MINIATURES

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...

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...

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,...

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...

  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...

La Banda del Batallón de Voluntarios—1896 After a Spanish officer delivered the tiro de gracia, a final inspection confirmed that José Rizal lay lifeless. At that moment, the Spanish regimental band—the Banda del Batallón de Voluntarios—struck up the Marcha de Cádiz, also known as the Himno de Cádiz. León Ma. Guerrero, in The First Filipino, records the scene with piercing irony: "But as the last Spaniards gave their ragged cheer, and the band of the battalion of volunteers struck up, with unconscious irony, that hymn to human rights and constitutional liberties, the Marcha de Cádiz, the quiet Filipinos broke through the square, to make sure, said the Spanish correspondent, that the mythical, the godlike Rizal was really dead, or, according to others, to snatch a relic and keepsake and dip their handkerchiefs in a hero’s blood." MARCHA DE CADIZ The Marcha de Cádiz is deeply rooted in Spain’s historical memory, drawing inspiration from the Peninsular War, when Spain resiste...