Magallanes & Elcano expedition

It has been 500 years since the Spaniards landed on Philippine shores in Magellan’s Expedition and Elcano’s First Circumnavigation of the Globe. 

Commemoration begins in mid-March 2021, peaking April 2021 - though events will continue until October. 

Battle of Mactan with Lapu-Lapu & Magellan

What is revealed and recorded of this historical event is far from the reality of those who actually figured in the expedition as they groped and stumbled their way around the world in their time. 

the first circumnavigation of the globe

There will forever be academic and other conferences to mark the three-year commemoration of the Magellan-Elcano Expedition. The official site V Centenario 1ᵃ Vuelta Al Mundo provides the various commemorative activities and some site links. 

Magellan’s Expedition and Elcano’s First Circumnavigation of the Globe features an interactive map.

The Longest Journey: Setting Sail — Google Arts & Culture

The award-winning site with articles and maps, RutaElcano with The First Trip Around the World.

Planisferio de Cantino, 1502. The world map shows
the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century.

The Philippine Diary Project joins all three efforts –the overall global commemoration, the one of the Philippine government, and the commemoration of 500 Years of Catholicism in the Philippines with the Pigafetta journal entries‘ inclusion in the project.

take a virtual tour of the exhibit

Lapu-Lapu is important as the first in a long line of heroes to resist the culture of the West; and our colonial history must be read as one long resistance movement, a movement that continued Lapu-Lapu’s heroic refusal to submit to the invading culture.

That refusal was, of course, a definite reaction; but I think we tend to think that to react is always to go against: to resist or to reject. But to accept is also a reaction. To modify what is accepted is also a reaction. 

To change and be changed is also a reaction. Our folk Catholicism is as much a reaction to Christianity as, say, the novels of Rizal. ~ Nick Joaquin, lecturing at University of San Carlos, Cebu City - April 21, 1979