ABOUT THE WORK

Transcribed: M. Emilio Jacinto 29 de Octubre 189 Minamahal kong kapatid, Malaking tuwa ko’t pasasalamat kung ikaw maluwalhating datnin nitong aking sulat lalong-lalo pa kung kayo ay malalagi sa kapayapaan at walang anomang sakuna. Ay kapatid, mataykuman timpani sa sariling loob itong mga dalamhating aking tinataglay, tila wala ng pagkasiyahan, kaya ikaw na lamang ang unang aking madadaingan sapagka’t sigurong di kaila sa iba ang nagsapit sa niring bang buhay. Kaya’t maaring matatamising ng iyong kalooban na pagkalooban ng kaunti ang aking kapatid at magulang sapagka’t walang sukat pagkakitaan dito. Ay kapatid, ang aking ina any nagtitiis pumasok sa ist angki. Gumagana ng sikapat isang araw, nagtitiis araw gabi, kaya palaging aking ipinagkakaramdam. Ako nama’y walang sukat magawa. Siguro namang talastas mo na kundi nagkaganong na paalis ang aking ama ay di totoong magkakaganoon kami. Kaya ikaw na ang bahalang magsabi sa asawa mo ng bagay, Ito na lamang at wala ng iba. Laganap ang maraming kumusta, tuloy lumingap ka ng akalang kaya sa iyong kapatid na si Gregoria de Jesus ________________________ Translated : Mr. Emilio Jacinto 29 October 1898 My beloved brother, I would be happy if this letter finds you at peace and well. Oh my brother, much as I would like to keep to myself my great sufferings, my heart is ready to burst. It is only you who can understand how devastating the past events have been of my poor life. Perhaps you can also find it in your own heart to help my brother and parents who have no means of livelihood. Oh my brother, my mother endures work in the water-tanks, earning no more than a few centavos a day; they suffer day and night, making me desperate. But I can do nothing. I suppose you have heard that this has befallen them since my father has been sent away. So I leave it to you to tell your wife about this matter. This is all and nothing more. Sending you many best wishes, with the hope that you will not fail your sister Gregoria de Jesus The letter reveals several intriguing details : First, the little-known fact that Emilio Jacinto, known as “the brains of the Katipunan’ and subsequently, it’s highest-ranking general, commander of the northern forces in Manila under his best friend Andres Bonifacio, was in fact married to a woman named Catalina de Jesus. Second, was it an accident that Emilio’s wife had the same last name as Gregoria de Jesus, Bonifacio’s wife? Gregoria refers to her in the letter, implying perhaps that she was not well-acquainted with Catalina, or perhaps not on the best of terms? At any rate, Emilio’s wife was not a secret to Gregoria. In 1898, Gregoria has not yet married Bonifacio’s ‘sub-supremo’, Julio Nakpil, and here relates how desperate her situation has become: Her father appears at the time to have been unable to work and has been let go of his previous positions. At one time, he was a prosperous gobernadorcillo of Caloocan; her mother belonged to the propertied class and General Santiago Alvarez was in fact her mother’s uncle. Gregoria has pointedly directed her pleas for assistance not to her mother’s wealthy relatives, the Alvarez of Cavite. She hints at the troubles she and Bonifacio suffered while in that province as a result of taking the Alvarez’ side against Emilio Aguinaldo — and implies this is the reason that she has not done so. “Only you can best understand,” she writes, in reference to Bonifacio’s well-known friendship with Jacinto. (Two letters to Jacinto from Bonifacio recently brought to auction at Leon Gallery are filled with the details of the Tejeros debacle and subsequent betrayals.) The de Jesus’ family’s fall from grace — and financial fortune — was plainly a consequence of Bonifacio’s politics. The Americans would have only recently steamed into Manila Bay in 1898 and were still to take over the Philippines formally through the Treaty of Paris. She would marry Nakpil in December 1898 and live part of her remaining life in the home of Ariston Bautista Lin and his wife Petrona, older sister of Julio Nakpil. -Lisa Guerrero Nakpil