JOAQUIN PARDO DE TAVERA
It is said that anti-colonialist movements are often lead by descendants of the colonists.
Joaquín Pardo de Tavera was one such political reformer. He didn't have a drop of Filipino blood, but had been born in Manila, the son of a Spanish father and mother both born in Spain.
Trained in the law, Pardo de Tavera also filled certain government positions in Manila.
But he had reformist ideas, and entered circles of like-minded reformists. Reformists didn't all have the exact same ideas. At first, many if not most didn't advocate separation from Spain, but wanted a more liberal administration of the Philippines with more political and civil rights.
But even this created enough tension that boiled over into open mutiny against Spain in 1872. The uprising was centered in the city of Cavite and became known as the Cavite Mutiny. In reprisal, the Spanish government rounded up many citizens, even priests. Some were sentenced to death, more were jailed, some were exiled. Pardo de Tavera was one of them. He, with others, was exiled to Guam. In Spanish, they were known as the deportados, the deported or exiled ones.
On April 22, 1872, the ship Flores de María arrived at Guam, anchoring in Apra Harbor. From the ship, the passengers got on smaller boats to take them to the landing at Punta Piti. From there they probably rode on carriages to Hagåtña.
Instead of staying in a jail, of which Guam only had a small one, unable to house so many prisoners, and since these prisoners were of the political, not criminal, kind, with little hope of escape from an island, the prisoners were allowed to live in private homes. Many of the deportados found rooms in the homes of Spaniards and upper class Chamorros. Pardo de Tavera was allowed to bring his wife, Gertrudes Gorricho, better known as Doña Tula, with him to Guam. She was independently wealthy, and her money helped ease their exile.
The presence of political prisoners who, on the part of many, had much education, sometimes wealth, cultural refinement and intellectual formation was welcome to many people on Guam. Even the lone Chamorro priest, Padre Palomo, enjoyed conversations with many of these prisoners, some of whom were Filipino priests. Some of the Chamorro elite mixed socially with these deportados, and learned about political and international affairs otherwise more difficult to obtain from abroad.
It was not as enjoyable for the deportados. Guam's isolation was, for them, a real punishment. Sending them in exile to Spain would have been putting them in a political nerve center, something the deportados would have enjoyed. No; the monotony and dullness of a small, distant and sleepy tropical island was part of the punishment.
Pardo de Tavera spent 997 days in exile on Guam. On January 13, 1875, the merchant ship Legazpi brought news from Manila that a pardon had been granted to the Filipino deportados. The ship left Guam on January 16 but headed for Hong Kong, not to Manila. Pardo de Tavera never returned to the Philippines. He settled in Paris, France and died there in 1885.
pardo de tavera collection
Some speculate that the above photo is of deportados, possibly on Guam. The first man standing on the left could have been Joaquín Pardo de Tavera.
Thanks to Renz Dahilig of Manila for bringing this to my attention.
