Geronimo Cristobal

Category: History

  • Jacinto’s ‘Mutya’ in Liwanag at Dilim

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    Emilio Jacinto (Emilio Dizon Jacinto)—also known in the Katipunan as Pinkian and Dimas-Ilaw—wrote Liwanag at Dilim out of the same revolutionary world that made him, in Nicanor G. Tiongson’s phrase, the “Brains of the Katipunan”: a Tondo-born essayist and poet (15 December 1875–6 April 1899) who joined the Katipunan in 1893, served as Bonifacio’s counsellor,…

  • Indios Bravos, 1888–1889

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    Between April 28 and May 16, 1888, during his continental journey across the United States, and again during the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, Rizal confronted two dramatically different representations of Indigenous Americans: one as commercial stereotype, the other as dignified performers. These encounters shaped what would become Indios Bravos, the fraternity founded by Rizal…

  • The Teacher Who Became a Mountain: Fernando Poe Jr.’s Asedillo (1971)

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    When Asedillo premiered in 1971, Ferdinand Marcos was tightening his grip on the republic, and the air in Manila was thick with student marches, labor strikes, and the metallic aftertaste of tear gas. Celso Ad. Castillo’s film—produced by and starring Fernando Poe Jr.—could have been mistaken for another action vehicle designed to confirm FPJ’s legend…

  • Portrait of the Azcárraga Family (c.1827–1830)

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    Retrato de la familia Azcárraga (c.1827–1830) by Juan Arzeo consists of two oil-on-canvas portraits depicting members of the Azcárraga family of Manila. The sitters are José Azcárraga y Ugarte, an Escolta bookseller; his wife María Isidra Palmera y Bersoza, described in period sources as a mestiza de Albay; and their children José Jr. and Pilar.…

  • La Bulaqueña: What We Know About The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Latest Attraction

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    The following notes draw from the wealth of information shared by scholars, collectors, archival researchers, and art history networks following the loan of La Bulaqueña (1895) to the Louvre Abu Dhabi (June 2025). It brings together insights from literature, oral histories, institutional records, and recent findings that have come to light in the wake of…

  • The Place of Shells: Making and Unmaking Archipelagic Southeast Asia

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    Summary This essay traces how vernacular spatial logics in Southeast Asia—expressed through myths, maritime movement, and ritual orientations—shaped understandings of sovereignty before the imposition of colonial borders. Drawing on the figure of the pearl as a model of layered accretion, it explores how societies in the Philippine archipelago organized space through concentric and relational forms…

  • Talking trees

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    The image of Alexander (Iskandar) encountering the wondrous talking tree in the Shahnama is a fascinating blend of myth, prophecy, and fantastical imagery. In this particular folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama, the tree takes on an even more vivid character under the hand of the Ilkhanid artist, who expands on Firdawsi’s original vision with…

  • Real Compania de Filipinas

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    The following article is a translation of Montserrat Garate Ojanguren’s “Real Compañía de Filipinas” published in Enciclopedia Auñamendi, 2024. The Royal Company of the Philippines was formally established in March 1785 and remained active until its dissolution in 1834, by decree on October 6. Before its official founding, several unsuccessful attempts were made to establish…