Tromba Marina
There’s a life-sized sculpture at the foot of Ermita Hill along the main road that reminds people of what took place. A tsunami hit the town. Only several families were able to climb the hill successfully and survived. The sculpture dramatizes what happened. Men, women and children were climbing the hill and behind them were huge waves.
Local historian, Mariano Angara Quinones, narrated to me what took place. A visiting priest from the town of Casiguran noticed something out of the ordinary on the night of December 26, 1735. He looked out and saw the tragedy approaching from the sea. He alarmed everyone he could.
December 27, 1935 was that fateful date. Way before dawn, the tsunami swallowed the town of Baler. According to the historian, the families who survived had the following surnames: Angara, Bihasa, Bitong, Carrasco, Ferreras, Lumasac and Poblete. There’s no literature, he said, that indicates what happened to that priest.
Tromba marina means tsunami. That’s mainly why the scultpure was named so. Tromba marina, for those fluent in Spanish, may also loosely mean the red sky at night and a sailor’s warning. I think that when the sky is red, heavy rains follow.
There’s no trace of that dark past except the Tromba Marina sculpture. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have asked what it stood for and I wouldn’t have known about this particular piece of the town’s history.
You can climb the Tromba Marina sculpture and have your photo taken. My friends and I posed as if we were part of the residents running up the hill.
The visit to Tromba Marina took maybe 10 minutes. It’s a good side trip and photo opportunity.
TROMBA MARINA SCULPTURE
Address: Ermita Hill, Brgy. Quirino, Maria Aurora Municipality, Aurora Province
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