PALATAN, Randell Jan M. GED105 Mrs.

Angelita Geronimo
BSA - I - A12A M/TH 7:30-9:00 AM February 4, 2019

Analysis of the Autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus

“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 Baltazara
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.”

An Excerpt of the First Paragraph

“Mga Tala ng Aking Buhay”
The Autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus

Gregoria de Jesus, daughter of a gobernadorcillo and and of the niece of a Magdiwang

rebel and the wife of Andres Bonifacio, wrote about her life in her autobiography titled “Mga
Tala ng Aking Buhay” not only to tell people who she was but to describe to all readers and make
a picture in their mind of the happenings and condition during her lifetime. She didn’t just
narrated who Gregoria de Jesus was but how she became who she was, through experiences
during her life. This was written for Jose P. Santos. While telling the readers her life story, she
also narrated the Philippines under the Spanish colonization, the Katipunan, and how he met and
lived a married life with the Philippine hero Andres Bonifacio. They were married in a Catholic
Church and in front of the Katipuneros where she vowed to be a Katipunera and took the title
“Lakambini”. She told the story of how many papers, seals and weapons of the KKK were at
their house since Emilio Jacinto lived there. She narrated her role in the KKK and even the death
of her son, Andres. She told the story of when the Spanish government seized the members of the
Katipunan, how she escaped to Manila and was denied rest from houses she knocked into
because they too were also brutally punished by the Spaniards. Gregoria narrated even until she
remarried with Julio Nacpil, the death of her husband and the controversy between Aguinaldo
and Bonifacio which she kept silent about since there is another letter for it. She revealed the
people behind KKK and their functions including Macario Sakay. She also told the rules of the
Katipunan which she was the first to decipher.
PALATAN, Randell Jan M. GED105 Mrs. Angelita Geronimo
BSA - I - A12A M/TH 7:30-9:00 AM February 4, 2019

She argued about the brutality of the Spanish regime in the Philippines and what she had
to do to survive. She had no fear of facing danger, not even death itself. She have known what it
is to sleep on the ground without tasting food the whole day, to drink dirty water from mud holes
or the sap of vines which, though bitter, tasted delicious because of my thirst. The things she had
to endure and go through during those dark days of the Philippines under the brutal treatment of
the Spanish conquerors but she survived it all. At the end of her autobiography addressed to Jose
P. Santos, she wrote a series of advice.

1. Respect and love your parents because they are next to God on earth.
2. Remember always the sacred teachings of our heroes who sacrificed their lives for love of
country.
3. Acquire some knowledge in the line or field of work for which you are best fitted so that
you can be useful to your country.
4. Remember that goodness is wealth.
5. Respect your teachers who help you to see and understand, for you owe them your
education as you owe your parents your life.
6. Protect the weak from danger.
7. Fear history, for it respects no secrets.
8. Greatness begins where baseness ends.
9. Promote union and the country's progress in order not to retard its independence.