19 MARCH

Gabriela Silang, first Filipina female freedom-fighter

1731 - Maria Josefa Gabriela Cari-oSilang, Filipina patriot who will lead a rebellion against the Spanish colonizers, is born to an Ilocano peasant and an Itneg househelp from Abra in Sta. Caniogan, Ilocos Sur; better known as Gabriela Silang, she will take over leadership of rebel group of her husband, Diego Silang, in the Ilocos province and will thus become the first woman freedom fighting rebel leader of the Philippines; Diego Silang, who will launch the so-called Ilocano revolt to attempt to liberate his province from the onerously high taxes and forced labor imposed by the Spanish colonial authorities and will proclaim the independence of his people in December 1762, will soon be treacherously killed; Gabriela will courageously take up the patriotic cause of his fallen husband, lead his rebel group, and even recruited tribal freedom fighters from his mother's side, the Itnegs; she will lead her rebellious army in its attacks against the garrisons of the enemy colonizers on the coastal town but would be badly beaten in their attack on Vigan in the first week of September 1763; the heroine and her loyal soldiers would soon be captured, and Gabriela publicly hanged by the heartless Spaniards on the 20th of the same month.


Photo credit:

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/New_Intermediate_Tagalog/Reading_Lessons/LESSONS/gabriela_silang.htm