Los primeros de Filipinas

by Juan Antonio Pérez-Foncea

Año 1582. Una formidable flota de piratas japoneses se propone invadir la isla de Luzón, la mayor de Filipinas, defendida por apenas un puñado de infantes de los Tercios. Será la primera vez en la historia que se midan, frente a frente, los mejores guerreros de Oriente y Occidente. Juan Pérez-Foncea, autor de novelas históricas tan celebradas como Los Tercios no se rinden, El héroe del Caribe o Invencibles, sumerge al lector en esta ocasión en los pormenores de la batalla de Cagayán, un enfrentamiento militar que, en las proximidades del río del mismo nombre, hubo de afrontar la Armada Española de Filipinas, al mando del capitán Juan Pablo de Carrión. Fiel a su trayectoria, el autor arroja una potente luz sobre un suceso histórico que los españoles de hoy, casi en su totalidad, desconocen por entero.

248 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2022

About the author

Juan Pérez-Foncea (San Sebastián, 1965) es escritor y abogado.

Licenciado en Derecho en la Universidad de Navarra y especializado en Derecho Internacional y Europeo en las Universidades de Lovaina y Lieja (Bélgica), ha ejercido la abogacía durante 14 años en España y Francia.

En 2004 publicó su primer libro, Iván de Aldénuri. El Bosque de los Thaurroks, que ha sido publicado en 4 idiomas. Desde entonces, Pérez-Foncea ha publicado diversos títulos de literatura fantástica dirigidos al público juvenil, con más de 50.000 ejemplares vendidos.

Desde 2009, Pérez-Foncea se dedica por entero a la creación literaria, publicando títulos dentro de diversos géneros, entre los que destaca la novela histórica. En este género, el más representativo es El Héroe del Caribe, en el que se recupera la olvidada figura de Blas de Lezo, un héroe durante mucho tiempo injustamente olvidado.

Reviews

[Javir11 · Rating 3 out of 5]

5,75/10

Me sabe mal pero he estado a punto de hasta ponerle 2 estrellas y ojo, no digo que sea una mala lectura y seguro que tendrá su público, pero el modo en el que está escrito a mi no me ha convencido demasiado.

La historia se centra en la "colonización¨ de Filipinas por parte de los españoles. A pesar de las reticencias iniciales por parte de las gentes de la zona, los colonos terminan siendo aceptados de buena gana y existe una convivencia bastante buena entre ambas partes. El problema llega cuando comiencen a aparecer los piratas chinos y japoneses, que armados con artillería portuguesa y superando por mucho a las guarniciones españolas, verán en el archipiélago filipino una fruta madura y dulce "fácil" de recolectar.

A su favor tiene que está muy bien documentada, la ambientación es creíble y sobre todo narra una historia muy desconocida, en mi caso no tenía ni idea por ejemplo.

En contra, pues el estilo narrativo, entre crónica y diario no me va nada de nada, si a eso le unimos que la narración va a salto de mata y que en muchos momentos se centra en partes de la historia que no llamaban mi atención, pues al final un libro relativamente corto se me ha hecho bastante largo y pesado.

¿Recomendable? Bueno, si te gusta la historia de España y le pillas el punto a la forma en que está narrado, creo que te puede gustar, pero si buscas una historia al uso, bien estructura y con una narrativa fluida, me parece que esta no es tu lectura.

[Fonch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies, and gentlemen some preliminary news before writing this review. The first thing is that on July 8 I go on vacation to Mojados (a town in Valladolid), and that I will not be able to publish reviews in @goodreads until September with everything there will continue to be reviews in @instagram and @facebook. This has forced me to postpone my reading of "Right to dream" (the thesis/research) of @juan_manuel_de_prada https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... about Ana María Martínez Sagi https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... that will be attempted in September. Instead, I have accelerated in the attempt to read, and conclude the review of the Penury City trilogy by Thomas E. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... The first book already reviewed here "Light of Gabriel" now you are reading the second "Ire of Shekel" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and "The Zealots return " https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (here are the two available reviews) is very important because this trilogy has not had readers, and it is a pity because it is (enormously) worth it. I hope Don Juan Manuel de Prada can understand this. I do not know if I will be able to write a review of "I'm going to tell you your story" by José Javier Esparza @esferalibros (finally such work could not be undertaken) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and "Los martyrs of Japan" by Santiago Mata https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... @sekotia. Also on the other hand I would like to write a review of books that I have disliked especially "Daphnis" by Alfred de Vigny to combat the historical, philosophical, and religious vision of the book. I would also like to combat the self-destructive effect of "Chatterton" whose pessimism, and social engineering (the author goes so far as to say that he altered the facts to suit his ideas. I would venture to say that these two books have been the worst thing that has been read this year). If Providence is propitious I will try to do all that, and post the reviews I have pending on Goodreads. Anyone who wishes to visit me in Mojados is welcome, and I wish everyone who reads this review a happy holiday (this review was posted on Instagram in July, but has been posted in September. It is preserved for users to observe what my intentions were back then.)
This is the third novel that I have read to Juan Pérez-Foncea that I liked very much in "L os Terciosno se rendien" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... which told the campaigns of the Tercios in Holland with Alejandro Farnesio, and the so-called Miracle of Empel that made the Virgin the patron saint of the army and allowed to obtain a spectacular victory against the Calvinists of the United Provinces. The second "Beat the English Corsair" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... that it dealt with the last incursion of Francis Drake, and Hawkins in Panama I did not like so much because of the theme of the secondary, and some anachronism made that unfortunately I could not put the note that I would have liked. In addition to this, Don Juan Antonio Pérez-Foncea has made some incursion into the fantastic genre with his saga of Iván Aldenuri https://www.goodreads.com/series/2703... which led Stratford Caldecott https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... to be interested in his books but, he decided to work in the field of the historical novel.
I knew this novel was going to be a success (I mean that I knew I was going to like it), because it was a subject that I am passionate about. The establishment of the Spanish in the Philippines, and the fierce siege of Manila by the pirate Lima Hong, but the highlight is the confrontation between the so-called Waco, and the Spanish Tercios in the battle of Cagayan in which the Tercios fought with the Japanese pirates of Tay Fusa (here is provided to users who read this review for more information) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... , and a forgotten episode, and not taught in schools. The most that is reached is to explain the tornaviaje of Don Andrés de Urdeneta, and Legazpi in the Philippines following the current of the Kuro Shivo (Andrés de Urdaneta learned a lot from the failed expedition of Loaysa in which died the first man who went around the world Juan Sebastián El Cano). The only book I have read that told something similar to this fact had been the play by the French playwright Paul Claudel called "Zapato de Raso" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6..., and that my uncle liked so much, and that was a tribute to the Spain of the XVI-XVII century in it the protagonist Rodrigo who throughout the novel is in search of his beloved Doña Proeza comes to fight against the Japanese and brings the Japanese artist Zaibutsu. It is the only work of fiction that dealt with him. We also have the wonderful book "How the Thirds Defeated the Samurai" by Jesús Lorente Liarte of the EAS publishing house, which focuses on what Pérez Foncea tells, but also on the history of Japan, the expansion of Christianity, and the persecution and unknown campaigns of Spain in Siam, Cambodia, and Formosa https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... (if there was an expedition to Cambodia starring Diogo Belloso and Blas Ruíz Henán García that is ahead of the man who could reign of Rudyard Kipling and, this before the expedition of the nineteenth century at the time of the Liberal Union of Leopoldo O'Donnell and, which ended with the sale of those lands to the France of Napoleon III. It is a must-read book. Like this one.
It begins with a brilliant prologue by Pérez Foncea telling when Vasco Núñez de Balboa takes possession of the Pacific Ocean for Spain, and the brilliant occupation of the Spaniards in the Philippines, avoiding the microbial disaster that affected the pre-Columbian population in America. It tells of the exploration of Ferdinand Magellan, and the Christ of Cebu, and how the 8000 islands of the Philippine Archipelago were occupied, in addition to the Guam Islands. As the Spaniards made the friendship of the locals with a brilliant policy of Legazpi forgiving offenses, and demonstrating that it had been the Portuguese who had carried out the misdeeds posing as the Spaniards, to commit outrages, and thus provoke the hostility of the locals against Spain. There was almost no conquest, and if a very good diplomacy on the part of Legazpi who had previously been the mayor of Mexico, and shows the link of the Philippines with the viceroyalty of New Spain. That will be what allows the first global trade with the Manila galleon that will facilitate trade between Spain and China, and that is the origin of the first globalization. When in the subject Finance, and taxation in the Old Regime we were asked where the gold ended, and the silver of America nobody knew how to answer that in China. I recommend the viewing of the documentary Spain the First Globalization by José Luis López-Linares and in which a Professor of mine Don Luis Ribot participated https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Another thing that explains the prologue of this novel written by Pérez Foncea is that the Spaniards learned, and this time there was no such mortality due to the germs of the American discovery. He puts common sense in the figures, since in America before the arrival of Columbus there were no more than 10 million inhabitants. Instead of the 90-100 million dead inhabitants used against us by the propagators of the Black Legend.
This prologue and the epilogue are very important to show the great Spanish contribution in history, and dismantle lies, and slander. One of the great successes of this novel unlike the other two is that this time if I really liked the stories of the fictional characters, which was the fault I had found in the other two novels read. Above all, in "Beat the English Corsair" where fiction ate history. I really liked the stories of the protagonist Gonzalo de Gomara, and how due to the death of his mother he, and his father arrive in the Philippines, and how the death of his father is protected by Legazpi, and his grandson Juan Salcedo Garcés de Legazpi. The foundation of Vigan. The geography of the Philippines is wonderfully well described, and the fauna the Cabao (those mythical oxen/). The name Vigan is for a plant. The interrelations between the Spaniards and Filipinos are very well done, and they are credible. The employees of Gonzalo de Gomara with Makisig and Tama who are Igorrotes and there are those from other tribes. It speaks very well of the role of the role of the Church over the Dominican, Augustinian, and other Orders Regular Orders (Urdaneta del Kuro Shivo was Augustinian). In fact, this novel that I have read to Pérez Foncea is the most religious, and that "The Thirds do not surrender" told the miracle of Empel made by the Virgin, which was so essential to defend so that in Spain the dogma of the Immaculate Conception took root even more. It shows the martyrdom of Prior Antonio, and Brother Sylvester, and how Makisig, Tala, and Liway's parents with whom the protagonist is in love protect the monks. Unlike other novels here it is more realistic, and the Spaniards win, but they have a hard time winning which I like, because it is more believable (and less Manichean). The siege of Manila made by the Chinese pirate Limahong is very well done, and how Spain defended such a large territory with so few men. Pérez Foncea tells us that the fight against piracy was tougher here than in the Caribbean. Not only against Chinese, and Japanese also against Malays, Muslims (Mindanao was never taken), against other European powers Dutch, Portuguese, and others. In fact, I liked the siege of Manila much more than the battle of Cagayan, which was very short, and very condensed. The first site brims with epic with the epic death of Martín de Goiti. As an adventure novel, the association between Gonzalo Gomara and Tapang works. The Japanese of Tay Fusa once defeated Li Mahong settle in Aparri, and treat the people with great cruelty, and like slaves. Tapang's little sister is killed and locked up. The Villains are very well done, and some gain the appreciation of the reader as Ukon (that I during the reading of this book I wondered if it would be based on the Blessed Fair Takayama Ukon of which Kaga Otohiko https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... (friend of Shusaku Endo https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... wrote) and with the Sokaku he went into exile in the Philippines where he died. I would like to read a book knowing how many Japanese Christians ended up in the Philippines welcomed by the Spaniards. The others are evil both the Chinese Lima Hong and his lieutenant Sioco/Shoko as Tay Fusa (these are historical figures). Not so the Daiki samurai, Yoshinobu (which reminded me of the Russian played by Steven Berkoff who tortures Rambo in Rambo II).
Seeing the tortures suffered by Japanese Christians (especially in the time of Iemitsu) are credible. This story could have been written by a Jules Verne https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , a Salgari https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , or a Rudyard Kipling https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . It has also reminded me of @juan_manuel_de_prada's wonderful novel "Morir bajo tu cielo" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... except that Juan Manuel de Prada's novel tells the end of the Spanish presence in the Philippines (the siege of Baler), and Pérez Foncea's novel the beginning. Liway reminded me a lot of Guicay, and the Filipino collaborator of the Japanese to the leader of the Kati Punan who kidnaps the nun Lucia in the novel by Juan Manuel de Prada. Above all, the best thing is the subject that Pérez Foncea has dealt with, and the cover that has done a great job @almuzaralibros, and it is the one that I liked the most. If I may, we will talk about the shortcomings. I would have liked the dialogues to have been more like those made by Juan Manuel de Prada in "El castillo de Diamante" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and "El Tercio que nunca existió" José Javier Esparza https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (the second best novel read last year). The feeling that not all possible profit has been made from the battle of Cagayan, nor all the juice. Lasting very little, and being too hasty the end of the battle is what weighs down this novel a bit. The historical figures such as Guido Lavezares, Ronquillo Peñalosa, are very good, but you could have gotten more performance from Juan Pablo Carrión who seemed to me a luminous version of Owen Thursday the general of Fort Apache. The answer given to the second of Tay Fusa is spectacular that, for much honor, clothing, and formality the waco are still thieves. With everything I liked the most is the antagonist Ukon, Liway's religiosity (reminding me of a Ligia, Syra, or Cymodocea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... ) that reminds me of the characters of my friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... because they put the common good before personal benefit unlike Mayabang. The end is very successful, and the epilogue saying how this battle avoided, and saved the island from a Japanese invasion despite the bravado of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who proposed to Philip II to divide China, and Korea, and as in the words of Evelyn Waugh in "Edmund Campion" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... "Philip II was not a warrior Genghis Kahn." The invasions of France and England were to secure in the first case a throne for his daughter Isabel Clara Eugenia, and to re-establish Catholicism in the second case (weighing more the economic issue as curbing piracy than the religious one). He could have obtained Kingdoms in Albania, in Estonia (I recommend a very good video of @deciamosayer in @youtube about Estonia a protectorate of Philip II interesting to know the relations of Spain with northern Europe with Sweden, and Denmark. A Danish advisor proposed that Denmark be divided with Sweden, and Pontus de la Garde offered him https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) . Bishop Aronson asked Charles V to intervene in Iceland to save Catholicism in return he would name him king of Iceland this is told by Halldor Laxness in "The Bell of Iceland" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... , which differentiates him from a man who was not enough to unify his country, but invaded others, and threatened to attack the Philippines, and in his last years extreme his cruelty persecuting Christians. But we will talk about Toyotomi Hideyoshi when the criticism of "The Martyrs of Japan" by Santiago Mata @sekotia is made. The saddest thing is that people are critical of these achievements of our Tercios when the newspaper told @abc_diario there was a lot of criticism from people saying that the defeated waco were not samurai and implying that Spain could not defeat them. He did something more spectacular because the Waco were the lords of the seas and Nobunaga (see "The Daughter of the Pirates of Murakami" by Ryo Wada https://www.goodreads.com/series/3186... @quaterni_editorial) and other Shoguns failed to defeat them. This feat must be valued. This does not mean that Spain could conquer Japan, we did not have the troops or the logistics for it, and we already had our wars. The epilogue is interesting (the arc of the characters is satisfactorily closed) thanks to the battle of Guayacan the Philippines was able to avoid foreign invasions until the twentieth century. Foncea criticizes the American invasion of one hundred thousand dead https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... and the Japanese (the persecution of the Spanish missionaries was about to cause Spain to enter the war in favor of the Allies against Japan as told by Ambassador Carlton J.H. Hayes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...). My note of this wonderful novel is (5/5). I loved it. PD. Apart from this there are novels and, comics where the battle of Cagayan is treated Swords of the end of the world by Ángel Miranda Vicente, Juan Aguilera Galán (Drawing) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... and, "Sol de sangre: Los combates de Cagayán" by Héctor J. Castro https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5....

[Lucia Carrera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Empecé este libro siguiendo una recomendación random que decía que trataba la invasión de Filipinas desde una perspectiva crítica y anticolonialista. En la introducción ya se puede ver que no iba a ser así.

“Si los españoles hubieran ido a América a vender flores, habría muerto aproximádamente el mismo número de indios, dado que el 99% de los que perdieron la vida a la llegada de los españoles lo hicieron a causa de epidemias”- dice el autor. No soy historiadora, y aunque esta cita y reflexión solo haga referencia a las epidemias y a la propia llegada de los españoles a América, me parece lamentable que procure reducir el genocidio que cometió España a únicamente los problemas que ocasionó en su llegada en el ámbito sanitario, obviando todo lo que sucedió e hicieron después, así como las campañas de exterminio o la esclavización masiva. No es justo hacer esta reflexión y no proseguir con un análisis justo de los hechos, en el que de ninguna manera podría obviar que se cometió un genocidio y que España es responsable de la masacre y tortura que se cometió en América.

“Infame leyenda negra utilizada para culpar (con toda falseadad) de terribles matanzas a los españoles”- dice también el autor. Queda claro cuál es el posicionamiento del autor.

Solo puedo decir que es lamentable, y recomendar la lectura “El libro negro del colonialismo”.

Si he continuado mi lectura con este libro es únicamente para poderlo criticar con conocimiento. Su crítica colonialista es proporcional a mi simpatía y respeto por el autor, ninguna.

Hablamos de un libro que procura explicar la historia de Filipinas sin hacer mención a su población, a lo que vivieron y a su resistencia.

El contenido se reduce a la lucha por la colonización. Aunque la narrativa dice estar bien fundamentada históricamente (no me voy a poner a comprobarlo), me parece que es obvio qué textos y autores ha seleccionado y cuáles no. No veo testimonios ni voces filipinas por ningún lado. Está claro que puedes afirmar que tu obra está basada en documentación histórica, aunque ésta solo muestre el punto de vista de los colonizadores.

Si eres facha te lo recomiendo. Pero si eres facha también te recomiendo la muerte. Así que tú verás.

[Gregor Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de aquellos libros que se puede leer en un dia ya que no nos deja dejarlo ademas el rigor historico verdaderamente admirable .Una magnifica invitación para descubrir una parte de historia de España que personalmente conocia solo vagamente

[Blansh Secure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engancha desde el principio.

Muy facil de leer.


Parece, por la forma de contarlo, mucho mas fantasioso de lo que realmente es. Me ha sorprendido comprobar que se ciñe más a la historia de lo que pareciera.

[Rubén · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro no ha estado mal, me ha gustado que trate temas que ocurrieron de verdad y con personajes que ocurrieron de verdad. Pero creo que se centra en cosas sin sentido y no aborda demasiado lo importante. Además la edición que yo tengo tiene innumerables faltas de ortografía que se han colado por falta de revisión, lo que me da a entender que no ha tenido un mimo adecuado.

[Andrés CM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estamos ante una novela excelentemente documentada, con una ambientación al detalle en la que el autor teje una historia repleta de acción en torno a unos personajes llenos de vida.
RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://atrapadaenunashojasdepapel.bl...

[Rafael Ramirez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Libro mediocre con un final lamentable escrito deprisa y corriendo. Una pérdida de tiempo y de dinero.

[Airen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia corta, bonita, bien contada.

[César V M · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro describe una epopeya y una historia digna de 5* con un manejo de la trama de 1* y una prosa de 1* de estudiante de secundaria. Me alegro de haberlo leído, pero no se lo puedo recomendar a nadie.