Nieves Fernandez

Nieves Fernandez (born circa 1906) was a Filipino guerrilla leader in Tacloban City, during World War II.

Before the war, Fernandez worked as a school teacher. When the Imperial Japanese began occupying the Philippine Islands, including her hometown of Tacloban, Fernandez organized a resistance movement that numbered around 110 fighters. She then waged an unconventional war against the Japanese throughout their occupation. Fernandez became one of the most well-known female guerrilla leaders during the war. Her exploits would be remembered through newspapers, academic literature, and works of art.

Biography

Around the 1930s, the Empire of Japan, bolstered by its military and economic might, began expanding its territory in Asia, putting it in conflict with various Western and Asian countries, most notably the United States of America which had large colonies in the continent. This later escalated into the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, triggering the start of the Pacific War, a theatre of a larger conflict that became known as World War II. Philippines during that time was governed by the United States and the then-budding Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. Due to poor military, strategy, and a focus on the European theatre of War, the Japanese began quickly taking control of many parts of the country even with stiff resistance from the Americans and the Filipinos. One of the areas taken over was Tacloban where Nieves Fernandez lived.

Before the war, Fernandez worked as a school teacher and as an entrepreneur. Little else is known about her early life besides being born somewhere around 1906, being probably of Waray descent, and might have been married judging from another supposed photograph of hers. Her name “Nieves” is a Spanish word for snow, and she was known for being “paler than most native woman in this section”. Her students often referred to her as "Miss Fernandez", a name that she continued to use even after the war. During the Japanese occupation, many people living in the area and the surrounding municipalities of Leyte were treated harshly by the Japanese, including robbery and rape. In her own words, she said, “No one could keep anything. They took everything they wanted.”

Fernandez would be one of many who fought against the Japanese occupation in the Philippines. Barefoot and wearing mostly a frock, she began recruiting native men that numbered 110. Her group initially only had three American rifles, relying mostly on homemade grenades, explosives, bolo knives, and single-shot pipe shotguns that fired nails. Later on, they acquired Japanese weapons and more American guns. South of Tacloban became the place where Fernandez and her guerrillas conducted their war.

She earned the name “Captain Fernandez” and “The Silent Killer” due to her exploits. She trained her men vigorously in manufacturing weapons and conducting ambushes. She herself was knowledgeable in the use of the bolo during stealth, even demonstrating it to the Americans who had met her. Her actions cost the Japanese, killing 200 of their men, and forcing them to place a bounty of P10,000 for her head. She was wounded three times, bearing a scar on her forehead.

The Philippines was finally liberated from Japanese occupation in 1945. It is unknown what happened to Fernandez in the years afterwards, although it is rumoured that she lived to her nineties in Tacloban with her sons and grandchildren.

In popular culture

Nieves Fernandez's military career was first documented in the newspapers The Lewiston Daily Sun and the Associated Press in 1944. American soldiers visited her after the war; one of them, Stanley Troutman, snapped a picture of her teaching Pvt. Andrew Lupiba how to kill with a bolo. The historical photograph is currently stored in the organization Rare Historical Photos. Dustin Koski from Top Tenz listed Nieves Fernandez at #8 in his list of "10 of History’s Most Badass Women".

Ben Thompson made a digital comic of Nieves Fernandez as part of his Badass series of blogs and books. Nieves Fernandez also became the subject of a painting and an article by Nicole Gervacio for the South Seattle Emerald, stating that she "resonates because of her unquestionable braveness, ferocity, and boldness", adding that she "contradicts the stereotype of the submissive woman: leading her men into hostile situations and fighting alongside them to take back their land."