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Full-Text Articles in Asian History
Romancing Tropicality: Ilustrado Portraits Of The Climate In The Late Nineteenth Century, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr
Romancing Tropicality: Ilustrado Portraits Of The Climate In The Late Nineteenth Century, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr
History Department Faculty Publications
In contrast to the literature’s dominant focus on Western constructions of tropicality, this article explores representations of the tropics by the colonized, specifically the climatological conditions of the Philippines as portrayed in the late nineteenth century by the Europe-based native intellectuals known as ilustrados. Their anticolonial sentiment was intertwined with visceral estrangement from Spain and idealized views of the tropics, which reversed the colonizers’ racial-geographic prejudice and asserted an identity as a civilizable tropical people capable of genius. Rizal’s return visit to the homeland in 1887, however, made him agree with the Spanish premise about the climate in order to …
Disasters As Contingent Events: Volcanic Eruptions, State Advisories, And Public Participation In The Twentieth-Century Philippines, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr
Disasters As Contingent Events: Volcanic Eruptions, State Advisories, And Public Participation In The Twentieth-Century Philippines, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr
History Department Faculty Publications
By revisiting the eruptions of Taal in 1911, Hibok-Hibok in 1951, and Pinatubo in 1991, this article interrogates Greg Bankoff’s argument that “cultures of disaster” in the Philippines produce “coping mechanisms” manifested in public apathy and the state’s failure at mitigation. It argues for historical contingency as illustrated by the relative success at disaster mitigation in Pinatubo’s case, despite extreme challenges. It highlights the warning system in which the Aeta who lived on Mount Pinatubo, along with volcanologists and other key actors, played crucial roles. The Aeta’s nonscientific perspective was not an obstacle to understanding risks and taking defensive action.