CONDITION REPORT
SOFTBOUND
DETACHED COVER AND LAST PAGES,
DAMAGED SPINE,
PAGES IN GOOD CONDITION BIG FOLDED MAP OF LUZON IN GOOD CONDITION,
EXCEPT FOR LITTLE CRACK IN THE LEFT SIDE

ABOUT THE WORK

Father Ulpiano’s account of the Philippine revolution One of the most outstanding accounts of the Philippine revolution, 900 pages long, was written by a Spanish Dominican friar, Fr. Ulpiano Herrero. The title is quite descriptive: Nuestra Prisión en Manos de los Revolucionarios Filipinos: Crónica de dieciocho meses de cautiverio de más de cien religiosos del centro de Luzón empleados en el ministerio de las almas [Our imprisonment under the Filipino revolutionaries: Chronicle of 18 months of captivity of more than 100 friars from Central Luzon in charge of administering the souls]. It was published by the University of Santo Tomás in 1900 and narrates a critical moment of the revolution: the capture of the friars in Central and Northern Luzon by the revolutionaries. They would become their hostages. The prologue of the book already makes explicit that his goal is not to attack the Filipino people or the leaders of the revolution, but to make public the somewhat extraordinary events that happened to him. Father Ulpiano makes clear and acknowledges that the desire for independence of the Filipinos was a legitimate ambition. What he did not understand was the unnecessary violence used against the friars and his fear that, with independence, the Catholic religion would be eradicated by the masons. So, he does not speak so much from the point of view of a Spaniard, but from the point of view of a member of the Church. He considers that the role of the friars has not been only evangelizing the people, but civilizing them. But most importantly, he does not accept any criticism of the Filipino people. Father Ulpiano emphasizes that any fault that the Filipinos might commit ultimately was a fault of Spain and its negligence after more than three centuries of presence. Father Ulpiano was imprisoned in his parish in Orión, Bataan; he surrendered after little resistance in the tower of the parish. He later joined another group of Dominican friars from Bataan to be sent by boat to Cavite. From there, a group of more than 120 friars would be forced to walk or be transported by land, passing by Tárlac, Nueva Écija, Pangasinán, the Lepanto district in the Cordillera and even Ilocos Norte. During the journey, the friars suffered physical punishment, public humiliations, continuous thefts, hunger and thirst. Some of the prisoners, being old friars, could not resist the harsh treatment and passed away. But despite this, throughout the account of Father Ulpiano the Filipino people are portrayed in a very favorable manner. Very often, the common people generously helped the friars by providing food, clothes, shelter and money along the way. In a few cases, some Filipinos even risked their lives to relieve the hunger of the friars in exchange for nothing. He also made distinctions between good revolutionary leaders, who behaved with humanity and the bad ones who, with the excuse of the revolution, entered the houses of people to steal their belongings mercilessly. He distinguished between well-intentioned people who associated with the revolutionary cause from the heart and plain criminals who acted with impunity. He recorded the names of most of them. A very interesting feature of the first pages is that the description of the revolution did not fit in with the typical “Filipinos against Spanish” narrative, but a civil war. Most of the soldiers fighting for the Spanish side were actually Filipinos, but in the provinces, many Spaniards joined the Philippine cause: family welfare and properties are, in the end, more important than national loyalties. The whole account, written exhaustively and with much detail, shows no resentment and displays much humanity. The very proof of his true commitment with the Filipino people is the fact that Father Ulpiano, who arrived in the Philippines in 1887, did not resign his duties — unlike other Spanish friars, who went back to Spain — and chose to remain in the Philippines until his death, which occurred in 1916. Father Ulpiano Herrero’s account invites a reconsideration of the way in which national histories are told. It proposes a reflection about the right decisions and excesses of the friars in the archipelago and sheds light on the inside experiences of the revolution in a truthful style, showing the greatness and the miseries of human beings obliged to portray themselves within the maelstrom of history. Very interesting is the big folded map of Northern Luzon, which shows the itinerary taken by the friars when they forced to follow Emilio Aguinaldo, who was escaping the persecution, until they were left free.