The author explores the relationship between contemplative and apostolic aspects of religious life in accounts by and about religious women in the Spanish Indies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Using case-studies and biographies, the author examines women's mysticism in 16th- and 17th-century Spain and investigates the spiritual forces that provided women with a way to transcend the control of the male-dominated Catholic Church.
The author shares letters written during a nine-month stay in the Philippines, offering a faithful impression of the country and its people. Politics and unrest are impossible to avoid, and the author strives to provide an impartial account, without bias towards either the Americans or the Filipinos. Written shortly after observation, these scenes and conversations convey an accurate depiction of the Philippines as experienced by the author
Published just two years before José Rizal's national epic, Touch Me Not, Pedro A. Paterno's Nínay is a cultural novel that portrays Philippine society to an international non-Filipino audience. Considered to be the first novel published by a Native Filipino author, Nínay follows the life, love and death of a young woman named Antonina Milo y Buisan, or "Nínay" for short. Her story is told by a young man named Taric to an unknown narrator over the course of the nine-day vigil of Pasiyam. Recounting the passionate affair in the time of cholera between Nínay and the highly regarded Don Carlos Mabagsic, Taric explores the journey of two young lovers and the events that lead to their eventual separation. Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of Nínay is a reimagining of a Filipino classic for the modern reader.