Filipino Librarian lectures at US Library of Congress

Noted Filipino librarian Von Totanes will have a speaking engagement today at the Asian Division reading room foyer of the Library of Congress at 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 9. He will discuss the existence of two imprints of the Philippines’ first book (Doctrina Christiana of 1593) and their significance in Philippine publishing. The Library of Congress is the repository of the only copy of “Doctrina Christiana” which was published on rice paper in Manila on 1593. Totanes will argue that the importance of the imprints lies in the fact that they are physical reminders of the plurality of the nature and culture of the Filipino and the Philippines, and that Filipino culture is what it is today because of contact with the Chinese, the Spanish and the Americans.