Parched Fields

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
This question of Uncle Gadong rang in my ears as I sat at the base of the Ambuklao tower in the western field of Lanat, San Manuel, Tarlac, my birthplace.
He asked me this question sometime in November 1961 when he visited us. He is the younger brother of my mother Francisca Lacierna Mercado.
My mother and Uncle Gadong Lacierna were both born in San Clemente, Tarlac, and both grew up there. They had other siblings – Uncle Kardo, Uncle Quirino, and Aunt Ninay. All of them were born in San Clemente to Francisco Lacierna and Victoria Lucero.
“What is your dream? What do you want to be?” Uncle Gadong asked me again. He was holding my report card in his hands, and he saw that I was given very high grades in the first and second grading periods by my first grade teacher, Mrs. Conchita Lorenzo-Fernando.