LEOVIGILDO 'LEO' MIGUEL GIRON
Local escrima grandmaster (traditional martial arts practitioner)
An escrima master from Bayambang has been recognized as a legend in the United States His name is Leovigildo 'Leo' Miguel Giron.
Eskrima or escrima is a general term for “the traditional martial arts of the Philippines, which emphasize the use of sticks, knives, and various improvised weapons.”
Born on August 20, 1911, and a native of Brgy. Hermoza, this town, Giron is recognized as a grandmaster by no less than the well-known Hollywood martial arts instructor Dan Inosanto of Stockton, California who was among his proteges.
Fil-Am historian Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, in her book, "Little Manila is in the Heart" (Duke University Press, 2013), wrote that Giron had already settled in the United States when he came back to the Philippines during World War II as part of US-Filipino defense forces. He was assigned, among a select few, in a “top-secret counterintelligence unit” of the First Filipino Infantry Regiment in 1942.
It was during his time as guerrilla back in his home country that Giron met his wife.
As a guerrilla, he further learned native Filipino martial arts from his superior in the military.
However, he grew up training at it from an early age in the Philippines until murder and crime incidents in his community in California, pressed him to improve on his skills and acquire more knowledge. Mabalon noted that Giron was prompted to revive his interest in escrima as a form of self-defense when eight student nurses, two of them Filipina, were brutally raped, beaten, tortured, and murdered in Chicago in 1966. In September 1968, Giron opened his own escrima school in Tracy, south of Stockton, to teach his largo mano system. (Literally "long hand" in Spanish, largo mano is a "long-range fighting technique that uses a 30-inch stick or blade to keep an opponent at bay.") He moved the school to South Stockton in 1973, and the club was formally named the Bahala Na Filipino Martial Arts Club in 1979.
He would eventually be recognized as the "Father of Largo Mano in America."
Giron was also noted by Mabalon as a member of a labor activist group headed by Larry Itliong, who hailed from San Nicolas, Pangasinan. Their efforts and sacrifices would eventually pave the way for Filipinos and other immigrants in the States to enjoy the same labor rights as native-born Americans.
Other recorded escrima masters from this town are Benito Junio, a fellow Bayambangueño from Brgy. Inirangan, who was recognized by Giron as being among his mentors.; Julian Bundoc of Brgy. Carungay; and Fructuoso Junio of Brgy. Telbang.
References:
- Dr. Nicolas Miguel, a relative of Giron - Dawn Bohulano Mabalon's "Little Manila is in the Heart" (Duke University Press, 2013), pp. 84, 249, 312, quoting Leo Giron's memoir, "Giron Escrima: Memories of a Bladed Warrior" (Los Angeles: Empire, 2006)
- Acknowledgment (for originally tipping us about Giron and for donating the book "Little Manila is in the Heart" to the Museum): Joey Ferrer of Pittsburg, California, USA and Roxas St., Bayambang, Pangasinan
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