When the guardia civil forced the Intramuros house of Victor Villegas open, they found a trail of blood that led all the way to a bathroom. Inside was the bloody corpse of the señor, his head smashed in, his body stripped to his underclothes. The police’s immediate suspects? The houseboys.

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Thumbnail Image: "Panguingue (Natives Playing Cards)." Jose Taviel de Andrade, ca. 1895. In Jose Maria Carino (2004), Islas Filipinas 1663-1888, Ars Mundi.

References:

Sayno, Mariano (20 March 2016). “Subic Spanish Gate: Sentinel of History in Olongapo’s Naval Legacy.” Beauty of the Philippines. https://www.beautyofthephilippines.com/subic-spanish-gate/

Bankoff, Greg (1992). “Servant-Master Conflicts in Manila in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Philippine Studies, 40(3), pp. 281-301.

Bankoff, Greg (1993). “Inside the Courtroom: Judicial Procedures in Nineteenth Century Philippines.” Philippine Studies, 41(3), pp. 287-304.

Coo, Stephanie (2019). Clothing the Colony: Nineteenth-Century Philippine Sartorial Culture, 1820-1896. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Mallat, Jean (1846). The Philippines: History, Geography, Customs, Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce of the Spanish Colonies in Oceania (Pura Santillan-Castrence, Trans.) (2021). National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

“Reglamento Provisional para la Policia de la Servidumbre Domestica” (1881). https://bibliotecadigital.aecid.es/bibliodig/es/catalogo_imagenes/descargarImprimir.do?id=descarga_1014590-1728387479953&multiple=false&idGrupo=1014590