Melchora Aquino
{{Short description|Filipino revolutionary known for medically aiding revolutionaries}}
{{about|the national hero also known as Tandang Sora|the road|Tandang Sora Avenue}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Use Philippine English|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Melchora Aquino
| image = Melchora Aquino de Ramos.jpg
| image_size =
| birth_name = Melchora Aquino
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1812|1|6|mf=y}}{{cite book|title=Language Arts for the Filipino Learners: An Integrated Language and Reading Work-a-Text for Grade Four: Volume One|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0UP7D0Pm48C&pg=PA106|publisher=Rex Bookstore, Inc.|isbn=978-971-23-1402-5|pages=106–}}
| birth_place = Banlat, Kalookan, Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|1919|2|19|1812|1|6|mf=y}}
| death_place = Banlat, Kalookan, Rizal, Insular Government of the Philippine Islands
| death_cause =
| resting_place = Tandang Sora National Shrine, Quezon City
| nationality = Filipino
| spouse = {{marriage|Fulgencio Ramos||1856|reason=his death}}
| children = 6
}}
File:Tandang Sora Shrine 01.jpg at the Melchora Aquino Shrine in Quezon City in 2012.]]
Melchora Aquino (January 6, 1812 – February 19, 1919) was a Filipino revolutionary. She became known as "Tandang Sora" ("tandang" meaning "old") because of her old age during the Philippine Revolution (1896-1899). She was also known as the "Grand Woman of the Revolution" and the "Mother of Balintawak" for her contributions.
Early life and marriage
Melchora Aquino was born on January 6, 1812, in Barrio Banlat, Caloocan (the present-day Barangay Tandang Sora, Quezon City).{{cite web|url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/the-tandang-sora-bicentennial/|title=The Tandang Sora bicentennial|website=Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines|access-date=February 26, 2021}} Having been born on the feast of the Epiphany, she was named after Melchior, one of the Three Wise Men.
Melchora, daughter of a peasant couple, Juan and Valentina Aquino, never attended school. However, she was apparently literate at an early age and talented as a singer and performed at local events as well as at Mass for her Church. She was also often chosen for the role of Reyna Elena during the "Santacruzan", a processional pageant commemorating Empress Helen's finding of the Cross of Christ, celebrated in the Philippines in May.{{cite web|url=http://www.filipiknow.net/surprising-facts-about-melchora-aquino/|title=5 Surprising Facts About Melchora Aquino ('Tandang Sora')|date=March 19, 2014}}
Later in life, she married Fulgencio Ramos,{{cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Fulgencio-Ramos/6000000176561941821|title=Fulgencio Ramos|website=Geni.com|date=September 23, 2023 |accessdate=October 21, 2023}} a cabeza de barrio (village chief), and bore six children. As his wife she was known as Melchora Aquino de Ramos ("of Ramos"). Her husband died when their youngest child was 7 and she was left as a single parent for their children. Tandang Sora continued her life as an hermana mayor active in celebrating fiestas, baptisms, and weddings. She worked hard in order to give her children education.
Involvement in the revolution
In her native town, Tandang Sora operated a store,{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313288036|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313288036/page/207 207]|title=Chronology of women's history|editor=Kirstin Olsen|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1994|isbn=9780313288036}} which became a refuge for the sick and wounded revolutionaries. She fed, gave medical attention to and encouraged the revolutionaries with motherly advice and prayers.
Secret meetings of the Katipuneros (revolutionaries) were also held at her house in August 1896. Due to the maternal nature of her help for the revolution, she received names such as "Woman of Revolution", "Mother of Balintawak{{Cite journal |last=Doran |first=Christine |date=1998 |title=Women in the Philippine Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42634272 |journal=Philippine Studies |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=361–375 |jstor=42634272 |access-date=2024-04-14 }}", "Mother of the Philippine Revolution", and Tandang Sora (Tandang is derived from the Tagalog word matandâ, which means old). She and her son, Juan Ramos, were present in the Cry of Balintawak and were witnesses to the tearing up of the cedulas.{{cite news|url=https://www.philstar.com/cebu-lifestyle/2012/01/19/768868/tandang-sora-bicentennial-woman|title=Tandang Sora: Bicentennial woman|author=Lola Elyang|date=January 19, 2012|accessdate=December 30, 2021|work=The Philippine Star|location=Cebu, Philippines}}
When the Spaniards learned about her activities and her knowledge to the whereabouts of the Katipuneros, she was arrested by the guardia civil on August 29, 1896. She was held captive in the house of a cabeza de barangay of Pasong Putik, Novaliches and then transferred to Bilibid Prison in Manila. While in prison, she was interrogated but she refused to divulge any information. She was then deported to Guam, Marianas Islands by Governor General Ramón Blanco on September 2. In Guam, she and a woman named Segunda Puentes were placed under house arrest in the residence of a Don Justo Dungca.Augusto V. de Viana, "In the Far Islands,: The Role of Natives from the Philippines in the Conquest, Colonization and Repopulation of the Mariana Islands. 2004:134.Isagani R. Medina, "Melchora Aquino Wife of Fulgencio Ramos," In: Women in the Philippine Revolution, Rafaelita Hilario Soriano, ed. Quezon City: Printon Press, 1995, pp 12-13.
After the United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, Tandang Sora, like other exiles, returned to the Philippines in 1903. She later became an active member of the Philippine Independent Church.{{Cite news |title=On Tandang Sora's 203rd birth anniversary |url=https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2015/01/09/1410961/tandang-soras-203rd-birth-anniversary |last=Torrevillas |first=Domini M. |date=January 9, 2015 |work=The Philippine Star |access-date=November 8, 2022}}
Death
She died at her daughter Saturnina's house in Banlat on February 19, 1919, at the age of 107. She received full state honors shortly after her death after years of being unnoticed for her efforts in the revolution. Her remains were first interred at the Mausoleum of the Veterans of the Revolution at the Manila North Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Tandang Sora's birthplace declared a national shrine |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/155677/tandang-soras-birthplace-declared-a-national-shrine |access-date=November 4, 2018 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=March 3, 2012}} These were then transferred to the Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park in Quezon City in 1970 and finally at the Tandang Sora National Shrine in 2012.{{cite web |url = http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=65&articleid=765181 |title = P-Noy to lead re-interment of Tandang Sora's remains |publisher = Worldcoingallery.com }}{{cite news |url = http://opinion.inquirer.net/20595/tandang-sora-home-on-her-200th-birthday |title = Tandang Sora home on her 200th birthday |access-date = January 8, 2012 |last = Ocampo |first = Ambeth |author-link = Ambeth Ocampo|newspaper = Philippine Daily Inquirer }}{{cite news|url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1058460|title=Tandang Sora gets flowers on 207th birth rites|first=Severino|last=Samonte|date=January 9, 2019|work=Philippine News Agency}}
Legacy
Image:Melchora100pesos.jpg 100 pesos banknote.]]
As a token of gratitude, a Quezon City barangay and a road were named after Tandang Sora. Her profile was also placed in the Philippines' five-centavo coin from 1967 to 1994. She was the first Filipina who appears on a Philippine peso banknote, in this case, a 100-peso bill from the English Series (1951–1966). Tandang Sora Street in the city of San Francisco is named in her honor.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}
In 2012, on the celebration of her 200th birthday, the Quezon City local government decided to transfer Tandang Sora's remains from Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park to the Tandang Sora National Shrine. They also declared 2012 as be Tandang Sora Year.
File:Novaliches_Quezon_City_District_Metro_Manila_02.jpg , Quezon City]]
Her descendants carry different surnames, with almost all living in Novaliches and Tandang Sora districts in Quezon City as well as in Guam such as Figueroa, Ramos (her husband's surname), Geronimo, Eugenio, Cleofas and Apo.{{Cite web|title = Heirs want Tandang Sora holiday declared|url = http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/123803/heirs-want-tandang-sora-holiday-declared|website = newsinfo.inquirer.net|access-date = September 4, 2015|last = INQUIRER.net| date=January 7, 2012 }}
A Philippine Coast Guard {{convert|97|m|sp=us|adj=on}} vessel was named after her, the BRP Melchora Aquino.
In popular culture
- Portrayed by Angelita Loresco in the 2013 TV series Katipunan.
- Portrayed by Erlinda Villalobos in the 2014 film Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo.
- Referenced in the song "Babae" by Inang Laya
- A Picture Frame of Melchora Aquino was featured in the music video of "Pa-pa-pa palaban" by the Girl group G22
References
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External links
- {{Commons category inline}}
{{Philippine Revolution}}
{{Symbols of the Philippines}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aquino, Melchora}}
Category:Filipino revolutionaries
Category:Filipino women centenarians
Category:Former Roman Catholics
Category:Members of the Philippine Independent Church
Category:People from the Spanish colonial Philippines