Write up about the Conference
El Colegio de Michoacán, A.C. and the University of Guadalajara organized this international conference in commemoration of the 450th anniversary of Legazpi and Urdaneta’s expedition in 1964. This expedition paved way for the galleon trade and constituted a landmark in the long relationship between the Philippines and Mexico. Starting in 1964, a series of celebrations has been organized to celebrate “The Year of Mexican-Philippines Friendship”. In line with this, this conference aimed to highlight material and cultural exchanges between Mexico and the Philippines, both in the past and present.
It brought together eighteen scholars from Asia, Latin America, and North America who covered themes such as fraternity, geopolitics, history and religion, space and culture. The proceedings of this conference will be published by El Colegio de Michoacan.
To foster closer bonds between the Philippines and Mexico, a homage was given by a Filipino scholar, Dr. Fernando Zialcita, to Lic. Jesus Gonzalez Gortazar, an honorary consul of the Philippines in Guadalajara.
Feedback on paper presented
The paper presentation which aimed to assess works on the galleon through looking into the four major online publications in the Philippines including Philippine Studies (1953-2014) of Ateneo de Manila University, Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society (1973-2010) of San Carlos University, Philippine Social Science Review (1984-2014) and Social Science Diliman (2000-2014) of University of the Philippines, and Malay (1981-1994) of La Salle University, received commendation from co-presenters. It should be published for future reference of galleon scholars.
Feedback on paper presented
The paper will be revised for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Potential foreign collaborators
I met distinguished scholars from El Colegio de Michoacan, Universidad Ibero-Americana. El Colegio de San Luis, Universidad de Colima, important academic institutions in Mexico.
Other important contacts and insights
One of the thrusts of my Department is to strengthen its linkages outside the country, especially with Spain and Latin America. This year’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of the end of the galleon trade will be a good venue to tap these scholars I met through the conference.
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
Assistant Professor Kristyl N. Obispado presented he paper entitled “Relaciones entre Filipinas y México el Comecio del Galeón: Una Reseña de la Literatura Historiográfica en Filipinas” at SeminarioInternational: Año de la Fraternidad México-Filipinas, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico last November27-28, 2014. It focuses on the historical works done on the galleon. Since the Manila galleon provided not only a vessel for material wealth such as silk and silver, but also facilitated exchanges in various forms, the familiarity between the two countries in the present time is reminiscent of these exchanges. Because of this, both the Philippine and Mexican Government continuously endeavor to emphasize their close relationship in the past through research programs: fro the year 1962 when Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos sent to Filipino scholars to research at Archivo General de la Nación to the year 2011 when then Philippine Senator Edgardo J. Angara initiated an academic exchange program between Mexico and Philippines. Hence, the trend of the previous and current research on Philippine-Mexico relations in the Philippines focuses on the galleon trade. As the year 2015 marks the bicentenary of the end of the galleon trade, an enterprise that link together the two ed points of the Pacific-Philippines and Mexico- for 250 years, it is high time to examine the status and direction of the researches on the galleon trade in the Philippine historiography through looking into the literature published in the Philippines and/or published by Filipino scholars.
