebuano ways.


Jaime became close to our family in the mid-1960s. He became a good friend of my brother and his wife. When my sister Ana and cousin Chickie returned from their post-graduate studies in Spain, Jaime became close to them. He also became a friend of my mother. So, it happened that when I was in Cebu for my school holidays (I attended college in Manila), I got to know Jaime better.


He used to come around for merienda or dinner, and while we sat around the table, my mother would say, “Jaime-Jaime, tell us about …” And Jaime would start telling stories about the personalities of Cebu, sending us into hysterical laughter at his animated lively stories. Jaime was a great storyteller; he knew how to zero on in people’s quirks and turn them into funny anecdotes. We laughed but knew we had our own peculiarities and that we were all part of the fabric of Cebu. - please continue reading in Positively Filipino

 

 

 

Tags: Cebu Society, Cebu Philippines, Cebu culture, Cebu history, Spanish Filipinos

No comments:

Post a Comment