Subject: ilustrado / maginoo
Culture: Tagalog-Spanish mestizo / Filipino
Setting: late Spanish empire, Luzon 19thc
Context
* Ileto 1979 p269
"Ilustrado[:] The 'enlightened'; the educated segment of the native population"
"Maginoo[:] The Tagalog equivalent of datu; a gentleman of rank in the nineteenth century"
* Ileto 1979 p3
"Economic changes in the nineteenth century, such as the opening of the islands to foreign trade and capital investment, led to the rise of a prosperous class of mestizos and native elites, or principales. For the first time, families could afford to send their sons to universities in Manila and Europe. Influenced by Western liberal ideas, educated Filipinos called ilustrados, or 'the enlightened,' were determined to have the radical changes in the mother country applied to the colony itself. In other words, they wanted to be treated equal to the Spaniards, the main obstacles to this being the powerful religious orders that dominated colonial life. In spite of the ultimately narrow class interests behind their agitation, the ilustrados managed to stir up a nationalist sentiment among the masses by focusing upon friar abuse that was universally felt in varying degrees. And so, even as the reformist or assimilationist movement faltered and died in the early 1890s, the upsurge of nationalism was such that a sepratist movement -- the Katipunan -- was able to take root among the masses."
Costume
* Rodell 2002 p115
"By the early nineteenth century ..., upper-class Filipinos began wholesale adoption of the Spanish style of dress, which even included walking canes, as a way of integrating themselves into the colonial power structure. In the face of this native imitation, a regulation was passed in the 1830s requiring natives to wear their shirts outside of their trousers -- the practice of tucking in one's shirt was a privileged manner of dress reserved for Spaniards.
"The discriminatory dress code soon made the lowly baro a symbol of nationalism. Faced with colonial snobbery and derision, the nationalist sought to embrace what his oppressor rejected. It was not long before the baro became today's barong tagalog, the physical embodiment of things Filipino and of national pride. In its process of transformation, the baro gained a collar and was made in long and short-sleeve versions. The formerly plain shirt also became colorful with differently dyed cloth, design patterns, and elaborate embroidery. No matter what the color, decoration, or peculiar cut of the individual shirt, the baro was always made of a sheer native cloth, which made them especially well adapted to the country's tropical climate -- certainly more so than the heavy layering of thick fabric required of dressing in a European fashion."
