Frontier constitutions : Christianity and colonial empire in the nineteenth-century Philippines / John D. Blanco.

Research into the Philippine colonial past has taken a turn away from the strictly historiographic detailing of dates and events into cultural exploration and configuration in John Blanco's Frontier Constitutions. The book explains the complex impact of Spanish hegemony on the consciousness of the native populace, using art works and literature as foundation of insights on the outcome of the processes our people underwent as Spain untangled contradictions arising from its diminishing imperial power in the nineteenth century with measures intented to prolong its hold on its territorial possessions away from the Peninsula. Blanco wields a light hand fielding his erudition in weaving history and politics to draw out insights on the implications of the interplay of religion and royalty and the changing consciousness of the colonial subjects. It is not an incident that Blanco in his research has gone beyond the wonted practice of previous historians, devising an original methodology in dealing with the past. A scholar trained in the discipline of Comparative Literature, he is alert to the role of cultural artifacts in depicting the past and articulating consciousness of both artist and audience. His reading of the Letras y figuras of the painter Jose Honorato Lozano opened for him the world of nineteenth-century natives, and the scholar thus wended his way into the "constitutions" that transformed colonial subjects into thinking and, above all, articulate natives like Jose Rizal. The field of Philippine Studies is fortunate to hail the arrival of a major cultural historian whose innovative practice will profitably light the path of young scholars of the future. - by Bienvenido L. Lumbera National Artist for Literature.