October « 2006 « Filipiniana.net Blog

RP Historians, Librarians Get Sneak Previews of Filipiniana.net

Author: admin on October 29th, 2006

Filipiniana.net has yet to be formally launched but already, the newest and one of the most exciting research portals on Philippine history and culture is experiencing a surge in visits, thanks to sneak previews given to librarians and academicians at separate fora held recently in Tacloban, Leyte and Pasig City.

At the October 26 opening of the 27^th National Conference on Local and National History, sponsored by the Philippine National Historical Society at the Leyte Normal University in Tacloban City, Esther Pacheco, research and editorial consultant of filipiniana.net, gave participants a guided ‘peek’ at the new web portal’s vast storage of much-sought-after historical documents and old photographs/images.

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Category: Announcements, Press Release

Rizal’s Noli and Fili first editions going home

Author: admin on October 14th, 2006

For many years, my business in Madrid was located in Plaza del Angel 15 which is in the area of what is today called Barrio de las Letras, 50 metres away from Puerta del Sol, the very centre of Madrid as well as where kilometre 0 (zero) begins.

It is also where José Rizal and a lot of the other Filipinos who took part in the propaganda movement of 1880s lived and moved around in. My office was behind the building where La Solidaridad was published. Earlier I had found pencil sketches of Juan Luna and a water color painting of Felix Resurrección Hidalgo as well as litographs of the Philippines from newspapers of the 19th century and old books about the Philippines.

Of course among the treasures I was looking for was Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. My constant search for 25 years was futile. I didn’t even know what the books looked like. I had only seen the manuscript version printed for the Rizal birth centenial in 1961 and of course, the ones we used at school when we were studying them. I was able to find other books about the Philippines written by Wenceslao E. Retana, Maria Lourdes Díaz Trechuelo, Antonio Molina, Pedro Ortiz Armengol, Leandro Tormo and other great Filipinists. I even found “Horrores de Filipinas” written by Emilio Salgari, author of Sandokan.

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Category: History

Ezequiel Sabarillo and “Los últimos de Filipinas”

Author: admin on October 12th, 2006

Ezequiel Sabarillo is unique among all the immigrant Filipinos living in Spain. He is known as the keeper of the flame of “Los Ultimos de Filipinas.” The Last Ones in the Philippines have forever entered the consciousness of Spanish popular culture as those brave and noble Spanish soldiers who made a year-long last stand for their empire in a small church in Baler, Quezon against the Katipuneros. Their surrender and their subsequent pardon by President Emilio Aguinaldo is now marked every June 30 as Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day.

This historical incident has loomed so large in the Spanish imagination that countless books, songs, and even a popular historical film to the point that Spaniards make jokes about it. And Ezequiel keeps the flame of Baler burning bright by bringing together all the relatives of the survivors of the Last Stand in the Philippines. Funded entirely on his own and sustained only by his burning initiative, he found all the families in different parts of Spain. Every year he organizes a reunion of all the families with a historical connection to the Philippines. This year on Filipino-Spanish Friendship Day in Palace Hotel in Madrid will be a special celebration uniting all mayors of the 33 towns where the survivors are from. (By gvibal)

Category: History, Travel Blog