Each case study contributes to an exploration of how communities and individuals navigate their historical and cultural legacies. You-Jin Kim will focus on the 1750 petition for the nullification of vows of a Spanish mestiza called Cecilia de Ita y Salazar in the colonial Philippines. Paula Park will present on late nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century Filipino visual and material renditions of Spain’s 1565 claim to the Philippines and a series of contestations of Chile's 1888 annexation of Rapa Nui throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Víctor Sierra Matute’s presentation will delve into the cultural and esoteric reimagining of the colonial past through an analysis of the Filipino tarot deck, Cartas Philippinensis (2016). The journey of Cecilia de Ita y Salazar illustrates the personal agency within colonial structures, revealing the intersections of race, gender, and identity in historical contexts. The Rapa Nui struggle highlights the discrepancies in colonial treaties and the ongoing fight for sovereignty today, underscoring the importance of language and interpretation in historical memory. Lastly, the Cartas Philippinensis deck represents a creative endeavor to reclaim and reinterpret Filipino history and culture through the esoteric medium of tarot, offering an alternative lens through which to visualize colonial legacies. Together, these narratives underscore the overarching theme of the panel: the dynamic and continuous processes of reconstructing the past, not merely as an academic exercise but as an act of cultural and historical reclamation.

Each panelist will give a presentation of 15 to 17 minutes. This will enable at least 15 minutes of questions from the audience and discussion amongst the panelists at the end of the presentations.

Presenters in the session are at different stages of their career and specialize in a wide time frame that allows for a transhistorical perspective to the study of the Philippines and the Pacific. You-Jin Kim is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University. Her dissertation focuses on examining the cultural practices that reveal how women—Spanish, mestiza, Japanese, and Indigenous—navigated and exercised agency within spaces influenced by Spanish colonialism in the Pacific. Paula Park is an associate professor of Spanish at Wesleyan University. She will join Rice University in July 2024. Park's research and teaching interests are Latin American, US Latinx, and Philippine (hispanophone/anglophone) literature and culture from the nineteenth century onwards. Víctor Sierra Matute is an assistant professor of Spanish at Baruch College, CUNY. He specializes in early modern Iberian imperialism and its enduring impacts in contemporary societies. All of the presenters engage in global transpacific approaches in their work. The presider, Carolina Díaz, is an assistant professor of Latin American literatures and cultures at Wesleyan University. Her areas of expertise include feminist theory and indigenous studies.