SKIRMISHER

It is not well-known that Philippine national hero José Rizal joined an obscure organization called the Círculo Hispano-Filipino, a group of Filipino students and some Spaniards who had stayed in the Philippines. He joined the group while he was studying at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Rizal used to write for the said group’s magazine. When the Círculo and its magazine folded up due to financial woes, that is when Rizal started to write his first novel, the firebrand Noli Me Tangere.

More than a hundred years later, the group was reincarnated as a formidable Yahoo! Group with members coming not only from Spain and the Philippines, but from the whole Hispanic world. It has even earned the respect of the web community as well as Philippine-Hispanic scholars.

The reincarnated group is still known by the same name: Círculo Hispano-Filipino.

The Círculo actually functions as an internet discussion group that was formed on January 2001. According to filipinokastila,

The members of this group do not only include Filipinos

but also members from Germany, Mexico, United States,

Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and

other countries. In fact, the Hispano-Filipino members

who are non-Filipinos are among the most enthusiastic

champions of promoting Spanish in the Philippines. You

do not need to know or be fluent in Spanish to join this

group because the Hispano-Filipino group is not primarily

a Spanish grammar or linguistics group. Rather, it is

more of a special interest group that promotes the use of

Spanish in the Philippines.

In fact, the group was founded by –of all people who should have been promoting the national patrimony!– a German: Andreas Herbig (a modern Ferdinand Blumentritt?). The moderator is José Perdigón, a Spaniard “born in an ancient Spanish castle” but has been living in the Philippines for quite some time now (a new Wenceslao Retana?).

If you want to join this group and to know more about what a true Filipino is, just subscribe to hispanofilipino-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Warning! The group churns out around 30 mails per day. If you don’t want such a clutter in your e-mail, or if you think the group’s topics are already choking your sensible bias (no offense meant), you can may unsubscribe by clicking this – hispanofilipino-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

¡Feliz Mes Español!

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