Early life and marriage[edit]

Known as the "Mother of Revolution," Tandang Sora was born on January 6, 1812 [1] in Barrio
Banlat, Caloocan (the present-day Barangay Tandang Sora, Quezon City).[2]
Tandang Sora, daughter of a peasant couple, Juan and Valentina Aquino, never attended school.
However, she was apparently literate at an early age and talented as a singer and performed at local
events as well as at Mass for her Church. She was also often chosen for the role of Reyna
Elena during the "Santacruzan", a processional pageant commemorating Empress Helen's finding of
the Cross of Christ, celebrated in the Philippines in May.[1][3]
Later in life, she married Fulgencio Ramos,[1] a cabeza de barrio (village chief), and bore six children.
Ramos died when their youngest child was seven and she was left as a single parent for their
children. Tandang Sora continued her life as an hermana mayor active in
celebrating fiestas, baptisms, and weddings. She worked hard in order to give her children
education.[1]

Involvement in the revolution[edit]

In her native town, Tandang Sora operated a store, [4] which became a refuge for the sick and
wounded revolutionaries. She fed,[1] gave medical attention to and encouraged the revolutionaries
with motherly advice and prayers.
Secret meetings of the Katipuneros (revolutionaries) were also held at her house in August 1896.
Thus she earned the names "Woman of Revolution", "Mother of Balintawak", "Mother of
the Philippine Revolution", and Tandang Sora (Tandang is derived from the Tagalog word matandâ,
which means old). She and her son, Juan Ramos, were present in the Cry of Balintawak and were
witnesses to the tearing up of the cedulas.[1][5]
When the Spaniards learned about her activities and her knowledge to the whereabouts of the
Katipuneros, she was arrested by the guardia civil on August 29, 1896. She was held captive in the
house of a cabeza de barangay of Pasong Putik, Novaliches and then transferred to Bilibid
Prison in Manila. While in prison, she was interrogated but she refused to divulge any information.
She was then deported to Guam, Marianas Islands by Governor General Ramón Blanco on
September 2.[1][5] In Guam, she and a woman named Segunda Puentes were placed under house
arrest in the residence of a Don Justo Dungca.[6][7]
After the United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, Tandang Sora, like other exiles,
returned to the Philippines in 1903. She died at her daughter Saturnina's house in Banlat on
February 19, 1919 at the age of 107.[1] Her remains were first interred at the Mausoleum of the
Veterans of the Revolution at the Manila North Cemetery.[8] These were then transferred to the
Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park in Quezon City in 1970 and finally at the Tandang Sora National
Shrine in 2012.[9][10][11]