Philperiodicals

El Heraldo de la Revolución was one of the first newspapers published only by Filipinos, and probably the first ever published in the independent nation. Created by the leader of the new Philippine Republic, Emilio Aguinaldo, on September 29, 1898, after declaring independence from Spain,it 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.
This article on the future education of the Filipinos stressed the importance of popular education quoting Belgian liberal thinker Émile de Laveleye’s L´instruction du peuple (1872) and defending universal instruction as a requisite, not only for the new “conquered independence” but also for a Modern Nation State based on universal suffrage. The article shows not only a knowledge of European thought but also a deep-rooted belief in progress and democracy and an affirmation of freedom and independence from the ominous foreign domination, months before the Americans would reestablish it under the pretext of the Filipino’s need for civilization, a claim proven wrong by the very state project of the Malolos Republic. 

The article advocates not supporting businesses owned by those who the author deems foreigners. The author considered that patronizing foreign business, whether European or Chinese, is a symptom of a “slave mindset” that loves the foreign over the native, prefers products made by foreigners even when the same products are also made by fellow Filipinos, and results in the division and scattering of the Filipino people.

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, in addition to poems and short stories for children.
Accordingly, The Young Citizen published biographies of “Our heroes” from the long Philippine Revolution, which were to serve as models for the youth “growing” into independent citizens of an independent sovereign nation. In 1935, directly after the Tydings-McDuffie Law of 24 March 1934, The Young Citizen would focus on figures such as José Burgos, Teodora Alonzo, Leon María Guerrero, and especially José Rizal, who were considered pacifists. In December, The Young Citizen published an article on Rizal’s last hours by Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970), a Christian Evangelical missionary, who praised Rizal's courage and civic virtues, but especially the fact he was “a convinced pacifist” who died for the terrible truth of having learned “what he could do for his helpless oppressed country”, quoting Wenceslao Retana to distance Rizal from the Katipunan and the accusations of treason to Spain and to “his own country”.

El Heraldo de la Revolución was the official organ of the Revolutionary Government. 
On January 1, 1899, El Heraldo published an interview from The Shanghay Daily Press with Mariano Ponce y Collantes (1863 – 1918), an active member of the Propaganda Movement and one of the founders of La Solidaridad, and by then a diplomatic representative of the First Republic to Japan, where he would stay until March 1901. 
In the interview, Ponce defended that the Philippines had the capacity for self-government, knocking down any legitimacy for the ongoing American occupation by the mere fact of the functioning nature of the First Republic. For Ponce, the revolution had acted as a manifestation of the Filipinos’ will to be independent, a living referendum voted through blood and sacrifice, and he hoped America would “respect the supreme will of the people”, manifested in a new state, which, as Ponce argues here, was almost constituted in a “civilized manner”, with a central administration, separation of powers, its own press, its own popular education and its own national economy, even its own university and free associations. There was, therefore, no reason for any kind of intervention.

Good Transmission was a monthly magazine curated by the employees of the Philippine long distance telephone company. Alongside various articles, the issues of this particular magazine included sections or “corners” in which various other topics are presented. For instance, we can find the “Better English Corner”, destined to teach its readers an aspect of the English language through lessons and exercises. 
The “Health Corner” is similar to the “Better English Corner” in their shared purpose of educating. A miss A. Valenciano was the journalist in charge of this particular corner. In this issue, she attempts to educate the readers on the topic of nutrition and a balanced diet. She does this by giving an example of a breakfast, lunch and dinner that could be part of this diet. Furthermore, she explains and enumerates some nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats, in what foods they can be found and why they are important for our health.

In the Spanish magazine Excelsior, there is a page dedicated to women’s fashion titled “El mundo de la mujer” or “the World of Women”. On this page various clothing articles are illustrated and described with a focus on material, color and design. 
By browsing through the different issues available that contain this section, we can find a certain pattern. The clothing items depicted are always below-the-knee, modest dresses for women and some type of hat. Girl’s fashion is not always a part of this section, however, young girl’s fashion is similar to the women’s:  the illustrated clothing items are almost always dresses. However, in one particular case a little girl is portrayed wearing dress pants as a part of a sailor suit-inspired outfit. 

Spanish magazine Excelsior dedicated a page to women’s fashion titled “El mundo de la mujer” (The World of Women). On this page, various clothing articles are illustrated and described with a focus on material, color and design. 
By browsing through the different issues available that contain this section, we can find a certain pattern. The clothing items depicted are always below-the-knee, modest dresses for women and some type of hat. Girl’s fashion is not always a part of this section, however, young girl’s fashion is similar to the women’s:  the illustrated clothing items are almost always dresses. However, in one particular case a little girl is portrayed wearing dress pants as a part of a sailor suit-inspired outfit. 

This article, written by Manuel B. Montes, was published in the Spanish-language daily newspaper Excelsior, founded in 1917 by Rafael Alducin. Montes gives an account of his trip to Paris and comments various Parisian features that he deems admirable: the many taxis that are available throughout the city–although the traffic is not something to write home about; the fact that women are free to wander the streets on their own–as the police protects them; and the well-illuminated streets at night, which make it a pleasure to explore the city. These characteristics are described in such a positive light that they seem to be ideas that could be adopted in the Philippines.

Senator Eulogio Balao (1907-1977), a WWII veteran and head of Quirino’s anti-Huk campaigns,
he was Secretary of Defense for President Magsaysay between 1956 and 1957. In June
1956, he published Illogical Neutralism in the Philippines Armed Forces Journal where he
made a defense of the SEATO agreement that expressed the government's view on the
issue.
Balao saw WWII as an event that had waked Asian nationalism and independence after a period
of docility and foreign rule, but he stated that neutrality, seen as a product of anti-colonial era
anxieties, was an impulsive and baseless fear that could condemn weak nations to be devoured
not by Western, but by Asiatic colonialism, such as the Japanese or the Russian. During a period
marked by democracy, when no western country would consider colonizing, only Russia, due to
its dictatorial and totalitarian nature, had colonies, Balao argued.
Bllao partially expresses the fear that, after the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, only armed force
could stop communism. For small, young countries such as the Philippines, that meant allying
with “an unselfish America” through initiatives such as the SEATO to preserve freedom,
religion, and a wholesome life that communism wasn’t seen to provide.

Part of 'Pilipinas sa larawan' (Philippines in images), a cartoon depiction of historical events, the illustration depicts different types of ancient weapons used in the Philippines, such as the pana at busog (arrow and bow), sibat (spear), and many types of handheld blades, like the sundang, kris, and kampilan. The caption explains that these weapons, along with various shields, animal hides used as clothes, or small cannons, were discovered by the Spaniards who arrived in Manila, Taytay, and Cainta, and that  were still used by indigenous peoples, like the Moros and “forest people”.The simultaneous use of descriptors “nuong una’ (in ancient times) and ‘taong gubat’ reveals the use of chronological distinctions to imply civilizational differences between peoples existing in the same time period.

The events in China were preceded by turmoil in Europe: as Graphic showed in an article published in March 12, 1936, Germany was united on a nationalistic upheaval against the ally powers and occupied the demilitarized Rhinelanz zone as a reaction against the Franco-Soviet Pact, breaking both Locarno’s and Versailles’ treaties. Although previsible, this marked the end of both treaties and the constitution of an anti-allies block (Fascit Italy used the opportunity to announce it wouldn't put into effect guarantees of Locarno’s treaty). Although, as Graphic announced,  the French army was mobilized, Germany dared to make that move knowing that France could not retaliate, paralized by political disunity and lack of funds (France’s strategy was based on the expensive Maginot Line). 
Probably a bluff, Hitler’s proposal to Locarno’s emissaries after announcing them he occupation of the Rhineland, included non-aggression pacts and demilitarization of with Western Europe, a reminder that Germany’s intentions were already “in the air”: freeing resources for a german expansion into Eastern Europe or even the reconquest of former German territories in France. From a Filipino perspective, it was clear that the colonial empires would soon be busy in Europe, leaving Japan the perfect theater for its own expansion in the continent.

The illustration depicts a woman inspecting a paper bill for authenticity alongside a man. It is included in a story titled "Hindi pa rin sawi" (Still not bad luck), in which Linda, who works as a cashier and recalls being given counterfeit money, is asked by a Chinese man called Tom if the bill is fake.

The Spanish civil war (1936-1939) had a huge impact on the Philippines due to the mobilization of the Spanish community of the archipelago, which organized publications such as ¡Arriba España!, strongly supported by the Foreign Services of the Spanish Fascist Party Falange Española. This irregular publication (it published around two numbers a week) published war reports, telegrams, and news both from Spain and the Philippines with a strongly propagandistic tone.On Christmas eve, ¡Arriba España! published a reprint of the famous poster “1 Cruzada. Espana orientadora espiritual del mundo”, which summarized the ideology of the soon-to-be Fascist victor of the conflict: a Christian revolution born out of a military conflict defined as a holy war against communism, but also as the fulfillment of the historical destiny of Spain, identified with Catholicism, hierarchy, and aristocracy. Same as Pope Pius XI, whose words were republished on the same page, many Spanish-speaking Filipinos prayed for Franco and saw in him an alternative both to Soviet communism and American democracy. Nevertheless, its idealization of the Spanish colonial past, as well as its imperialistic undertones, would alienate many Filipinos from any kind of Hispanic ethnicity linked to Spain.

The Young Citizen was an illustrated monthly magazine for children with content related to the education of young Filipinos. 
As the day for independence drew close, military heroes appeared more often in the press. After 1936, the biographical section of The Young Citizen was already named “Gallery of National Heroes”, presenting more militant figures such as Emilio Jacinto, who played a role in the Philippine revolution. In the issue of November 1936, Pacifico Bernardo wrote a biography of Gregorio del Pilar centered on the battle of Tila Pass on December 19, 1898, which had already appeared in a poem in a 1930 publication, Green and White (Vol. VIII, No. 2, October). 
On the battle of Tila Pass, Del Pilar ambushed a group of Spanish soldiers with a handful of men “whose only weapons were courage and loyalty”, sacrificing himself to fight for his country unselfishly and against all odds. Bernardo praised Del Pilar’s virtues but especially his kindness in treating people and his respect for the rights of others. Nevertheless, key figures that survived the Spaniards and fought the Americans, such as Aguinaldo or Mabini, were still absent from the public discourse–and therefore, from the UPD periodicals collection.

La Dame aux camélias is a French self-fiction written by Alexandre Dumas (son) and published for the first time in 1848. The main plot is the story of the prostitute, Marguerite Gautier, narrated after her death (presumably of tuberculosis or syphilis), by two of her lovers. Since its first publication, it achieved great success and was the object of multiple translations and adaptations. It was Dumas himself who adapted it to the theatre in 1852, and two years later it became the opera La Traviata with music composed by Giuseppe Verdi.
In the case of the version in Renacimiento Filipino, it is a translation into Tagalog by Gerardo Chanco under the pseudonym of Kayumanggi. This version was serialized in the pages of the newspaper and published from 28 October 1912 to 7 August 1913. It was compiled in 1915 and published in a book format at Limbagan at aklatan ni P. Sayo balo ni Soriano.

Katharine Brush (1902-1952) was a fiction writer born in the USA. According to an article published in Time magazine in 1940, Brush was one of the highest paid women writers in the United States by 1930, yet the Philippine Graphic magazine describes her –somewhat patronizingly– as a promising young writer in 1933, still far from those writers that Graphic's editorial considers top of the line, such as Edith Wharton or Willa Cather. Although this editorial compares Brush only to other women writers, perhaps one difference with some Spanish-language Philippine magazines is that her tale does not appear in the ‘home section’ or in the section devoted exclusively to women. As indicated in a box in the magazine itself, the short story “Fumble” first appeared in the US Cosmopolitan magazine in March 1928 and immediately in Nash's in May 1928. It was later reprinted in a collection of Brush's short stories entitled Night Club (1929). The story that gives its name to the volume won him the O. Henry Prize, awarded annually since 1919 for short stories. In this number of Graphic, the story is left unconcluded, to be finished in coming issues.

The Woman’s Outlook was a Filipino woman’s magazine founded in 1922 and published on a monthly basis in Manila. The articles that can be found in this magazine are predominantly in English, but there is a Spanish section titled “Sección Castellana”, edited by Pura Villanueva de Kalaw, Teodoro M. Kalaw’s wife. Another important female figure that contributed to this magazine was the suffragist Rosa Sevilla de Alvero, director of the Instituto de Mujeres of Manila, who figured as a stockholder.As it can be seen from the articles mentioned on the front-page, the magazine was devoted to topics of the home and of social progress. Some of the articles published in this volume had titles such as “Mixing Housework with Pleasure” or “The Problems of Babies and Housework”. In addition to these articles, the magazine also published literary works. Titles such as a “The Wife Tamer” and “The Old Maid” can be found in this particular issue. These are short stories written by Gregorio Joson and Mariano R. de Peralta, respectively.  

Renacimiento Filipino was a bilingual Spanish–Tagalog newspaper printed in Manila until the 1940s by the members of the Guerrero de Ermita family. Renacimento had a strong nationalist ideology and was associated with anticolonial and anti-American struggles, so it's not surprising that it supported Woodrow Wilson as US president.  Wilson would be remembered as a defender of self-determination and the equality of nations, but he also inaugurated a time of American democratic interventionism, a vision that he first articulated in association with the Philippine question.
In November 1912, Renacimiento offered an illustrated report on the popular celebration of the 11th of November after Wilson’s victory in that year's U.S. presidential elections. This document suggests how the Philippines went earlier through the “Wilsonian moment” in Asia, which would follow U.S. victory in the first world war and, in that sense, foreshadowed the new global order under America’s redemptive mission to impose democracy and progress over (other parts of) the world. Renacimiento’s support would pay off after Wilson signed the “Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916”, replacing the Philippine Commission with a sovereign Philippine senate, the first step towards granting independence to the Philippine Islands.

The Cabletow (1923 - today) is the monthly publication of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines. In May 1964, it published an article by Emilio P. Virata with a eulogy for General Emilio F. Aguinaldo, a Filipino patriot and a brother mason. Aguinaldo passed away on the 6th of February of that year and, with him, the last protagonist of the Philippine Revolution. 
After his death, numerous books and articles depicted Aguinaldo as a Filipino nationalist, praising him as one of the most distinguished figures in Philippine history.  As Virata put it, Aguinaldo was the redeemer, a messianic figure of sorts, and the Philippine-American war was due to a misunderstanding, with democracy being restored gracefully by the US in 1946. Aguinaldo was a political opportunist more than an idealist, and, although after being captured in 1901 he swore allegiance to the US, he remained politically active. Aguinaldo lost against Quezon in the 1935 elections and his anti-Americanism resurfaced during the Second World War, when he collaborated with the Japanese puppet government, –wrongly–hoping that true independence could become finally real. An uncomfortable heroe, Aguinaldo was prosecuted after the war, although he was pardoned and lived comfortably, appearing only a few times in public.

Citing agency sources dated in Lisbon, this brief article describes anti-Sinitic attitudes and practices in the United States. Specifically, it reports the denial of the right to burial of Tom Chan, a member of the Chungking (Chongqing) People’s Political Council who died in Chicago, where his first wife was buried twenty-four years prior to Tom Chan’s death.

Literary works by Filipino authors were often published in newspapers: poetry, short stories and even novels were periodically printed on the pages of magazines. This was also the case of some of Evangelina Guerrero Zacarías’ work. They can be found on the pages of Excelsior, a magazine which she edited, but also in La Vanguardia  and La Opinión. The daughter of Fernando María Guerrero was a well-known and acclaimed writer during this period; she even won the Zobel prize in 1935 for her poetry collection Kaleidoscopio espiritual. 
“El único gesto” is a short story about a man named Aurelio who meets two different women. First, he meets Luisa, a flirty, bold, “super-modern” woman, whom he feels attracted to, but at the same time, repulsed by. Then he meets Carolina, a girl he describes as being sentimental, sensible and sensitive, and falls in love with her. Despite having already planned the wedding, Aurelio cannot stop thinking about the fact that he is too old for Carolina and decides to make a self-sacrifice: canceling the wedding and going away with Luisa. The story is a contrast between two types of women: the triumphant, flirty, modern woman and the heartbroken, innocent, sentimental girl.

Semana Revista ilustrada Hispano-Filipina was an illustrated magazine published weekly in Manila by the Spaniard Manuel Lopez Florez. Semana was created in 1948 and lasted until 1955. It was backed by Tabacalera and Cervecería San Miguel, and had important Spanish-speaking Filipino intellectuals as collaborators, such as Jesús Balmouri, Claro M. Recto, or Manuel Bernabé.
As a response to Elpidio Quirino’s initiative of turning the Cry of Balintawak a national holiday in 1950,  Francisco C. Palisoc wrote an article where he commemorated the event as the starting point of the independence and attacked the Filipinos who, having more prestige and power and so the potential to give the insurrection an overwhelming and decisive force, didn't trust the insurrection and avoided their responsibility and the risk of an armed fight. Palisoc criticized the repression by the Spanish government, which only stirred a public opinion that already supported the insurrection, and praised Bonifacio as the only one who believed that the hour of independence was near, guiding the Filipinos to the promised land of independence when neither Rizal nor Mabini though the Filipinos were ready.

Literary awards were an important way of promoting literature in the Philippines during the 20th century. It is said that the Filipino poet Jesús Balmori won the first three prizes in the contest organized to celebrate "Rizal's day" in 1908 and that this sparked a bitter controversy between Balmori and another Filipino poet, Cecilio Apóstol. The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature began to be awarded in 1950 to texts in English, Tagalog and Spanish (it still exists today,though awarding texts only in English and Tagalog). For its part, the Zobel Prize was awarded between 1921 and 2000 for the best works in Spanish written by Filipinos. In addition to these awards, institutional and commemorative of events, there were awards promoted by newspapers. In contrast to the award created Liwayway, the one subsidized by the newspaper La Vanguardia is not so well known. 
La Vanguardia awarded prose texts of different subgenres: socially-oriented stories, psychological stories, folk tales, tales of love and pain, tales of moral background, and tales of animal life. Curiously, despite participation of a series of well-known names in Philippine literature in Spanish, the jury (solely composed by the director of the national library Teodoro Kalaw) decided to award the short story submitted (under a pseudonym) by Jose Maria Lasala del Mar (1896-1982), a Cebuano journalist who was not so much at home in the capital. 
The story, entitled “El pasado se compra”, is about the social rise and fall of a woman in financial straits. This woman, Margarita, marries a Chinese-Filipino who lifts her out of poverty but she ends up in jail. She then returns to misery and to engage in sinful and illegal activities to get ahead. The text connects in several ways with two stories published by an Ilongo writer, Guillermo Gómez Windham, in 1921: on the one hand with “La aventura de Sing-a”, about a Chinese boy who moves to Manila to make a living and ends up embarking in criminal activities related to the trafficking of explosives, just like Margarita's husband; on the other hand, with “La carrera de Cándida”, the story of a girl who, influenced by an American education, leaves her tradition aside to study and have a professional life, but ends up prostituting herself to get ahead.

Domus Aurea was a literary magazine launched in1908. It featured the country's most prominent writers and often discussed both Filipino and Latin American modernist literature. Directed by Sixto Roses, writers of two generations passed through the magazine: those who were already developing solid works at the end of the 19th century, such as Pedro A. Paterno, and those writers, especially poets, who triumphed in the first half of the 20th century, such as Fernando María Guerrero, Cecilio Apóstol, Jesús Balmori, Manuel Bernabé, Epifanio de los Santos and Pacífico Victoriano. Prose writers and intellectuals who were politically relevant in the early years of American colonization, such as Teodoro M. Kálaw, Rafael Palma, and Jaime de Veyra, also contributed to the magazine.
Domus Aurea, which included both original literary works and studies on the literature, architecture, art, and culture of Latin America and the Philippines, published five issues from its launching in June 1908. It promoted so-called "modernista" works from Spain, other parts of Europe –especially France– and Latin America, which were on sale to subscribers at a substantial discount at the Manila Filatélica bookshop.
The magazine had the added value of contributing to disprove the idea (originated by Spanish diplomat Luis Mariñas Otero) that modernism arrived in the Philippines through the Malaga poet Salvador Rueda in 1914 (Mariñas Otero 1974, 60).
Issue 3 of the magazine features a dissertation by Sixto Roses on Modernism in art, in which he traces the origins of Latin American modernism to the French Parnassian school and quotes the Guatemalan modernist writer Enrique Gómez Carrillo and Rubén Darío, of whom he speaks as follows:
Rubén Darío is the highly original, refined bard who revolutionised poetry, master of the novelties of rhythm, of the exquisite expressions of the sensitised language, of the curious lyrical flights, pretending to paint the intimate vibrations of the soul. Vague, complicated, symbolic, slightly Versaillesque, he chiselled his verses like an impeccable sculptor. In "Prosas Profanas", "Cantos de Vida y de Esperanza", in "Los Raros", he is Hellenic in form, strange, swayed by reverie.
It is therefore obvious that modernist literature was known years before Salvador Rueda's arrival in Manila.
The magazine also includes a chronicle of the gatherings at the Euterpe club, where lectures, poems and musical pieces were read and performed. In July 1908, the then young poet Jesús Balmori gave a lecture at the club, also entitled "El modernismo en el arte", which, according to Sixto Roses, 
was an amalgam of erudition and elegance, the modernismo that the poet gave us. He spoke of the tendencies, the novelty, and the future triumph of this school: more than a dissertation against archaic dogmas, and a superb vision of freedom in art, with his highly suggestive style, it was a lyrical talk.