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The Gremio System in Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Pasig

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This is the blog version of the paper I presented at the conference The Spanish Pacific, organized by the Society for Early Transpacific Studies at the University of the Philippines. June 9-11 2025. Historically, the gremio system was a colonial socio-economic and ethno-racial administrative framework through which the Spanish government classified populations, collected taxes, and regulated relations among the various communities that comprised a town such as Pasig. Through this system, colonial authorities organized local society according to legally recognized ethnic categories, each possessing distinct rights, obligations, and forms of representation within the municipal structure. The Philippine gremio system cannot be directly compared with its European counterpart, despite the shared terminology. In medieval and early modern Europe, the term gremio referred primarily to occupational guilds. In England, its closest equivalent would be the guild system, while in German-speaking re...
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Mutya ng Pasig: 100 Years of the Immortal Kundiman

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There are many stories about Abelardo, but the one I have always taken a fancy to is his life as a saloon musician—playing piano in cinemas, cafés, and dimly lit drinking houses. The image sounds almost unbearably romantic, until one hears the stories of the professor arriving in class the next day carrying the weight of a hangover. One can almost imagine the atmosphere: smoke filling the air, noisy cinema audiences demanding the next flickering scene on the screen, empty glasses of hard drink waiting for another shot, the music score spread open before the pianist. The Jazz Age had arrived in Manila. Yet amid all this, Abelardo created something profoundly Filipino. There was supposedly a carnival once held along the Pasig River, and this became part of Abelardo’s inspiration. Unfortunately, we no longer have carnivals in the way people once did, celebrations that followed the Lenten calendar. Terms such as carnevale and Mardi Gras—“Fat Tuesday”—all point to that final week before Len...
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Anarchism and the Roots of Philippine Labor Politics: Isabelo de los Reyes–Tarrida del Mármol in Context

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Francisco Tarrida del Mármol (1861–1915) Recently, I found myself reading Francisco Tarrida del Mármol (1861–1915), a Cuban-born Spanish anarchist — a struggle with my French! It struck me how ideas once traveled across languages, prisons, and empires long before our age of globalization. Tarrida was not merely a political activist; he was a prolific anarchist thinker and publicist. He wrote extensively in Spanish and French, defending what he called “anarchism without adjectives”—a call for unity among anarchists beyond rigid ideological divisions. After the Montjuïc arrests of 1896, he became one of the most forceful voices exposing torture and judicial abuses, publishing articles abroad and transforming the scandal into an international outrage. Through his writings, repression in Spain and also in its remaining colonies became part of a wider global debate on state violence and political liberty. That same repression touched Isabelo de los Reyes. In 1897, he was deported from Mani...
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Federico Espino Licsi - (1939-2011)

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Paghahanap sa Makata at sa "Prosa Pasigueña en Lengua Española" Ang aking panayam sa : "Kumperensiya sa Araling Pasig" kung saan tinalakay ko ang buhay at mga akda ni Federico Espino Licsi. Ito ay ginanap sa Pasig City Museum. Ika-13 ng Disyembre 2025 Mayroon nga ba tayong mga panulat o anyo ng panitikang Pasigueña na nasulat sa wikang Kastila? Ito marahil ang isa sa mga tanong na nananatiling hindi pa ganap na malinaw at patuloy na hamon sa mga nag-aaral ng kultura at kasaysayan ng lungsod ng Pasig. Noong kalagitnaan ng ika-19 na siglo, may ilang Pasigueñong nagmula sa mga pamilyang kabilang sa principalia na nakapag-aral sa mga pamantasan sa Maynila—partikular sa Ateneo Municipal at sa Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas. Sa ganitong kalagayan, maituturing silang bahagi ng uri ng mga ilustrado sa lipunan. Gayunman, nananatiling palaisipan kung may ilan sa kanila ang tunay na luminya sa larangan ng panitikan at nagsulat ng mga akdang pampanitikan sa wikang Kastila. Pagsapit...
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Metro Manila, City of Man: Fifty Years of Grandeur, Excess, and the Forging of Arts and Culture

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Conference: Metropolitan Manila @50: Narratives, Connections, Relevance UP Manila CAS Manila Studies Program November 7, 2025 - GSIS Building Pasay City INTRODUCTION The formation of Metro Manila as a consolidated urban region in the 1970s was both a political maneuver and a cultural aspiration. Before metropolitan reorganization, the Greater Manila Area was defined among multiple cities and municipalities. The move established a central metropolitan authority that became a vehicle not only for administrative coordination but also for ambitious urban planning and cultural endeavors. The newly formed region became the stage for a vision christened by Imelda Marcos as “Metro Manila: City of Man,” a concept that incorporated ideas of order, progress, and beauty. Public spending in monumental buildings, reclaimed land, park beautification, and major cultural venues was promoted as a means to uplift national pride, modernize the city, and present the Philippines as culturally sophisticated,...
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The Guanio–Fernandez Ancestral House in Pasig

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House of Remembrance The House of Remembrance stands quietly in the heart of Pasig. Unknown to many Pasigueños, it is a house layered with stories—heirlooms, artworks, and long-buried secrets that patiently wait to be retold. It was only last weekend, during the visit of our group, the Samahang Pangkasaysayan ng Pasig (SPP), to the Guanio–Fernandez Ancestral House, that the phrase finally settled in my mind: this is truly a House of Remembrance. As we listened to the personal narratives shared by its owner, Mr. Dudu Fernandez, and his family, one slowly realizes the immense value this house brings to Pasig—not only as a structure, but as a living vessel of memory, culture, and identity. Ascending the hardwood staircase with its solid balusters, one is led to the caída. From the very first step, time seems to fold inward. Upon reaching the sala mayor, however, it is a painting that immediately arrests the eye: a smaller replica of Félix Resurrección Hidalgo’s Las Vírgenes Cristianas Exp...
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Vallejo and Lippay: The Roots of the Filipino Orchestral Tradition

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  Bridging Continents If one were to name a partnership that decisively raised the rostrum of musical performance in the Philippines, it would be that of two unlikely individuals—each classically trained in traditions shaped by different hemispheres. One emerged from the long artistic influence of America carried across the Pacific, a current that had quietly matured before returning to these shores with renewed force. The other stood firmly within the solid lineage of European musical discipline, an Austro-Hungarian musician whose presence would precipitate a remarkable influx of Viennese artists into Manila. In the convergence of these two trajectories—American and European, Pacific and Continental—was forged a partnership that redefined standards of performance and pedagogy in the country. At the center of this encounter stood Ernesto Vallejo and Alexander Lippay, whose collaboration would leave a lasting imprint on Philippine musical life. Alexander Lippay, of Hungarian descent...
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