Philperiodicals

El Heraldo de la Revolución was the official organ of the Revolutionary Government. Edited in Casa del Sr. Gregorio Ramos in Malolos twice a week in both Spanish and Tagalog, it would cease publication after the fall of Malolos during the Philippine-American War in 1899.
The article “Yankis que piensan”, republished from El Heraldo de Madrid, highlights the different voices that, within the U.S., opposed “the new imperialistic policy” America was heading after its victory over Spain in 1898, including John Griffin Carlisle, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Eliot Norton, Henry C. Potter and an unidentified republican senator named Hoer. It shows how, far from being a homogeneous and solid discourse, U.S. American colonialism was not monolithic and the intervention in the Philippines prompted domestic debates around the very idea of US nationhood. 
For a long time, Aguinaldo and the Revolutionary Government hoped that the US would keep Filipino independence and would not annex the archipelago, but they were not naive. The same number of El Heraldo also published correspondence with the editor by B. Aguinaldo from Panganisan that shows how provincial leaders were already preparing to kill any Americans and imperialists that would danger the independent Philippines.

The American Chamber of Commerce Journal was the official monthly publication of the eponymous institution in the Philippines. It was published between 1921 and 1976, when it was substituted by the AmCham Business Journal, which makes it one of the longest-standing publications in the UPD collection. In November 1934, it published a list of First World War veterans living in the archipelago. Although most of them were American, it also included British, Italian, Japanese, and Belgian veterans, and announced the publication of a German war veteran list. 
Although there is little context, it suggests how the Great War had an indirect impact on the archipelago, also through immigrants from belligerent countries and US. military personnel during the last years of the Philippine Commonwealth. Some of the Word War Veterans listed as members either of the U.S. army or the American Legion (a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans), like the members of the Macabebe Post No 3, could be in fact some of the few known Filipinos to have taken part in the world conflict.

Some magazines, such as Graphic, included a few pages in each issue dedicated to women. In this issue, the magazine prints a portrait of the new vice-governor general’s wife, Mrs. Joseph R. Hayden, as a way to introduce a “Women’s Section” which coincides with the “Home and Fashion” section. In these “Home and Fashion” sections, Graphic prints titles on weekly recurring topics. Often, there is a page dedicated to “Good Grooming” with articles on hairstyles or manicures; another page is dedicated to food: menu ideas and new recipes. Additionally, there is a part in which new fashion items and trends are displayed and presented to the readers. Lastly, other featured topics are household chores, taking care of children, first aid in the home, women figures and many more.

This article was written one year after the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Felicia L. Gamboa writes about how the Japanese Army has dealt with the Filipino soldiers and their families. She describes a rather positive experience: Japan had the intention to free the Filipinos, the Filipino soldiers that arrived at the concentration camp were treated fairly and with respect and after some time the prisoners were released. 
Although she mentions economic difficulties as a problem that emerged after the occupation, she considers the “marauders” the real problem. These are Filipino men who roam the countryside unsatisfied with the rule of the Japanese and with a patriotic motive. As the title of the article indicates, the journalist considers the women to be the key to end the attacks from these men. She instigates women to call their men back home, to peace, in order to “arrive at the enjoyment of a prosperous and independent Philippines.”

Graphic was an English-speaking illustrated magazine, owned by Ramon Roces and edited by A. C. Fabian. It included sections targeted at both men and women, which made it suitable for a broad public, although it gave a lot of importance to foreign policy.
Following a series of articles concerned with Japanese expansionism, Graphic discussed the possibility that Japan would grab the Philippines in an article published by Ricard Mª Isidro, who argued that Japan needed the Philippines’ raw materials and fertile lands, but reframed the question to inquire about the capacity of Japan to effectively do so. For him, the answer was not US. protection (for they wouldn’t risk a war just to protect Filipinos), but the equilibrium between the European colonizing powers in South-East Asia. Using Italian colonialism in Africa as an example, Isidro argued that, as in the case of Ethiopia, Britain would jealousy jeopardize any Japanese attempt to seize the Philippines unless a European war in which Britain would be involved would force her to concentrate her attention on the West. Isidro was partially right: Japan invaded the Philippines after Germany “distracted” the British only 5 years later.

A reader from Butuan writes a letter to the editor lamenting the negative views against Moros in the Philippines, listing the many ways in which Moros are not different from the people from Luzon, and advising readers to take away prejudice and befriend Moros.

The article details the desire of Assembly member Datu Umbra Amilbangsa to recall the former Governor James R. Fugate to his old post due to his perceived difficulties of having a Christian or Muslim Filipino occupying the position.

The Legioner, was the official monthly organ of the Philippines Legion, a veteran association
created by Manuel Roxas in 1948. Its contents were mainly military, which made it a very
interesting source to understand the military conflicts of the period from a Filipino perspective.
In all the issues hold in the UPD collection the Huk insurgent appears as a very important topic.
Underscoring the HUK problem was written for the number of February 1948 by Alejo S.
Santos, representative of the 2nd district of Bulacan, and it’s interesting for the crude photos
(courtesy of Manila Chronicle) that it included. Santos, former CO of the Bulacan Military Area
during the Ocuppation, defended that violence was not the best means to solve the problem and
confirmed first hand that the Huk, one of the best anti-japanese guerillas, never stayed away
from the ways of peace or terrorized the people of Bulacan until Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas’
efforts to ameliorate farmers' conditions (and its electoral victory) were neglected by the Partido
Liberal, whose measures were ineffective against landlord rule. In fact, the victims of the
military actions were the poor barrio residents that only attended to destroy feudalism, which
only fueled the conflict.

The“World Outside” section of the 35th issue of Graphic includes an interesting article distinguishing a plain woman from a beautiful woman. The journalist considers plainness to be an advantage, rather than a negative quality, because of its implications. According to the author, a woman who is plain has had to work hard to make it in life and therefore has gained a wider set of skills. Additionally, she has had to perfectionate her personality and character in order to be loved by others because she was not simply accepted and loved for her beautiful face. Thus, being plain is considered to be a positive aspect, not only because beauty is fleeting and superficial, but because a plain woman has formed a beautiful character which will not fade with time, but rather will be truly and deeply appreciated for a long time.
The images accompanying the article depict women in England and France who are exercising so-called “men’s games”, such as football and archery. These women are described as participating in an invasion of the men’s jobs and sports.

B. Skou was the Philippine representative of Parke, Davis & Company who, in 1929, returned to Manila by passing through communist Russia. His experience of the country was then published in The American Chamber of Commerce Journal. In his account, B. Skou openly criticizes the results of communism in Russia by putting emphasis on the miserable living conditions of its population. These include shabby houses, an unfair taxing power, and the destruction of the upper and middle classes. The ending sentence gives the reader a clear idea of the author’s feelings for communist Russia: “Passing from Siberia into Japan is like coming out of a desert into a garden, or turning from a land of decay and lost hope to one of life and opportunity”. In short, these Russian features should not be adopted in the Philippines and should be avoided at all costs.

Yugo was a bi-weekly publication of the Philippines Delegation of Spanish Fascist Party Falange Española (1938 - 1941). 
The Siege of Toledo’s Alcazar (a medieval palace used as Military Academy) was one of the most important myths of the Spanish Fascist propaganda and played a central role in its retelling of history. Commander José  Moscardo claimed the town for the Nationalists but had to retreat to the Alcazar after reinforcements from the Government arrived. The defenders of the Alcazar resisted until 27 September 1936, when a Nationalist army retook Toledo on its way to besieging Madrid. 
Spanish speakers of the Philippines were also targeted by this propaganda, which identified Spanish nationalism with a chivalric ideal, represented by the soldier riding a white stallion and framed by the monarchic Spanish flag that occupies the central position of the illustration. Even in front of the ruins of historical Spain, represented by the destroyed Alcazar, the “essence” of Spain and Latin-Catholic civilization seems triumphant. The palette of colors inscribes in the illustration the entire history of Spain (and therefore of the Philippines’ Spanish colonial past) as a violent contrast of blood and gold, of the West against the Orient, of Fascism against Communism and Liberalism.

The Young Citizen was an illustrated monthly magazine for first, second, and third-grade students. Most of its content was related to the education of the young Filipinos in civil virtues. It included sections on the learning of English, natural sciences, literature and history, and included poems and short stories for children.
One of its sections, “This Month Years Ago”, remembered historical events each month. On this issue, the column remembered the Filipino Revolutionary Congress held in the church of Barasoain. Shortly after the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which inaugurated the transition period to independence, The Young Citizen affirmed that the republic constituted by the Malolos constitution under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo would rise in ten years hence, therefore connecting the periods before and after American colonization without questioning the effect it would have in Filipino institutional and political life. This early but also seemingly hurtless vindication of Malolos after one generation of Americanization suggests how the very meaning of the event and the sovereignty it demonstrated had changed, and the modernity it had explicitly sought to demonstrate from Asia and in Spanish came now from America and was in English.

The Young Citizen was an illustrated monthly magazine for young people in English edited by Jose E. Romero, Community Publishers Inc. It had links with the American boy scouts movement, and its public was mainly first, second, and third-grade students. The magazine was approved by the Bureau of Education for Public Schools, and most of its content was related to the education of the young Filipinos in civil virtues. It included sections on the learning of English, natural sciences, and history, and included poems and short stories for children in English, as well as games and crosswords. Especially interesting are the book reviews and recommendations and the letters and poems written by children.
One of its sections, "This Month Years Ago", remembered historical events each month. On num. 7, August 1935, the column remembered the battle of Manila and the Philippine Revolution from the “benevolent assimilation” ideology directly after the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934. In a very easy manner, the magazine unproblematically illustrated how the Spanish surrendered, their flag was pulled down and the “American wall was raised over the walled city [and] American government was thus introduced for the first time into the Philippines”.

1966 was a year marked by incendiary debates in congress about Filipino involvement in the
Vietnam War. In March, Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr. supported sending troops there, an opinion
that, as Panorama remarked, was neither that of the journal nor of all Filipinos. Osmeña blamed
the war on the communists (their only way to take over a well-faring South Vietnam) and argued
that US president Lyndon Johnson was just defending peace. Invoking his father, late president
Osmeña, he advocated for an alliance and a military base agreement with the US, arguing this
would have spared the Philippines the Japanese Occupation and would protect them now from a
Red Chinese invasion. For Osmeña, the Philippines had an obligation to South Vietnam, and
could not afford not to afford it if it wanted to preserve its own liberty and freedom.
Debates about the Vietnam War remained a dividing issue until the end of the conflict on 30
April 1975. President Ferdinand Marcos had to be convinced of supporting the Americans after
his electoral victory in 1965, but massive demonstrations against it pressured him to retire the
2000 Filipino contingent. For the Philippines, the cold war was over in the summer of 1968.

Panorama was an English-speaking Sunday magazine created in 1936. It went dark in 1941 after the Japanese invasion, and only managed to come back after Dec 7. 1955. From the very beginning, Filipino intellectuals such as Claro M. Recto or Carlos P. Rónulo wrote for Panorama, and in the 60s important Filipino scholars such as Teodoro Agoncillo and Cesar Adib Majul published works in the magazine.
During the process of revision of the Philippine revolution that started in that decade, Panorama published “The trial and death of Bonifacio”, an illustrated essay by historian Teodoro Agoncillo in which he tried to elucidate how Andres Bonifacio was killed by the revolutionaries and tried to make him justice. For Agoncillo, both the accusations and the populace had a strong prejudice against him, and the trial wasn't fair, to the point that Bonifacio wasn’t even told his sentence. He was shocked and tried to run, but was shot at Mount Thala and buried in an unknown location. Agoncillo’s account, based on sources, humanized Bonifacio’s figure and distanced himself from the more neutral and depoliticized views of the previous years, offering a more objective and nuanced view of the tumultuous years of the revolution.

Following the increasingly anti-communist tension, Philippines Armed Forces Journal published
an article on “The Reality of the New Huk Struggle”, where the journal tried to unmask the
“blueprint of subversion” of the Huks (which include political, literary, economic, social and
cultural fields).
Although it clearly stated that it was an exaggeration that the Army was on a “witch-hunt”, the
article showed concern about the infiltration of the Huk in politics, the military, the economy,
and the social and cultural fields. Its concern with insidious propaganda on President
Magsaysay's stand on the US bases issue, as well as the commitment with the Seato and the
sending of Filipino troops to Korea and Vietnam, suggests the unrest that those issues woke in
the population.
The pictures showed the menacing committed, and how Magsaysay’s social programs were
precisely planned to counter the Huk's “vicious plan of subversion” by working on
industrialization, security, education, and rural problems in the archipelago, and by signing a
commercial alliance with Washington. Although it was not sufficient, the Land reform launched
in 1954 by Magsaysay’s administration had in fact a big effect in reducing support for the Huk,
seen as a defensor of peasants from landlord abuse.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and remained in the isles until 1945. This article was written approximately one year after the start of the Japanese occupation and the topic is, namely, how the Filipino housewife has accommodated to the new circumstances. This article focuses on the “average housewife” from the city of Manila. 
Many families had to cut on expenses because of the war; therefore housegirls were no longer an option for them. Thus, the woman was left to do the household chores by herself: cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. 
Furthermore, women were also forced to find food substitutes and start their own vegetable gardens. In this way, there was an increased use of local or locally produced products such as rice flour, carabao milk butter, papaya and sweet potato. 
Another problem the Manila women faced was the shortage of funds to acquire clothes. Women had enough clothes in their “pre-war” wardrobe; however, the children rapidly outgrew their clothes so women often recycled pillowcases to make t-shirts and took crocheting up again to create garments.

This illustration, by V. Manansala, is included in the short story "Mr. Flores Problem", by Purificación Dagdag, in which teacher Flores, the principal teacher stops the violent outburst of a Moro named Sadani, who was wielding a bloodied kris. Despite his fury, Sadani calmes down after being confronted by someone he respected.

An introductory text published in The Young Citizen describing Moro clothing for young people. The image contains only the first few paragraphs of the introduction. It describes the inspiration for patterns, the method of weaving, the types of dye for the fabrics, the method of dyeing, and the types of cloth.

In the same number as Quezon's statement on Bataan, Philippines announced the famous poster The fighting Filipinos, presented in the Rockefeller Center at the United Nations Information Office. The poster was commissioned to Manuel Rey Isip (1904 - 1987) by the Philippine Government and was rapidly distributed to Filipino organizations (mainly in the not-occupied US) and to individuals who would contact the gazette.The article provides some biographical information about the artist (Isip was 39 years old and lived with his family in Long Island, where he moved in 1925), but also on the model for the poster: the Seaman Aurelio Palafox, serving at the U.S. Navy. The fighting Filipinos depicts a wounded Filipino soldier preparing to hurl a grenade while waving a Filipino flag. Thousands of copies of this poster were smuggled into the Philippines during the war. It is in fact quite likely that the advertisement in Philippines was behind this. The poster embodied not only Filipino resistance but also Quezon’s views on Filipino history and U.S. relations, which would be hegemonic after the Japanese defeat in U.S. thanks also to the fighting filipinos.

Graphic, which started publication on August 26 1927, was an English-speaking illustrated magazine, owned by the famous journalist Ramon Roces and edited by A. C. Fabian. It included sections on American and Philippine politics, sports and economics, and a weekly news digest, in addition to sections on cooking, beauty, and house-holding, or educational schools and school activities. It also included comics, short stories, and poems, which made it suitable for a broad public.
In an article published on June 4, Mabini Rey Centeno remembered the defense of Malolos against the Spaniards on June 1 1897 with illustrations by A. S. Velasquez depicting victorious general Isidoro Torres and the Filipino “patriots” who died. The article reconstructed the siege, praising Malolos’ “native bravery”, Filipino preparedness, and revolutionists' courage, which kept invaders at bay despite their death-dealing rifles and superior technology, but only thanks to the sacrifice of some revolutionaries for the country. This is a good example of how the victory over Spain had been affected by another silenced victory, that of America over Malolos, even though it implied that the revolutionaries were ready to sacrifice everything for “Bayan Ko”, their (free) country.

This article printed in Graphic portrays an interesting image of what politics and suffrage was like in the Culion of 1936. For a long time, Culion was a leprosarium or a leper colony. Thus, the author considers politics to be a “happy” break for the inmates living on the island. 
In the first part of the article, the journalist states that national politics differ from colony politics. In the US, women were given the right to vote in 1920, although they did not have yet the right to hold public office. Before starting on the description of the voting system and how political candidates organize campaigns in the different regions, the author makes an interesting comment on the subject. He considers the right to vote a “privilege other women may well envy, but women in the colony would prefer not to have this right if only they can be free from their misfortune.” 

The article describes the history, activities and customs at the sanctuary and convent of Guadalupe, in Luzon, by the Pasig river.The last part comments on the celebration of the festivity of Saint Nicholas by the the chinos infieles (pagan Chinese) in September 10. Seeing that the Spanish newcomers had a strong devotion for the saint, a group of Chinese sailors  prayed for their salvation to Saint Nicholas, originating a strong veneration on the part of the Chinese community in the Philippines.

Among women writers in the Philippines, nuns have a prominent place. There are several projects addressing their writing. For example, the Bieses project (https://www.bieses.net/) studies writing in women's communities before 1800 and their networks of sociability in the Spanish-speaking world, including communities of nuns in the Philippines. In the 20th century, religious women continued to write prayers and different types of devotional writing, but with the proliferation of magazines, newspapers and printing presses dedicated to the expansion of the faith, the scope of their writing was expanded and they came to write from autobiographical accounts of their experience in the Philippine Revolution, such as that of Sister Mercedes de la Ascensión and Sister Coronación con Espinas, to articles in newspapers, such as the one we see here by the Sisters of the Community of St. Mary in Mountain Province. The article offers a vivid description of the joyful life of orphans in Sagada, with a brief moment of tension when one of the children mentions Filipino superstitions. The dramatic turn of events, the description of the situation and the resolution of the situation are a testament to the narrative skills of the nun describing the miracle.