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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

RIZAL ADVICE TO THE WOMEN OF MALOLOS

Rizal Advice to the family of Maria Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco.

The reluctant housewife and timid flower might have gotten Rizal's advice to the young women of Malolos that became the turning point of the status of women in the Philippines that is to have the right to education. The parish priest of Malolos argued that women should always stay at home and take care of the family. Rizal encouraged the women's pursue of education. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with success, he told the young women in Tagalog. Cory great grandmother, Antera Estrella, was born in Malolos on January 1, 1847 to Felepe Estrella and Martina Calub Cruz. Her sister, Eugenia Estrella born later September 5, 1850 followed the only brother, Faustino Estrella on 13 February 1853 both in Malolos. The younger sister married Severo Del Valle. These ancestrial records are based on Mormon research on the Philippine Catholic Church records provided to me by the great granddaughter, Maria Del Valle (from the Eugenia Estrella). She is now based in California with vast inventory of family research and knowledge of Philippine history.

Antera married Jose (yong intsik, the Chinaman), a Chinese immigrant to the Philippines, the children were Ysidra and Melencio Cojuangco, the grandfather of Cory. Ysidra and other Cory' great Aunt might have been among the brave women, Governor Weyler visited Malolos in 1888, when he eventually granted the petition for the school for women. The original petition was signed by twenty women, mostly of Chinese ancestry. In the 1840's Malolos was becoming well known for the growing Chinese population as the famous Claveria Edict was about to be promulgated. The Decree allowed the perpetuation of Chinese name modified and spelled in Spanish convention. All the names in Malolos petition were Chinese origin except for Reyes. They were Ysidra's contemporaries being born 1867 and died 1960. Maria remembered her as Impong Sidra, the tsinita with her hair bun (pusod) . Not written in history, she played in the revolution smuggling supplies to the rebels. Dona Sidra remained spinster but it was the belief that General Antonio Luna was a successful suitor. Antonio Luna wrote under the pen-name "Taga-ilog" in the propaganda movement but he once fought Rizal for the same girl in Europe.

Ironically, Governor Weyler would be remembered for expelling the Rizal family and the demolition of Rizal House in Calamba from the land the Dominican wanted out. Del Pilar wanted Rizal to address the faith of these women. . Certainly, the women's revolution started but Cory has gone beyond from her American school days inside the convent in New York. She became the mother of a nation on its darkest hour.

Cory's great-grandfather, Jose Cojuangco, left Fujian, China for the Philippines in 1836. His son and Cory's paternal grandfather, Melencio Cojuangco, was voted to the country's First Congress in 1898, when Filipino revolutionaries declared the Malolos Convention only to see the independence from Spain replaced by the Americans. Cory never knew her paternal grandfather because Melencio died young. It was Melencio's spinster sister Ysidra, known to the Cojuangco kids as Lola (Grandma) Ysidra, provided the power for the family enterprise. She was the brave woman of Malolos of the Rizal era. The Estrella Family moved from Malolos to Tarlac and established the political dynasty in Paniqui. Melencio served 1/1/1906 to 1/1908,Agustin Estrella Del Valle 10/16/1934 to 10/16/1937 and the first Commonwealth Municipal Mayor 10/16/1937 to 10/16/1940, Jose Jojuangco, Jr served in the 1960's. The current mayor Dors Cojuangco Rivilla son of Lourdes and granddson of Dr Antonio Cojuangco who was massacred during second World War.

Cory spoke about American tragedy…Suffering is solitary. You can sympathize with another's pain but you can experience only your own. When you commemorate 9-11 again, do not recall the collapse of two of the world's tallest buildings or the momentary humbling of a great nation's pride. Remember rather the widows and orphans; the grieving parents; recalling each one as having lost their world when the Twin Towers collapsed. Indeed, we are alone with our grief, though, when I would lose him forever I would have millions by my side. The loss was not less but the consolation was inestimable. Like 9-11, martial law came like a sneak attack, catching the guardians of democracy defenseless and off guard. She then would extend of her husband's school, the primary Jesuit institution Ateneo de Manila, have compiled a list of the Jesuit-educated heroes and patriots of at least three eras. The first era belongs to the 19 heroes and patriots of the Philippine war of liberation against Spain and the Philippine war against American aggression. There was the quintessential Malay hero Jose Rizal, writer, philosopher, naturalist, doctor of medicine and a swordsman of the first rank.

Just like Rizal, she was a patient and peaceful painter, with Chinese ancestry traceable to Fujian province, and had stayed in New York City just half century apart.

Nestor Palugod Enriquez
www.filipinohome. com
Coming to America

Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery.
Today is a gift,and that's why we call it the present.



The story of twenty Malolos women is found on (Ps to Dr Yodel you might want to link or website) They were dressed in Maria Clara attire, a classic..

http://www.womenofm alolos.org/ Pages/Portrait. html

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