The hero who could have been a teacher

Abstract

General Gregorio del Pilar, the defender of Tirad Pass and the youngest hero of the Philippine Revolution, as a small child nurtured the ambition of becoming a teacher someday. This was the reason why he took up Bachelor of Arts at the old Ateneo de Manila, then called Ateneo Municipal. Call it fate, or anything you want, but had it not been for a combination of certain events and circumstances, del Pilar would now be an obscure maestro instead of occupying a permanent niche in the Hall of the Filipino Greats.

What were the circumstances that thwarted young Gregorio’s dream of becoming a teacher and made him a revolutionary figure instead and made him a revolutionary figure instead? There were many. The major causes, however, can be summed up in the following:

(1) The fact that Goyo, even as a small boy, knew oppression under the Spanish yoke. (2) The influence which his uncle, Marcelo, known to many as Plaridel, and his writings wielded over him. (3)The death of Anacleto Enriquez, one of his best friends, in a battle between the revolutionists and Spanish troops. (4) The innate revolutionary spirit of the hero himself.