La la la Alaminos, Laguna

   

It was Christmas day when I went to the town of Alaminos in Laguna and its main street Jose P. Rizal Street in the town proper was teeming with people. It later occurred to me that it was a holiday but most people chose this day to have their children baptized in church. If I remember it right I was also baptized on a Christmas day.
 
And off I went to mingle with Alaminos Christmas churchgoers but not before having sneak peeks to the objects along Rizal Street.
  

 *some of the big houses in the town proper of Alaminos, Laguna

One will immediately notice the big houses on this street. I would categorize them as mansions as they are of similar built and size to the ones we call mansions in San Pablo. There was one such mansion, on the corner of Rizal Street and the national highway, bearing these names outside: Adelaida Fule and Erlinda Fule, both Bachelor of Music. I do not have any idea of who they were but judging from this huge house the family from which they belonged were most likely rich and perhaps influential.
   
I encountered next was the Rizal monument with a foreign-looking lady behind him. I was not able to look more closely to that figure since the sun was already high up in the sky. Below is a marker:
   

Constructed: Municipal President Don Jose F. Fule, 1920-1923.

 
I venture to say that these Fule’s are probably related to one another and have been prominent figures there. I could probably dig in to this in the future since Alaminos is not that far.
   
The Church (Our Lady of Pillar) has Nuestra Señora del Pilar as its patron saint. The arc just outside says F.1815. Old indeed. But looking inside the church (which I first visited during the christening of a cousin’s daughter) it looked recently constructed. I tried to look outside for any signs that it still hold some time-tested part (old walls, etc.) but all I could connect to its old age was the bell on its tower. It has inscriptions which I would surely want to read and transcribe here at Back Trails!