The youngest of Ana Ada Manglona and Jose Mendiola Manglona’s 10 children, Agnes was born in a cave on Jan. 2, 1942.
“I was born in a cave,” says Agnes who remembers how children her age teased her.
She says she turned that around for a while. She says she told those who were teasing her, “Only famous people are born in a cave.” Indeed it is a matter of perspective.
She tells Variety, “Several of my brothers and sisters were already married before I was born. Some of my nephews and nieces were older than me.”
On Saipan, Agnes says she grew up with the Carolinian community in Chalan Kanoa and she says she appreciated those years. She also recalls walking from home to school and to her father’s farm near the airport.
School for Agnes was the Chalan Kanoa Elementary School, the only school on Saipan. She finished grade school there except for one year — during fifth grade — that she stayed on Guam.
She admits that during that time there weren’t a lot of opportunities for women. “I really wanted to do something. The only future that ladies look forward to is to be a nun,” says Agnes.
So at 13, she says, she went to the convent of the Mercedarian Sisters in Chalan Kanoa.
“They called us nuns but we were not really nuns,” says Agnes.
She says she stayed with the sisters until they moved to Maturana Hill which prior to their transfer was once a hospital.
“We were brought up there. We were the ones who rebuilt it. We were renovating all those Quonset huts into livable convent and place for us,” remembers Agnes.
She admits it was a very interesting time to be at the convent and she never regretted any moment she spent there.
“It was a training of your will and character. And of course it helped lay your principles and a lot of other talents,” says Agnes.
The nuns, she says, pushed them to discover their full potential. She says, “They helped build character and nurture talents.”
Staying with the nuns, Agnes says, makes one into a more refined individual.
Of all the nuns she had had the opportunity of knowing and learning from, Agnes says she looked up to Sisters Bertha, Remedios, and Rosario.
“I stayed with them until I was 18,” adds Agnes. Then she says the nuns sent her to the United States to continue her education.
Asked by Variety how it was like to take her first flight to the mainland U.S., she says, “Actually that was a very interesting experience.”
She shares with Variety how her first commercial flight to the mainland almost turned out to be a tragedy. It was her first PanAm flight to the United States.
She clearly remembers that on their way from Hawaii to Los Angeles, the plane had problem in landing. She says since the plane didn’t have enough fuel it had to make an emergency landing and was allowed to land in Ontario.
She recalls they didn’t use the stairs but instead used the emergency exits upon landing with the ambulances ready at the airstrip. “It was an exciting yet scary trip.”
From there, she says, they were transported to the hotel where she first saw an elevator.
She says, “I kept punching all the buttons not knowing what to do.”
“The elevator and the escalator — those were the things that shocked me,” says Agnes who was carrying a Trust Territory passport at that time.
For a year, Agnes says, she stayed at Donnelly Community College in Kansas City, Kansas then she moved to College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska where she earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education major in languages and mathematics.
Looking back on her student years, she says, she lived the entire time in the dormitory.
“I liked it. I didn’t have to go out that much. Winter was fierce and summer was awful. I spent most of my time reading,” tells Agnes.
She admits she had to work while she was in college. She remembers babysitting and cleaning houses at that time.
So after earning her degree and becoming the first woman from the islands to do so, she says she wanted to take back what she learned and share it with the community.
At the time, she says, help was needed in Truuk when a typhoon devastated St. Cecilia School. She remembers working with John Sablan — Mike Sablan’s father — who was then the district administrator.
It was also on Truuk where she met her future husband Sam McPhetres who was working for the Peace Corps. Then after a year, she returned to Saipan to work for the Trust Territory government as executive director for Manpower Development Council under the Trust Territory Department of Education.
When she came back, Agnes started to buckle down to work and focused on doing something for the island.
At that time, it was an interesting time for a woman to be holding a significant position.
As a pioneer, Agnes helped break the glass ceiling.
She had help, she says, from the director of education David Ramarui who encouraged her.
“He wanted me to take over the staff development for the whole trust territory government system. I don’t know maybe he saw that I worked hard,” the educator says.
During that time, Agnes was already blazing the trail for Micronesian women in the field of education.
Determined to prove that women could go so far as the men did, she pursued her goals with full conviction and commitment.
And she was never irresolute in making those big decisions.
She says, “Women need to pursue their full potential.”
And realize her full potential she did as an educator by trusting in herself, believing that a woman could accomplish any goal in equal measure as the men do.
(To be continued)
