Education
She excelled at school, which earned her the respect of her teacher, parents and most importantly, Dona Vicenta.
Point person of the Katipunero
She excelled at school, which earned her the respect of her teacher, parents and most importantly, Dona Vicenta.
Artemio Ricarte. Born in Binondo, Manila, she was the second child of Ambrosio Esteban, a native of Ligao and Francisca de la Cruz of Cainta, Rizal. Coming from an impoverished family, she enrolled in a girl"s school under the auspices of Dona Vicenta de Roxas. They had three children, Catalina, Adriana and Anastacia.
Her husband joined the and assumed the pseudonym Tungkod (Tagalog for "rod" or "staff").
He was put in charge of the revolutionaries in San Juan del Monte, Montalban and Marikina. Later, he was transferred with his family from Manila to Tangos, Cavite.
They traveled between Manila and Cavite in order to secure materials for ammunition to be used by the Filipinos. Their activities remained undetected by the authorities until the first phase of the revolution ended with the Truce of Biak-na-Bato.
She was entrusted with secret papers on war strategies and planned attacks on the Spanish detachments.
Because she was a woman, she was never suspected of involvement in revolutionary activities. On July 1, 1900, all three were arrested in Calle Anda after the authorities discovered grenades in her house. On February 16, 1901, Tungkod (then a Lieutenant Colonel) was exiled to Guam with other revolutionaries.
In 1910, she visited General
Ricarte who was in Hong Kong exiled for the second time after refusing to sign an oath of allegiance to the United States. When the British government deported political exiles from Hong Kong during the outbreak of World War I, her family was shipped to Shanghai and then Japan.
In 1921, they moved to Tokyo, where General Ricarte taught Spanish in an overseas school.
In April 1923 they transferred to Yokohama, where they lived permanently and opened a profitable restaurant.
After Japan occupied the Philippines, she came back. In 1944, she fell ill and died.
