The Baaoeño talents behind the SMA Alma Mater Song

During my college years and I was away from Baao for years, one song that stirs up nostalgia in me is the SMA Alma Mater which I sang for years in school with my classmates. Later, I would hear it either being played briskly or sonorously by the school band or sung during alumni homecomings. The lyrics are so simple but elegant and the melody so catchy that I had no problem memorizing it in Grade two. A fellow alumni revealed in later years that he was using it in other schools which did not have a graduation song as a kind generic alma mater song, all he had to do was replace SMA's with the name of the school.

The lyrics of the song was written by Baao's poet laureate Luis G. Dato on the occasion of the graduation of SMA's first graduates, among whom, my mother, Lourdes Esplana Bucela-Robosa was a member. The words were set to music by one of Bicol's foremost musician's of the time, the famous Marcial L. Briones of the King's Orchestra fame.

Luis G. Dato and Marcial L. Briones

SMA Alma Mater Song

Hail dear Alma Mater, thee we honor

Proudly in the dawn we raise thy banner

Santa Monica, Sweet Alma Mater

With thy praise thy loyal sons and daughters

Fills the land wherever they may roam

Alma Mater, Alma Mater never

Shall thy glory wane but shine forever,

Joyous to thy call we come and rally,

Far or near, from mountain, shore or valley,

For in thee our spirits finds its home

Chorus:

Santa Monica, O Santa Monica

In thy fold a true and valiant band

Through the years whatever time may bring us,

Alma Mater, we shall ever stand.

L.D.