B. Navaro's Character

Juan Guerrero was born of an illustrado family from Calamba Laguna. Juanito was not a very academically inclined student as evidenced by his mediocre grades in the Ateneo de Manila where he even studied as far as the first year in the University. He was pushed into a law or commerce degree by his father but his first love was riding horses in their family property in Laguna and the outdoors where he loved to associate with people his clan considered their social inferiors. This also involved hunting with his uncles in the hills where he found out he could shoot very well.

Judging that Juanito could use the educational and broadening experience of foreign travel, his parents consigned him to the care of his uncle Romeo, a bastard son of a Spanish priest who made very well in the business trade network between Luzon and Acapulco, Mexico. Juanito travelled to Mexico and made it as far as San Francisco, California.

Tito Romeo had some close business associates based on Texas and Arizona. These were half Mexican-half American ranchers who were rather wealthy. Don Pablo, who owned a large ranch was impressed by the pluck and panache of Juanito and, reluctantly, Tito Romeo allowed Juanito to stay and work at Don Pablo's ranch.

Juanito learned the ropes of a cowboy's life from the ground up, riding with the ranch hands and even engaging in gun fights with rustlers, native American braves and sheep herders in the prairie. There, he 'studied' under various 'gun masters' amongst whom was the ageing Phil Stonehill, an ex-confederate raider under Col. Mosby during the American Civil War. Juanito was never happier in his life, riding under the sun, packing a six shooter, firing off a Winchester repeater and throwing a Bowie Knife at some target. He always had a passion for weapons and honed his craft in it even if he didn't expect to rely on this for a living.

He saw how, theoretically, people in the US could buy or settle the land and live in wide open spaces, taking control of their own lives regardless of background or social class. Sure, the white man still marginalized the non-whites to a certain not inconsiderable degree, but it was better than what he saw at home. This, and Old Man Stonehill's stories of the War between the States made a lasting impression on him and made him question the rightness of things back home.

Eventually though, news reached him that his family was undergoing hard times and the rumor was that his father and elder brothers were being persecuted by the Spanish Authorities as insurrectos. Reluctantly leaving the States, Juanito returned to Manila to discover the country in revolutionary ferment. And yes, his father and brothers were rounded up and sent to the Cuartel.

Well, the time had come for Juan Guerrero to choose sides. With his six shooters and Bowie knife, he set out to take a stand in the coming struggle....