Etymology
Pronounced [cal-ye'-ha], the family name is derived from a Spanish noun calleja, meaning alley or narrow street.
Our Line
Siblings Andres and Salome are the earliest known members of the Calleja clan. Salome Calleja had children with a Monsignor Bishop of the Franciscan order, Gonzalez Dietz, which explains a consistent family trait in the earlier generations, the Castillan nose.
The ancestral home of the known Calleja line is situated in a compound bounded by San Pedro and San Miguel Streets in Poblacion, Libon, Albay.
By marriage, the clan is related to other families of note: Abella, Aspillera, Diaz, Maronilla, Mijes, Mojica, Ocampo, Rubin, Seda, Serrano, Tuason, Velasco, Zubiri. Many gifted individuals, kin to the Calleja Clan, have touched lives and made this world richer with their contributions.
Luis Cezar Aspillera Calleja, lawyer and World War II hero | Salome Calleja, our family matriarch | Manuel Maronilla Calleja, a two-term Governor of Albay | Erlinda Tuazon Fernandez, a performing artist and educator | Gloria Aspillera Diaz, Miss Universe 1969 | Maria Rosario “Rio” Aspillera Diaz, beauty queen and politician | Bartolome Seda Fernandez, government official under the Quezon Administration | Manuel Calleja Fernandez, one of the founders of the Makati Medical Center | Manuel Ocampo Fernandez, a pioneering cosmetic surgeon | Maria Victoria Ocampo Fernandez, entrepreneur and social figure | Maria Pilar Tuason Fernandez, Libon Private High School administrator | Ramon Calleja Fernandez, Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court | Ramon Tuazon Fernandez, once city councilor of Legaspi City | Adrian ”Adi” Alvarez Maronilla, child prodigy | Maria Cecilia Calleja Maronilla, a renowned educator in the musical arts | Illuminda Mojica Tuazon, Manila Carnival Queen of 1939 | Jose Velasco and Josefina Maronilla Velasco, musical pioneers of Libon, Albay | Renato Mijes Velasco, musical pioneer of Libon, Albay | Juan Miguel Fernandez Zubiri, politician | Jose Rubin Zubiri, businessman and politician.
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Filed under: Calleja
Maria Cecilia Calleja Maronilla, the daughter of Mariano Sasis Maronilla and Rafaela Calleja was born on February 1, 1900 in Libon, Albay. At 18, she joined the Daughters of Charity and was the first nun who enrolled at the UP Conservatory of Music under Dr. Antonio Molina. On February 1932, she rendered her senior recital.
Sor Cecilia was assigned head of the Department of Music at Sta. Isabel College, Intramuros, Manila and then Sta. Isabel, Naga City. An heiress to a sizeable family fortune, she financed the construction of the Music Building of Sta. Isabel, Naga City. She was a full-time department head and professor of Music where she trained many students in piano.
Filed under: Calleja
Manuel Maronilla Calleja (Abt 1891 – unknown) was the son of Ignacio Calleja and Aquilina Maronilla. He married Paz Grivialde Aspillera in 1915 in Catholic rites witnessed by Ignacio Calleja and Bonifacia Calleja. Their union bore six children: Luis Cezar, Rizalina, Alicia, Aquilina, Jose and Ignacio Emil. He is the great-grand uncle of Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri.
Manuel studied law at the University of Santo Tomas and was admitted to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines on 07 September 1914. A Freemason, he distinguished himself as a lawyer, a fiscal, a judge of the Justice of the Peace Court, a judge of the People’s Court and a judge of the Court of First Instance. He served as the governor of the Province of Albay before (1937 – 1940) and after World War II (1952 – 1955).
In 2007, he was posthumously recognized by Libon’s Mayor Dycoco as one of the positive contributors to the locality’s education system.
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