Kabikolan occupied a central place in the Spanish maritime history. Protruding to the waters of the Pacific, the region became the gateway of the galleons plying the Manila-Acapulco route. From 1565 until about 1810, a number of coastal settlements in the region thus served as ports of call, repair stations, and protective refuge of ships in distress.
Raffi Banzuela’s book, Bikol in the Galleon Times, is a groundbreaking study in the region’s pivotal role in the galleon activities. Providing a comprehensive narrative on the various aspects of the maritime commerce carried out by these “castles of the sea,” as the galleons were poetically described, the book examines in vivid details such topics as the construction of ships, the numerous naval battles which occasionally erupted in the regional waters, and the nostalgic world of the Bikolanos in the early centuries of colonial regime.
Banzuela’s book is truly a welcome addition to the expanding historical literature of Kabikolan which deserves a prominent space in the bookshelves not only of every Bikolano home but of anyone interested in Philippine maritime history.
Danilo Madrid Gerona, Ph.D.
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