It all began with envy. Because I am fascinated with Philippine history, I count myself lucky to have developed friendships with descendants of some of our heroes. In my history-related activities, I have come to be acquainted with some of the descendants of Dr. Jose Rizal, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, Gen. Antonio Luna, Gen. Miguel Malvar, Gen. Macario Sakay, Gen. Mariano Alvarez, Galicano Apacible, Gliceria Marella Villavicencio, Gregoria de Jesus, and a few others.
Chatting with them is always educational and fun. I have observed that in their families, there is a living tradition of telling stories about the experiences of their ancestors during the revolution, as well as the kind of people these revolutionists were. There were also times when descendants of one hero would relay what they have been told about other well-known revolutionaries.
These stories are not the type one reads in books or hears in lectures. They not only make our heroes come alive, the heroes we put on pedestals are made human. For instance, we were having a chat with two descendants of the Alvarezes of Cavite and I was expecting them to be anti-Aguinaldo. After all, Mariano Alvarez was the leader of the Magdiwang group in Cavite, as well as an uncle of Gregoria de Jesus who was married to Andres Bonifacio. The Magdiwang was the “rival” group of Aguinaldo’s Magdalo and it was upon the invitation of Mariano Alvarez that Bonifacio traveled to Cavite. We know what happened after.
I was surprised when they said that no, they did not hear any bad stories about Gen. Aguinaldo from their family. What they actually remember is a funny story involving the General. They said that Aguinaldo was an astute businessman and his being so was performed simultaneously with his being a revolutionary. It is on record that Gen. Miong traded goods from one province to another using his “paraw” (a sea vessel bigger than an ordinary boat but smaller than a ship). That was his business.
Allegedly, one time there was an important meeting of the leaders of the revolution in Tondo that Gen. Miong was expected to attend. What the entrepreneur in him did was to buy goods from Divisoria first, (I know not if the place was already called Divisoria then but apparently, it was a place of trading) since it was near the venue.
So when he arrived at the house where the meeting was to happen, he was carrying a lot of stuff and he was all perspiring that the revolutionary guards of the house would not let him enter! Perhaps they thought that he was a simple salesman plying his wares. Allegedly, the guards had to get approval from someone inside who had to go out to see who it was that was patiently waiting outside in the sweltering sun. Of course Miong was let in. And we had a good laugh after.
Although such stories are difficult to verify, this one is not impossible at all. And it is very different from how present day “historians” talk about families of our heroes like they were and are always at odds against each other.
Because I hear many anecdotes from our heroes’ descendants, I became “envious” of them. How nice to be able to say that one hails from a family of revolutionaries! In my mind I have that lingering question if I had a revolutionist ascendant because there were thousands and thousands who fought for our independence and not just the ten or so heroes that we can rattle off from the top of our heads. I wanted to be able to claim ONE revolutionary as my ancestor.
My desire to find out became so great that I searched for lists. I asked many history enthusiasts and checked many history books. All I found were partial lists or mentions of revolutionists. It seemed odd to me that there is no extant list of revolutionists so I embarked on a personal project, I have to make that list.
I gave it time because it is time-consuming. I used almost all my “free” and not-so-free hours constructing this list. My history books were again opened in search of names. I listed them down together with details about each revolutionary that I could find. I pored at historical pictures to get the names of those in it. I wanted to pay tribute to them.
Doing this project made me emotional. Learning about unknown heroes also made me learn a lot more about the Philippine revolution. I realized that the fight was “ubusan ng lahi.” I cannot imagine how families handled this very difficult time. My list now contains what appears to me as entire menfolk of families going out to fight for freedom and independence.
Many of them died or got seriously hurt in battle. The leaders got transferred to various provinces, some went to as far as the Visayas like Gen. Ananias Diokno who was from Batangas, because they were needed to head our forces there.
A great number was incarcerated in Muntinlupa, Intramuros, and other prisons. Many were exiled to different places as far as Africa and Guam like what happened to Tandang Sora, Apolinario Mabini, and others. And many, yes, many were executed by firing squad for their love of country like Dr. Jose Rizal, the Trese Martires of Cavite, and the 19 Martyrs of Aklan.
Being face to face with these lessons from the revolution made me really sad.
But because of this project, I am prouder to be a Filipino. I have come to realize that indeed, we are a proud, brave, and patriotic race. Putting names and some details to at least some of our unknown heroes is my tribute to them.
My list now contains more than 2,400 names of heroes of the revolution and I shall continue growing this list. For now, together with my group Tunay na Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas (TUKLAS Pilipinas), Inc., we are printing the list and people can find out if they have revolutionist ascendants. This list that I call “Roll Call of Valor: A List of Heroes of the Philippine Revolution” will be made available to those interested at TUKLAS-13 Siblings booth no. 40 during the coming HistoryCon on August 10 to 12 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Many other history-related activities will happen there.
You might be wondering about my personal search. I am very happy to say that I found THREE revolutionists carrying my mother’s surnames. I claim them to be my ancestors! Yes, I hail from a family of heroes and I believe that many of us do.
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