Senator Loren Legarda highlighted the lasting strength of Filipino identity and the value of working together in her remarks at the launch of “Impressions of an Archipelago: Spanish Travellers and Writings on the Philippines.”
The book launch took place during the recent Philippines’ Guest of Honor program at the 77th Frankfurt Book Fair.
Legarda began by recalling the Philippines before colonization, describing it as a nation known for trade, governance, and rich languages. “Long before the first chroniclers set ink to paper, the Philippines was already a nation of thought and discernment,” the Senator said.
The book, published in Spanish, German, and English, brings together twenty essays from fifteen scholars in Europe and the Philippines, exploring how Spanish travelers from the 16th century to today have viewed the archipelago.
Stressing the need to reclaim historical narratives, Legarda, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Culture and Arts, said, “For generations, others have written about us; today, we write with them, beside them, and in our own voice.”
She called the work both recovery and reclamation, describing it as an act of cultural diplomacy based on respect and shared learning.
Legarda also credited the Philippine Studies Program, which she launched in 2017 and supported at Ruhr University Bochum in 2019, for helping bring the project to life. Now present in 33 academic institutions worldwide, the program advances research on Philippine history, languages, ecology, and memory. “Each partnership reminds us that knowledge, pursued together, is the finest form of diplomacy,” she said.
The four-term Senator affirmed the Filipino story as resilient and genuine. “As we share this work with the world here at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, we stand proud of the Filipino story as an enduring part of humanity’s larger journey,” she said in closing.
