GREGORIA MONTOYA (1863-1896)
THERE IS a street in Kawit, Cavite, starting from the Poblacion to barrio Tabon that bears the name “Gregoria”. It has no surname or qualifying prefix to identify it. Consequently, few people in Kawit, Cavite except perhaps the octogenarians and over know after whom the street is named, Gregoria, who?
The truth is that the street is named after Gregoria Montoya the town’s counterpart of Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the famous Maid of Orleans. To the few remaining oldsters or near contemporaries of Gregoria Montoya she is known as Henerala Gregoria. They claim that this brave Katipunera was posthumously promoted to the rank of general by the commander-in-chief General Emilio Aguinaldo. However, there is no available document attesting to this promotion.
Gregoria Montoya was the heroine in the Battle of Calero, November 10, 1896. She was leading a 30-man Magdalo unit, standing on top of a battery with one hand holding a Katipunan flag and another hand clasping firmly the handle of a long, sharp-bladed bolo, in the midst of fluctuating battle between Filipino revolutionists and an infantry division of Spanish General Diego del Rios when a cannon ball from a Spanish nearly tearing it into halves. The fight raged on four hours and when the Spaniards had retreated because of heavy casualties, one of the dead counted on the battlefield was Gregoria Montoya.
The Battle of Calero (also known as Battle of Dalahican) was part of a two pronged offensive launched by Governor and Captain General Ramon Blanco on an attempt to quell the revolution in Cavite. The other prong was directed against Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite where Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo assisted by Gen. Pio del Pilar, Edilberto Evangelista, Baldomero and Crispulo Aguinaldo and Pantaleon Garcia repulsed the biggest Spanish onslaught, forcing the Spaniards to retreat to Manila with heavy casualties. After the Battles of Binakayan and Calero all Spanish attempts to retake Cavite from the revolutionists ceased for the next four months pending the arrival for troop reinforcements from Madrid. With this four month respite from Spanish counter- attack the whole province of Cavite became the only free or liberated portion of the Philippines hence it was likened to Cadiz the only liberated portion of Spain during the Napoleonic War of 1810-1812. Aguinaldo in his Memoirs refers to Cavite during this period as the Little Republic of Cavite.
Born on November 28, 1863 to a farming couple of barrio Tabon, Atanacio Montoya and Jacoba Patricio, Gregoria grew up to be the biggest and strongest woman in the neighborhood. She could lift one end of a molave beam, 16” by 16” and about 40 feet long while several men pooled their strength to hold the other end. Few men could match her strength. Her first husband, Cirilo Ayson a Chinese mestizo died after six years of marriage and four sons. Five years after Ayson’s death she had a second mate, Pedro Cacpal. They just lived as man and wife---out of wedlock.
Gregoria was a trusted commander in Aguinaldo’s army. She undertook some delicate missions for Aguinaldo. Fifteen of her bravest soldiers perished with her in the Battle of Calero.
[Source: A.B. Saulo, “Gregoria Montoya: Only Woman General of the Revolution”, Philippines Free Press, October 9, 1971.]