Awesome Stuff Women Did

Provided refuge, food, and medical and spiritual aid to Katipuneros (revolutionaries) in her small convenience store. Illiterate and a single mother, she also let revolutionaries hold secret meetings in her house. Became known as the Mother of the Katipunan, as well as Tandang Sora (or Old Sora), at 84 years old. When the Spaniards interrogated her, she did not divulge what she knew about the revolution. Because of her age, she was sentenced to be exiled to Mariana Islands. She returned from exile under the American occupation. The revolution impoverished Tandang Sora. Notwithstanding her dire conditions, she politely declined the colonial government’s offer of a lifetime pension. She was content and happy, she told the government emissary, that she was able to help in regaining her country’s freedom. She died at the age of 107. (Melchora Aquino)