Who is Aurora?
Aurora Aragon-Quezon was born in Baler, Tayabas (now Quezon), Philippines on February 19, 1888. Married to Manuel Luis Quezon in Hongkong on December 17, 1918, their marriage was blessed with four children: Maria Aurora (1919-1949), Maria Zeneida (b. 1921), Luisa Corazon Paz (1924), and Manuel Jr. (1926-1998). Apart from supporting her husband and children, she was also involved in numerous religious and civic organizations. She was Co-founder of the Asociacion de Damas Filipinas (a Catholic orphanage in Manila, Philippines, 1913) and National President of the Catholic Women’s League (Philippines, 1920). When her husband was elected President of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935, she became the Philippines' first First Lady from November 15, 1935 to August 1, 1944. She was engaged in the campaign to give Filipino women the right of suffrage which was granted in 1937. While in the United States, she served as a Volunteer Nurse for the American Red Cross in the late 1940s. She served as Chairperson of the National Campaign Organization for the Reconstruction of the Antipolo Church (Rizal, Philippines, late 1940s) and was instrumental in establishing a Catholic Mission in Baler in 1947 when she invited the American Discalced Carmelite friars to do missionary work there. She was designated First Chairperson of the Philippine National Red Cross from March 29, 1947 to April 28,1949. Considered as “The Real Catholic Filipina” and “The Mother of the Masses”, she was bestowed with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award in 1947. Named as “A pillar of the Catholic Church and a model for all Filipino laity” by the Laymen’s Committee on the Marian Movement, she died along with 12 members of her party (including her daughter Maria Aurora and son-in-law Felipe Buencamino) in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines on April 28, 1949.