IN Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Sisa (some historians say the name was taken from his older sister Narcisa) is the mother of two teenage boys — Crispin and Basilio. The boys worked as sacristan apprentices in a parish where the priest — Father Salvi, among others — accused them of stealing church collections. Sisa’s husband was a pest, drunkard and gambler. He would beat his wife for a variety of reasons, one of them being her hesitation to part with him whatever wages his sons earned.