From Spain to Manila via Mexico: Martín de Rada and Chinese Knowledge in the Late Sixteenth-Century Philippines

• In Event: Connected Histories of Spanish Asia and Spanish America in the Early Modern Era

Abstract

In this presentation, I examine transatlantic and transpacific dimensions of the sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary Martín de Rada. Recent scholarship has portrayed Rada as a forward-thinking missionary who not only shaped Spanish colonial agendas but also defended the rights of Indigenous Filipinos. I expand such insights by demonstrating that his intellectual and political involvement extended far beyond the Philippine archipelago. Tracing his journey from Spain to Manila via Mexico, I situate Rada within the early Spanish transoceanic religious and political networks, highlighting his active participation in imperial dialogues and diplomatic engagements. Most crucially, I contend that Rada played a foundational role in shaping early Spanish understandings of China by transmitting Chinese epistemes to the Iberian world—preceding better-known intermediaries such as Juan Cobo and Matteo Ricci. In doing so, Rada emerges not only as a mediator of cultures but as a key figure in the early formation of Sino-Iberian knowledge production.

Author

• Brayan Serratos García, Kalamazoo College