I grabbed a 'short' Serrada stick last night to work out with. I was visiting the old Harding Way School where Angel Cabales started Filipino Martial arts on the mainland in 1968. There is 'a lot' of history in that building.
So many famous people have gone through the doors of the Harding Way School that I can only hope that it is never torn down for 'any' reason. If it should ever come up for demolition, it should be lovingly taken apart brick by brick and moved to another ...location and reassembled.
I couldn't help it when I was walking around to 'not' feel the energy of the place. Just a few blocks from the Cabales Serrada School Angel Cabales himself rests in a nearby cemetery. History. I was asked yesterday to sit down in the old school and speak about Serrada Escrima, Angel Cabales and the history of Filipino Martial Arts in Stockton, Ca. Stockton, Ca., is the epicenter, the very ground zero of Filipino Martial Arts in the United States.
The school on Harding way is sacred ground. It is 'the' very center of the epicenter. Serrada Escrima and Angel Cabales cannot be separated from this truth.
When someone asks you how it felt to have been trained by a legend? It's very hard to answer such a question easily. How can you describe your Master's gifted poetry in motion with his weapon? How can you abley describe in words the many fabulous skills of a renowned Master Martial Artist? How can you tell someone how lucky you truly feel to have been trained by such a man? How can you thank him in words and deeds long after his passing? I owe the man 'is all' that I can truly say and that I do try to push his art in any way that I can. I was placed into a corner last night to display my art on video.
I showed several basic moves last night, with another whole new generation of students standing and sitting nearby watching. I can only hope that in someway I inspired this new generation of students to continue learning the art of Serrada Escrima. It felt good to be back at the ground zero location where it all began.
When Angel Cabales started teaching Escrima at the Harding Way location, there were four Masters that soon started training there as well along with him. Max Sarmiento, Angel Cabales, Gilbert Tenio and Leo Giron were all at one time under the same roof. All of these men later went on to each become very famous in their own right and deservedly so. To be showing off my Escrima at such a rarified location made me have goose bumps.
To think that so many famous men and women came through the Harding Way location truly humbled me. Richard Bustillo, Dan Inosanto, Dentoy Revillar, Rene latosa, Mike Inay, Graciela Casillas, Jimmy Tacosa, to name just a few of the many. It felt good to be back at ground zero last night. It was a blast.
