Philippine magazine. [Vol. 27, no. 1]

PHI ML1 PPIN NE MAGAZINEZ IN

June, 1930

dLV M ZJ 1

effect being heightened by the use of stylized, symbolical
figures of animals and flowers.
He works chiefly in tempera colors, water paints prepared
with egg and size, which are painstakinly laid down with a
small brush. The result, as in his beautiful "Saras Vati",
is something more like a jewel than an ordinary painting.
The original reproduced on the cover of this Magazine
was done by a process in which the whole is first painted
in black and white with an ordinary paint brush, and, after
three or four weeks of drying, the colors are rubbed in with a
short-haired brush. This is a quite different technique
from that used by most modern painters, and is similar to
that of some of the great masters, like Rembrandt, Veronese,
Tintoretto.
However, Mr. Ruiz seems inclined to abandon easel
pictures for mural painting which he believes is of great
importance because it is a public art, teaching the people
of the past,-of the episodes in their history and of the
deeds of their great men, instructing and inspiring them.
Unfortunately, mural paintings cost a great deal of money,
and how far he will be able to go in a small and still poor
country like the Philippines, is a question. The Government may, however, be able to do something, and at present
Mr. Ruiz is employed in the office of the Chief Consulting
Architect of the Government, his old friend, Mr. Juan
Arellano, preparing drawings for the mural decorations of
a number of public buildings. It is to be hoped that the
necessary appropriations can be made for executing them. PRELIMINARY STUDY IN OIL FOR "IN DOUB:
Autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus
Translated and Annotated by
LEANDRO H. FERNANDEZ
Professor of History, University of the Philippines

T."

I AM Gregoria de Jesus, native of the town of Caloocan
in Rizal province. I was born on Tuesday, May 9,
1875, at number 13, Zamora Street, then Baltazar, a
place where thousands of arms used in the revolution were
buried, and where the Katipunan leaders met to make the
final arrangement for the outbreak. My father was Nicolas de Jesus, also a native of this town, a master mason
and carpenter by occupation, and an office holder during
the Spanish regime, having been second lieutenant, chief
lieutenant, and gobernadorcillo. My mother was BalFROM time to time documents of considerable interest on some
phases of our country's history, particularly during the period
of the revolution, appear locally, written by persons who were
either participants in the events narrated or witnesses. These documents are generally written in either Spanish or in the vernacular and
consequently are not accessible to many of our students to whom English
has become the chief language of study. One such document is Gregoria de Jesus' Mga tala ng aking buhay, which, as its title indicates,
is an autobiography of the wife of Andres Bonifacio. This interesting
document has not yet been published in the original Tagalog, although
a Spanish version of it had already been released and printed, thanks to
the efforts of the young writer, Mr. Jose P. Santos, in the Free Press
(issues of November 24, and December 1, 1928) under the title of La
Princesa del Katipunan. Because of its importance, coming as it
does from the pen of the wife of the Supremo, I have thought it worth
while to attempt an English translation, which forms the basic part of
this monograph.
I am greatly indebted to my friend, Mr. Jose P. Santos, who kindly
furnished me with a copy of Mga tala ng aking buhay, as well as the
picture appearing herewith.

tazara Alvarez Francisco of the town of Noveleta in Cavite
province, a niece of General Mariano Alvarez of (the Katipunan center of ) Magdiwang in Cavite, the first to raise
the standard of revolt in that province.
I attended the public schools and finished the first grades
of instruction, equivalent to the intermediate grades of
today. I still remember that I was once a winner in an
examination given by the governor-general and the town
curate and was the recipient of a silver medal with blue ribbon, a prize bestowed in recognition of my little learning.
To enable two brothers of mine to continue their studies in
Manila, I decided to stop studying and to join my sister in
looking after our family interests. Often I had to go out
in the country to supervise the planting and the harvesting
of our rice, to see our tenants and laborers, or to pay them
their wages on Sundays. Also now and then I did some
sewing or weaving, and always assisted my mother in her
house work.
When I was about eighteen years old, young men began
to visit our house, and among them was Andres Bonifacio,
who came in company with Ladislao Diwa and my cousin
Teodoro Plata, then an escribano, but none of them talked
to me of love, since parents in those days were extremely
careful, and girls did not want people to know that they
already had admirers. The truth, however, was that my
parents had for about one year already been informed of