Patrocinio Montellano
Nurse Leader with the Red Cross
Patrocinio Montellano was a Philippino nurse who dared to challenge the status quo through her education, work, and travel. Under Spanish rule, education was segmented by gender. Most females were denied education beyond primary school. The University of Santo Tomas, a Spanish university also denied access to females until 1879, when a School of Midwifery was founded. Medical schools permitting women were non-existent and colonial hospitals were generally the purview of male friars or priests.
Following the United States’ control of the Philippines, Philippino nurses were permitted to travel abroad as U.S. Nationals under the Pensionado Act of 1903. Montellano traveled to the United States in 1920. She referred to the U.S. as the “Land of Promise” because it afforded her new opportunities. In the book, Empire of Care by Choy (2003), Montellano is recorded as saying:
“Yes, to see America and have the opportunity to further my studies has been my dream ever since I learned of the great country. I made up my mind to take up nursing against the objection of my father.”
During her four years in the U.S., she worked as a nurse in Honolulu and New York City. William Musgrave, former Philippine General Hospital Director aided her in securing employment. She also secured scholarships with recommendations from Mary Cole, the Director of SW Division of American Red Cross. These scholarships were used to further her education through post-graduate courses in San Francisco, Cleveland, and Washington D.C. Montellano returned to the Philippines in 1924, where she worked as a field representative & nurse supervisor for the Philippine Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Further Reading
To learn more about nursing in the Philippines, read here.
Learn about the Philippine Nurse Association of America here.
Honor the Philippine healthcare workers who have died in the pandemic here.
To support Asian Americans for Equality, click here.
Sources
We sourced the above information from Empire of Care by Catherine Ceniza Choy, Harvard University, Google Books, and Perspectives from the Philippines.
Learn More
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Know Your History
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Examine Bias
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- Breaking Bias in Healthcare, an online course created by scientist Anu Gupta, to learn how bias is related to our brain’s neurobiology and can be mitigated with mindfulness.
- Revolutionary Love Learning Hub provides free tools for learners and educators to use love as fuel towards ourselves, our opponents, and to others so that we can embody a world where we see no strangers.
Support & Advocate
- National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Association to stay engaged with topics relevant to nurses of color.
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