MINIATURES

  Ferdinand Blumentritt (1853-1913) Photo BNF/Gallica Historical geography, the shifts of powers, and the reality in the development of languages and races in central Europe had greatly affected if not made difficult our definitions of Blumentritt's true nationality... Austrian, German, Czech, or Bohemian? When Rizal befriended and visited the "Gymnasiallehrer" in Leitmeritz (Litoměřice), borders were different then, the modern Czech Republic does not exist yet. (But at that time, the Czechs were already a nation conscious of its nationality and ethnicity for many centuries). The region was also called Bohemia, which was somehow, through the centuries, overrun by Germanic powers -- the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Hapsburg. Ferdinand Blumentritt, because of language and culture could also be considered ethnic German. The problem with the word "German" was that it actually encompassed a larger definition involving not only one nation but also larger terri...

  We often associate Quiapo with the church and the Black Nazarene plus the annual religious ritual that comes with it -- the traslacion. It is also a place where one finds a considerable amount of folkloric commodities, often bordering between the religious and black magic, from santo" to "anting anting" and "gayuma". In Quiapo, you can know your future for a haggled amount, a few shuffles of cards, and the words of the fortune-teller. But behind the facade of the sacred and the profane that is Quiapo, there looms the reality of its once glory days, the not too often discussed past. From the 19th century-Spanish era to the early 1900s, the district of Quiapo was an important center of Manila's artistic and cultural life. It once had a number of theaters where Spanish zarzuelas and various European opera companies performed. Theaters such as Teatro Lirico (1830’s) , Teatro de Quiapo, and the Teatro de Variedades -- mentioned by Rizal in El Filibusterism...