The UP Asian Center in partnership with the UP Department of History will hosting the public lecture "The Story of an Escape: Prisoners’ Resistance in San Ramon Penal Colony in 19th Century Mindanao" on 15 May 2025, 2:30 PM, PHT (GMT+8), at Silid Balatik, Pavilion 2, Palma Hall, UP Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Online registration is recommended due to limited seating.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
The public lecture is based on an analysis of the Spanish records at the National Archives of the Philippines. San Ramon penal colony was established as an experiment (“ensayo”) in the outskirts of Zamboanga, Mindanao, in the 1870s. “Colonia de San Ramon” contains files with documentation pertaining to the prisoners’ lack of discipline, their rebellions in the penal colony, official abuses directed towards them, and letters from officials discussing escapes. A legal dossier on three deserters is also part of this Bundle. One of the stories narrates the prisoners’ escape, to show how colonial officials’ physical abuses took place inside the prison and how prisoners’ escapes can be read as seeds of resistance. Voices of prisoners are scarce in the archive of San Ramón penal colony, rendering these documents a valuable source for understanding the tensions that could occur in that colonial carceral space.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
AURÉLIE VIALETTE, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Yale University
Dr. Aurélie Vialette is an Associate Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University where she also serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She previously held appointments at Stony Brook University and the Ohio State University. Her research is archive-based, and she considers herself a scholar of archive theories and practices. She has published several books: Intellectual Philanthropy: The Seduction of the Masses (2018) which was a recipient of the 2019 North American Catalan Society book award; Dissonances of Modernity: Music, Text, and Performance in Modern Spain (2021, co-edited with Irene Gómez-Castellanos); and The Legacies of Slavery in Modern Iberia (2025, co-edited with Akiko Tsuchiya). Currently, she is finishing a book project tentatively called "Cosmetics of the Penal Archive: Prison and Disability in the 19th-century Philippines."
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
In celebration of its 70th founding anniversary, this lecture is organized by the UP Asian Center in partnership with the UP Deparment of History. For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
