Philippine-Spain 100 years ago

To revive Filipino and Spanish cultural ties, Filipiniana.net, the newest digital library and online research portal on the Philippines, opens for public screening film presentations on the dialogue between Philippines and Spain at an exhibit during the España-Filipinas Tribuna held on November 27 to 28, 2006 at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila.

The audiovisual presentations, composed of a sequence of three short films, feature the high level of discourse that existed between the Philippine and Spanish intelligentsia more than a hundred years ago. They are available for viewing at the Filipiniana.net multimedia exhibit throughout the two-day Spanish-Filipino forum.

The first film shows an imagined dialogue between Philippine national hero Jose Rizal and eminent Spanish historian Wenceslao Retana, the representative thinkers of their generations. The second film portrays the historical reactions to the publication of Rizal’s two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which moved the Filipino nation to revolt against the Spanish colonial master.

Both are recorded in original Spanish, an attempt to let Filipinos experience the beautiful sounds of the Castilian language as part of Philippine cultural heritage.

According to Gaspar Vibal, publisher of Filipiniana.net, Filipinos would immediately reconnect to the films as soon as they hear the Spanish language because “it is part of the Filipino identity.”

Meanwhile, the third film introduces Filipiniana.net as the premiere online source for rare and arcane materials about the Philippines, and describes its efforts to recover and preserve Fil-Hispano history and culture.

Aside from the short films, first editions of José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, the latest acquisitions of Filipiniana.net from Madrid, Spain, are also put on display during the Tribuna.

The entire exhibit offers a venue where Filipinos and Spanish can rediscover their shared cultural ties. “It is part of Filipiniana.net’s mission to recover and preserve the dazzling Fil-Hispano culture which is in danger of extinction,” says Vibal.

It also sets a fitting historical background to the second Tribuna, which gathers Filipino and Spanish officials and dignitaries in a series of meetings here in Manila. The second Tribuna is organized by Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and Vicente Ayllón, Chairman and CEO of The Insular Life Assurance Company.

Last year, the first Tribuna was held at Ayuntamiento de Madrid in Spain and was attended by the heads of governmental and nongovernmental organizations of Philippines and Spain. It sought to strengthen the relations between the two countries. (By Ann Catherine Puno)