Maps and identity

Ambeth Ocampo was at it again... this time, his lecture at the Ayala Museum was about maps and their links with history. He presented to us one of the oldest existing maps of the Philippines: the Pedro Murillo Velarde map from 1734.

Aside from showing a most accurate map of the Philippines (among those from the 18th century), the Murillo map was also interesting because it featured several panes with illustrations about life in the Philippines back in the day. A map of Manila (present day Intramuros) showed how well organised the city was... it's a planned city laid out on a grid.

The coat-of-arms used in one corner of the map shows that of Spain already; it's not the same as the coat-of-arms featured in Fort Santiago. But of course, Intramuros was established when Spain was still the united kingdoms of Aragon and Castille (16th century) while the map was made when the Spanish empire included the rest of the smaller kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula.

As always, it was fascinating to listen to Ambeth's lecture. He was able to show that a map has value beyond showing locations of establishments and relative sizes of locales. It also shows a bit of history of a country and how the cartographer sees the people living in specific locations.

I won't look at maps the same way again.