Write up about the Conference
Congreso Internacional en Estudio de Mujeres y Género held its first conference last March 19-22, 2013 in Zacatecas City, Mexico. This annual conference aims to provide an academic space where original researches can be presented and reviewed, and to create new knowledge from these studies. It also intends to generate links with the international academic community that has the same interest and line of research in the field of women’s and gender studies. Related areas of knowledge include literature, education, arts, politics, laws, migration and development, psychology, health, violence, communication media, science and technology, and masculinities.
Feedback on paper presented
Comments and Suggestions on my paper “LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE MASCULINIDADES ENTRE LOSMARINEROS FILIPINOS EN EL SIGLO XVII (CONSTRUTING MACULINITIES AMONG THE FILIPINO SEAMEN IN THE 17TH CENTURY)”.
- Give the historical background of gender relations in the 17th century Europe.
- Expound more the discussion on masculinity among the Filipinos. Was masculinity a colonial creation? While on the ship, were they aware their sexuality was being marginalized? How were they affected by this marginalization and how did they react to it?
- The study was interesting and promising but it can be improved more by focusing not only on the relations between high-ranking Spanish officials and low ranking Filipino sailors. Rather, emphasize the relations between Filipino and Spanish sailors.
Future directions of research presented
It is currently being reviewed for publication on a refereed e-journal SALIKSIK (though in this paper, I focused more on the everyday life of the 17th Filipino seamen. I still have to expand my RLL on gender.
Potential foreign collaborators
- UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE ZACATECAS
- INSTITUTO PARA LAS MUJERES ZACATECANAS
- INSTITUTO ZACATECANO CULTURA RAMÓN LÓPEZ VELARDE
- CONSEHO ZACATECANO DE CIENCIA Y TECHNOLOGÍA
- ASOCIACION ZACATECANA DE ESTUDIOS CLÁSICOS Y MEDIEVALES
- CONGRESO DEL ESTADO DE ZACATECAS
- UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE QUERÉTARO
- UNIVERSIDAD DE GUANAJUATO
- CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS DE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA DE LA MUJER (CEAM).
- UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN
- BENEMERITA UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE PUEBLA.
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
In 2011, I was awarded a research grant at Archivo General de la Nacíon and Colegio de Mexico through a project initiated by Senator Edgardo J. Angara. Prior to this year, there was no existing institutional academic exchange between the two countries. It was unfortunate since we shared so much with Mexico – 250 years of galleon trade; three centuries of suffering and struggles for freedom against the Spanish Empire, political ties, and cultural exchanges. With these, it is safe to assume that we are more Mexican than Hispanic.
During my ten month stay there with a colleague, we an opportunity to discourse with Latin American and Philippines scholars. Their access on the archives which house thousands of documents on Philippines galleon trade and colonial history is a great advantage to pioneer studies on some important aspects of Philippine colonial history. Hence, we aimed to bring back all these documents to the Philippines and put them within the reach of our scholars.
My presentation in Zacatecas was part of my research at Mexican archives. It was a preliminary study on the third factor that made the galleon trade last until 1815 – the Filipino seamen. Their voyage across the Pacific marked the global ascendancy of Filipino seamen and turned them into important maritime models for contemporary Filipino seamen.
The conference was held in Zacatecas which is on UNESCO’s world historical site list. During my five day visit, I stayed in Historic Center of Zacatecas where all the buildings are from nineteenth century or older. Since Zacatecas is also world renowned as the silver city (it was built over the site where silver was discovered in the 16th century), I couldn’t miss to visit La Mina El Eden where millions of tons of silver ore were removed before it closed down.
The conference was attended by 121 delegates from all over the Latin American countries, with the topics mostly covering the gender issues in colonial Latin America.I hope my research would be a valuable contribution in the field of Historiography, Latin-American Studies and Gender Studies.
