Carmen Zaragoza y Rojas


Carmen Zaragoza y Rojas, also Carmen Zaragoza y Roxas, was an early Filipina artist.

Biography

Zaragoza was born on June 29, 1876, in Quiapo, Manila. She came from an artistic family: her uncle Felix was an architect and her uncle Felipe a landscape painter. In 1892, she created the masterpiece known as Dos Inteligencias, a painting that won her a prize during the 1892 anniversary of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America. Two years later, during the 1895 Exposición Regional de Filipinas, Zaragoza was awarded a copper medal for creating two landscapes.
Zaragoza helped to establish the late 19th-century magazine La Ilustracion Filipina del Oriente, founded by her father Jose Zaragoza y Aranquizna.
Zaragoza was married to politician and businessman Gregorio S. Araneta in 1896. They had 14 children whom they raised in her family's ancestral house on Hidalgo Street in Quiapo, Manila.
As she aged, Zaragoza gradually lost her sight. She died on June 29, 1943, on her 67th birthday.