Janreb Puno

Severa Solis Cigaral Balinos was born July 18th, 1923 in Dolores Quezon, Philippines. Severa Balinos spent her childhood in Dolores Quezon province, south of the Philippines. As a young child, her family lived the country life of the Philippines, where she spent most of her time on the farm supporting her family. Life back then was really simple, technology wasn’t as present as it is in the 21st century. Severa’s life was lived out in a simple manner, marrying a suitor, then dying of old age with her lover. 

At the age of eighteen, she met the love of her life and the only person in the world that made her day bright was Vivencio Ambita Balinos, my grandfather was at a higher income than Severa. Fast-forwarding to the year 1942 and World War II, the campaign in the Philippines had started in the war between the United States and Japan which was trying to conquer the Philippines. The United States partnered with the Philippines, Severa and her lover Vivencio, now newlyweds had their first child born. In those days,  many citizens were afraid of the bombings and of Japanese militant troops invading their cities. Severa and her husband were evacuated to an underground bunker deep within the ground, avoiding any contact from the outer world, waiting till the coast was clear. 

It was a scary time as Severa had just given birth to her first son, Conrado. Moreover, a couple of years had passed and she gave birth to more children, two being of boys and one being a girl. The fourth child was a boy named Efren who eventually grew up to join the Navy Seals. He was scouted by the American Seals team to help with the Gulf War, comprised of the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and France. After Efren served the United States he petitioned his mother and father, Severa and Vivencio to emigrate to the States. Severa and Vivencio took their U.S citizenship test, covering U.S. history and government, conveying the constitutional rights. Once they passed that test, Efren decided on purchasing a house in California for him and his parents to stay. Not long after that, Severa and Vivencio petitioned their other children, Efren’s siblings, to also have the naturalization process of an American citizen, allowing them to have residency as normal citizens. Without Efren, the better life of Severa and Vivencio’s would have never even existed, even for their children. They can now provide for themselves, and create massive wealth upon their family, that no child should be a farmer of less economic status. 

Severa lost her husband, due to natural causes on April 16th, 2006. Soon after that Severa lost her life due to a stroke in January

Adela Pankhurst was a fledged Suffragette born in 1885, Manchester, England. Adela was imprisoned in Dundee in 1909 for creating a militant campaign for the suffragists. Prison back then would offer poor living conditions and she wrote for positive cooperation and that staff and prisoners should converse with each other. During that day news spread towards the warden giving positive feedback and care towards the prisoners. 

World War l was approaching, Adela was the youngest of three sisters, she and Sylvia, one of her sisters Sylvia disagreed on the plans of their militant campaign led by WSPU, due to its violent acts. As punishment her mother Emmeline Pankhurst, who was also leading the movement of British Suffragettes, sent her youngest daughter a ticket to Australia. World War I was beginning and Adela was the first to join an Australian anti-communist, anti-immigration, political party. Adela was a member of the Australia First political party, allied with Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japanese. Her first task was to incarcerate prisoners for political reasons. Nineteen years later, in 1961, Adela Pankhurst passed away. Not much attention was paid towards Adela Pankhurst. Being one of the unpopular suffragettes, not much is known about her history. Yet it is a great way to shed the information on the suffragettes and to see that every detail of their story is documented. 

What do I think about the suffrage movement? I think that it is important to remember what the suffragettes strived for, enhancing the truths of women’s rights. Also for them to be imprisoned, just because of trying to fight for their rights, is wrong. Seeing them fight for their rights against men is great because their movement created the future of equal opportunities from the work ethic through political roles for presidency. These suffragettes established that you can overcome any obstacle whatever gender you are. Whether you’re female or male you can strive for your own rights. We should evaluate them as achieving saints because these women seized chances and changed history. 

Moreover, I think it’s great that information about them has been collected so that we know more of their history. Suffragettes sacrificed themselves for the females who now have the equivalent rights that men have. Women are equally paid or even paid more than men, which is great for our future generations. The movement persuaded other people to create new laws on women’s rights. We should be grateful for the accomplishments they have achieved for our people.