History of the Seminar
The Seminar on Philippine and Pacific Studies "Leoncio Cabrero Fernández" was founded with the intention of promoting the anthropological and ethnohistoric study of the Philippines and the Pacific Ocean region.
The basis for its creation stems from the Seminar on Hispanic-Philippine Studies created by Leoncio Cabrero Fernández (1935-2010) at the Faculty of Geography and History (Complutense University of Madrid) during the 1970s. The Seminar on Philippine and Pacific Studies receives its name from him as a tribute and everlasting reminder of his teaching.
One of Professor Cabrero Fernández's contributions to the History of the Iberian expansion into the Pacific region was, indubitably, the coining of the "Hispanic-Asia" concept and the content he filled it with. As he himself stated, if specialised Historiography talks about Iberian-America and Hispanic America (to talk about the American territories discovered, conquered and colonised by Spain and Portugal [in the first case; in the second case, only by Spain]), we should be able to talk authoritatively about Iberian-Asia and Hispanic-Asia as well.
Following the American example, the Iberian-Asia concept comprises the territories under Portuguese sovereignty (Calicut, Goa, Macau, Malacca, Maluku, and Timor) as well as the territories under Spanish sovereignty (the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, and Palau). Professor Cabrero Fernández gave the name Hispanic-Asia to these last territories, which belonged to the Hispanic Monarchy from 1521 to 1898. On the other hand, the territories under Portuguese sovereignty would receive the name Portuguese-Asia.
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The main objectives of the Seminar on Philippine and Pacific Studies "Leoncio Cabrero Fernández" are:
- To promote —geographically, politically, economically, linguistically, anthropologically or in any other scientific way— the knowledge of this area.
- To study and make known the bonds between Spain and the countries of the area.
- To carry out cultural activities.
- To create a documentation centre and a virtual museum.
- To publish works and investigations of interest to the Seminar.