FRANKFURT, GERMANY – Senator Loren Legarda spoke about the lasting strength of Filipino identity and the value of working together. She made these remarks at the launch of Impressions of an Archipelago: Spanish Travellers and Writings on the Philippines, which took place on October 16 during the Philippines’ Guest of Honour program at the 77th Frankfurt Book Fair.
Sen. Loren began by recalling the Philippines before colonization, describing it as a nation known for trade, governance, and rich languages.
“Long before the first chroniclers set ink to paper, the Philippines was already a nation of thought and discernment,” she said.
The book, published in Spanish, German, and English, brings together twenty essays from fifteen scholars in Europe and the Philippines, exploring how Spanish travelers from the 16th century to today have viewed the archipelago.
As Chair of the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts, Sen. Loren stressed the need to reclaim historical narratives.
“For generations, others have written about us; today, we write with them, beside them, and in our own voice,” Legarda said. She called the work both recovery and reclamation, describing it as an act of cultural diplomacy based on respect and shared learning.
Sen. Loren also credited the Philippine Studies Program, which she launched in 2017 and supported at Ruhr University Bochum in 2019, for helping bring the project to life. Now present in 33 academic institutions worldwide, the program advances research on Philippine history, languages, ecology, and memory.
“Each partnership reminds us that knowledge, pursued together, is the finest form of diplomacy,” she said.
The four-term senator concludes by affirming the Filipino story as resilient and genuine.
“As we share this work with the world here at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, we stand proud of the Filipino story as an enduring part of humanity’s larger journey,” Sen. Loren said.
