Gabriela Silang
Encyclopedia
María Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang (March 19, 1731 – September 20, 1763) was the wife of the Ilocano insurgent leader, Diego Silang
Diego Silang
Diego Silang y Andaya was a revolutionary leader who conspired with British forces to overthrow Spanish rule in the northern Philippines and establish an independent Ilocano nation...

. Following Diego's assassination in 1763, she led the group for four months before she was captured and executed.

Born in Barangay Caniogan, Santa, Ilocos Sur
Santa, Ilocos Sur
Santa is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 14,059 people in 2,811 households.-Barangays:Santa is politically subdivided into 26 barangays.* Ampandula* Banaoang...

, Silang was a mestiza
Filipino mestizo
Filipino mestizo is a term used in the Philippines to describe people of mixed Filipino and foreign ancestry. The word mestizo is of Spanish origin, and was originally used in the Americas to only describe people of mixed European and Native American ancestry.- History :Spanish periodThe Spanish...

, of Spanish and Ilocano
Ilocano people
The Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...

 descent. The people of Abra do claim she was born in what is now Pidigan, Abra (those two places are not far from each other, and Abra was not incorporated as a province until early in the 20th century). She was adopted by a very wealthy businessman Tomás Millan, who later married her at the age of 20, but died after three years. In 1757, she re-married, this time to 27-year-old Ilocano
Ilocano people
The Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...

 insurgent leader, Diego Silang
Diego Silang
Diego Silang y Andaya was a revolutionary leader who conspired with British forces to overthrow Spanish rule in the northern Philippines and establish an independent Ilocano nation...

. The groups’ goal was to ensure an independent Ilocos. She became one of his closest advisors, whenever the troops battle, Gabriela always went with them to give support and help with the battle, a major figure in her husband's collaboration with the British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 and the brief expulsion of Spanish officials from Vigan
Vigan City
The City of Vigan is a 5th class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur...

, Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Vigan City, located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the provincial capital...

 during the British occupation of the Philippines
British occupation of the Philippines
The British occupation of Manila occurred between 1762 and 1764, when a British force occupied Manila, the Spanish colonial capital of the Philippines, and the nearby principal port, Cavite, both on Manila Bay....

.

Together with Cariño, and Sebatian Andaya and Manuel Flores, there she regrouped her troops, and rallied the Tingguian community to fight. Gabriela’s troops of 2000 fighters attacked the Spanish in Vigan on September 10, 1763. With a larger number of the Spanish troops, the 6000 men strong Spanish garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 was ready, with amassing Spanish, Tagalog
Tagalog people
The Tagalog people are an ethnic group in the Philippines. The name Tagalog comes from either the native term tagá-ilog, meaning 'people living along the river', or another native term, tagá-alog, meaning 'people living along the ford', a ford being a shallow part of a river or stream where people,...

, and Kapampangan
Kapampangan people
The Kapampangans or Capampan͠gans are the sixth largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group, numbering about 2,890,000. The original Kapampangans may have descended from Austronesian-speaking immigrants to Luzon during the Iron Age.The province of Pampanga is traditional homeland of the Kapampangans...

 soldiers, and Ilocano collaborators recruited from other regions to ambush her and rout her forces. Many were killed. She escaped, alongside Cariño and seven others, but were caught on September 20, 1763. They were summarily hanged.

Legacy, recognition and inspiration

  • In honor of Gabriela Silang as a Philippine heroine, Ilocos Sur's provincial hospital was named Gabriela Silang General Hospital.
  • As an inspiration to heroism, a Filipino organization that advocates women's issues was founded in April 1984 and named GABRIELA
    GABRIELA
    GABRIELA is a leftist Filipino organization that advocates for women's issues.It is a nationwide network of grassroots organizations, institutions, and programs that address issues such as human rights, poverty, globalization, militarism, violence, health, sex trafficking, censorship and other...

    , or the General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action.
  • Located in the heart of Ayala Avenue
    Ayala Avenue
    Ayala Avenue is an avenue in Makati City in the Philippines. It is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Metro Manila, crossing through the heart of Makati's central business district. Because of the many businesses located on the avenue, Ayala Avenue is aptly nicknamed the Wall Street of the...

     in Makati City
    Makati City
    The City of Makati is one of the 17 cities that make up Metro Manila, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines and one of the major financial, commercial and economic hubs in Asia...

     the business district of The Philippines lays the Gabriela Silang Monument. This monument was created by Jose M. Mendoza in 1971 and was placed by the Zobel de Ayala Family
    Zobel de Ayala family
    The Zóbel de Ayala clan is a Filipino business family of German-Spanish ancestry. Since the 19th century, they have created the Ayala Corporation, a holding company for a combination of businesses related to the heart of Philippines business, industry and finance.-History:The Ayala ancestors were...

     and inaugurated by Gabriela Silang's great-granddaughter Gloria Cariño and her great-grandson Mario Cariño Merritt.
  • Another monument stands at the town plaza of Pidigan, Abra to remind every one of the gallant stand and the ideals she and her husband fought and died for.
  • The Tangadan Welcome Tunnel in Abra now has the Gabriela Silang Memorial Park with the Monument of the great heroine.
  • Her unique policy of harassment was so successful that the name generala, which was given to her by the masses, struck terror to the Spanish troops and to Ilocanos who collaborated with Spain.

See also


Descendants and Heritage

A list of the closest living descendants of María Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang:
  • The former Philippine Ambassador Rosario Cariño
  • Philippine Consul Jose Maria Cariño
  • Dion Cariño
  • Nehemiah Cariño
  • Jan Philippe Cariño
  • Felipe Cariño
  • Mario Cariño Merritt
  • Gloman Merritt
  • Glozy Merritt

Belonging to the family of the first Galician
Galician people
The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...

 who arrived in Candon
Candon City
Candon City is a 4th class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 56,270 people in 10,257 households. Dubbed as the "Tobacco Capital of the Philippines" the city is the country's largest producer of Virginia-type tobacco...

 in late 17th century, Ignacio Cariño. Gabriela Silang, the noted Ilokano revolutionary of the 18th century, was a daughter of Ignacio’s eldest son Anselmo and a Tingian house servant in the Cariño household in Candon. When her husband was executed, she fled to Abra and took refuge in Tayum, in the house of her uncle Nicolas, Anselmo’s brother. The names above are the direct descendants of Nicolas and their ancestral home is home also today to the Cariño museum "CASA MUSEO CARIÑO". Maintained with loving care by Rosario Cariño one can visit the room occupied by Gabriela when she lived there.

The family are still living in the ancestral house and former headquarters of Gabriela Silang in Tayum, Abra. It is now a Museum and Art Gallery
that holds one of the most diverse art work and Antique collections in the Philippines the collection includes Thousands of Antiques from all around the world with some paintings from great painters like Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

, Juan Luna
Juan Luna
Juan Luna y Novicio was an Ilocano Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century...

, Fernando Amorsolo
Fernando Amorsolo
Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light...

, Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi...

, Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...

, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

, XIX originals collected by the Family over the centuries.
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