Hear their Indigenous Voices!

Mother and Child (1847); Photo from the Hispanic Digital Library: Scenes from the Philippine Islands and Costumes of their Inhabitants by the Filipino painter José Honorato Lozano (1847). Link: http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000105391

Written and photographed

By Jude Bautista

“You can hear their voices on the page! Hear their indigenous voices!”, said Dr. Christina Lee. She was describing what they discovered in pages of books and manuscripts identified to be originally from San Agustin Church in Manila Intramuros.

Dr. Christina Lee; The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

The talk last July 20, 2023 was entitled, 1762: THE CULTURAL SACKING OF MANILA DURING THE BRITISH OCCUPATION AND THE RESTORATION PROJECT OF ITS ARCHIVES. The venue was Instituto Cervantes in Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros. Just a corner away from the scene of the crime, San Agustin Church.

2nd from right: Mexican Amb Daniel Hernández and Spanish Amb Miguel Utray. From right: Dr. Marlon Gozales, Dr. Christina Lee, Inst Cervantes AVE Coordinator Jorge Mojarro, Regalado ‘Ricky’ Jose and U.P. History Dept. Principal Investigator Nicholas Sy. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

It was well attended by academics, historians, the public and no less than two ambassadors: Ambassador Miguel Utray of Spain and Mexican Ambassador Daniel Hernández. The full venue can be attributed to the renown of historian and researcher Dr. Christina Lee who is the Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portugese at Princeton University.

Instituto Cervantes (Intramuros) was filled with academics and history fans. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

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Learning Spanish

She endorsed learning Spanish as a means for Filipinos to reconnect with their rich history, “I want to emphasize the importance of learning Spanish. Since we are at Instituto Cervantes, to engage with the primary sources of this period. Especially our period of early modern world. It’s very special to me to read about what happened in history without filters, from the documents themselves.”

Documents shown to Dr Lee at San Agustin Library; The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

By doing so we can learn from people who have gone before us, “You can hear the voices. Often times you can hear the voices of indigenous peoples in these documents. Especially for investigations and historical purposes. It’s very moving to be able to commune with people who I don’t think are dead. Once you are there they are still speaking to us.”

Sino-Spanish codex (Boxer codex), ca. 1590. Boxer mss. II. Lilly Library. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Their work spans several countries and involves many institutions, “And I also want to encourage this kind of collaborative work. It’s very important that we work together. This kind of project is not possible with one person. Something that we like to contribute together. It’s also a chance for trans national community building. That ultimately helps everyone involved. To employ work that is meaningful and an ethical form of scholarship. Especially, for our young Filipino scholars.”

From right: Mexican Amb Daniel Hernández, Spanish Amb Miguel Utray and Dr. Christina Lee. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

Female ‘Tokayo’ Leads

Fittingly, the 1762 project is led by two capable women with similar first names: Dr. Christina Lee and Dr. Cristina Martinez Juan. Which has a term in Filipino called Tokayo, similar names even if not spelled exactly the same.

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Dr Maria Cristina Martinez-Juan is currently a member of the faculty at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) where she teaches its modules on Philippine Literature and Philippine Cultural Studies. She is the project head of Philippine Studies at SOAS University London. Source:

https://1762archive.org/team/

Sino-Spanish codex (Boxer codex), ca. 1590. Boxer mss. II. Lilly Library. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Dr. Cristina Martinez-Juan serves as the Principal Investigator for the 1762 project in the United Kingdom. Since there are many disparate sources of documents and items, her role is to organize, manage and collate them. Specifically in a more understandable way for the public to access. This is includes: managing platform, digital technology and meta data.

The 1762 project received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the US and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

Dr. Lee, however, was the only one in attendance for the talk. Juan was still in the U.K continuing her investigations. That’s why Dr Lee’s talk was well received as the public wanted to take advantage of her expertise.

Dr. Christina Lee is mobbed like a K drama actress by fans. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

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Head of Transcriptions and Translations

From her bio: “Professor Christina H. Lee is the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Project Director. Professor Lee leads the production of the transcriptions and translations of the extant handwritten manuscripts that belonged in the Convent of San Pablo/San Agustín prior to the British occupation”

She is in charge of the teams assembled composed of PhD students in Princeton and scholars involved in University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas.

Male Students from UST, Letran and San Jose (1847); Photo from the Hispanic Digital Library: Scenes from the Philippine Islands and Costumes of their Inhabitants by the Filipino painter José Honorato Lozano (1847). Link: http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000105391

Dr Marlon Gonzalez in his intro described Lee, “One of the leading researchers of the Spanish Golden Age. And the early modern period. I first met her in person at a panel she organized, for a Modern languages associations, Seattle Washington. Some weeks before the COVID Pandemic. Her latest book is SAINTS OF RESISTANCE Devotions in the Philippines of Early Spanish Rule. Published by Oxford University Press in 2021 and has now been made available in the Philippines through the Ateneo De Manila University Press.”

Dr. Marlon Gozales and Dr. Chrsitina Lee; The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

1500+ Books

Gonzales also summarized the project: “The Library of the Convent of San Pablo (Manila, 1762),” this project seeks to repatriate more than 1,500 books and manuscripts seized from the archives of the Convent of San Pablo and the Church of San Agustin through the British Occupation of Manila. Using the original index of the archives the records salient to the contents. The project will provide a virtual reconstruction of the libraries materials circa 1762. They have received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the US and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK.”

The ‘Early Modern Period’, the expertise of Lee which 1762 falls under “spans the period after the Late Middle Ages of the post-classical era (c. 1400–1500) to the beginning of the Age of Revolutions (c. 1800).” Source: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Early_modern_period

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How Women Preserved Original Filipino Script

One of the many revelations during the talk of Lee was a theory that it was the women of the period who managed to preserve the original Filipino script baybayin.

Studying the signatures, they could see that men would sign in Spanish while Doñas would sign in Baybayin. This was because, women at the time were not educated by the friars. They however, ended up preserving in writing the true native Filipino alphabet, using the unique form of writing.

Boxed: Signed by Don Juan Cabinti in Spanish, encircled: Signed by Doña Catalina Sadyantan in Baybayin. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

Lee explained, “There are a lot of things about history of Taal that we learned here. What we want to bring out is the following. It’s the version of Tagalog baybayin. They are mostly women who carry the title of Doña. So women who are Doñas, so the words signed as, the ones called baybayin. I indicated here that there are signature by males. And they are Spanish. So women are signing their names in Tagalog, Baybayin. Men are signing their names in Spanish. This reveals that most males sign in Spanish. There’s only one actually that signs his name in baybayin, he’s a male.”

Doña on horseback (1847). Photo from the Hispanic Digital Library: Scenes from the Philippine Islands and Costumes of their Inhabitants by the Filipino painter José Honorato Lozano (1847). Link: http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000105391

The finding isn’t conclusive but does help theorize, “I’m not sure what that means. The theory, that at least in this area it was women who were able to preserve baybayin. Possibly because men were educated by the friars. Women were not. So they maintained baybayin.”

Doña Madalena Dayantomo’s signature in Baybayin. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

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Stigmata of 1683

Another revelation was that of a ‘miracle’, that was investigated by the religious authorities in 1683. Lee describes, “ It’s a bit exceptional because it’s in Portugese. The case of a nun in Boac whose body displayed stigmata after she died.”

Rev. mother Maria de Jesus, religious of Santa Monica of Goa of the Order of Saint Augustine. Photo from
https://fromthepage.com/1762archive/a-digital-repatriation-of-a-lost-archive-of-the-spanish-pacific-the-library-of-the-convent-of-san-pablo-manila-1762/onedrive-8-10-3-2022/display/32584124?translation=true

Lee continued, “A priest was sent there to see the provincial authorities. A case was sent there to Manila. And there’s an investigation on the stigmata. One of my brightest students, who was working on this case for her dissertation. Her name is Eugene. This is a wonderful document it contains hand woven inscriptions over her stigmata. That was very interesting. My student Eugene has transcribed it and translated it already:

‘The very reverend mother Maria de Jesus, servant of God, religious of Santa Monica of Goa of the Order of Saint Augustine, and Five Holy Wounds appeared at her death in the year of 1683. She died on the first of January at the age of 78 when she died.’

“She is currently working on the introduction and will be in Manila soon to conduct research on that case in UST.”

Translations on the website; The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

View the actual photo and page here:

https://fromthepage.com/1762archive/a-digital-repatriation-of-a-lost-archive-of-the-spanish-pacific-the-library-of-the-convent-of-san-pablo-manila-1762/onedrive-8-10-3-2022/display/32584124?translation=true

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Chino Pansiterio; Photo from the Hispanic Digital Library: Scenes from the Philippine Islands and Costumes of their Inhabitants by the Filipino painter José Honorato Lozano (1847). Link: http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000105391

HELP Transcribe and Translate:

A Digital repatriation of a lost archive of the Spanish Pacific: The Library of the Convent of San Pablo (Manila,1762)

Be a part of our ongoing effort to transcribe and translate documents from the 1762 archive. Have a look at our From the Page site here: https://bit.ly/3Hp1kZE

You can sign up, view the 1762 archive manuscripts in their original languages, try your hand at transcribing pages or even translate a page.

If you wish to contribute to Transcription project, kindly send your interest via the CONTACT page on this site: https://1762archive.org/the-transcription-project/

Maria Sanua’s signature in Baybayin. The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023.

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Collaborating partners in the Philippines:

– Regalado ‘Ricky ‘ Jose

Church of San Agustin Museum and Library

–Director Father Ricky Villar

–Manager and Conservationist Loeulla Revilla-Baysic

Lopez Museum and Library

–Director Dr Margarita Villanueva

–Archivist Carina Samaniego

History Department at the University of the Philippines

–Principal Investigator Nicholas Sy

–Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Ros Costelo

–Team of Research Assistants/ transcribers from the University of the Philippines

U.P. History Dept. Principal Investigator Nicholas Sy; The talk entitled, 1762: The Cultural Sacking of Manila During the British Occupation and the Restoration Project Of Its Archives was held at Instituto Cervantes Calle Real, Plaza San Luis, Intramuros last July 20, 2023. Photo by Jude Bautista

University of Santo Tomas

–Transcriber Dr Cheek Fadriquela

–Transcriber Rona Repancol

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Hear their Indigenous Voices!

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