By By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

(In celebration of the Women’s Month, the Advocate gives way to Lorie Joyce T. Agayo, who is taking up Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the Easter College, Baguio City. – Ed)

March is a month for the women. Unknown to many, it was in March more than 200 years ago when the great Generala, Gariela Silang, was born, and, afterwards, bravely fought Spanish atrocities in the Ilocos and lowland Abra. Her waged battles and death became an igniting force for women and men alike to fight for their independence from the yoke of oppression and tyranny.

Born as Maria Josefa Gabriela Carino Silang on March 19, 1731, Gabriela’s mother, never named by historians, was from Pidigan, Abra and her father Anselmo Carino, was from Santa, Ilocos Sur. She was orphaned at a young age.

Gabriela was adopted and raised by Tomas Millan, a rich businessman in Ilocos. Historians had contradicting opinion as to her alleged marriage at age 20, some claimed she was married to her adopter. Others claimed, she was married to another man. Her first marriage existed just for three years as her husband died but left all his wealth to Gabriela, though without a child.

In 1757, Gabriela and Diego Silang got married after their relationship flourished. Diego was then a well known leader of the Kailanes, a group of Ilocanos fighting against Spanish impositions – such as high taxes, forced labor, and quota for agricultural products for export, and tyranny. With his campaign for Ilocano independence and establishment of Vigan as the capital of his government, he garnered massive support and won battles against the Spaniards. As the Spanish failed to quell his forces in a military war, they hired, for his elimination, his friends Miguel Vicos and Pedro Becbec where the former, on May 28, 1763, treacherously shot him from behind which caused his death, historians claimed.

Gabriela took over the vacuum of leadership left by her husband with the support of her husband’s uncle Nicolas Carino and loyal lieutenants, Sebastian Andaya and Manuel Flores. Three months after her husband’s death, she recruited fighting troops about 2,000 men, mostly from her mother’s place in Abra, where they were armed with captured weapons from their Spanish enemy and indigenous armaments, like bows (bikal) and arrow (pana), blowguns (sumpit), bladed weapons such as bolos, daggers and swords, and head axes (wasay).

She waged wars, mostly in the Spanish garrisons along the coastal areas of Ilocos. It was victory after victory, against the colonizers. As she hit the Spanish troops and the locals who joined the colonizers, she earned the masses’ support and was called “generala.”

Due to her victories, she attacked the center of Spanish authority in Vigan. Her bolo brigade and Tinggian archers assaulted the Spanish troops and their local recruits. Braved but out armed by Spanish superior armaments and concentrated troops of at least 6,000, she lost most of her men, including Diego’s uncle and her loyal lieutenant. Nicolas, perished in one of her defeats. Historians claimed that she retreated to the mounatins of Abra and neighboring Mountain Province but was cornered and captured there with her remaining 80 men.

Trying to bring mesage to the locals that resistance against Spanish rule would mean death on the gallows, her men were hung one after the other by the Spaniarads, within the full view of the locals. The great generala was brought to the Vigan Plaza where she was hanged, September 20, 1763. On the same place where she was hung stands a hospital, named after her.

Gabriela, also known as the Joan of Arc of Ilocandia, ended her heroic life fighting for her people’s freedom. She deserves the garland of greatness and worthy of emulation. This maybe the reason why the nation’s largest women’s organization, Gabriela, was named after her and for them to continue her struggle for independence.

As an Ilocana and Cordilleran (Tinggian), I am proud of the first female martyr who led a revolt against the yoke of tyranny and oppression perpetuated by the Spanish colonizers. # nordis.net