Counter-Hispanization in the Colonial Philippines

Reviews / Votes

Honorable Mention at 2025 Best Book in Colonial Latin American Studies.

"John D. Blanco has contributed with his book to a better understanding of evangelization and the so-called civilization-more accurately a cultural intervention-carried out by Spain during three centuries of conquest and colonization. A magnificent and scholarly work of supreme importance for understanding the past and present of Filipino culture."
-Clara Herrera, Guaraguao , issue 76, 2024

"This book challenges a historiography that it describes as still characterized by John Leddy Phelan's model of Hispanization, Christianization, and Philippinization by arguing that the legacy of Spanish missionaries was counter-Hispanization. Another powerful contribution of this book is to highlight the incomplete nature of the conquest and the massive scale of the violence and displacement caused by the Spanish invaders and the agents of their colonial administration. The book identifies the important role of missionary literature in providing a counternarrative that reveals the political and spiritual conquest as incomplete. It also sheds important light on the (largely neglected) harrowing abuses committed by missionaries against Indigenous people. ... This book provides valuable insights into the complex creation of Philippine Christianity..."
-Natalie Cobo, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 105, no. 2 (May 2025)