Women Film Pioneers Website

In celebration of Women's History Month, this well documented research project initiated and funded by the Columbia University in New York City, USA dedicated specifically to honor these trailblazing women who paved the way for others to be inspired and to be emulated and made some innovations that is noteworthy and made significant impact in the world of motion picture as well as culturally among women as well. Visit the Women Film Pioneers Project on this website https://wfpp.columbia.edu/ to learn more about these "women's firsts" individuals.

Furthermore, you can also check their Facebook page named Women Film Pioneers Project at https://www.facebook.com/WFPProject/ for more information.

Leading Filipino Women: Magdalena G. Jalandoni

Magdalena G. Jalandoni 

Prolific Ilongga Woman Writer and Artist 

(1891 - 1978) 

Magdalena Jalandoni was known as Western Visayas' first woman writer. She is now remembered as one of the most prolific Filipino writers in the Hiligaynon language. She was the first recipient of the Republic Culture Heritage Award for Literature in 1969 by President Ferdinand Marcos. She also wrote poems and novels in Filipino and English language. She wrote 36 novels, 122 short stories, 231 short lyrics, 8 narrative poems, 7 novelettes, 5 corridos, 7 long plays, a number of sculptures, and hundreds of paintings throughout her lifetime. Her works are said to have left permanent and significant milestones in Philippine literature. 


Birth and Early Years 

She was born on May 27, 1891, in Calle Alvarez (now Calle Benedicto) in the old city of Salog (now Jaro, a district of Iloilo City) to the pious, devout Catholic couple Gregorio Jalandoni y Jopson from Jaro and Francisca Gonzaga who hails from the town of Pavia. Magdalena had an only younger brother Luis who later married Amelia Benedicto Ledesma, also of Jaro. 

Her formal schooling started in the school of Clemente Gonzales and his wife Donata. In June 1902 she studied at the Colegio de San Jose where she was a day boarder, and in 1904 she entered the same school as an enterna. She wrote her first corrido “Padre Juan and Beata Maria’ at the age of ten, and “Don Juan Gonzaga” also a corrido at the age of twelve. Later on, she wrote “Lucibar and Portivillar”, “Principe Recaredo” and Heneral Manfredo.” Her mother brought these corridos to the La Editorial Publishing House where these were printed and sold to the public. 

On November 6, 1906, she entered the Iloilo High School. She stopped her studies after the first year because her mother did not approve of co-education and just stayed at their home where she wrote in her native tongue. 

 
Childhood and Early Works 

She began writing at a young age wherein she already had her poems published at the age of 12. At the age of sixteen, she published her first novel in Hiligaynon, "Ang Mga Tunoc Sang Isa Ca Bulac" (The Thorns of a Flower) which she finished in December of 1907, which was later followed by many novels, compilations of poems and short stories. Jalandoni only wrote for publication purposes due to the male-dominated society at the time. Back then, female voices in literature were not taken seriously by the general public. Although her mother strictly forbade her from taking literature seriously, she refused to do so and devoted her life entirely to literature. 

In her childhood autobiography Ang Matam-is Kong Pagkabata (My Sweet Childhood), she cites: "I will be forced to write when I feel that my nose is being assaulted by the scent of flowers, when my sight is filled with the promises of the sun and when my soul is lifted by winged dreams to the blue heavens." 


Significant Works 

Her famous poem Ang Guitara (The Guitar) is read in classrooms all over the country today. Literary critics and historians claim that she has mastered a special talent for poetry and description as well as dramatic evocations of landscapes and events in her novels and short stories. Her works span from the coming of Malay settlers in the Middle Ages up to the Spanish and American colonial era as well as the Japanese occupation of World War II, all portraying the history of Panay and the evolution of the Ilonggo culture. According to Riitta Varitti of the Finnish-Philippine Society in Helsinki, "Jalandoni was the most productive Philippine writer of all time." 

Other famous works include Anabella, Sa Kapaang Sang Inaway (In the Heat of War), Ang Dalaga sa Tindahan (The Young Woman in the Market), and Ang Kahapon ng Panay (The Past of Panay). Throughout her turbulent and displaced life, she still managed to publish 36 novels, 122 short stories, 7 novelettes, 7 long plays, 24 short plays, and dialogues in verse compiled in two volumes, seven volumes of personally compiled essays including some translations from Spanish and two autobiographies. She has been displaced from her hometown twice and has survived the Philippine Revolution, the Filipino-American War, and the Japanese Occupation. In 1977, she received the prestigious Republic Cultural Heritage Award for her literary achievements from the government, about one year before her death. 

Her works are kept in the University of the Philippines in Diliman and in the Visayas, the Ateneo de Manila, the Universities of Iloilo and San Agustin both in Iloilo City, the Universities of Syracuse and Yale in the United States, and the National Library. 


Death Of A Great Writer

She died on September 14, 1978, at the age of 87. At the time of her death, she had written a total of 66 volumes composed of 24 novels, long poems, dramas, historical epics, translations, meditations, poems, her autobiography, a bibliography of her works, and many other literary pieces. The author lost twenty novels during the Second World War when these were burned inside the Archbishop’s Palace in Jaro where she kept them. 

During her lifetime she had received many awards recognizing her contribution to the enrichment of Hiligaynon, her native tongue, and the genius that made her such a prolific writer. She never married. She is now survived by a few nieces as well as several other close relatives. Magdalena Jalandoni's birthplace and the ancestral house still stand today as a historical landmark and a museum not far from the cathedral of Jaro and is frequented by students. A street at the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex in Pasay City, Philippines is named in her honor. 



Sources: 

Magdalena Jalandoni Wikipedia entry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_Jalandoni 

First Thoughts: Magdalena G. Jalandoni blog, http://andyesperancilla2.blogspot.com/2010/09/magdalena-jalandoni.html 

Magdalena Jalandoni Blog, http://magdalenajalandoni.blogspot.com/ 



Photo Sources: 

Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, https://epa.culturalcenter.gov.ph/9/80/5396/

Today In Philippines History, The Kahimyang Project May 26, 2012, http://kahimyang.info/kauswagan/articles/1150/today-in-philippine-history-may-27-1893-magdalena-jalandoni-was-born-in-jaro-iloilo-city 

Heroines, News Today December 13, 2007, http://www.thenewstoday.info/2007/12/13/heroines.html 

Magdalena G. Jalandoni Ancestral House Facade, ExploreIloilo.com, http://imgarcade.com/1/magdalena-jalandoni/

 

Leading Filipino Women: Nazaria Lagos

Nazaria Lagos 

Florence Nightingale of Panay 

(1851 - 1945) 

Nazaria Lagos is known as the Florence Nightingale of Panay. She was a pioneer Red Cross leader in the Visayas region. She was a strong woman, compassionate mother and has a deep and deathless love for God and country. She was born not only to become a mother of her own children but of the many wounded Filipino soldiers, sick civilians and of the sick children during the war. 


Born From A Wealthy Family 

Nazaria L. Lagos was born on August 28, 1851 in Barrio Burongan (now Jaguimit), Laglag town (now Dueñas), Iloilo. Her parents were Don Juan de la Cruz Lagos and Doña Saturnina Labrillaso. As an only child, she was well taken cared of and brought up in comfort but she was not a spoiled girl. When she was six, her mother hired Maestro Gregorio "Oyong" Tingzon as her teacher. She was a beautiful, brilliant young girl who could speak Spanish well and talk to the Spanish officials. 


Married Life 

At a very young age of 12, she married her second cousin Segundo Lagos, a son of a wealthy land owner, Don Bartolome Lagos whose ancestors were the founders of Dueñas town and the religion. During her years in marriage life, Nazaria faced lots of challenges of home life with patience. She possessed good qualities of being a wife and a mother and was equipped with proper knowledge on nursing and medical care by Dr. Cuadra, a family friend and doctor, who often visited the family and stayed in the vast family hacienda. 


Red Cross and Revolutionary Work 

Through the order of Military Governor Don Ricardo Monet with the support of parish priest Father Lorenzo Suarez, Nazaria was appointed as President of the first local unit of Red Cross in the province of Iloilo. 

During the revolution under the general supervision of Gen. Martin Delgado, Nazaria Lagos was chosen as secretary and Segundo (her husband) as the adviser of the Revolutionary Volunteers to go against the Spanish Government. Her house in Barrio Burongan (now Jaguimit) was made as a secret meeting place of the high-ranking officers of the revolution in the whole province of Iloilo. Nazaria and Segundo built a secret Army Hospital in their Hacienda in Jaguimit and which Nazaria was appointed as Chief of the Army Hospital and Manager of the Army Food Supply Depot for the Filipino soldiers. This is for the preparation of the revolutionists for the war against the Spaniards. The building of the hospital came from Nazaria and Segundo's own money. The supplies of the food came from the production of their farm. She gave an all out support for the welfare of the Filipinos. Nazaria Lagos and her family together with their "obreros" or workers began to work secretly in Hacienda Jaguimit. She personally supervised the construction of the hospital made from local materials. They made bamboos as beds, chairs and tables and cabinets for the wounded Filipino soldiers. 

The war started. Many Filipino soldiers were sick and wounded, and they were brought to the hospital in Jaguimit. The hospital was not only for the Filipino soldiers but as well as the sick and wounded civilians. Since the hospital is certainly located between the North and South revolutionary groups, supply almost ran out. For such a gigantic tack for a woman to bear, the Red Cross helped her in asking donations like food, clothing and medicine. Her tenants had contributed their time and efforts to help in caring for the wounded soldiers. Her knowledge in herbal medicine played an important role in this extraordinary task during the Revolution. Spending almost all her time, effort and fortune for the brother Filipinos, she even was able to bear the death of her two children when the smallpox epidemic struck the country during the years of the turmoil. 


Role In Philippine Independence Day Celebration 

In Dueñas Nazaria Lagos and her two daughters together with the Red Cross members, sew the Philippine flag. In spite of the scarcity of the clothes, sewing needles and threads, they made improvised needles out of umbrella wire and abaca fibers as the threads. The flag was hoisted at 9 o' clock in the morning of June 12, 1899 in the Dueñas town plaza. Nazaria and the people of Dueñas knelled down with tears rolling down their cheeks and prayed for their safety and independence while the National Hymn was played. 


Her Last Years 

Nazaria Lagos reserved a legacy not in wealth but as a model mother, leader and a great woman in history.  Unfortunately, she became blind and on January 27, 1945, at the age of 93, silently passed away at Sitio Amuyao, Jaguimit, Dueñas, Iloilo. She had served her country and family with love and devotion. 

Nazaria and Segundo Lagos will long be remembered from generation to generation. Their service to their fellowmen is worth emulating and their names will be written in Bold Letters in the minds and hearts of all Filipinos, patriots, nationalist and lover of democracy. 


Sources: 

Wikipilipinas: Nazaria Lagos, http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Nazaria_Lagos 

Nazaria Lagos, A Great Woman In History, Newstoday 2007, http://www.thenewstoday.info/2007/02/05/nazaria.l.lagos.a.great.woman.of.history.html 


Photo Source: 

ChoosePhilippines.com, http://www.choosephilippines.com/specials/people/1515/florence-nightingale-panay/

If You Want To Make Your Wedding Memorable Break A Record

If you want to make your wedding extra special with a long dramatic walk on aisle, why not make a wedding gown with a very long train to show drama and passion into the wedding and maybe adding flair to the marriage. After all, this is a once in a lifetime moment and one of the happiest moment of your life so why not maximize the drama. A Romanian fashion house hired 10 seamstress to work on the dress for 100 days to come up with more than a mile of a wedding train. It takes a hot air balloon to transport the bride to the venue. Here goes the world breaking story of the longest wedding train!

World's Longest Wedding Train