Yes, Edison as in Thomas Edison, the light bulb guy. At the turn of his century, the tech wizard of Menlo Park produced thousands of movies as a showcase for his company’s vitascopes. Among those movies are five films about the Philippine-American War, produced in a flurry all throughout June of 1899.

It turns out that the boom of cinema dovetailed neatly with America’s growing imperial ambitions. But what made this faraway war so compelling for wide-eyed audiences captured by the magic of the silver screen?

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References:

Rafael, Vicente (2016). Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language Amid Wars of Translation. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Palis, Joseph (2009). “The ethnographic spectacle of the ‘other’ Filipinos in early cinema.” GeoJournal, 74, pp. 227-234.

Robbins, Dylon Lamar (13 July 2017). “War, Modernity, and Motion in the Edison Films of 1898.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 26(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569325.2017.1292222#d1e122

Brewer, Susan A. (1 October 2013). “Selling Empire: American Propaganda and War in the Philippines.” Asian Pacific Journal, 11(40). https://apjjf.org/2013/11/40/susan-a-brewer/4002/article

Walker, Malea (6 February 2024). “The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press.” Library of Congress Blogs. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2024/02/the-spanish-american-war-and-the-yellow-press/

“Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan.” Library of Congress

“History of Edison Motion Pictures.” (undated) Library of Congress

Blinkhorn, Martin (1980). “Spain: The ‘Spanish Problem’ and the Imperial Myth.” Journal of Contemporary History, 15(1), pp. 5-25.

Paterson, Thomas G. (1996). “United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War.” The History Teacher, 29(3), pp. 341-361.

Ocampo, Ambeth (19 March 2013). “Treasure trove in thick books.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Ocampo, Ambeth (21 March 2013). “An Igorot in the Philippine-American War.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Legarda, Benito J., Jr. (2001). The Hills of Sampaloc: The Opening Actions of the Philippine-American War, February 4-5, 1899. The Bookmark, Inc.

Angeles, Jose Amiel P. (2013). As Our Might Grows Less: The Philippine-American War in Context [Ph.D. dissertation]. Department of History, Graduate School of the History of Oregon.

When you pulled up to the dock, they were there waiting for you, those holy men of God.

But beyond inspecting ships that docked in the ports of Manila and Cavite for blasphemers and banned items, the Inquisition in the Philippines also investigated Protestants. Jews. Masons. Muslims. Non-Catholic Christian sects, like Armenian Christians or Jansenists. Its investigators monitored cases of heresy, blasphemy, apostasy, bigamy, and contempt. They kept tabs on witches, sorcerers, palm readers, fortune tellers, astrologers, and peddlers of superstition. And they dutifully recorded all their investigations and sent them to their head office in Mexico.

What tales can we uncover from these inquisitorial files? And what do they say about the practice of faith in our archipelago?

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References:

Galleons and Social Control in the Spanish Empire: The Contrabandistas: Defenders of “Free Trade” on the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, Volume IV. (2025) National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

Angeles, F. Delor (1980) "The Philippine Inquisition: A Survey." Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints, (28)3, pp. 253-283.

Cunningham, Charles H. (1918). “The Inquisition in the Philippines: The Salcedo Affair.” The Catholic Historical Review, 3(4), pp. 417-445.

Bonilla & Santos Garcia (1583). “Instructions to the Commissary of the Inquisition.” In Blair, Emma Helen, and Robertson, James Alexander (eds.), The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol. 40), Arthur H. Clark Company, 57.

Mawson, Stephanie Joy (2023). “Folk magic in the Philippines, 1611-39.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 54(2), pp. 1-25.

What kind of city was waiting for Dutch scholar Gerret Pieter Rouffaer when he got to Manila?

After more than a decade of occupation, the Americans had given the colonial capital some thorough nips and tucks. Aside from the glimmering roads and shady plazas, the Americans also laid down more tramways. Trams were already up and running during the latter part of the Spanish occupation, but in 1905, the US rehabilitated the old system. Unlike the old Spanish versions, these new streetcars barrelled along on double-wheeled trucks and could fit fifty people. They also ran on electricity.

When Rouffaer arrived in the Philippines, he took the tranvia everywhere, and wrote down his snarky observations in a diary. Let’s see what he had to say.

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References:

Muijzenberg, Otto Van Den (ed., trans.) (2016). Colonial Manila 1909-1912: Three Dutch Travel Accounts. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Rodell, Paul A. (1974). “Philippine ‘Seditious Plays.’” Asian Studies, 12(1), pp. 88-118.

Pante, Michael D. (2016). “Urban Mobility and a Healthy City Intertwined Transport and Public Health Policies in American-Colonial Manila.” Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 64(1), pp. 73-101.

Morley, Ian (2016). “Modern Urban Designing in the Philippines, 1898–1916.” Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 64(1), pp. 3-42.

Gardini, Ashley (8 July 2025). “Daniel Burnham in the Philippines.” JSTOR Daily.

Cubeiro, Didac (2017). “Modernizing the Colony: Ports in Colonial Philippines, 1880-1908.” World History Connected.

RailwaysPh. “Tranvías de Manila y Corregidor: Notable Heritage Tram Systems” (15 November 2020). Renacimiento Manila.

Sison, Norman (21 April 2015). “LRT expansions remind of tranvia days.” Vera Files.

Scott, William Henry (1984). Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (revised edition). New Day Publishers.

“There’s a message to it: It’s our responsibility to keep Filipino food popular!”

At the launch for her book What Recipes Don’t Tell: Philippine Food History in Fifty Words, author and historian Felice Prudente Sta. Maria talked to a rapt audience at the Philippine Book Festival about a long career of writing about food. What new things can food tell us about our own history? How did we adapt techniques and ingredients from abroad… while still preserving our own? And how should we nurture this knowledge for future generations?

Joining her in this panel were publisher and editor Karina Bolasco, graphic designer and fellow food scholar Ige Ramos, and printmaker Marz Aglipay. Through their shared history with Felice, they deepened the conversation with their own perspectives on creativity, design, and the space for food in the publishing landscape.

Special thanks to the Ateneo de Manila University Press for inviting me to moderate this panel, and for letting me record this conversation.

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The Colonial Dept. Interview is a series where I talk to researchers and authors shining a light on our past.

Sourness, according to Doreen Fernandez, “is a favored Philippine flavor.” Just how sour is sour? “Sour enough to savor, to make the lips pucker and the eyes squint slightly, and yet not too sour—just at the point of perfection.”

In the spectrum of sensation, sourness can be both sharp and sudden, an acetic shudder down the spine. Asim, the Tagalogs call it. From the earliest written records about the Philippines, it is this taste that has come to define our cooking. “Spanish colonials from the 1500s through the 1800s described indio food as primarily salty and sour,” writes food historian Felice Prudente Sta. Maria. “Both tastes can induce sweat in hot climates and remind the body to keep hydrated and its electrolytes balanced.” Let us trace the pathways of this taste as it evolved in three key dishes: sinigang, kinilaw, and adobo.

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Email us: thecolonialdept@gmail.com

References:

Sta. Maria, Felice Prudente (2025). What Recipes Don't Tell: Philippine Food History in Fifty Words. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Fernandez, Doreen G. (1988). “Culture Ingested: Notes on the Indigenization of Philippine Food.” Philippine Studies, 36(2), pp. 219-232.

Fernandez, Doreen G. (1994). Tikim: Essays on Philippine Food and Culture. Anvil Publishing.

Frank, Hannah E. R.; Amato, Katie; Trautwein, Michelle; Maia, Paula; Liman, Emily R.; Nichols; Lauren M.; Schwenk, Kurt; Breslin, Paul A. S.; Dunn, Robert R. (2022) “The evolution of sour taste.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1968). https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/289/1968/20211918/79292/The-evolution-of-sour-tasteEvolution-of-Sour-Taste

Shaw, Sterling V. Herrera (30 August 2024). “Adobo is ‘paksiw,’ and other terms in Filipino food history.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Ladrido, R.C. (1 July 2022). “Tapayan, Gusi, or Martaban: Tales of Stoneware Jars in the Philippines.” VERA Files.

Newman, Yasmin (11 May 2023). “Kinilaw, the age-old dish of the Philippines (and why it's not ceviche).” SBS Food. https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/kinilaw-the-age-old-dish-of-the-philippines-and-why-its-not-ceviche/4alb6pswa

Trinidad, Bea. (16 August 2025). “Say ‘kilawin’ instead of ‘Filipino ceviche’, okay?” The Philippine Star. https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/2025/08/16/2465728/say-kilawin-instead-filipino-ceviche-okay

Banez, George (31 August 2025). “Sinigang Through Time: The Filipino Sour Soup with Many Faces, One Soul.” Pressenza Philippines

Pigafetta, Antonio (ca. 1525). “Primo viaggio intorno al mondo.” In Blair, Emma Helen, and Robertson, James Alexander (eds.), The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol. 33), Arthur H. Clark Company.

Wertz, S.K. (2013). “The Elements of Taste: How Many Are There?” The Journal of Aesthetic Education,47(1), pp. 46-57 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jaesteduc.47.1.0046

Ferguson, Priscilla Parkhurst (2011). “The Senses of Taste.” American Historical Review, 116(2), pp. 371-384. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23307701

Before we start Season 8, I have an important announcement about this little podcast. For more info, check out this Instagram post.

“What does it take for a culture that has caused a lot of pain and suffering to have any chance at redemption… or any sense of justice?”

Tom Sykes’ riotous new book—a collision of a neon-powered 1980s Manila and a disaster-stricken barangay in the 1570s—attempts to answer the question… with many seedy side quests in between. How did he attempt to write his wild, genre-bending vision of the Philippines? And how does Back to the Future figure into it?

The Colonial Dept. Interview is a bonus show where I talk to researchers and authors who are shining a light on our past.

What a folk game can tell us about how a datu waged war. An interview with Micah Perez of the UP Diliman Department of History.

The Colonial Dept. Interview is a bonus show where I talk to researchers and authors shining a light on our past. Know a historian or author I should talk to? Email me at thecolonialdept@gmail.com.

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