The nineteenth century—steamships, family names, world trade, foreign firms, liberal ideas. Great tides of change are roiling Manila. In the middle of the chaos, a new art trend captures the imagination of local elites. How are these letras y figuras holding a mirror to Philippine society?

Cover Photo from the Ayala Corporation Collection.

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References:

Blanco, John D. (2009). Frontier Constitutions: Christianity and Colonial Empire in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. University of the Philippines Press.

Santiago, Luciano P.R. (December 1991). “Damian Domingo and the First Philippine Art Academy.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 19(4), pp. 264-280. 

Flores, Patrick D. (17 November 2011). “Everyday, Elsewhere: Allegory in Philippine Art.” Contemporary Aesthetics, (0)3 (Special Issue). 

“Lot 46. Jose Honorato Lozano, c. 1815-1885.” (2021) Salcedo Auctions. 

Quirino, Carlos (1961) "Damian Domingo, Filipino Painter." Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints, 9(1), pp. 78-96.

“Jose Honorato Lozano (c. 1815-c. 1885).” (undated) Christie’s.

Sorilla IV, Franz (8 February 2021). “Letras y Figuras: The 19th Century Philippine Art Form’s Origins and Legacy.” Tatler Asia.

Buenconsejo, Jose S. (2018). “Keyboards in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines.” In Tan, Arwin Q. (ed.), Saysay Himig: A Sourcebook on Philippine Music History, University of the Philippines Press, pp. 234-242.

Navarro, Raul Casantusan. (2018). “Opera in the Philippines, 1860s-1940s.” In Tan, Arwin Q. (ed.), Saysay Himig: A Sourcebook on Philippine Music History, University of the Philippines Press, pp. 234-242.

Mallat, Jean (1846). The Philippines: History, Geography, Customs, Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce of the Spanish Colonies in Oceania (Pura Santillan-Castrence, Trans.) (2021). National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

Tomas Claudio wasn’t the only Filipino who fought in the trenches of the Great War. Thousands of others also enlisted. (Listen to S7E10 before listening to this one!)

It was the Great War, the War to End All the Wars… and Philippine abaca merchants were raking in sky-high profits. The world’s most powerful navies relied on this plant—which is native to the Philippines—to keep their warships in battle-ready shape. But what the First World War giveth, the First World War also taketh away.

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References:

Dacudao, Patricia Irene (2023). Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898-1941. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Crapo, G.R. (February 1926). “The Philippine Fiber Industry.” Proceedings, 52(2). https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1926/february/philippine-fiber-industry

Layton, J. Kent (undated). “Lusitania 100 years later: never forget.” National Museums Liverpool. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/lusitania-100-years-later-never-forget

Jose, Ricardo Trota (1988). “The Philippine National Guard in World War I.” Philippine Studies, 36(3), pp. 275-299. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42633097

Nagano, Yoshiko (2012). “The Philippine National Bank and Credit Inflation after World War I.” Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-216, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

Ybiernas, Vicente Angel (2012) "Philippine Financial Standing in 1921: The First World War Boom and Bust." Philippine Studies, 55(3), pp. 345-372.

A story of a Philippine bullfight…in the unlikeliest place of alll! (Listen to S7E8 and S7E9 before listening to this one!)

In the second part of our look at the lost sport of Philippine bullfighting, we go deep into its heyday in the 1800s, with social clubs, provincial arenas, and matadors with nicknames like “Fatiguitas.”

Then, we look at how and why bullfighting faded away in our archipelago.

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References:

Vibal, Gaspar (2022). Bullfighting in the Philippines, 1602-2022. Vibal Books. 

Cornwell, Zach (Host). (13 December 2021). “Gore: The Brutal History of Bullfighting” [Audio podcast episode]. In Conflicted, Evergreen Podcast.

Amano, N., Bankoff, G., Findley, D. M., Barretto-Tesoro, G., & Roberts, P. (2020). “Archaeological and historical insights into the ecological impacts of pre-colonial and colonial introductions into the Philippine Archipelago.” The Holocene, 31(2), pp. 313-330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683620941152

Mudar, Karen (1997). “Patterns of Animal Utilization in the Holocene of the Philippines: A Comparison of Faunal Samples from Four Archaeological Sites.” Asian Perspectives, 36(1), pp. 67-105.

Davis, Janet M. (2013) “Cockfight Nationalism: Blood Sport and the Moral Politics of American Empire and Nation Building.” American Quarterly, 65(3), pp. 549-574.

In fiestas in a bygone age, the corrida de toros—the coursing of the bulls—would always be part of the festivities and celebrations in town plazas across the Philippines. Why did this tradition disappear from our shores?

In this two-part episode, we examine the history of bullfighting in the Philippines. In Part One, join Antonio Luna as he watches his first bullfight… and then travel back in time to the very start of the Spanish occupation, when the fiesta de toros became a fixture in our holidays!

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References:

Vibal, Gaspar (2022). Bullfighting in the Philippines, 1602-2022. Vibal Books. 

Hemingway, Ernest (1927). Fiesta; or, The Sun Also Rises. Jonathan Cape Ltd.

Hartwell, Rafael Ernest (2019). “Bad English and Fresh Spaniards: Translation and Authority in Philippine and Cuban Travel Writing.” Unitas, 92(1), pp. 43-74.

Cornwell, Zach (Host). (13 December 2021). “Gore: The Brutal History of Bullfighting” [Audio podcast episode]. In Conflicted, Evergreen Podcast.

We know it now as the place where Rizal was executed, but the history of Bagumbayan reaches back centuries! (Listen to S7E7 before listening to this one!)

For centuries, Spain ruled the Philippines from within the closed, claustrophobic walls of Intramuros—the walled city of Manila. But right outside these walls, Manila, too, grew and developed, following the contours of migration, enterprise, and yes, even conflict. Let’s track the evolution of the districts and arrabales outside the walls, or extramuros.

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References:

Camagay, Ma. Luisa (1993-1996). “Urban Development of Manila During the 19th Century.” In Victoriano, Enrique L. (ed.), Historic Manila: Commemorative Lectures, Manila Historical Commission.

Wise, Edwin (2019). Manila, City of Islands. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Eng Sin Kueh, Joshua (2014). The Manila Chinese: Community, Trade, and Empire, c. 1570-1770 [doctoral dissertation]. Georgetown University.

Fish, Shirley (2003). When Britain Ruled the Philippines, 1762-1764: The Story of the 18th Century British Invasion of the Philippines During the Seven Years War. FirstBooks Library.

Banyard, Laurence (16 May 2025). “Manila Port City – A Story of Mutual Interdependence and Competing Self-interest.” PortCityFutures. https://www.portcityfutures.nl/news/manila-port-city-a-story-of-mutual-interdependence-and-competing-self-interest

Cubeiro, Didac (2017). “Modernizing the Colony: Ports in Colonial Philippines, 1880-1908.” World History Connected. https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/14.3/forum_cubeiro.html

Enano, Jhesset O. (25 June 2019). “Metro Manila’s green spaces continue to shrink.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1133654/metro-manilas-green-spaces-continue-to-shrink

De Villa, Kathleen (1 May 2025). “21 Manila Bay reclamation projects equal area of 2 cities.”  Philippine Daily Inquirer. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2057082/21-manila-bay-reclamation-projects-equal-area-of-2-cities

A brief look at the team of novelists, poets, painters, cameramen, filmmakers, and other creatives who invaded the Philippines as part of the Propaganda Corps. (Listen to S7E6 before listening to this one!)

Beyond the bullets, the tanks, the planes, the bombs, the Japanese also brought other weapons to bear against the Filipinos: Typewriters. Radio waves. Movie theaters.

Here is one story from the frontlines of shisōsen, or "the thought war."

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References:

Campoamor II, Gonzalo (2017). “Re-Examining Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: Kiyoshi Miki during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines.” Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 53(1), pp. 1-38.

Terami-Wada, Motoe (1990). “The Japanese Propaganda Corps in the Philippines.” Philippine Studies, 38(3), pp. 279-300.

Lagmay, Alfred (1977). “Bahala Na!” In Pe-Pua, Rogelio (ed., 2018), Handbuk ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino, Bolyum I: Perspektibo at Metodolohiya, University of the Philippines Press.

Jose, Ricardo T. (1998). The Japanese Occupation. In Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People. Asia Publishing Company Limited.

Griggs, Alyson (2020). There Were Children on the Battleground: Japanese and Filipino Youth in the Second World War [masteral dissertation]. Utah State University.