Corie Laraya-Coutts (a.k.a. Corazon) was born on June 5, 1964, in Norala, South Cotabato, Philippines. The eldest of twelve children, she was an undergraduate in Sociology at Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines and also received a diploma in Child Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania through their distance education program.
She worked as a nanny and caregiver in Kuwait, Egypt, and Hong Kong before immigrating to Canada in 1996.
Now an entrepreneur, who loves sports particularly golf, hockey, and softball, she lives with her husband, Rod, and their pets in Orton, Ontario, Canada.
Corie:
After a visit to my husband's birthplace and ancestral home in the highlands of Northern Scotland, where he researched his ancestors checking cemetery and obituary archives, Rod encouraged me to do some genealogy research of my own. I was so inspired to investigate my Laraya family tree that I made a number of phone calls to my family in the Philippines to try to gather some data. My mother and other family members supplied me with all the information they could about our family history; however, to my dismay, most of the details are buried in the past along with those who knew the truth. What remains is folklore.
My great-great-grandfather was a shaman. As the story is told, he acquired five wives, and fathered a total of thirty-five sons and one daughter. These events apparently unfolded over many years as he traveled from village to village to undertake his mystical and familial duties. It is said that he had a vision that as long as his wives continued to bear him sons his work would continue, but a daughter would bring about his demise. And so it happened. After the birth of his first daughter, he died.
This historical folklore brings an enormous social and moral stigma to the family. The Philippines was, and still is, predominantly Catholic and only one wife and family is lawful to the society. Because the other four wives and their children were illegitimate, this ethical dilemma made it difficult to fit in to society. I can only speculate on what they did in order to live normally. As I kept digging, I came to the conclusion that they moved away from their villages. This is where my research comes to a halt.
Through most social media networks I have appealed to anyone that bears my family name for information but so far no one has come forward with any answers. I suspect that the silence is a sign that this disgrace to the family is still a problem — causing shame, fear and embarrassment through many generations. I have had the privilege to meet the last two sons of the thirty-five. My father was fairly close to him but I was too young to have any interest in asking him about his father, the shaman.
In writing this book, one of the things I wanted to accomplish was to reach out to all of my lost relatives — you are not forgotten. Please email at: larayafamily@gmail.com.
My other purpose in writing this book was to encourage the younger generations to start learning about their family history or, like I did, they may end up regretting their lack of interest. Perhaps, you might discover some stories worth writing.
