LAST UPDATED: April 22, 2020
Over the years I have collected various books, pdf’s, articles, and other resources that I have read and added to my own personal library. With this page it is my hope and wish to help share the knowledge to my dear readers so you can have the same access to these materials.
This page will be periodically updated as I found more resources to add. If you have or find anything to add feel free to drop a comment below so I can add it to the resource page.
I have divided these resources by 3 sections:
1.) Primary Written Accounts & Dictionaries
This section focuses on the primary accounts from the early Spanish texts, manuscripts, and dictionaries, regarding our ancestors and history.
2.) Books
This section focuses on books on our history, culture, and folklore. Most are listed with a link to where you can buy these books so you can add them to your own personal library.
3.) Articles, Essays, & Online Archives
This final section focuses on various articles and essays I have found and collected over the years. Some of are in pdf format and have been saved on a folder on Google Drive that you can personally view and see.
Primary Written Accounts & Dictionaries
- Relation de las Yslas Filipinas in 1582 by Miguel de Loarca (scroll down a bit for the English translation)
- Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in 1609 by Antonio de Morga
- Customs of the Tagalogs (two relations). Juan de Plasencia, O.S.F.; Manila, October 21 1589
- Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 1) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino
- Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 2) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino
- The Muñoz text of Francisco Alcina’s History of the Bisayan Islands (1668), translation by Paul S. Lietz (note: The link only brings you to the page of the 4 volumes. However, only volume 3 is available online. I highly suggest reading all 4 volumes of Alcina’s Historia de Las Islas e Indios de Bisayas which you can find the English translation for by the Kobak and Guiterrez editions)
- Relation of the Filipinas Islands 1640 by a religious who lived there for eighteen years (Most agree that the person who wrote this account was Father Diego de Bobadilla)
- Native races and their customs, from Labor Evangélica, 1663 by Francisco Colin
- Relation of the Filipinas Islands and of the Character and Conditions of their Inhabitants by Miguel López de Legazpi 1569
- Letter to King Felipe II by Andrés de Mirandaola (in regards to the gold mines and describes relations with trade with China and described some settlements), January 8, 1574
- Undated letter to the Viceroy of New Spain by Guido de Lavezaris (Manila, 1575?) that mentions the freeing of the natives that were taken to go back to their villages, the trading between the Spanish with the Tagalogs (Moro’s) was at a standstill during this time because of an incident in which Chinese merchandise and 4 Chinese were seized and taken by a few Spaniards in which they stole the goods and those Chinese and others were sent back to China, in which the Spaniard Official (the one writing the letter) was upset about because it was a wrong doing to those who didn’t offend the Spaniards or betray them in anyway. The Tagalogs (Moro’s) distrusted the Spaniards due to this, taking back their goods because of the ill-treatment of the Spaniards. It talks about the asking of married Spaniards to come to the islands as the natives didn’t trust and feel safe toward the unmarried Spaniards but to those that had wives.
- Letter from Captain Juan Pacheco Maldonado to Felipe II (Manila 1575?) He begins by narrating briefly the conquest of Luzón; then describes the island and its trade, which is carried on with both China and Japan. On account of its wealth and importance, Luzón should be thoroughly subjugated; and Maldonado enumerates the provisions that should be made for that end. Forty or fifty ecclesiastics should be sent; and to aid in their labors a prelate should be appointed, for which post the writer recommends Fray Diego de Herrera. Maldonado urges that five hundred soldiers be sent from Spain and that with these troops conquest should be made of the Liu-Kiu and Japan Islands. He asks also for artisans to build ships, suggesting for this purpose the negro slaves thus employed at Havana.
- Conquest of the island of Luzon. Manila, April 20, 1572
- Relation of the Philipinas Islands. Domingo de Salazar, and others; Manila, 1586–88
- Boxer Codex (Pictures of the pages of the whole manuscript with no English Translation. You may find copies of the English translations in a few books mentioned below.)
- Description of the Philippines by Chao Ju-kua
- Antonio Pigafetta – Primo viaggrio intorno al mondo 1524
- Antonio Pifagetta – Primo viaggrio intorno al mondo 1524(continued)
- Relation of the Filipinas Islands. Francisco de Sande; June 7,1576.
- Relation and Description of the Filipinas Islands; Francisco de Sande; June 8, 1576
- Affairs in the Filipinas Islands. Domingo de Salazar; [Manila, 1583]
- Diccionario de la Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina Y Haraya de la isla de Panay by Alonso de Mentrida [1637]
Books
- Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society by William Henry Scott ( You can find a PDF copy in the Google Drive library listed in the next section under articles & essays.)
- The Philippine Islands by Blair and Robertson
- The Philippine Islands by Blair and Robertson (Digital Ebook with pictures, etc.)
- Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal translation by Harold Augenbraum
- Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space by Rick Bonus
- Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino-/American Postcolonial Psychology by E.J.R. David
- The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel
- Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions by Virgil Mayor Apostol
- Filipino Tattoos: Ancient to Modern by Lane Wilcken
- The Forgotten Children of Maui: Filipino Myths, Tattoos, and Rituals of a Demigod by Lane Wilcken
- Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous by Leny Mendoza Strobel & Perla Daly
- Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory by Lily Mendoza & Leny Mendoza Strobel
- Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans by Leny Mendoza Strobel
- Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM by J. Neil C. Garcia.
- Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 by Stuart Creighton Miller
- An Introduction to Baybayin by Kristian Kabuay
- Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex, and Revolution in the Philippines by Vina A. Lanzona
- History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos by Luis Francia
- Philippine Society and Revolution by Amado Guerrero
- Philippine Ancestral Gold by Florina H. Capistrano-Baker (this particular book was made for the Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms Exhibit in NYC held toward the end of 2015. I can’t find a cheaper copy of the book as of now, but if you happen to know of a bookstore that sells it or any libraries that have copies let me know and I can add them here.)
- Song of the Babaylan: Living Voices, Medicines, Spiritualities of Philippine Ritualist-Oralist Healers by Grace Nono
- Collecting the People: Textualizing Epics in Philippine History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Brandon Joseph Reilly
Articles, Essays, & Online Archives
- Philippines Epics and Ballads Archive by Ateneo (this has some of the actual recordings of the epic chanters but some don’t have the translations in English yet, they are only translated into Tagalog, and even some aren’t translated at all, however there are brief notes on the epics in pdf format. Also you will need to register an account but its free and you don’t need to attend a school in the Philippines to access the archive, just put in your school name in the field that asks)
- The Pinay Writer’s Digital Library (This folder is my own personal digital collection of articles, essays, etc. of pdf’s I have found over the years as part of my own research and of research for a book I have been writing for a few years now. This digital library is continuously updated as I find and collect more pdf’s. Feel free to download the files for your own personal digital library.)
- Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society by William Henry Scott (the digital pdf copy)
