Saving Private Klein
Filipino researchers who visit the University of Michigan (U-M) at Ann Arbor make a beeline to the Bentley Historical Library for its wealth of archival material on the Philippines. I feel like a child in a candy store exploring papers from the late 19th-century...
1986, the end of the first Marcos era
Seven was the lucky number of Ferdinand E. Marcos. With a view to history, Marcos scheduled important decisions or actions on calendar dates that had a seven or multiples of seven. The martial law declaration was signed on Sept. 17, 1972, but postdated to Sept. 21,...
Traces of Philippine history in SFO
San Francisco, California—On the way from the San Francisco International Airport to Berkeley last weekend, I remembered “The Streets of San Francisco,” a US TV series from my childhood. Street signs in this part of the world also reminded me that Manila and San...
Forging history
On Jan. 26, 1911, Governor General William Cameron Forbes issued Executive Order No. 2, which instructed all provincial governors, to communicate with municipal presidents under their jurisdiction and authority, and ask them to seek out and gather old men in every...
From Malacañang to the White House
I have been looking at Philippine photographs in the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for some weeks now. I came across many photographs of William Howard Taft (1857-1930), the only person who has occupied both Malacañang (as the...
Women in Philippine history
When my social media channels got flooded with posts on International Women’s Day, I wondered, what about International Men’s Day? As I looked around for a suitable topic on women in Philippine history, I realized I had already written on Andres Bonifacio’s widow,...
Rizal and digital repatriation
When I post photos of Philippine artifacts long hidden in archives, libraries, and museums abroad on Facebook, it often triggers a well-meaning but ignorant call for repatriation. When these people suggest that all Philippine artifacts abroad should be in the National...
Edsa 1986 from US state department records
Unlike the declassified US state department cables reporting on the events in Manila on Feb. 22, 1986, those for Feb. 23 and 24 have important details like names “excised” or erased. It will take a number of freedom of information requests or the future release of the...
US situation reports on Edsa 1986
Some years ago, colleagues, who had been at Edsa in 1986 and experienced people power firsthand, complained that their students did not seem to know or care about it. I advised them to mind their age and accept that their students were born long after Edsa. The...
Gomburza and Rizal’s execution
Every year on Feb. 17, a floral offering is made at the white obelisk in Rizal Park that is ignored the rest of the year. The spot marked by the obelisk, between the Rizal Monument and the fenced off Rizal Light and Sound area, is the site where Jose Burgos, Mariano...