It is fun when a newer smaller country country introduces the stamp collector to one of it’s heroes from long before. In them you not only find bravery adventure and even deception. You can also spot the similarities of how different places dealt with similar issues. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The most common image of Gabriela Silang is of an indigenous woman furiously riding a horse while swinging a bolo type machete. The image on the stamp shows her much more feminine in traditional garb and making more clear her mixed heritage. This may take her more relatable across the Philippines and a better picture of who she was.
Todays stamp is issue A250, a 15 Sentimos stamp issued by the Philippines in 1974. It was a 21 stamp issue that came out over five years that honored historical female figures of history. In the 1960s there was an earlier series of stamps in a very similar style showing the males. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
It is believed that Ilocano people migrated to Luzon from Borneo as part of a third wave of migration around 300BC. Gabriela Silang was born in 1731 to a family that was mostly Spanish on her father’s side and mostly Ilocano on her mothers’. Her father was a trader that sold his wares along the Abra River. She was abandoned by her family at an early age and was taken in and raised by the local Catholic Priest. The Priest arraigned for her marriage to a wealthy much older businessman. When her first husband died three years later Gabriela found herself a wealthy young widow.
For her second husband, Gabriela chose mailman Diego Silang. As part of his job, he made frequent trips between Ilocano and Manila and was distressed with how poorly the Spanish brought in from Spain were administering the area. He felt people born on the islands would do a better job.
Diego’s chance came during the Seven Years war, what Americans know as the French and Indian War. In 1762, Britain declared war on Spain and occupied Manila. Diego thought the time was right for Ilocano to rise up in rebellion against the Spanish. Diego offered to cooperate with the British and they in turn named him their governor of Ilocano. What happened next showed that perhaps Ilocano was not quite ready to manage itself. The Spanish colonial authority put a bounty on the head of Diego Silang and two of his coconspirators quickly assassinated him to collect. Traditionally Ilocano men wear their hair long and gather it under a turban called a potong. If the potong was red it meant the man had committed murder. If it was striped, multiple murders. You would think Diego would have been tipped off by this as to the danger he was in.
Gabriela escaped her husband’s killing and set up shop in the house of an uncle. From there she appointed new generals to continue the rebellion. She tried to put herself forward as a cult priestess that would lead her people to victory. In 1763, her rejuvenated rebel force tried to lay siege on the town of Vigan. Her force was defeated by the Spanish and when she tried to escape back to her uncle’s house, the Spanish were waiting for her and arrested her. Gabriela and other prisoners from her army were hung in the town square of Vigan. The British occupation of Manila lasted 20 months until it was returned under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The news that Manila had fallen did not reach Spain till after it was all over.
Gabriela on her horse waving her machete. No doubt the Spanish Governor was tweeting law and order.
Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.