FOR writer and podcaster Lio Mangubat, fascinating but lesser-known tidbits of history have always been the driving force behind his many endeavors, whether it was a magazine article or an episode of his podcast The Colonial Department.
So he was pleasantly surprised when Chye Shu Wen, the Singapore-based publisher of Faction Press, contacted him and suggested that he compile all the research and writing he had done for various articles and podcast episodes into a non-fiction book. So Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves: Lost Stories from the Philippine Colonial Period, 1565-1946 was born.
The book contains 13 essays on episodes from history not taught in school, from Mexican fighter pilots flying dangerous missions over the Philippines during World War II, to the importation of talented Filipino orchestras and bands into Shanghai, to American occupiers who victimized were diagnosed with a mysterious illness called ‘Philippinitis’.
Silk, silver, spices, slaves was first launched in July and is in the top literature of Singapore’s Kinokuniya bookstore. It is now available in the Philippines at the independent bookstore Everything’s Fine in Makati City.
“I love being in Kinokuniya, but this is a book about the Philippines, written by a Filipino, and I’m proud of that. We need more books like this in our reading diet,” Mr. Mangubat said during an Aug. 31 talk at Everything’s Fine.
“My main consideration is that I really wanted to make history accessible, entertaining and fun to read,” he said. “You are immersed in another world, and it is a world that really happened. It transports you.”
FASCINATING FACTS
Silk, silver, spices, slaves covers a wide range of topics, some extraordinary and others a wonder to think about.
One chapter is about how baseball was once the most popular sport in the Philippines, which Mr. Mangubat first discussed on his podcast and later adapted in the book.
“To think that we now have a very large and strong basketball culture here, while less than a hundred years ago it was still a sport that captured the imagination of the Filipinos!” he said.
The chapter follows an all-Filipino baseball team (unfortunately called the Brownies for obvious reasons) and their tour of America, where they played exhibition games. It culminates in a match pitting them against the all-black team.
Mr. Mangubat said during the lecture that one of his favorite chapters is the interview with Filipino-American author Albert Samaha, whose book Concepcion followed the story of his ancestors. On Mr. Samaha’s mother’s side, he is descended from the Maguindanao Sultans, while on his father’s side, he is descended from the family of Andres Bonifacio.
“There’s a line in there where his great-grandparents met in a schoolhouse in Mindanao, and the way he wrote it was that there was an American flag flying over the daughter of sultans and the son of revolutionaries, and they fell in love. And I thought, wow, that’s such a great summary of the colonial era, of the Philippines,” Mr. Mangubat said.
He invited the author as a guest on his podcast, but the book goes even further by describing Mr. Samaha in detail, bringing him to life for the reader.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN VOICES
Ms. Chye of Faction Press explained that while they are new to the publishing industry, the need for more Southeast Asian voices in literature around the world is urgent and needs to be addressed.
“The fact that the book is doing well in Kinokuniya shows that people want to read more about our region, our history,” she said. Business world. “We want to elevate the voices of Asian authors from different parts of the world.”
Mr. Mangubat added that he hopes that historical nonfiction as a genre is not relegated to something academic. “There are many history books, but for general readers they can be intimidating. A book like this is not aimed at academia or someone writing a thesis, but at the average Filipino who walks into a store and falls in love with history,” he said.
University of the Philippines history professor Micah R. Perez, who consulted Mr. Mangubat for the project, said Silk, silver, spices, slaves approaches history as if it were an interesting story to tell to friends.
An inspiration for Mr. Mangubat was David Grant, who wrote the historical novels Lost City Z, based on British explorers who found ancient cities in the Amazon, and Killers of the Flower Moonbased on the murders of the Osage tribe and the creation of the FBI, both of which have been made into films.
“These books showed me that you can make history very entertaining. Grant focused on a specific topic and expanded it into a novel, connecting dots along the way. If I had the time, I would like to write such a book, but I can only manage one chapter per topic,” he said.
Although several university and independent presses have published similar types of books over the years, Mr. Mangubat said Business world that having an abundance of these in the market will build a strong readership of Filipinos interested in history.
“I would like to see more and more of it published, and more of it available to many more people.” — Bronte H. Lacsamana