Discussing the rice traders of 1862 in his great work Feeding Manila, in Peace and War: 1850-1945 (Ateneo Press, 2016), professor emeritus Daniel F. Doeppers narrates: Doña Cornelia Lao Chanco (1819-1900) was one of the Manila consignees in 1862. Born to Chinese mestizos in Binondo, Manila in 1836, she was married to Tomas Ly-Chauco, an […]
Who were afraid of the mestizos? Answer: The Spanish colonizers during the 19th century. We are not kidding. Referring again to Alfredo Roces’ Adios Patria Adorada: The Filipino as Ilustrado, the Ilustrado as Filipino, which I cited in the July 4-14, 2017 issue on “The great role of mestizos,” Sinibaldo de Mas in 1842 penned […]
In 1984, the late historian Dr. Antonio S. Tan came out with The Chinese Mestizos in the Formation of Filipino Nationality, an excellent monograph that explores for the first time the great role played by the Chinese mestizos in the formation of the Filipino nation. It was first published by the Asian Center of the […]
T ulay’s May 24-June 20, 2016 issue featured the first Catholic bishop of China, Luo Wenzao (羅文藻, 1615-1691) or Gregorio Lopez, who visited Manila five times between 1638 and 1684 and had studied theology at the University of Santo Tomas. Luo is the first Chinese Catholic of China trained in the Philippines. But Luo, who […]
Since American historian Robert Batchelor discovered in 2008 the Selden Map at the basement of the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, scholars cannot agree whether it was made in the Wanli era (1573-1620), after the Dutch occupied the Moluccas in 1621, or sometime in between. But they basically agree that the map dates from the […]
Thanks to Dr. Santiago Albano Pilar’s coffee table book The Life and Art of Isabelo Tampinco (2004), the most “unheralded” Filipino artist in the late 18th century, “the forgotten master” Isabelo Tampinco, has become known to people like us interested in Philippine culture and history. Tampico was the master in the art of sculpting as […]
Eugenio Menegon’s book, Ancestors, Virgins and Friars: Christianity as a local religion in late Imperial China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2009), is a history of a 400-year-old community in Fu’an county (福安市) in Fujian province, China. What makes the book really interesting and significant are historical materials and information about the Chinese in the Philippines […]
Long before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Kingdom of Manila or even before Rajah Soliman ruled in the 16th century, there already existed an ancient kingdom called Namayan. Established in the 11th century, the precolonial settlement in Santa Ana was the oldest along the Pasig River. Last October, the revised edition of the […]