Prior to 1941, Nieves Fernandez was a simple unknown Filipina school teacher in the city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte. When the invading Japanese forces occupied the city and threatened to take away her students, she became a full tutor in the art of skullfucking.
Fernandez quickly organized a resistance group comprised of 110 men and launched an all out guerrilla war against the Japanese. She was a skilled marksman and bolo fighter, gaining the respect of native locals and the men under her command.
She led her men in raids, ambushes and disruptive operations all through out the region. She extensively trained them in combat skills and making of improvised weaponry such as the “paltik” (a homemade shotgun made of gas pipes), bolos, homemade grenades (casings filled with old nails) and whatever items she could pilfer from the Japanese.
The Imperial Japanese Army posted a 10,000 Pesos reward on her head in the hopes of capturing her but to no avail.
The guerrillas were also very instrumental not only in the opposition against Japanese rule, but also in the safety and aide of the civilians living in the island.
Nieves and her fighters managed to take out over 200 Japanese soldiers during the occupation.
Fernandez would live to be in her early nineties residing in Tacloban and would be survived by her sons and grandchildren. The only evidence of her heroics that survive remain in one photo ( and through a small 1944 American newspaper article depicting her guerrilla contributions prior to the arrival of MacArthur at Leyte. "That was when they called me Captain Nieves. Now I'm just Miss Fernandez" #hardbreed #slayer #zerofoxtrot #stayzero