PDF

University of San Carlos Publications
DOÑA MERCEDES LINA RIVERA (1879-1932): A FILIPINA MAESTRA IN THE COLONIAL

TRANSITION
Author(s): Luciano P. R. Santiago
Source: Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, Vol. 20, No. 1 (March 1992), pp. 14-23
Published by: University of San Carlos Publications
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29792072
Accessed: 05-02-2020 07:40 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
University of San Carlos Publications is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society
This content downloaded from 122.3.252.178 on Wed, 05 Feb 2020 07:40:51 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE & SOCIETY
Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society
20(1992):14-23
DONA MERCEDES LINA RIVERA (1879-1932):

A FIUFINAMAESTRA IN THE COLONIAL TRANSITION
Luciano P. R Santiago
In 1919, a group of seven Filipino lady educators combined their academic

and financial resources to found the Philippine Women's College. They were
assisted in drafting the by-laws by Atty. Jose Abad Santos, who later became the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and died as a heroic martyr during the
Japanese Occupation. This institution eventually became f,the first university
for women in Asia (1932) founded by Asians and guided by persons of vision,
integrity and academic excellence" - as noted proudly by its present ad?
ministrators. Its seven foundresses were Clara and Conception Aragon, Paz
M?rquez Benitez (1894-1973), Socorro M?rquez, Carolina de Ocampo Palma
(1882-1945), Mercedes Lina Rivera and Francisca Tirana Benitez (1886-1974).
Except for the Benitezes, the pioneers are hardly remembered today. This
article will focus on their co-foundress, Srta. Dona Mercedes Lina Rivera y
Rivera, and how she made the successful transition from being a maestra in a
conservative town in Laguna towards the end of the Spanish era to that of an
energetic educator in Manila during the early American Regime.1
LINEAGE
Miss Rivera (if she were alive today, she probably would not mind being
addressed as "Ms. Rivera") was born on the feast of Nuestra Senora de la Merced
and Pope St. Linus, September 23,1879 in Pila, a town of tranquil charm, near
the shores of Laguna de Bay. She was the second of four surviving children of
Don Luis Nicolas Rivera y ?lava (1850-1912) and Dona Francisca Rivera y Agra
(1853-1921), who were third cousins. Their other children who reached adult?
hood were: Luis, Jr. (married Pilar Agra y Rivera); Mesiton (married Maria
Ordoveza); and Coraz?n (married Pedro del Mundo).2
On both sides of her family, she descended from patrician ancestors, who
were inextricably linked with the history of their town. Their family and church
records, which date back to the early eighteenth century, show that they came
from the pre-hispanic nobility as well as from Spanish settlers in Pila who broke
away from the stifling confines of the walled city of Manila in the 17th and 18th
centuries. (See accompanying family chart.)3
The founder of the Rivera clan, Don Juan de Rivera (her great-great-great
great-great-grandfather on both sides) served as the gobernadorcillo (mayor)
of Pila in 1729. Since then, his direct male descendants in every generation have
16 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE & SOCIETY
SRTA DO&A MERCEDES UNA RIVERA Y RIVERA (1879-1932)

ARBOL GENEALOGICO (1728-1932)
D.Ju?n de Rivera
Gobi de Fla 172849
dl
Da Josefe de Riveray Ibenorio
D. Nicotas Bonifedo de Rivera y Rivera

Gob. de Pita ca 1750
m.
Da Paula Sarmiento de SBva yTbeoorio
D. Jadnto Proto de Rivera y de S?va

Gtib.de Pita 1766^7
ol
Da. Fraodsca BvaqgeHsta y Dalisay
(Litiw9Laguna)
I
D. Fe?zardo Bautkta de Rivera D. Rafael Mariano de Rivera
Ftaodador de Nueva Pita Gob. de P?a 1796-97
Gob. de Pita 179243,1805-06,
1807-08,1809-10 ol
m.
(Ma|gjay,Lagniia; V
Da Dorotea Victoria Floresy de Jesds 1^ Maria Josepha Manuel
D. Antonio HOario de Riveray Floras D. Tooi?s Vicente de Rivera

Gob. de Pita 1817-18? 1832-33,1849-50 Gob. de Pfla 1820-21
ol hl
Da Isabel de San Rrancbco Abella Da Antonia Gregoria Cavied
y Sta Justa yVetaseo
(Gatanauan, Tayabas)
Riveray D. Agripino de Riveray Caviedes

Gob. de Pita 853-54;
? 185940 ^?ob. de Pita ca 1865
ol ol
Da Fraodsca de San Gabriel Alava Da Fernanda de Santo Tom?s
y Sta Ana yde los Reyes
Da Ftandsca de Riveray Agr

Gob. de Pita 187941,188345
Srta Da Mercedes Lina Rivera y Rivera

(1879-1932)
Maestro Superior, Pueblo de Pfla (1896-1901)
Teacher, Pfla Elementary School (1902-1903)
English Teacher, PML Normal School (1906-14)
First Principal, Pita Intermediate School (1914-17) ?
Assistant Dean, Phfl. Normal HaU (1917-19)
Co-foundress, Philippine Women's University (1919)
DONA MERCEDES LINA RIVERA 17
followed in his footsteps without interruption as the town executive. Her

great-great-grandfather, Don Felizardo de Rivera, is considered the founder of
Pila in its present site. Here the new town had transferred at the turn of the
eighteenth to the nineteenth century because of frequent flooding in the
original site at the edge of the Lake. The present location was, in fact, part of
the hacienda of the Riveras. Thus, the main street in the town, facing the church
and plaza, is named "Rivera."4
Like the other ilustrado families in Pila, the Riveras spoke both Tagalog
and Spanish with equal ease. Among the heirlooms Miss Rivera inherited from
her parents, she cherished most the image of the Dead Christ in a glass casket
called Santo Sepulcro. Devoutly, she adorned the image with flowers and
embroidered satin every year for the Good Friday procession. Besides serving
as mayor of Pila (1883-85), her father, Don Luis was also engaged in teaching.
He had graduated in 1873 from the Escuela Normal de Maestros, which had been
set up in 1865 under the direction of the Society of Jesus. It should be noted
that at that time, teaching was a profession of high prestige in the community.
With this family background, it is not surprising that Mercedes emerged as a
leader in her chosen field.5
SPANISH EDUCATION
She received her basic education from strict but dedicated teachers and she
turned out to be an avid student of superior intelligence. She learned her
primeras letras from Maestra Dolores Francia of Pagsanj?n, Laguna. Her
musical education was especially supervised by an uncle, Don Ignacio Alava,
who had earned fame in the province as a pianist, composer and versatile
musician. Her secondary instruction was given initially by Maestra Josefa
Dimaculangan of Pila, who had studied at the Colegio de Sta. Catalina, which
together with Sta. Isabel, was the first Normal School for Women in the
Philippines (1870). When she came of age to study in Manila, Senorita Chedeng
(as she was fondly called) also went to Sta. Catalina as an interna (boarding
student). With flying colors she completed the prescribed training for a maestra
superior in 1895. Thus, she settled down to a placid life devoted to teaching
music, Spanish and other academic subjects in her hometown.6
THE SOCIAL TRANSITION
Her quiet life and career were rudely interrupted by the second phase of
the Philippine Revolution against Spain (1898), which was followed by the
Philippine-American War (1898-1901). However, she continued to teach
children in her hometown during lulls in the strife. Their ancestral house in Pila
was destroyed towards the later part of the hostilities but she was able to save
their old family records consisting mostly of last wills and land titles of her
forbears by carrying them in carefully cloth-wrapped bundles. For her, the worst
part of the upheaval must have been the unexpected emergence of the
Americans as the next colonizers and their subsequent imposition of a new
language and system of education which, needless to say, was drastically dif?
ferent from her training and experience. However, instead of allowing herself
to be dislocated by the turn of events, she regarded it as a challenge to her
competence and flexibility.7
ENGLISH EDUCATION
Miss Rivera promptly enrolled at the newly opened Colegio de la

Consolaci?n (1901) of the Filipina Augustinian sisters in Manila, probably
because it was the only school which taught English then. One of the sisters,
Sor Catalina de Jesus, had had the foresight of studying English in Hong Kong
in anticipation of the impending changes under American rule. Miss Rivera's
musical ear helped her learn the new language easily albeit with a British accent.
The trilingual educator was now more than ready to resume her teaching
activities.
The American public school system was introduced to Pila in 1902 under
the direction of Mr. Roderic McCloud, who had arrived with the first group of
professional American teachers aboard the ship Thomas. (Whence their nick?
name "Thomasites.") McCloud was a sensitive Irish-American fellow from
Minneapolis, who was amazed, to begin with, at the musical and linguistic talents
of Ms. Rivera. Here he was supposed to "civilize" an isolated town, which had
turned out to have already developed a high degree of culture as represented
by this brown lady. Nevertheless, the townfolks did not speak English except
for Miss Rivera, who had a British accent. Thus, after about a month of
"re-training," he made her his assistant in teaching the American language.
For the National Census of 1903, Ms. Rivera was one of the rare women
officials appointed in the province of Laguna. The Census was published in
both Spanish and English. Always in search of excellence in her endeavors, she
returned to Manila in that same year to study at the Philippine Normal School,
which had just been established by the Americans in 1901. The unofficial motto
of the school was "Speak English and talk to the world." It then occupied the
administration building of the Exposici?n Regional de Filipinas, which had been
organized by the Spanish government in 1895. (It is now the site of the
Philippine General Hospital on Taft Avenue.) The training or laboratory
school was located two blocks away at A. Flores Street. It was only in 1912 that
the school moved to its present campus at Taft Avenue, corner Ayala
Boulevard.10
Simultaneously, Miss Rivera took advanced lessons in piano under the

renowned Mexican maestra Dona Buenaventura Reyes vda. de G?lvez. In the
Normal School, she met and befriended the other women educators, especially
the Tirana sisters, Francisca and Ramona, who were her classmates. With them
she would later plan the Philippine Women's College. (The trio's graduation
picture in 1906 is still extant.) After graduation, she was recruited as a faculty
member of her Alma Mater teaching English and literature. One of her favorite
students was Miss Aurora Aragon of Baler, Tayabas (now Quezon), who later,
as Mrs. Manuel Luis Quezon, became the first lady of the land. Another
prominent pupil who became close to her was Princess Tarhata Kiram of Jol?.
The American Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes (1909-13), a bachelor,
developed a special concern for their school and asked its female faculty
including Miss Rivera to enliven Malacanang Palace as his "blue ladies."11
THE FIRST PRINCIPAL
When Pila Intermediate School was set up in 1914, Mr. McCloud invited
her to become its first principal, an offer she could not turn down; so she
returned to her hometown. (Two years earlier, her father and maternal
grandmother had died within two weeks of each other.) She regarded the
secondary school as a sort of laboratory, as it were, wherein to test her ideas in
education, ever mindful of the fact that she was preparing her students for
higher education. She treated the girls equally with the boys because she did
not believe there was any difference in intellectual capacities between the sexes
as shown by her own case as well as by her long experience in teaching. She was
ahead of her time in a male chauvinist society. As a carry-over from her Spanish
training, she insisted that a pupil "must" listen and study and she did not hesitate
to spank a child if he or she misbehaved in class. Beside the academic require?
ments, she emphasized the physical, industrial and, above all, the cultural
aspects of learning. She believed that music was the main vehicle of culture.
"Everybody must learn to sing and know music because it is the heart and soul
of the nation. A person who does not appreciate music is liable to commit
treason or another crime." She organized glee clubs and operettas with the
students and granted year-end awards to the best performers. Thus did Pila
Intermediate School earn unique fame in the entire province of Laguna.12
The parents and students were quite appreciative of her efforts as evidenced
by the fact that they still invariably pay homage to her memory at annual
reunions and occasional gatherings and publications of the school and the town.
In fact, they call her "the pride of Pila." In 1964, on the occasion of their golden
jubilee, the alumni of Pila Intermediate School commissioned a full-size oil
portrait of her, which now hangs in the school hall.13
TRANSFER TO MANILA
In 1917, Miss Alma H. Burton, dean of the Normal Hall, the dormitory o
the Philippine Normal School, recruited Miss Rivera to serve as its assistan
dean Thus ended the latter's fruitful term as a school principal. Formerly
called "Girls' Dormitory," The Normal Hall was located across the street from
the institution. Miss Rivera was one of the beneficiaries of the vigorous polic
of Filipinization of the government service by the incumbent American Gover?
nor-General Francis Burton Harrison (1913-21). She continued to be one of
the "blue ladies" in Malacanang.14
At that time, there were only two secular institutions of learning for women:
Instituto de Mujeres (founded in 1900) and Centro Escolar de Senoritas
(founded in 1907). The main medium of instruction in both was still Spanish.
Miss Rivera and her close associates at the Normal School carefully planned a
third school for women along more modern lines as signified by the choice of
English as its medium of teaching as well as its English name: Philippine
Women's College. Miss Rivera was the oldest of the seven organizers and as
such, she was the only one who had completed and applied her training as a
teacher in both the Spanish and American educational systems. For this reason,
her guidance and ideas were much sought after by the others. On May 15,1919,
they incorporated the Philippine Women's Educational Association and on
June 9, the group inaugurated the college with an enrollment of eighty students.
It was first located at A. Flores Street in Ermita, near the original site of the
training school of their Alma Mater, the Philippine Normal School. As in the
latter, Miss Rivera took charge of the college dormitory, where she resided. She
taught music, English and literature without sacrificing her commitment to the
promotion of Philippine and Spanish culture and their emphasis on religion.
One of the college patrons was the Irish Archbishop of Manila, Monsignor
Michael O'Dougherty (1916-49), who also spoke English and Spanish but never
learned Tagalog. Like her colleagues, Miss Rivera quietly valued her being
tri-lingual and encouraged the next generation to follow their examples.15
During this period, she emerged, not unexpectedly, as "an indefatigable
defender of Feminism in the country and she engaged in both civic and social
work." Promoting the then novel idea of "self-reliance" for Filipino women, she
championed woman suffrage and was an active member of the Liga Nacional
de Damas Filipinas, which supported the Philippine independence movement.
"A woman of rigorous discipline in her lifetime, she believed there should always
be time for everything one feels worthwhile doing. She was sweet and gentle
but she also had a serious and imposing character which inspired both respect
and admiration from her students."16
She doted on her two eldest nephews, Francisco and Jaime Rivera, whose
college education she closely supervised. Whenever she came home to Pila, she
stayed mostly in the house of her brother, Don Mesit?n Rivera (1881-1943).
Being both independent-minded and of independent means, Miss Rivera
was the first of the seven foundresses to go her separate way leaving the college
by 1924 at the latest. (Her mother had died on July 8,1921, two years after the
foundation of Philippine Women's College, leaving her a comfortable income.)
She opened her own school with a dormitory with the help of another friend,
Miss Agueda Monserrat, a pharmacist from Sta. Cruz, Laguna. However, this
venture did not turn out to be a success, partly because the two ladies were not
adept at financial matters. Not long afterwards, Miss Monserrat, the younger
of the two, developed tuberculosis and died.18
LAST ILLNESS
Like her father before her, Miss Rivera was stricken with cerebral throm?
bosis due to hypertension causing a right-sided paralysis in 1929. Two and a half
years later, she was felled by another stroke. Now bedridden, she was brought
back to her beloved Pila, where she spent her last days nursed by her younger
sister, Corazon Rivera del Mundo (1888-1979). They occupied an elegant
house put at their disposal by their first cousin, Don Rodolfo Rivera y Rivera,
who was then living in the United States. She passed away quietly on Holy
Wednesday, March 23,1932 exactly at the age of 52 and a half. To her burial
the following day, Maundy Thursday, came a large throng not only from Pila
but from the Philippine Normal School and the Philippine Women's College
(which became a university in that year). The memory of this event has been
preserved in an extant photograph. The day after the funeral, the Good Friday
procession was held in Pila focusing on her beloved Santo Sepulcro but - for
the first time since her childhood years - without its special devotee, Miss
Rivera.19
Her remains now rest in a niche below those of her parents in the wall
directly facing the baptistry of the old church of San Antonio de Padua of Pila.
It can be seen to the right as one enters the house of worship built mainly by
her ancestors.
ENDNOTES
Herminia Ancheta & Micaela Gonz?lez. Filipino Women in Nation Building. (Quezon City:
Phoenix, 1984) pp. 112-117; Archives of Phil. Women's University (APWU). "A Brief Biography
of Mercedes Rivera." MS; Two Sisters." (Concepci?n and Clara Aragon) MS; "Unpublished
Portraits of Clara Aragon Villanueva." MS; "Biography of Carolina Ocampo Palma (1882-1945)."
MS; Benjamin N. Ruiz. "I Remember Miss Rivera." Pilagram. 30 April 1964, pp. 6 & 10.
Archives of the Parish of Pila. Laguna (APPL). Libros Can?nicos de Bautismos, Casamien
tosyEntierros (19th to 20th centuries).
APPL. The oldest canonical books in the parish archives are the following: Bautismos
(1729-88); Casamientos (1752-1834) and Entierros (1755-1833). They continue almost uninter?
ruptedly up to the 20th century; Archives of the Rivera Family of Pila (ARFP). D. Jacinto de
Rivera. "Manga Huling Habilin at Kalooban." (Pila: 13 Mayo 1792); D. Felizardo de Rivera.
"Manga Huling Habilin at Kalooban." (Pila: 19 Setiembre 1810); D. Tom?s de Rivera. "Manga
Huling Habilin at Kalooban." (Pila: 28 Enero 1856); "Partici?n Extra-judicial de los Bienes de D.
Luis N. Rivera." (Pila: 16 Abril 1917); Da. Francisca Rivera. "Mi Ultimo Testamente" (Pila: 26
Mayo 1921); Luciano P. R. Santiago. "Genealogy of the Rivera Clan of Pila. Laguna." MS (1989);
The National Library (TNL). "The Town of Pila." Historical Data Papers. (Manila: MSS, 1953).
4Ibid.; The National Archives (TNA). Erecci?n de los Pueblos de la Provincia de la Laguna.
Legajo no. 48 (now tomos I & IV); Luciano P.R. Santiago. "When a Town Has to Move: How
Pila Transferred to its Present Site (1794-1811)." Phil. Quarterly of Cultured Society, 11 (1983):93
106.
5ARFP. Da. Francisca Rivera. "Testamento;" "Afio de 1873. Escuela Normal de Maestros.
Reintegro al titulo de maestro espedido a favor de D. Lufs Rivera;" "Nombramiento de Gober
nadorcillo del pueblo de Pila para 1879-1881 a D. Lufs Rivera."; "Nombramiento ... para 1883
1885."
6Ruiz. "Miss Rivera," AP WU. "Mercedes Rivera;" Sr. Ma. Luisa Henson, OP. The Birth and
Growth ofSta. Catalina College, (Manila, 1976).
7
Ibid.; ARFP. (See reference notes 3 & 5 for samples of family documents she s
destruction.)
8Ibid.; Sr. Ana Consuelo Gonzalez, OSA. A History of the Augustinian Sisters of the
Philippines. (Manila, 1970).
o
Ruiz. "Miss Rivera."
10Ibid.; Censo de las Isias Filipinos de 1903. (Washington, D.C., 1905), 4 tomos; Gregorio
C. Borlaza. History of the Philippine Normal College. (PNC Alumni Association: Manila, 1986);
APWU. "Mercedes Rivera;" Ancheta & Gonzalez. Filipino Women; Several interviews with Dr.
Jaime O. Rivera, nephew. The old records section of PNC was apparently destroyed with its main
building during World War IL
"ibid.
12Ibid.; Ruiz. "Miss Rivera."
14Ibid.; APWU. "Mercedes Rivera;" The Torch 1917. The Seventh Annual Book of the Phil.
Normal School. (PNC: Manila, 1917) pp. 6 & 8. Miss Rivera appears in the faculty group picture
in this yearbook (courtesy of Ms. Remedios Paragas, PNC archivest and Mrs. De Castro, chief
librarian). The first issues of The Torch from 1910 to 1913 are not available at the college archives.
The main building of PNC was destroyed during the war.
15Ibid.; Ancheta & Gonzalez. Filipino Women.
16APWU. "Merodes Rivera."
17Interviews with Dr. Jaime O. Rivera. (M.D., Univ. of the Phil. 1935).
18Phil. Women's College. The Souvenir of Class 1925 (Manila: PWC, 1925). This is the
earliest available yearbook in the university archives. In it, Mercedes Rivera and Socorro M?rquez
were no longer listed among the officers of the college; Interviews with Dr. Rivera.
19ibid.

PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

University of San Carlos Publications

DOÑA MERCEDES LINA RIVERA (1879-1932): A FILIPINA MAESTRA IN THE COLONIAL

DONA MERCEDES LINA RIVERA (1879-1932):

In 1919, a group of seven Filipino lady educators combined their academic

SRTA DO&A MERCEDES UNA RIVERA Y RIVERA (1879-1932)

D. Nicotas Bonifedo de Rivera y Rivera

D. Jadnto Proto de Rivera y de S?va

D. Antonio HOario de Riveray Floras D. Tooi?s Vicente de Rivera

Riveray D. Agripino de Riveray Caviedes

Da Ftandsca de Riveray Agr

Srta Da Mercedes Lina Rivera y Rivera

followed in his footsteps without interruption as the town executive. Her

THE SOCIAL TRANSITION

Miss Rivera promptly enrolled at the newly opened Colegio de la

Simultaneously, Miss Rivera took advanced lessons in piano under the

THE FIRST PRINCIPAL

15Ibid.; Ancheta & Gonzalez. Filipino Women.

16APWU. "Merodes Rivera."

You might also like