The Philippine Embassy in Madrid, headed by Ambassador Philippe J. Lhuillier, inaugurated on 27 October 2022 “Victoria y Humanidad”, an exhibit featuring the sketches of Filipino illustrator Roderick Macutay, who reimagined the first meetings of Filipino natives with Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and the first Spanish explorers who arrived in the Philippines in the year 1521.
The exhibit was part of the myriad of activities that the National Historical Commission and the Philippine National Museum had with the Spanish Embassy in the Philippines to commemorate the quincentennial of the first circumnavigation of the world. Filipino and Spanish books on the first circumnavigation of the world were displayed alongside the exhibit.
Ambassador Lhuillier thanked Complutense for providing a space that give a glimpse of places in the Philippines that are now part of world history, establishing the first links that connected Spain to the Philippines, and Europe to Asia. He added that “the Philippines remains committed to Spain as the gateway to Southeast Asia, thus our desire to nurture connections through official means, but also through cultural and people-to-people exchanges.”
The exhibit is situated at the Faculty of Geography and History, and will remain until the first week of November 2022, after which it will be displayed at the Philippine Embassy as part of the activities commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Establishment of Bilateral Relations between the Philippines and Spain. Prior to the exhibit´s arrival in Madrid, the illustrations have been on display at the Philippine National Museum.