Author Cecilio N. Navarro, Jr.’s Providential Endowment: Working with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, is more than a memoir of generations of a very hard-working family in the Philippines: it is all that and more. The book tells the story of the persistence of faith and good work in an island-nation perennially beset by invaders, war, and political change. Follow Cecilio’s humble but courageous path in his native land, attacked variously by the Spaniards, the Japanese, the Americans, and most recently, by the Muslims.
Cecilio’s father, Cecilio Sr., became a schoolteacher and manager at U.S. Clark Air Force Base – even though he only had a sixth-grade education. After Cecilio Sr. died, the son drew upon his faith, obtaining a job and lifelong tenure at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which is a retailer located on American military bases worldwide. He spent thirty-nine years at the Exchange, representing employees who faced termination. At one point he ran for union president.
Throughout the time, Cecilio and clan survived, then thrived, famously. In conversational reader-friendly tones, the author relates how his job at the Exchange led him from the Philippines to the United States, then on to Germany at the pinnacle of his career. There he witnessed the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Local color, history, and names of places abound in this biography/memoir. One delightful example – always watch where you step!: “Cong” Poli suddenly exploded into a quick run screaming as he went, “I stepped on a snake! Be careful!”…Sure enough, I saw a dark brown snake curled back and its expanding head raised. It was a Philippine cobra, the deadliest of all snakes found in the country…
I took one step backward, put a stone in the leather strap of my gadget, took a deep breath, and stretched the rubber as far as my little arms could reach. I aimed at the head of the snake and made a quick shot. The snake’s head fell to the ground, dead. The snake made one writhing motion and then lay flat on its back. “Cong” Poli walked back, took a closer look at the snake, and said, “Boy, you are good with that thing!”
Author Navarro believes that everybody is providentially chosen for a special destiny. It is up to each of us to pursue their own path — to stake their claim to their own providential endowment.
In the telling the author makes a most persuasive argument — for engagement with life, for giving it one’s all, with one’s mind, heart, and soul. When you mix good writing with detailed personal accounts, you get a must-read like Providential Endowment: Working with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, by Cecilio N. Navarro, Jr.
