The Memoirs of Felipe G. Calderon - First part

These memoirs, left by the late Professor Calderon and now published in complete form, refer to important facts connected with the Philippine Revolution and the first years of American occupation. They consist of two parts: the first comprises the period from May, 1898, to January, 1899, and the second that from May, 1899, to 1901.

The first part is well known: it was published by El Renacimiento in 1907. It was subsequently printed in book form, under the title Mis Memorias sobre la Revolucion Filipina. In printing this book the same type was used as had been used in the newspaper, hence its form is very deficient and it offers many difficulties to the student as a source of information. Not only are there typographical errors in nearly every paragraph, but the narration of the facts is interrupted by an unfortunate mistake in the pages, aggravated still further by the reproduction in the form of notes and appendices of official documents and clippings from newspapers which greatly diminish the intrinsic value of the work and the personal contribution of the author to the whole.

As to the second part, we have been able to preserve a copy of it which is now published for the first time. We believe, saving better information, that it is as yet unpublished. In it continues the narrative, often crude, but always interesting, of the events of the Revolution. It speaks of the thousands of incidents of the organization of the first municipalities under the American regime; of the first organization of the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General's office; of the constitution of the first Bar Association; of how and why the Aglipayan Church, the Escuela de Derecho, and the Federal Party were founded; of the famous San Jose College case; of the friar land question, etc., in all of which events the author took a part, often a most important one.

It being the purpose of this publication to offer to the students of the history of our country these valuable "Memoirs" in their own juice, as it were, and in the simplest, clearest, and most concise form, we have taken the liberty to omit, especially in the first part, all long and unnecessary citations, to eliminate the appendices that do not serve our purpose, and to postpone until afterwards a few judgments the publication whereof seems still untimely, although, as a fact, that which is now published may already give rise to very just controversies. In everything else, even in the transcription of the American names, we leave everything unchanged, as it appears in our copy.

TEODORO M. KALAW