Sofia de Veyra

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In this Philippine name for married women, the birth middle name or maternal family name is Tiaozon, the birth surname or paternal family name is Reyes, and the marital name is de Veyra.
Sofia de Veyra
Sofia Reyes de Veyra 1921 Jan. 28.tif
Sofia de Veyra in 1921
Personal details
Born
Sofia Tiaozon Reyes

(1876-09-30)September 30, 1876
Iloilo City, Iloilo, Captaincy General of the Philippines
DiedJanuary 1, 1953(1953-01-01) (aged 76)
Manila, Philippines
Spouse(s)Jaime Carlos de Veyra
ProfessionEducator
Social Welfare Worker
Activist

Sofia Tiaozon Reyes de Veyra (30 September 1876 – 1 January 1953) was an organizer of the first Filipino nursing schools and President of the National Federation of Women's Clubs which led the suffrage movement for women of the Philippines. She was a Filipina suffragette, social welfare worker, private secretary in the office of the President of the Philippines, teacher, school founder and member of several government boards.

Early life[]

Sofia Tiaozon Reyes was born in Arévalo, Iloilo City, the daughter of Santiago Reyes and Eulalia Tiaozon.[1]

Education[]

In the 1890s, she studied in a private school in Iloilo, run by the family of Chief Justice Ramón Avanceña. She worked as an assistant at the school to pay for her tuition, board and lodging. She studied in the last decade of the Spanish rule in the Philippines, resulting in her studies being in Castilian, which she notably excelled in. Following the Philippine-American War, she got an American teacher to instruct her in grammar and arithmetic, among other subjects. [1]

After becoming Assistant Dean of Women at Philippine Normal University, de Veyra pursued further studies in Manila.[1]

Early Career[]

De Veyra's studies led her to be one of the first Filipino teachers in Saravia (now Enrique B. Magalona), in Negros Occidental province.[1] There she taught English.[2] Later, with the establishment of the first Girls' Dormitory in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, she was made Matron.[1]

In 1906, the Philippine Normal University de Veyra became Assistant Dean of Women at the University, and moved to Manila.[1] That year, De Veyra helped organize the University's Normal Hall Dormitory, which trained the first Filipino nursing students and recruited young filipino women from across the country.[3][1] In 1907,She co-founded a nurses' training school at Iloilo City with an American woman, Mary E. Coleman.[2]

She also co-wrote a cookbook that was published in both English and Spanish, Everyday Cookery for the Home (1930, 1934).[4][5]

Suffrage Activism[]

de Veyra and wives of the Second Philippine Parliamentary Mission received at White House by First Lady Florence Harding

In 1917, de Veyra moved to Washington D. C. as a diplomat's wife, and while there gave lectures and was otherwise active in women's clubs. She wrote essays that were published in newspapers around the United States.[6] Sofia de Veyra was also noted for wearing the distinctive Philippine terno formal dress to events and while giving public speeches in the United States.[7]

De Veyra was one of the organizers of the first Woman's Club in the Philippines.[1] The Womans Club headquartered in Manila. By 1920, de Veyra's Woman's Club operated a Day Nursery and a Flower market. It supported three women police matrons who cared for women pending trials. The Club ran a Woman's Free Employment Agency which aided destitute women. The club also formed the Little Mother's League, Civic Committee and provided free legal aid for indigent women through Filipina lawyers. [8]

De Veyra later aided in the consolidating of all the woman's clubs and associations in the Philippines. On February 5, 1921, 300 women's associations established the National Federation of Women's Clubs of the Philippines.[1]

In 1922 she attended the Pan-American Conference of Women held in Baltimore and spoke on the Philippines.[9] She met with first lady Florence Harding, and received a certificate of appreciation from the American Red Cross for her contributions during World War I.[10] In 1922, de Veyra was a leader of a Filipina Suffrage delegation that met with first Lady Harding.[11]

Back in the Philippines by 1925, she founded the Manila Women's Club. In time she became president of the National Federation of Women's Clubs, and used her position to advocate for women's suffrage in the Philippines.[12] She was also appointed head of the domestic science department at Centro Escolar de Señoritas, a girls' school.[2]

Personal life[]

National Federation of Women's Clubs of the Philippines historical marker

In 1907, de Veyra married Jaime Carlos de Veyra. They had four children.[13] Their son Manuel E. de Veyra was a doctor during World War II serving at Bataan.[14] Their son Jesus de Veyra became a judge, and dean of the Ateneo Law School from 1976 to 1981.[15]

Sofia Reyes de Veyra died in 1953 at the age of 77. Her daughter-in-law wrote a biography, Faith, Work, Success: An Appraisal of the Life and Work of Sofia Reyes de Veyra, in 1959.[16] There is a historical marker honoring de Veyra's work in her home district in the Western Visayas region.[17]

De Veyra was a transnational Asian/American activist that advocated for human rights in the Philippines and the United States. As the Philippines were under colonial control during the early 20th Century, she dedicated her life in hope of revealing the limitations of colonialism and the need for equal gender rights.[11]

Gallery[]

  • De Veyra in a 1919 publication

  • De Veyra historical marker

External Links[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cornejo, Miguel R. (1939). Cornejo's Commonwealth Directory of the Philippines. Manila: Miguel R. Cornejo. pp. 2217–2218.
  2. ^ a b c "Filipino Lady Leads Islands Health Drive" Post-Crescent (25 June 1926): 17. via Newspapers.comopen access
  3. ^ Choy, Catherine (2003). Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 45. ISBN 082233089X.
  4. ^ Titchie Carandang-Tiongson, "The Thoroughly Modern Sofia de Veyra" Positively Filipino (7 August 2013).
  5. ^ Rene Alexander Orquisa Jr., "Filipino Food, 1898-1946" in Robert Ji-Song Ku, Robert F. Manalansan, and Anita Mannur, eds., Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader (NYU Press 2013): 182. ISBN 9781479812035
  6. ^ Sofia de Veyra, "The Filipino Women in the Wide World" Evening Missourian (7 May 1920): 13. via Newspapers.comopen access
  7. ^ Wil Lundström-Burghoorn, Gender Politics in Asia: Women Manoeuvring Within Dominant Gender Orders (NIAS Press 2008): 18. ISBN 9788776940157
  8. ^ de Veyra, Sofia (May 7, 1920). "The Filipino Women in the Wide World". The Evening Missourian. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  9. ^ "Where Mother is Boss" Arizona Republic (30 May 1922): 3. via Newspapers.comopen access
  10. ^ Butch Dalisay, "History Made Personal" Philippine Star (12 October 2015).
  11. ^ a b Bramlett, Katie (2020). "Stories of Filipina Suffrage: Remembering Marginal Histories in Colonial Contexts". Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. 22.
  12. ^ "Sofia de Veyra: a Pillar of Women’s Suffrage" Gota de Leche (5 January 2015).
  13. ^ "On Equality with Husbands" Galena Weekly Republican (18 August 1922): 6. via Newspapers.comopen access
  14. ^ Manuel E. de Veyra, Doctor at Bataan 1941-1942 (New Day Publishers 1991). ISBN 9789711004606
  15. ^ "The Early Years" Ateneo Law Journal.
  16. ^ Rosario Avila de Veyra, Faith, Work, Success: An Appraisal of the Life and Work of Sofia Reyes de Veyra (University of San Carlos, 1959).
  17. ^ Mark Segador, "Memories at Plaza Villa: Heritage and Prestige" Iloilo I Love (30 September 2011).
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