Sampaloc and the January 20, 1872 Cavite Mutiny

On January 20, 1872, around 200 men composed of laborers, soldiers, and some residents of Cavite rose in arms and assassinated their commanding officer and Spanish officers. Unfortunately, the Caviteños mistook the fireworks display of a fiesta celebration in one of the towns of Manila as their signal for fellow mutineers in Manila to start a coordinated & simultaneous uprising. As a consequence, the Cavite mutiny of 1872 failed as no reinforcements came from Manila. Among the many arrested after the failed 1872 Cavite mutiny was  Fr. Jacinto Zamora, Filipino priest assigned at Pandacan. Fr. Mariano Duran, parish priest of Sampaloc, invited Fr. Jacinto Zamora for a card game at the Sampaloc convent during the town fiesta of San Anton, Sampaloc.  Fr. Duran’s innocent invitation stated: “Grand reunion. Come without fail. Our friends will be there and will be well provided with balas and polvora (which referred to money and high stakes in gambling parlance).” Unfortunately, Spanish authorities who read this same invitation interpreted it as evidence of the guilt of Fr. Jacinto on charges of conspiracy against the Spanish authorities. On February 17, 1872, Fr. Jacinto Zamora was martyred at Luneta together with Frs. Burgos and Gomez. 

 

Gregorio F. Zaide and Carlos Quirino, among other historians, identified that the fiesta celebration on the fateful night of the 20^th of January 1872 was for the Lady of Loreto, patron of Sampaloc. A National Historical Institute article on the 1872 Cavite mutiny cites the Spanish accounts written by Jose Montero y Vidal and Gov. Gen. Rafael Izquierdo’s as stating that it was the fireworks celebration of Sampaloc that was mistaken as a signal by the Cavite mutineers.  However, Isagani R. Medina, a noted historian from the University of the Philippines, have stated that “in fact, the fireworks display of the 21 of January 1872 fiesta (erroneously reported by early historians as having occurred in Sampaloc)” was for the feast of San Sebastian. Medina does not offer any documentation as to his assertion although it could be for the simple reason that the official feast day of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, patroness of the town of San Sebastian, falls on the 21^th of January while that of Our Lady of Loreto falls on the 10^th of December. Were the Spaniards Vidal and Izquierdo simply ignorant of the calendar of the saints and erred on stating that the fiesta fireworks on the 20^th of January was for the town of Sampaloc? What accounts as well for the two dates, the 20^th and the 21^st of January between the two versions?  Since the 20^th of January in 1872 was a Saturday, then it’s possible that the town celebrated the feast of Nuestra Señora del Carmen on the eve (disperas) of the feast day. However, even the simple explanation of looking at the official church calendar could be misleading. Fr. Ramon Caviedas, in a notation included in his September 1, 1885 report on church statistics, stated that the titular of the town, Nuestra Señora de Loreto, was celebrated ostentatiously on the 17^th of January.   Could the fiesta celebration for Sampaloc in 1872 have been celebrated as well around January instead of today’s December 10th?

 

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Chris Antonette Piedad-Pugay. The Two Faces of the 1872 Cavite Mutinyhttp://www.nhi.gov.ph//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=3

See pp. 201-203 as alledged by Dr. Isidro E. Abeto (1989  ) Philippine history Reassessed. Manila Integrated Publishing House.

 Gregorio F. Zaide (1970). Great Filipinos in History: An Epic of Filipino Greatness in War and Peace – Page 195 and Filipinos at War by Carlos Quirino – Philippines – 1981 – 284 Page 101

… and that it had only miscarried because skyrockets fired during the fiesta 
of the Virgin of Loreto in the district of Sampaloc had been interprete

  Chris Antonette Piedad-Pugay, The Two Faces of the 1872 Cavite Mutiny. National Historical Institute.

See p. 57. Isagani R. Medina (1994). Beyond Intramuros: The Beginnings of Extramuros de Manila to the 19^th Century: A Historical Overview. Pp. 50-67. In Bernardita Reyes Churchill, ed., (1994). Manila: Selected Papers of the Annual Conferences of the Manila Studies Association 1989-1993. Manila. 

~ by Martin Gaerlan on January 20, 2009.