Jose M. Del Castillo y Jimenez: El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo en Filipinas
Jose M. Del Castillo y Jimenez
El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo
en Filipinas: Cronica ilustrada con documentos, autografos y fotograbados
(The Katipunan or the Subversives in the Philippines, Illustrated Chronicle with Documents, Manuscripts and Photogravures)
Asilo del Huerfanos del S.C. de Jesus, Madrid, 1897
leatherbound, 396 pages
7 1/2" x 5" (19 cm x 13 cm)
depth: 1" (3 cm)
Opening bid: PHP 70,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Manila
ABOUT THE WORK
El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo en Filipinas (Madrid, 1897), by Jose? Mari?a del Castillo y Jime?nez is an essential work for understanding the Philippine revolutionary movement for independence, espeically during his first stages. And this is so in spite of being an extraordinarily polemic book, criticized both by the Filipinos for its radicalism -its bias always in favor of the Spaniards and against the Philippine aspirations- and also by the Spaniards, for the excessive animosity, for having given shape as facts to what were only rumors, for the lack of pragmatism of the solutions it proposed. Nevertheless, it is a work cited by all historians of the Philippine Revolution, especially by those interested in its origins, because this work contains a wealth of information not found in any other. The author of this very early political study, published - let us remember - when the Biak-na-Bato? Pact had not even been signed yet (December 14, 1897), was a high official of the Spanish administration who spent many years in the Philippines. His last post was head of the Bureau of Statistics of the Manila City Hall. There are two characteristics in his author's profile that determine the particular idiosyncrasy of his book: first, his position in the administration allowed him access to a large amount of confidential documentation and to talk to numerous people who knew those involved. Secondly, Del Castillo was a man with a certain cultural background, as he was a frequent contributor as a journalist to the prestigious Revista Contempora?nea (Madrid, 1875-1907). After returning to Spain in April 1895, he joined Carlism and died a few years later. In Revista Contempora?nea he received, unexpectedly, a praiseworthy review: “this book is interesting in every theme, not only because it deals with a topical issue, but also because in the historical order it provides data and background information of such value that it will be useful to consultin the near future. [...] Mr. Castillo knows the subject very well and shows an impartial spirit free of passion. In dealing with the propagation of Freemasonry and its causes, among which the erroneous criteria and excessive tolerance of the authorities sent to that territory figure in the first place, Mr. Castillo understands that this is where the origin of the present insurrection stems from”. Perhaps one of the values of this book lies precisely in the fact that it was published when the Katipunan insurrection was in full process. Thus, he states in the prologue: “The most interesting thing at the present time is the insurrectionary movement which began on August 20, 1896, and which from a mere ‘accident’, as it was called in those days, has become a bloody war, all the more terrible and bloody because it is essentially motivated by the hatred of the Malay race against the white race, the spirit of rebellion of the Indian against the Spaniard, the ingratitude as a reward for so many efforts and so much care”. As we can notice, the fact that the book was written from a distinctly colonialist perspective does not make the book uninteresting to the Filipino reader of today. William Henry Scott has rightly claimed that, when dealing with Spanish sources, the fundamental and useful thing to do is to elide and ignore all that is pure opinion -that belongs to sociology-, and extract the information and data -which properly belongs to history as a field of study-, which constitute its true value. In this sense, Del Castillo's work is a veritable mine of data, even if at times it must be confronted, naturally, with other primary sources about the revolution. The book is structured in three main parts: in the first, entitled “Causes and Origins of the Revolution”, he locates one of the roots of the problem in Jose Centeno Garcia, civil governor of Manila and known anticlerical Mason, who in 1888 allowed an unprecedented protest against the archbishop, the Dominican Pedro Payo (1876-1889). During those years numerous Masonic lodges were founded not only in Manila, but also in the provinces, which had as a common denominator, in Castillo's opinion, the hatred of everything Spanish. Del Castillo also offers valuable comments about the people behind newspapers such as La Solidaridad and Kalayaan, and about the open collaboration of Spanish Masons, led by Morayta, with the rebels. In the second part, the longest, entitled “effects and development of the revolution”, the first-hand information he offers about the founders of the Katipunan is exceptional, and he even reproduces the instructions regarding the first coup they planned, and details as concrete as the expenses incurred by the revolutionaries. It is here that Del Castillo narrates the controversial anecdote, denied by other sources, according to which the Katipunan revolution was discovered by the Augustinian parish priest Mariano Gil, who managed to extract the confession of a member of the insurrectionists, a certain Patin?o, resentful after having received a beating for not having donated his corresponding economic contribution to the cause. These first two parts were written in Manila. Not so the third part, more personal, entitled “Judgments on persons and things”, where he confesses to have left the archipelago for fear of being beheaded. Del Castillo narrates in detail the murder of two friars in Cavite and in Bataan, and inserts some private correspondence: modest efforts to put an end to the insurrection and Freemasonry. We are -we insist- before a very partial work, written from a decidedly colonial perspective, but, being the work a first- hand witness, the wealth of information, of so many characters depicted, of documentation and of anecdotes and events is so abundant that it becomes an indispensable source to know the preliminary phases and the beginning of the Philippine insurrection.
Lot 145 of the Leon Gallery auction on June 17, 2023. Please see leon-gallery.com/auctions/The-Spectacular-Mid-Year-Auctio... for more information.
Jose M. Del Castillo y Jimenez: El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo en Filipinas
Jose M. Del Castillo y Jimenez
El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo
en Filipinas: Cronica ilustrada con documentos, autografos y fotograbados
(The Katipunan or the Subversives in the Philippines, Illustrated Chronicle with Documents, Manuscripts and Photogravures)
Asilo del Huerfanos del S.C. de Jesus, Madrid, 1897
leatherbound, 396 pages
7 1/2" x 5" (19 cm x 13 cm)
depth: 1" (3 cm)
Opening bid: PHP 70,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Manila
ABOUT THE WORK
El Katipunan o el Filibusterismo en Filipinas (Madrid, 1897), by Jose? Mari?a del Castillo y Jime?nez is an essential work for understanding the Philippine revolutionary movement for independence, espeically during his first stages. And this is so in spite of being an extraordinarily polemic book, criticized both by the Filipinos for its radicalism -its bias always in favor of the Spaniards and against the Philippine aspirations- and also by the Spaniards, for the excessive animosity, for having given shape as facts to what were only rumors, for the lack of pragmatism of the solutions it proposed. Nevertheless, it is a work cited by all historians of the Philippine Revolution, especially by those interested in its origins, because this work contains a wealth of information not found in any other. The author of this very early political study, published - let us remember - when the Biak-na-Bato? Pact had not even been signed yet (December 14, 1897), was a high official of the Spanish administration who spent many years in the Philippines. His last post was head of the Bureau of Statistics of the Manila City Hall. There are two characteristics in his author's profile that determine the particular idiosyncrasy of his book: first, his position in the administration allowed him access to a large amount of confidential documentation and to talk to numerous people who knew those involved. Secondly, Del Castillo was a man with a certain cultural background, as he was a frequent contributor as a journalist to the prestigious Revista Contempora?nea (Madrid, 1875-1907). After returning to Spain in April 1895, he joined Carlism and died a few years later. In Revista Contempora?nea he received, unexpectedly, a praiseworthy review: “this book is interesting in every theme, not only because it deals with a topical issue, but also because in the historical order it provides data and background information of such value that it will be useful to consultin the near future. [...] Mr. Castillo knows the subject very well and shows an impartial spirit free of passion. In dealing with the propagation of Freemasonry and its causes, among which the erroneous criteria and excessive tolerance of the authorities sent to that territory figure in the first place, Mr. Castillo understands that this is where the origin of the present insurrection stems from”. Perhaps one of the values of this book lies precisely in the fact that it was published when the Katipunan insurrection was in full process. Thus, he states in the prologue: “The most interesting thing at the present time is the insurrectionary movement which began on August 20, 1896, and which from a mere ‘accident’, as it was called in those days, has become a bloody war, all the more terrible and bloody because it is essentially motivated by the hatred of the Malay race against the white race, the spirit of rebellion of the Indian against the Spaniard, the ingratitude as a reward for so many efforts and so much care”. As we can notice, the fact that the book was written from a distinctly colonialist perspective does not make the book uninteresting to the Filipino reader of today. William Henry Scott has rightly claimed that, when dealing with Spanish sources, the fundamental and useful thing to do is to elide and ignore all that is pure opinion -that belongs to sociology-, and extract the information and data -which properly belongs to history as a field of study-, which constitute its true value. In this sense, Del Castillo's work is a veritable mine of data, even if at times it must be confronted, naturally, with other primary sources about the revolution. The book is structured in three main parts: in the first, entitled “Causes and Origins of the Revolution”, he locates one of the roots of the problem in Jose Centeno Garcia, civil governor of Manila and known anticlerical Mason, who in 1888 allowed an unprecedented protest against the archbishop, the Dominican Pedro Payo (1876-1889). During those years numerous Masonic lodges were founded not only in Manila, but also in the provinces, which had as a common denominator, in Castillo's opinion, the hatred of everything Spanish. Del Castillo also offers valuable comments about the people behind newspapers such as La Solidaridad and Kalayaan, and about the open collaboration of Spanish Masons, led by Morayta, with the rebels. In the second part, the longest, entitled “effects and development of the revolution”, the first-hand information he offers about the founders of the Katipunan is exceptional, and he even reproduces the instructions regarding the first coup they planned, and details as concrete as the expenses incurred by the revolutionaries. It is here that Del Castillo narrates the controversial anecdote, denied by other sources, according to which the Katipunan revolution was discovered by the Augustinian parish priest Mariano Gil, who managed to extract the confession of a member of the insurrectionists, a certain Patin?o, resentful after having received a beating for not having donated his corresponding economic contribution to the cause. These first two parts were written in Manila. Not so the third part, more personal, entitled “Judgments on persons and things”, where he confesses to have left the archipelago for fear of being beheaded. Del Castillo narrates in detail the murder of two friars in Cavite and in Bataan, and inserts some private correspondence: modest efforts to put an end to the insurrection and Freemasonry. We are -we insist- before a very partial work, written from a decidedly colonial perspective, but, being the work a first- hand witness, the wealth of information, of so many characters depicted, of documentation and of anecdotes and events is so abundant that it becomes an indispensable source to know the preliminary phases and the beginning of the Philippine insurrection.
Lot 145 of the Leon Gallery auction on June 17, 2023. Please see leon-gallery.com/auctions/The-Spectacular-Mid-Year-Auctio... for more information.