Writing in June 1889, the Manila-based correspondent for La Solidaridad listed down the calamities afflicting the archipelago: cholera, fires, earthquakes, and economic ruin. In those days, even the sky seemed to be on fire. Our reporter told his ilustrado readers in faraway Europe that standing in the shade in Manila would give you no comfort, because the temperature was 39 degrees. 39 degrees!
How did the way we talk about and think about heat change our culture and our history? For the 100th episode of The Colonial Dept., join us in a journey that takes us from a Roman poem to a Rizal essay, from economics to fashion to plain old discrimination. Bring along your pamaypay or your Jisu fan if you must; history is going to get a little hot!
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References:
Strabo (1917). Geography, Volume I: Books 1-2 (Horace Leonard Jones, trans.).Harvard University Press.
Ovid (1964). Metamorphoses (Rolfe Humphries, trans.) Indiana University Press.
Belamide, Aidel Paul G. (2020). “Rise and Decline of the Coffee Industry in 19th-Century Batangas: Causes and Consequences.” Philippine Social Sciences Review, 72(2), pp. 1-42.
Algue, Rev. Jose (1904). “Bulletin 2: The Climate of the Philippines.” In Census of the Philippine Islands (1903), Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census.
Lucero, Todd Sales (1 May 2024). “Heat in Pinoy history.” The Freeman. https://www.philstar.com/the-freeman/opinion/2024/05/01/2351767/heat-pinoy-history
Singh, Deepti; Seager, Richard; Cook, Benjamin I.; Cane, Mark; Ting, Mingfang; Cook, Edward; Davis, Michael (2018). “Climate and the Global Famine of 1876–78.” Journal of Climate, 31(23), pp. 9445–9467.
Santiago, Fernando A. Jr. (2015). “Manners of Resistance: Symbolic Defiance of Colonial Authority In Nineteenth Century Philippines.” Philippine Sociological Review, 63, pp. 137-168.
Aguilar, Filomeno V. Jr. (2025). José Rizal, Nationhood, and the Anticolonial Imagination. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Coo, Stephanie (2019). Clothing the Colony: Nineteenth-Century Philippine Sartorial Culture, 1820-1896. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
