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NATATANGING OBANDENYO: LOURDES CASTRO-ROBNETT

Lourdes Castro-Robnett, fondly called as “Ludy,” "Tita


Ludy," "Ate Ludy," or "Ma'am Ludy" by her family, friends and
former students, was born on November 11, 1940 to Sofio
and Francisca Castro in the then barrio of Catanghalan.

She went to Obando Central School from 1946 to


1952 and proceeded to Leonor Rivera Academy in Barrio
Palasan, Polo (now Valenzuela City) for her secondary
course from 1952 to1957 where she was a scholar of the
school and the Malolos Jaycees and where she graduated
with honors.

1n 1963, she enrolled at the Far Eastern University (FEU) in Manila to take up
a course in Psychology, but decided to shift to Education in 1965 under a
scholarship grant given by spouses Juanito and Rufina Evangelista of Catanghalan.

After earning her degree in Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education


(BSEEd), Ludy took up her graduate studies (Master of Arts) at the Manuel L.
Quezon University (MLQU) from 1973 to 1974 and at the Technological University of
the Philippines (TUP) from 1974 to 1975.

Among the professional examinations she passed were the Teachers'


Competitive Examination for the Schools Division of Bulacan in 1968 where she
topped the District level and landed in the top 16 of the Division level. She also
hurdled the Community Development Workers' Exam. In 1968 and the Civil Service
Commission's Teachers' Exam. in1969.

Ludy’s teaching career started in July 1968 when she was taken in as a
substitute teacher for Grade 1 pupils in Quibadia (now San Pascual) Elementary
School. The following year, she was assigned as a permanent teacher in Binuangan
Elementary School handling Grade 6 pupils. This was followed by a teaching
assignment in Catanghalan Elementary School where she handled Grades 5 and 6
classes from 1969 to 1976.

Unable to resist the opportunity to seek greener pasture overseas, she


resigned from her teaching post and left the Philippines in 1976 to teach in Nigeria,
a country in West Africa. In Kano State located in Northern Nigeria, Ludy was
employed as a Mathematics teacher in the government secondary school of
Gwarzo, a Local Government Area in Kano State. She also gave review lessons to
high school students in preparation for a government exam. and was in charge of
school teachers' class schedule (48 teachers). She was likewise designated as the
Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the school's internal exams. and staffs' statistics and
donned the post of Assistant School Coordinator for External Exams.

In 1978, she helped her school’s teachers in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics


and Physics in producing the largest number of students in the state, 47 in all, to
pass the government exams. that conferred them the eligibility to go to the 1st Kano
State Science Secondary School.
In August 1985, Ludy resigned from her work to return to the Philippines and
take care of her ailing mother. The following year, she migrated to the United States
where she worked in various companies, namely: as a Pharmacy Assistant in Rite
Aid Pharmacy in New Jersey (1986), Horton & Converse Pharmacy in California
(1986-1988), and Walmart Pharmacy in California (1991), and as a Teachers' Aide
in Buttonwillow Union School in California (1992- 1993).

Among the exams. she passed in the US are: the 1994 California Pharmacy
Assistant Exam. where she ranked 6th in the state, the June 1997 California Basic
Educational Skills Test (CBEST) where she had a Score-146, Cumulative status:
Highest Results, and the U.S. Postal Service Exam.

On June 4, 1988, Ludy married Bill Ray Robnett. Five years into their union,
she quit her work and decided not to pursue a promising teaching career after
passing the CBEST in order to help her husband Bill in his small business.

In between her professional and personal life, Ludy has dabbled in literary
writing for her avocation. In 1956, she wrote a Pilipino story which was published by
the newspaper “Bagong Buhay.” From 1959 to 1960, she was one of the
10 “Bagong Dugo” regular trainees of Liwayway magazine under the mentorship of
the famed Liwayway A. Arceo, its founder and adviser. Between 1960 and 1963,
she became a regular contributor of Tagalog short stories, poems and articles in
“Liwayway,” “Aliwan” and “Bulaklak” komiks-magazines. One of her short stories
saw print in a komiks published by Prencillo “Cil” Evangelista, her kababaryo and
contemporary in Catanghalan.

Ludy, unknown to many of her kababayans in Obando, also composes English


poems. From 2000 to 2009, she was a member of the International Society of
Poets (ISP) in Owing Mills, Maryland. In 2007, she received 2 medals and 2 trophies
from the ISP for her poems and in 2009, she attended the ISP Poetry Contests &
Conventions in Las Vegas, Nevada, where 7 of her poems were included in the ISP
Anthology Books and posted in the internet from 2007 to 2012.

The compilation of Ludy Castro-Robnett’s English poems, with U.S. Library of


Congress Copyright, includes:
(a) 2010 - Life Through Poetry (her husband Bill gave the title); and
(b) 2013 - Portrait of My Soul (a well-known publishing company in Pittsburgh,
Philadelphia offered her to review her poems for publication, but she declined
for personal reasons).

Ludy traces back her achievements, both as an educator and as a prolific


writer, to her humble beginnings and happy childhood memories in the small barrio
of Catanghalan where as a 5-year old kid, she had a first taste of success when she
won in the 1945 Catanghalan Barrio Fiesta Amateur Contest by reciting the poem
“Ang Ina” taught by her Inang, Amparo Serapio, who garbed her with a borrowed
doll's dress which fitted her well as she was then a petite girl. At 10 years old, she
won the 3rd prize in the National Finals of Tita Betty's Children's Hour at radio
station DZRH (the 1st prize went to Ike Lozada, who became a famous actor-
comedian, and the 2nd prize was bagged by Norma Lapuz, the popular blind singer
at that time). She went home with a pair of “Elpo” rubber shoes as her prize.

[From the files of Alvin Claridades]

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