ARNALDO | Youtube

Arnaldo’s Podcast is Back!

Well, yes… but not really. I used to have a Youtube channel that served as my podcast platform. It contained interviews I recorded for 5 years since 2009. Unfortunately, it got terminated due to “violations” last year. I never got my channel back. As if the misfortune wasn’t enough, there’s an even bigger one. I […]

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Historia

The Pio Andrade Jr. project

The other day, I was reminded of the late Pio Andrade Jr. when I read an article by the Philippine Information Agency that mentioned both of us. My friendship with Andrade began after I attended a seminar of his many years ago. He asked if I was a student from La Salle. “I think you […]

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Manila | Personal | quezon city

So long Andrade!

Feeling a bit under the weather I thought of staying home yesterday. But I was informed by the family of the eminent Chemist and historian Pio Andrade Jr. that Wednesday is the last and only day of his internment. He passed away last December 26. They decided to cremate his remains the next day and […]

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Historia | Opinion

Padre Damaso’ and the friars: Myth versus reality

This article was written by Pio Andrade Jr. This appeared on for the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Lifestyle section on January 25, 2016. If the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans and Recollects were mostly evil like Damaso, how was Spain able to hold PH for 350 years with a ridiculously low occupying army? EXACTLY a year ago when Pope Francis […]

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Historia

The 2nd Part of Pio Andrade Jr.’s Podcast

This is the second installment of my recorded conversation with historian cum chemist extraordinaire Pio Andrade Jr. I divided the 3 hour podcast and edited the gaps and dead air last year. I published the first part last January and shelved the second part for a later publication—I thought I lost it only to find […]

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Cavite

That Dam in Tres Cruces Tanza

Spurred by historian Pio Andrade Jr. during our recent meeting (last year, November), I went to Tanza earlier to look for the Tres Cruces dam. “Go see it, it’s still there… look at how they built that dam…it’s quite advance for its time” he said. I asked Andrade to visit the irrigation projects that the Friars established in Cavite with me a few […]

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Historia

Non-Spanish, Non-Catholic Defenders of the Friars

Non-Spanish, Non-Catholic Defenders of the Friars Pio Andrade Jr. The many good and enduring accomplishments of the Friars did not escape the attention of foreign visitors and historians. Many of them wrote favorable of the friars and defended them from the unjust treatment and comments that were heaped on them by critics. I would cite […]

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Historia

THE THOMASITES AND SPANISH

tag: pio andrade jr., thomasites, spanish philippines THE THOMASITES AND SPANISH The Thomasites were the American teachers who staffed Philippine public schools during the early American period. They were so-called because most of them came to the country in the U.S.S. Thomas, a transport ship. The Thomasites taught English to Filipino students in the public […]

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Historia

Bamboo Spanish

tag: pio andrade jr, spanish philippines, thomasite,  philippine american war BAMBOO SPANISH   How did the American soldiers in the Philippine-American War manage to make themselves understood by the Filipinos in the absence of an interpreter? Answer: By speaking “Bamboo Spanish,” which was also called “Soldier’s Spanish”, or “Pack-Train Spanish.”  By far, Bamboo Spanish is […]

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Manila

Fr. Felix Huerta : Great Benefactor

PHILIPPINE history focus so much on political history that many historical, but nonpolitical, persons of outstanding accomplishments are hardly mentioned in standard history textbooks. Take the case of Franciscan friar Fr. Felix Huerta, the administrator from 1850 to 1878 of San Lazaro Hospital which treated lepers for free. To most Manilans today, Felix Huerta is […]

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Historia

Education and Spanish in RP

By Pio Andrade, Jr. 1. THE BLACK LEGEND ON THE STATE OF EDUCATION (1) Filipinos in the 20th Century were repeatedly taught or told in schools and in the press, that Spain always kept their ancestors uneducated to have them ignorant and the always docile subjects of Spain. The blame was, in particular, thrown upon […]

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Camarines Norte

Kamagsa Vines, Dirigkalin, and the Church of Paracale

Whenever we hear the words ‘materiales fuertes’ we know what it exactly means. High grade, durable and resistant. The ecclesiastical structures and those baronial ‘bahay na bato’, reinforced the usage of the Spanish ‘materiales fuertes’ in all Filipino languages. After all, they’re the only structures that has survived the test of time. In fact, most […]

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