Grandmaster Wilson E. “Nonong” Viñas
Grandmaster Wilson (Nonong) Esparas Viñas was born May 29, 1945. He was the third born and only son of Grandmaster Jose (Joe) Lamayo Viñas, and he was born in Bacolod, Negros Occidental. Grandmaster Nonong is the first generation inheritor of the Viñas Arnis Filipino Martial Arts system which he official took over in 1991 after his father’s death. Grandmaster Nonong has carried the family system and in times supported new variations/conceptions of the Lapu Lapu club and aficionados of Viñas Arnis. This support has lead to many students and the propagation of pieces of the family system. He taught much like his father keeping the deeper understandings of the system to himself while working with the clubs; although he did break down the basic parts of the system into a more comprehensible format as compared to his father. After 2008 Grandmaster Nonong retired from teaching any club members and made the decision to only teach family and private individuals he trusted. In 2014 Grandmaster Nonong decided to transfer his complete family system to Russell T Mackler. Upon Grandmaster Nonong’s death on November 10th 2017 he had approximately 64 years of experience in Arnis from when his father started interacting with him as a child.
Grandmaster Nonong taught in much the same way as his father. His patience was short with most students; which lead to the use of his famous term of endearment, “Gago”1. He preferred teaching individuals who already had knowledge over teaching a new practitioner of Arnis. One key deference between him and his father’s teaching style was that Grandmaster Nonong would prefer teaching and explaining more, and wanted to do this in a shorter period of time. When doing this he was more interested in being challenged with new puzzles to overcome whether the challenge came from his own doing or from the individual he was interacting with.
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“Just like the wind that blows over my body”; Nonong (June 13, 2014)
May 29, 1945 to Nov 10, 2017
“You are Remembered”
“Thank you for your passion, dedication, and persistence in improving your family’s system”
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1 – Gago – Translation to English as stupid
More information coming soon
This site is being updated to include information about Viñas Arnis including history and current activities with the system. This information is coming directly from Grandmaster Wilson E. “Nonong” Viñas, the Viñas family, and some of the still living original Lapu Lapu Viñas Arnis club members from the early 1960s.