First Filipino Photographer Felix Laureano and his Milieu
/
Cover of English translation of Recuerdos de Filipinas
Recuerdos has a kilometric subtitle: “A tool for the study and understanding of the ways and customs of these islands with thirty-seven phototypies taken and copied from real life.” It was translated into English by Felice Noelle Rodriguez, with Renan Prado and Ramon C. Sunico, and published by Cacho Publishing in 2001, over a hundred years after the original publication in Barcelona (1895). The translation was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
Laureano’s dedication is telling: “To the renowned and honored Filipino painter Don Juan Luna Y Novicio this Album-book Recuerdos de Filipinas is dedicated in acknowledgement and admiration of his talent as an artist, (from) his countryman and friend Felix Laureano.” A reprint of the English translation was done in 2014 by Anvil.
Felix Laureano (Source: Wikipedia)
The 37 phototypies are accompanied by fascinating essays. While the book purports to cover “Filipinas,” most scenes are of Iloilo and Panay. One photograph is of the Carolines, then a Spanish colony administered from Manila. Using Ilonggo terminology, Laureano describes various scenes with enthusiasm and humor, but he can also be patronizing and dismissive—his biases are evident. It is his familiarity with the local context, his detailed descriptions, and his use of vernacular vocabulary that make for a captivating read, whether one is interested in history, linguistics, photography, architecture, markets, festivals, or anthropology.
He writes about the dance of the Aetas, called Ati-Ati (some paraphrasing done for clarity):
“Agung is a type of bell, made from the rough wood of a thick trunk, its center hollowed out and hung from the branch of a tree. Struck by an Ati with a clapper made of wood, it produces sonorous, cacophonous vibrations that hurt the eardrum… They act out their own version of a war dance... changing places every second, always howling more than shouting… singing without intonation, harmony, or desire, their chants like the barks of dogs, lasting five to six hours… The dances are similar to those performed ‘de sacrificio’ by the Igorrotes and Tinguinanes at the Philippine Exposition of 1887 in Madrid… lacking scenic interest, with no appeal— a spectacle rather repugnant, tasteless, and insipid...”
One wonders what Laureano would think of today’s Ati-Atihan and Dinagyang festivals—both derived from the Ati-Ati, now embellished with carnival rhythms, Santo Niño iconography, elaborate costumes and choreography, and widely considered among the top festivals in the Philippines!
Acknowledged as the “first Filipino photographer,” Felix Laureano’s works provide a “window to the past.” As more facets of his life and career are revealed—mostly through the efforts of a tireless, persistent, determined, and obsessed sleuth—a more fascinating tale emerges: one that touches on the history of 19th-century photography in the Philippines and Spain, a changing countryscape as various colonial powers took control of the archipelago, and the rise and mastery of new technology. Laureano’s career in the 1880s and 1890s was truly transnational; his peers included Juan Luna, Graciano López Jaena, and perhaps even José Rizal. He won honorable mentions at international expositions, instilling pride in an emerging nation.
Laureano may not have been the first “Filipino” to use a camera or take a photograph, but it is important to recall that consciousness and identification as Filipino only began to emerge toward the late 1890s—at the tail end of the Spanish colonial period—primarily driven by the Propaganda Movement. Before that, “Filipino” was a term used by the Spanish to refer mainly to colonial subjects of Spanish descent. With a growing sense of nationalism, the term was gradually appropriated and embraced by the wider population. Previously, the people of the Islas Filipinas tended to identify themselves and others based on geography and language—hence, Tagalogs, Visayans, and other ethnolinguistic groups—or by social class and colonial status: Ilustrados, Peninsulares, Insulares, Indios, and so on.
Laureano identified as Filipino though he may not always have been labeled as such. Born and raised in Antique (Patnongon, Bugasong), one of seven children of a Spanish friar, Manuel Asencio, and a successful businesswoman, Norberta Laureano. Children of such liaisons would carry the mother’s family name. Laureano’s brother would later become Mayor of Bugasong in the early 1900s, and descendants are still in Iloilo and Antique. Laureano studied in Manila when he was 17 and may have learned his photo skills there. He also studied in Paris.
Through Recuerdos, Laureano’s focus on people, scenes, and events—along with vivid descriptions of place—offers solid proof of “Filipino-ness.” Only well-versed locals would use Hiligaynon terminology accompanied by Spanish translations for the reader. The book includes dozens of Ilonggo (and some Tagalog) words that are translated—tuba, cundiman, uma, dul-ong, tabù, bugas, calalau, patadiong, diuata, and calág are just some examples.
His photographs depict funerals, marriages, markets, a carinderia (eatery), river bathing and laundering, musicians, cuadrilleros (bullring assistants), various Filipino-Indio “types,” carabao riding, carrozas (carts), the port of Iloilo and its major streets—Calle Progreso and Yznart—the bridge at Tabucan, Sinulog or Moro-Moro performances, and the church of Oton. These scenes are quaint, the descriptions often rambling, and many of the words remain in use today. He also provides an effusive description of mestiza beauty and includes a photograph of a bullfight in Iloilo, which other authors have mistakenly identified as taking place in Manila.
Bugasong to Barcelona, via Toronto
Further into the spell, I began searching the internet and found the original Recuerdos, available on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th46WIB_eg4 (photos only, no text), and from the Falvey Memorial Library of Villanova University.
I discovered that a fellow Ilonggo, Francisco (Frank) Gonzalo Villanueva, had, by 2015, already organized several exhibitions in Iloilo and Manila on the works of Laureano. His own eureka moment happened when asking about early Philippine photography at the Augustinian Museum Oriental in Valladolid, Spain in 2010. He was shown a panoramic photograph of Iloilo’s Plaza Alfonso XII, with the San Jose Church and Guimaras island, published in Panorama Nacional in 1896. “The photographer could be Ilonggo,” he recalls Father Policarpo Hernandez OSA saying. Father Poli had formerly been assigned in Iloilo, and wrote the most definitive book on Spanish era Iloilo – Iloilo, the Most Noble City: History and development, 1566-1898 (New Day,2006).
The book launch of Bugasong to Barcelona. The Author Frank Villanueva is seated (Right).
Villanueva lived in Toronto, Canada, for most of his professional life, working in media and advertising. An avid traveler, he has completed the Camino de Santiago numerous times, served as a Hospitalero Voluntario (Hospitaler Volunteer) on the pilgrimage trail, and lectured on culture and history at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas. These regular trips to Spain also served as opportunities for further research on Laureano.
Using his own resources, Villanueva located the buildings where the former Laureano studios were established in Barcelona. He met with other researchers, scoured archives, second-hand stores, and museums, and interviewed Laureano’s relatives in Oton and Bugasong. He even dreamt of Laureano. Finally, sometime around 2022, Frank decided to publish what he had compiled about Laureano’s life and works, all while continuing to curate and organize exhibits on the Laureano Legacy—at the National Museum in Western Visayas, at the University of Alicante in 2023, and fittingly, in June 2024, in Barcelona, in the same barrio where Laureano had once established three photo studios.
Villanueva also uncovered what happened after the publication of Recuerdos. With Spain ceding the Philippines and its other possessions in 1898, Laureano became a press photographer, documenting key events during the Spanish-American War, including the Spanish military holdouts in Baler (Los últimos de Filipinas) and their return to Spain. He also covered the repatriation of Spanish nationals from the Caroline and Mariana Islands.
With the emergence of new technology—color photography—Laureano’s works also appeared in the first color photography publications in Spain. Eventually, he established additional studios in Barcelona, Manila, and British India, becoming an early exponent of the global Filipino. Though not much is known about his later years, he traveled several times between Iloilo and Barcelona from 1910 to 1940, owing to various land issues requiring court settlement. His first wife died in Spain, and he remarried, eventually leaving Spain during the Civil War years and settling in Iloilo just before the Japanese occupation. He left for Barcelona again after the war ended in 1945 but later decided to return to the Philippines. He lived his final years in Santa Ana, Manila, and died in a Spanish hospital in Makati in 1952 at the age of 86. He had lived through the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Revolution, two World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War.
The 37 phototypies are accompanied by fascinating essays. While the book purports to cover “Filipinas,” most scenes are of Iloilo and Panay.
Last July, Frank’s magnum opus—a 220-page book titled Bugasong to Barcelona: Life and Works of Felix Laureano—was launched in Iloilo City. The book includes the following chapters: Biography; 19th-Century Photography in the Philippines; Expositions (1887–1895) Featuring the Work of Laureano; Gran Fotografia Colon and Photography in Late 19th-Century Barcelona; Recuerdos; Press Photographer; and Laureano in Contemporary Times. A gallery of Laureano’s works includes: Tipos del País Filipina (Filipino Types), Vistas y Paisajes (Views and Landscapes), Costumbres(Customs), and photographs of Barcelona. Over 130 documents are listed as references.
At the book launch in Iloilo last July 26, Frank described his decade-and-a-half search and several serendipitous encounters, that started after that fateful day in 2010. Someone from the audience asked, “Why did you choose Felix Laureano?”, and he replied, “I didn’t choose him…Felix Laureano chose me”. Whichever way, Bugasong to Barcelona is an essential companion to Recuerdos and necessarily going beyond it. #
“Bugasong to Barcelona” may be ordered from https://forms.gle/s7APFqrr2KiJGwok8
Dr. Vicente S. Salas was the chief medical officer and medical coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the PFAC, from January 1988 to June of 1989. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the PFAC Museum.
More articles from Vicente Salas
