Philippine E-Journals

Anti-Filipinism in Late 19th Century Publications in Spain

Daisy M. Alburo

Discipline: Philippine History

 

Abstract:

This paper illustrates with examples the anti-Filipino sentiments in one periodical and a few books printed in Madrid during the last decade of the 19th-century. The periodical La Política de España en Filipinas (1891-1898) had an avowed purpose to defend Spanish interests in the colony and, amidst the growing separatist movement in the Philippines, lambasted the paintings of Juan Luna, the works of Pedro Paterno, and the novels of Jose Rizal, as well as criticized sympathizers of Rizal like Ferdinand Blumentritt. Aside from columns in the periodical, book reviews and notices of novels showed the extent of the Spanish attempts to influence the thinking of readers in Madrid about the inferiority of Philippine culture, and to whitewash whatever follies their countrymen might have experienced in the colony. Some novels announced in the periodical, which were described as written by indios, were obviously constructed narratives by Spanish authors.