Manuel Artigas y Cuerva was a Filipino biographer, historian, and scholar. His accounts about various aspects of Philippine history were contained in such books as Historia Municipal de Filipinas and Diccionario Tecnico-Historico de la Administracion de Filipinas. Among his significant works are Historia de las Revoluciones Filipinas, El General Antonio Luna Novicio-Manila, Historia de la Instruccion Publica en Filipinas, and others.
Background
Manuel Artigas y Cuerva was born on October 15, 1866, in Tacloban, Philippines. He was the second son of Miguel Artigas y Rodriguez and Soledad Cuerva y Molina. After his father's death in 1874, Manuel Artigas with his mother moved to Manila.
Education
Manuel Artigas y Cuerva was sent to the small school Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion. In 1876 he enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University). He was admitted to the University of Santo Tomas as an alumno interno de beca and for three years studied medicine there, while he was enrolled in surveying. Then he transferred to Colegio de San Juan de Letran. In 1881 he worked during the vacation period.
In 1883, Manuel Artigas y Cuerva took a competitive test to enable him to enter the government service. In June of the same year, he was named the third aspirant in the Administracion Central de Impuestos Directos where Rafael Crame and Martin Ocampo were clerking. On November 1, 1886, he was promoted to the second aspirant and assigned to the Almacenes de la Aduana de Manila. He was reassigned on January 1, 1890, to the Administracion Central de Loterias, and on February 10, 1891, to the Intervencion General de la Administracion del Estado, an office recently created to take over the functions of the defunct Tribunal de Cuentas, which was chiefly an auditing office. He was named the fifth official on June 24, 1893, with the assignment at the Administracion Provincial de Manila, in the division de negociado de la contribucion urbana. At this time, Dr. Luis de la Torre was made chief of the Customs office and in order to have an efficient and reliable staff in said office, Artigas was almost obliged to move in the inspection service. When the Revolution started in August 1896 he was occupying the last position.
Artigas began writing for the Diario de Manila and soon became a staff member. But after five years he left that daily only to join El Amigo del Pueblo. His experience, both journalistic and governmental, now put him in a position to write his first book, Manual del Empleado (1891). In the following year, he became more venturesome when he published and edited the first successful local government review in the colony, El Faro Administrativo, which came out on February 12, 1892. This was issued twice a month with the aim in view of assisting form a body of precedents and guide on municipal administration and problems based on doctrines, studies of the law, opinions and norms of practical conduct which could help and inspire mayors, regidores, ayuntamientos, municipal secretaries, principalias, gobernadorcillos, tenientes, cabezas de barangay and directorcillos in their official work.
This periodical was preceded by the Revista de Administracion which came out in 1866 but this was shortlived, and Artigas probably never knew of it. However, he was familiar with El Consultor de Ayuntamientos published in Spain, and he saw at once the need for a similar review dealing with local problems and situations. A sister publication, also a bimonthly, appeared on February 1, 1894. This was El Consultor de los Minicipios, a timely periodical inspired by the implantation of the Maura Law. Artigas had become an assiduous compiler of documents, facts, and forms which he gathered from his organs and other sources and which enabled him now to put them together in book form. The result was his El Municipio Filipino (1894) in two volumes, and Diccionario Tecnico-historico de la Administracion de Filipinas (1894).
It appears that Artigas, once he knew his direction, set himself in preparation for a big task ahead - that of publishing his own works. For this purpose, he bought the press of Mr. Pardo of Nueva Caceres which was printing the first periodical in Camarines, El Eco del Sur. After equipping it with more types acquired from Isabelo de los Reyes, he printed his two reviews and other works in this press in 1895 until the outbreak of the Revolution. He established his shop on Calle San Jose, in Intramuros. Upon becoming aware that relations between the Spanish officials and Filipino employees were becoming strained to a point where it was no longer safe to stay, upon the advice of friends, Artigas decided to leave the government service. He followed this course, and upon securing the necessary papers, he sailed with his family for Spain in the early part of 1897. He sold his press and left behind him a private library which contained more than 3000 volumes, to the building and acquisition of which the proceeds of his publications and his savings went.
Once in the Peninsula with his family, he worked for a while in the staff of La Confidencia Universal in Barcelona. Then he moved to Madrid where he founded La Voz de Ultramar. In this periodical, Artigas now and then discussed the weak points of the Spanish colonial system and had now the opportunity to expose the abuses of Spanish officials and to advocate for colonial autonomy. He soon became known to Sr. Moret and Sr. Quiroga Ballasteros who did not waste much time in availing of his services. These two were responsible for putting him in the service of the Junta de Publicidad del Ministerio del Ultramar where Artigas served from January 1 to June 2, 1898. He became an active figure in political clubs such as the Colonia Reformista and later the Comite Republicano which were engrossed discussing political matters and issuing manifestos. Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris, Filipino employees resigned from the Spanish services.
Artigas went to Barcelona where the Sub-comite Revolucionario Felepino headed by Tito Acuna was functioning. There he became an adviser and chronicler but later he took over its direction. Then he founded El Filipino, an exponent of the revolutionary cause, in the latter part of 1899. Life was becoming harder and his reserves dwindling, he had to seek employment in factories. He found work in a firm manufacturing belts, pocket-books, etc, and later in a hat factory, he found odd jobs. Afterward, he became an itinerant agent for several establishments, an occupation which brought him to many a city not only in Spain but also in France. This was the most enlightening phase of his life that he had yet passed - seeing museums and libraries and historic spots, ancient monuments, and cultural centers that housed relics of past epochs. For three or more years he lived the life of a business agent and a tourist.
In June 1902, he sailed back to the Philippines on board the Isla de Panay, arriving in Manila in July. Before the end of the month, he found himself editor-in-chief of El Grito del Pueblo, a paper founded and published by Pascual H. Poblete, and in November he was designated general secretary of the Nacionalista Party, a position he held until 1905. This year, he joined the staff of La Democracia with the end in view of directing its policy. But sensing that the time was not propitious, he did not stay long. Before this, however, in 1903, he was chosen general secretary of the Asociacion de Maquinistas Navales y Terrestres de Filipinas, which position he held until 1909. He was responsible for publishing the organ of the association, El Maquinista, bi-weekly which appeared from November 1, 1903, to January 11, 1904. In the Congreso Agricola held in 1906, he was elected secretary. As he had switched to the Federal Party, he became the candidate for the third district of Leyte in the First Philippine Assembly. Upon his defeat by Florentino Penaranda, Nacionalista, he became convinced that politics was not for him.
On October 24, 1907, by virtue of special order 542 of the chief executive, he was appointed, through the recommendation of the then director of education, Dr. David P. Barrows, assistant librarian in the American Circulating Library, to take charge of its Philippine section. At this time, there were but a few books in the library about the country. Artigas knew thas lack and he set himself to building the Filipiniana collection as a major task. He was of course very happy to do this. Then the idea of a national library dawned upon him, and with this end, in view, he proposed to Assemblymen Pedro A. Paterno and Tomas Arejola his idea which both welcomed and embodied into a measure which became Act No. 1849. This was enacted on June 3, 1908, and it established the Philippine Public Library. Artigas set to work toward the enrichment of the collection of Philippine books, and he had a big hand in the acquisition of private collections such as those of James A. LeRoy, Jose Rizal, Jose Clemente Zulueta, T. H. Pardo de Tavera, the Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas, and that of Mariano Ponce.
But to Artigas, a mere collection alone of materials was not sufficient. He understood its limitation in one place. He was more interested in the diffusion of knowledge and information about the history of the Filipino people and their culture than mere collections. The printed page was the best vehicle for the idea. It was not his alone, for Felipe G. Calderon's Revista Historica de Filipinas was still fresh as a pioneering venture. However, he was not daunted. He founded the Biblioteca Nacional Filipina which came out in October 1908 and lived until May 1911.
His studies may be divided into biographical, historical, and bibliographical works. Of the first may be mentioned Antonio Luna y Novicio (1910), Apolinario Mabini (1910-1911), Quien Es Retana? (1911), Andres Bonifacio y el Katipunan (1911), and the impressive Galeria de Filipino Ilustres in two volumes (1917 and 1918) which he was never able to finish. Those that have been cited often for their reference value as historical works include La Primera Imprenta en Filipinas (1910), Resena Historica de la Universidad de Santo Tomas de Manila (1911), Los Sucesos de 1872 (1911), and Resena de la Provincia de Leyte. There are also those of documentary value such as those of Actas de la Comision Permanente de Censura (1909) and Historia de la Instruccion Publica en Filipinas (1914). Those that are chiefly bibliographical in nature, of the more extensive ones, may be cited Los Periodicos Filipinos (1909), List of Books in the Filipiniana Division for Study of the Linguistics of the Philippine Islands (1913), and Bibliografia Medico-Farmaceutica de Filipinas (1915) which was never completed.
Artigas was unable to produce any monumental work, but it could be said that his Galeria de Filipinos Ilustres, of which two volumes were published, is an unfinished monument to his industry and vision. In the Galeria, the author started a pioneering work, though not a model one in form, style, and content, of such magnitude that one staggers to understand how the man worked.
On July 6, 1910, he was appointed curator of the Filipiniana division at three thousand pesos a year, and after passing the librarian's examination on September 7, 1911, he was designated chief of that division. His promotion from that time on was a steady one. On June 12, 1915, he was named acting chief of the Philippine Library and in that capacity, he served for a year and a half. On January 6, 1916, he became an assisting librarian at three thousand six hundred pesos per annum. On April 1, 1916, he took the position of a librarian at four thousand pesos per annum. On July 21, 1921, he designated as an acting director and again on January 3, 1922. It was his ambition never realized to become someday the director of the National Library, and he showed by every means to be qualified for that position but he was never given the opportunity as there were more brilliant minds around.
It is not easy to evaluate the works of Artigas. Every title has its own merits and defects but his works have come to acquire indispensability, importance. Although his studies generally lack the depth of analysis, they have the merit of giving the facts or the documents which he often reproduced in extenso. He sometimes did not distinguish between opinion and facts but he did this without partiality. He dod not emit any opinion, he did not make searching studies to find out which was the truth. Very often the reader is made to understand that everything printed id the fact or the truth. He compiled data from any source, often giving bibliographic information but he never always did so. He copied documents extensively without testing their validity, or if he ever did he seldom communicated this to his readers. He was, therefore, wanting of the qualities of a historian or scholar - critical analysis, depth, and evaluative interpretation of the facts. But he was an indefatigable compiler and writer, tireless in recording everything.
Membership
Manuel Artigas y Cuerva was a member or a directing hand in many intellectual groups or endeavors: a member of the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, Philippine Academy, Comite Organizador del Tercer Cantario de la Imprenta en Filipinas held on August 1, 1909, and Junta Organizadora Ejecutiva de las Fiestas del Tercer Cantario de la Real y Pontifica Universidad de Santo Tomas. He was president of the Asociacion Historico-Geografica de Filipinas in 1915 and vice-president of the Academia de la Lengua Filipina in 1914. He was made in 1915 honorary corresponding member of the Real Sociedad Geografica de Madrid, and in 1916 the same honor was accorded him by the Real Academia de a Historia, and the Academia Hispano-Americana de Cadiz. His collaboration was solicited by the Espana editors in further recognition, his contributions being found under the first letters of the Encyclopedia Universal Europeo-Americana.
Artigas y Cuerva was a mason and his masonic writings may be found in Far Eastern Freemason, Hojas Sueltas, and Acacia, the last of which he edited as an organ of Sinukuan Lodge.
Personality
Artigas used the pennames Sagitra, Taclobano, and Kalantiaw.
Connections
Manuel Artigas y Cuerva was married to Luisa Losada y Mijares. The marriage produced twelve children, Miguel, Maria Luisa, Ramon, Manuel, Jr., Antonio, Aurelio, Teresa, Guillermo, Hector, Rafael, Cesar, and Rafael. Artigas left his family nothing but books.