Speaker: Kale Fajardo, associate professor of American Studies and Asian American Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Malolos, Bulacan, Philippines was at the heart of Philippine nationalism and nation-building at the end of the 19th Century. The town (now city) was the site of the 1898 constitutional convention and the first Philippine Republic was established in Malolos, at the sanctuary of the Barasoain Church. Additionally, the convent at the Malolos Cathedral served as the presidential palace for the first Philippine President, Emilio Aguinaldo. In this way, Malolos is seen as “the birthplace of the first constitutional republic in Asia.” In 2011, a leading cultural heritage preservation non-governmental organization (NGO), Heritage Conservation Society (based in Manila) threatened to remove Malolos from the Philippines’s lists of historical and cultural heritage and resources because the organization alleged, “there were no efforts done by the local government and the people to preserve the marked structures.” This lecture addresses the problems and possibilities of cultural heritage preservation/tourism efforts (including architectural preservation) in contemporary Malolos. In particular, Fajardo will discuss how “Manila-fication” or urbanization impacts cultural heritage preservation/tourism efforts in Malolos, as well as increased out-migration and increased local population densities, real estate developments, flooding resulting from climate change, and Philippine neoliberal economic policies. The lecture is based on participant-observation research and public education efforts Fajardo has been conducting and coordinating in Malolos in partnership with The Women of Malolos Foundation – a cultural heritage advocacy NGO, and Bahay-Saliksikan ng Bulacan (The Center for Bulacan Studies) at Bulacan State University.

About the Speaker:

Born in Malolos, Bulacan, Philippines and raised in Portland, Oregon, Kale Bantigue Fajardo is an associate professor of Asian/American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Fajardo completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell University where he studied Southeast Asian Studies/Philippine Studies and feminist studies. Fajardo completed his PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His first book, Filipino Crosscurrents: Seafaring, Masculinities and Globalization was published by the University of Minnesota Press (2011). Filipino Crosscurrents was one of only two books published outside of the Philippines selected by the University of the Philippines Press for reprinting for a Philippine and Southeast Asian audience (2013). He has a forthcoming essay – “Queering and Transing the Great Lakes: Filipino/a Tomboy Masculinities and Manhoods Across Waters,” in an special issue of GLQ, titled Queering the Middle: Race, Region and a Queer Midwest. Fajardo has published other essays in Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity (2013); GLQ: Gay and Lesbian Studies Quarterly (2008) and Mains'l Haul (2002). He is currently conducting on-going advocacy-research on cultural heritage preservation/tourism in Malolos and is collaborating with cultural heritage preservation/tourism advocates and cultural workers in his hometown to produce a series of public education/anthropology events that center around cultural heritage preservation/tourism efforts in Malolos. This research and public education is funded by a two-year Grant-in-Aid of Research, Scholarship, and Artistry from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.