Students who laugh sheepishly when I tell them that there is a lot more to the internet than TikTok and porn have been uncovered. They surely paint me as a joyless nerd who spends countless hours surfing: the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Archivo General de las...
January in Manila has fiestas that commemorate images of Jesus Christ both as a sorrowful, suffering adult, and as a cute, innocent child. While the procession of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo on Jan. 9 trumps all fiestas in Metro Manila in size and fervor, there is no...
Readers often ask how I come up with column topics when Philippine history, as we know it, is centuries-long and complicated. Timeliness is key. For January, I frame the past with the present in terms of: New Year celebrations and rituals, fireworks, the traslacion of...
Why were the cuisines of Pampanga and Iloilo conspicuously absent from the Philippines’ Michelin Guide? The former has long held the reputation for good food; the latter, a Unesco-declared Creative City of Gastronomy. Manila, the capital, deserved to have its...
The first week of 2026 has passed, and I have yet to buy (or receive from my favorite publisher) a physical planner. I use a big desk calendar that shows me the month at a glance. I also use Google Calendar, but I resist shifting from physical to digital. Wall and...
Recent social media posts on the 1901 capture of Emilio Aguinaldo by a small band of United States soldiers and Macabebe Scouts under Frederick Funston were déjà vu in the context of the US invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its president. In 1901, Aguinaldo was...
Filipinos greet the New Year in many ways: some make noise, others light firecrackers, and some hear Mass followed by a midnight meal with family and friends. Children are encouraged to jump to grow taller. Adults eat 12 round fruits for a prosperous new year. By...
Most of the questions on Philippine history that I receive online from students are so simple that they can be answered quickly if they were taught basic research skills to deploy on the internet. It is clear from my chats with students that their teachers did not...
This weekend, the nation will remember Andres Bonifacio again on Nov. 30, then forget him until Nov. 30 next year. In 1995, I attended a commemoration at Liwasang Bonifacio led by then Mayor Alfredo S. Lim, who wore a Katipunero-style straw hat, a standard issue for...
From the many intriguing details in Mahar Mangahas’ recent column here on the Roman census during the first Christmas (see “The first Christmas census,” 12/20/25), I picked out a reference to the hay on which the newborn infant Jesus lay. Unconsumed fodder for cattle,...