Looking at Spanish-Philippine Colonial Texts

Jorge Mojarro

Programme

Lecture

Early Spanish sources and Philippine Studies: An Introduction (1593-1825)

Books were printed in the Philippines soon after the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521and they contributed to the development of a cultural elite in Manila. The fast development of the printing press allowed for the publication of extraordinary imprints that provide a window to the development of the Philippine society during the three centuries of Spanish rule. Manila developed as a Western enclave in Asia and, therefore, Philippine books present an originality in terms of languages and topics that makes them extraordinarily precious. The lecture will provide an overview of these Spanish sources and contribute some ideas on how researching Spanish colonial texts can provide material for a deeper understanding in the areas of linguistics, ethnohistory, local history and literature.

Workshop

Transcribing and Translating early Spanish Manuscripts on the Philippines: A Practical Introduction

The workshop will give a basic introduction to the field of Palaeography as it relates to early and pre-modern Spanish documents written in and about the Philippines. The workshop will cover general issues to consider in transcribing manuscripts - e.g. orthography, linguistic particularities of the Spanish language etc. The workshop will also include a transcribing exercise using a page from the Boxer Codex as a sample text.

Speaker Biography

Jorge Mojarro (Huelva, 1980) holds a PhD in Spanish and Latin American Literature. His thesis explored for the first time Philippine Colonial Literature during the 16th century (Universidad de Salamanca, 2016). He is a faculty member of the Department of Literature in University of Santo Tomás since 2017 and a fellow at the Research Center for Culture, Arts & Humanities. During the last 10 years, he has been devoting his research in the area of Philippine Colonial Literature, History of the Printing Press in the Philippines, Philippine Literature in Spanish Language, Missionary Linguistics and South East Asian Studies. Dr. Mojarro has been a fellow of The Huntington Library (San Marino, CA) and the Lilly Library (Indiana University). He has recently edited two special issues on Philippine Literature in Spanish for the peer-reviewed journals Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana (December 2018) and Unitas (May 2019).

Registration

If you would like to attend the event please register. Online registration

Organiser: Philippine Studies at SOAS

Contact email: philippinestudies@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4062