Now if you guys have been following me and the blog, you will know that my interest and

passion toward
our precolonial history and culture is pretty strong. This has become the driving force to why I created the
blog in the first place and a part of why I continue to run it.

Over the years I have received numerous questions regarding different aspects of how our ancestors did
things, what they wore, what they believed in, etc. Now I do not claim to be an expert in our history, I am
just a young woman who loves reading and discovering new aspects of our heritage and learning knew
information on our history and people. I guess you can say this is the anthropologist spirit in me who strives
to learn everything she can on our people and society, but presently and in the past. However I have come
across my share of historical texts and resources during my research for those interested in looking into our
precolonial history and culture and discovering for yourselves the world our ancestors lived in during the
16th-17th centuries where Spanish colonization and influence hasn’t set in yet.

1. Pigafetta’s account is something I feel everyone who is interested in precolonial history and culture must
read first as it is the one of the earliest accounts written about us that describes the people he saw, the
activities he witnessed, events such as the Battle of Mactan and fall of Magellan. We learn about the first
contact between the people of the islands of the Bisayas where the Spaniards first landed. We learn of the
sandugo, or blood compacts between Magellan and several of the Datu’s & Rajah’s, their names,
descriptions of the “painted” tattooed men and women with the amount of gold they wore which with their
black markings on their skin earned them the name, “the Pintados”, or “the Painted Ones”, by the Spaniards.
We get a look into how trade proceeded in the shores and ports, the houses, the first baptisms in the islands,
mourning rituals, and more. His journals gives us a sneak peek to how things were prior to that first contact
with the Spaniards and how life was back then.

2. Quite frankly I enjoy reading his accounts as not only does it give us a clearer picture of the population
and settlements during this time but also he has given us one of the first detailed accounts of the religion of
our ancestors prior to Christianity. As a Polytheist myself I find his accounts a gem in reviving our precolonial
beliefs and practices especially in regards to the creation myth.

3. I highly recommend reading his account to anyone interested in knowing how our precolonial societies
flourished and worked. Just get a pen and paper ready to jot down notes and don’t overwhelm yourself!

4. To be honest out of all the manuscripts and records we have to date, the Boxer Codex is the one that
fascinates me the most (other than the next one I will discuss in a moment), not just because of the
illustrations, but because of the writings and descriptions of the people in a very unbiased manner. These
colored illustrations give us a visual of how our ancestors looked like during the 16th century and give us an
idea how they dressed other than the written physical descriptions.

5. Finally, the number one resource I love reading and find the most useful is both from the fact it covers the
Bisayas (and all of you know how proud I am of my Bisayan heritage) and broadens my knowledge on my
Bisdak ancestors but also because of the wealth of information compared to other works on all aspects of
the Bisayans during the mid 1600’s from their epics, literature, architecture, flora and fauna found, the way
they dressed, how they buried their dead, the rituals they did, how they built their boats, their trading and
agriculture, and so much more. Can you guess what text I am talking about? If not, it is Historia de las islas
e indios de Bisayas (1668) by Francisco Alcina.

Now there are many more historical accounts, journals, travel logs, etc. that are not on this list that you
should read. Most of these can be found compiled together in the by Blair and Robertson English translated
editions (though do keep in mind there are some mistakes in translation in some areas and also that it is told
via an American PoV of things). There are also many more documents hidden and not studied in the
archives of Spain from Seville to Madrid to even possibly in Mexico. Who knows, maybe there are more texts
laying around waiting to be found and brought to light that can tell us more than what we know of now
and is just waiting for that person to dig through those archives and find it.