Dona Enriqueta de Peralta, Dingras, Ilocos Norte folk hero | Courtesy of IPAD
NEW YORK [Update] – The launch of the book, “Enriqueta de Peralta: A Woman Ahead of Her Time,” at the Philippine Center was like reliving the life and times of a woman of “courage, intellect, and foresight, who stands as a towering figure not just in the annals of Ilocos but in the entire nation,” as Consul General Senen Mangalile fittingly described her in his message.
From the beginning of the program to the closing remarks of Reynaldo Saludares, president of the International Professional Association of Dingras, Inc. (IPAD), the presentation took the audience on a journey from the past made alive through oral history and reflection.
Saludares traced the book’s transformation and transition from beginning in a town in the province of Ilocos Norte called Dingras, a name with its legend. According to an Ilocano folktale, the name originated from Rass, a romantic, gallant heir-warrior fighting for a lady’s love, Ding.
Curiosity led to the discovery
Teresita Peralta, secretary of IPAD, opened the book launching with a short anecdotal sketch of how she stumbled upon a marker in a monument of de Peralta, fondly called Dona Enriqueta, on a street corner in Dingras. Her curiosity led her to discover that Dona Enriqueta was maybe her great-grandaunt.
That experience was revealing, like a pregnant woman longing to give birth to Dona Enriqueta’s life, works, and legacy, which are beginning to unravel only now, after 142 years.
The room was eerily quiet, and the audience, mostly Ilocanos, remained steadfast in listening to a story unheard of, proud that the Ilocos region has another local woman besides Anastacia Giron Tupas (Laoag-1890-1972), founder of the Philippine Nursing Association, and Josefa Llanes Escoda (Dingras-1898-1945), a war hero and founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.
The audience was piqued by their curiosity about Dona Enriqueta’s place in history, a lesson that even the Philippines’ Department of Education in the region noted and produced a teaching module for students.
Saludares said, “Dona Enriqueta was known to have a melodious manner of speaking and a voice soft as the breeze that can soothe the feeling, heart, and soul.” She was a poet, too; she wrote poems in Ilocano that were lyrical and emotional, cleverly crafted to convey a symbolic meaning. She even translated Rizal’s last poem, Mi Ultimo Adios, from Spanish to Ilocano.
Beauty and depth of Ilocano heritage and culture
Her great-great-grandnephews and great-great-grandnieces recited her poems. Dulce Valdes Barangan, a former president of the Ilocano Association in America based in New York, read one of Dona Enriqueta’s poems in Ilocano, which captured the beauty and depth of Ilocano heritage and culture.
The consul general noted that Dona Enriqueta’s poems “painted a powerful image of the Ilocano woman—dignified, inspiring, and deeply rooted in her identity.” Mangalile quoted one of Enriqueta’s poems, saying that the lines capture beauty and integrity. She “saw in the women around her whose strength and dedication to family and community mirror the bright, unblemished stars in our night skies.”
“She challenged norms,” Mangalile added, “not through grand gestures but through unwavering service and gentle courage.” “… A voice that called for recognition of mothers, for women’s suffrage, and the welfare of children, she was both an artist and an activist, a poet, and a pioneer.”
The book is a historical account of an “Ilocano poet, civic leader, social worker, and champion of women’s rights.” Never did one expect that a woman like Dona Enriqueta could make a difference in the lives of Ilocanos in the late 1800s when men were expected to play a significant role in service to the nation.
As a granddaughter said, Enriqueta did not seek attention or credit. Although involved in civic projects, she often wanted to remain in the background. Her heroic deeds followed Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero, and other heroes during the revolution in 1898.
She was 14 when the war broke out, waged by the revolutionary Katipunan against the Spanish empire. While other men and women were fighting on the battlefield, Enriqueta was laying the foundation for women’s rights and the care of infant children.
Support for women’s suffrage
Susan B. Anthony, an American activist, was a pioneer crusader for the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
In like manner, Dona Enriqueta, president of the provincial Ilocos Norte Women’s Club, was “waging a vigorous effort to support the plebiscite on women’s suffrage.” She sent a resolution to the Philippine Legislature to pass an act granting women’s suffrage and organized a campaign for its enactment.
To “prove that women can easily acquire a skill and pursue an opportunity that may have been limited only to men,” Enriqueta even rode a tractor (pictured on the book cover). Eventually, on April 30, 1937, Commonwealth Act No. 34 marked the first time 447,725 Filipino women cast their right to vote in the country. The women’s suffrage bill sponsored by Congressman Filemon Sotto was passed.
Lessons from her remarkable life
Mangalile offered lessons Filipinos can draw from Enriqueta de Peralta’s remarkable life. First, the power of purpose; her work “was rooted in the conviction that communities thrive when their women are empowered, heard, and celebrated.” Second, authentic leadership comes with a willingness to serve. Enriqueta served not to seek accolades but to “seek change, “paving paths for future generations of Filipinos. And third, she reminded us that “creativity and advocacy are powerful allies. Her words resonate today as they did decades ago, as vivid and full of meaning.”
In his closing remarks, Saludares shared his reflection on Dona Enriqueta, saying that her life can be viewed as a love story and a drama. “She was pursued earnestly for 7 long years with purity in motives and warm feelings by an honorable and brilliant man.” However, Enriqueta spurned him through a poem that graciously said, “I don’t deserve you.”
Romantic and patriotic
He asked why Enriqueta dismissed her suitor “with the unmelodious but graceful utterance, “I don’t deserve you.” Saludares concluded that their expression of love for each other “was not on the same wavelength. The suitor’s love was romantic and full of warm feelings, while Dona Enriqueta’s love was patriotic.”
Saludares’ remarks remind the audience that perhaps Dingras, the name of the town where Enriqueta was born, is a narrative of how Enriqueta lived in service to her community—one that inspires calls for action and serves as an example of a woman ahead of her time. Like the story of Rass, a gallant warrior who pursued Ding, the tale of Rass would have lived on to this day etched in a town just as we remember Enriqueta in a book that only now reveals who she was. Who knows, Enriqueta may have been the Ding that Rass, her suitor, went after.
According to IPAD, they are continually raising funds to have more copies of the book printed since the first batch was limited.
Update February 10: Teresita Peralta’s title should be changed from “great-grand-aunt” to “secretary of IPAD.”
