folk legend Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

holds that in October 1593 a soldier of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

(named Gil Pérez in a 1908 version) was mysteriously transported from

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

to the Plaza Mayor (now the

Zócalo The Zócalo () is the common name of the main square in central Mexico City. Prior to the colonial period, it was the main ceremonial center in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Sq ...

) in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. The soldier's claim to have come from the Philippines was disbelieved by the Mexicans until his account of the assassination of

Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas (1 January 1519 – 25 October 1593Some sources say October 19 or October 23) was a Spanish politician, diplomat, military officer and imperial official. He was the seventh governor-general of the Philippines from Ma ...

was corroborated months later by the passengers of a ship which had crossed the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

with the news. Folklorist

Thomas Allibone Janvier Thomas Allibone Janvier (July 16, 1849 – June 18, 1913) was an American story-writer and historian, born in Philadelphia of Provençal descent. Early life and marriage Janvier received a public school education, then worked in Philadelph ...

in 1908 described the legend as "current among all classes of the population of the City of Mexico". Twentieth-century

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

investigators giving credence to the story have offered

teleportation Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture. Teleportation is oft ...

and

alien abduction Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting their experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subjected to physical and psychologica ...

as explanations.

Story

On October 24, 1593, the soldier was guarding the

Palacio del Gobernador The Palacio del Gobernador () is a government building located in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. It is located southwest from Plaza de Roma and built in its current form in 1976. At present, the building houses the Intramuros Administration ...

in the

Captaincy General of the Philippines The Captaincy General of the Philippines ( es, Capitanía General de Filipinas ; tl, Kapitaniya Heneral ng Pilipinas) was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire in Southeast Asia governed by a governor-general as a dependency of the ...

. The night before, Governor

was assassinated by Chinese pirates, but the guards still guarded the palace and awaited the appointment of a new governor. The soldier began to feel dizzy and exhausted. He leaned against the wall and rested for a moment with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes a few seconds later, he found himself in Mexico City, in the

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...

, thousands of kilometres across the ocean. Some guards found him in the wrong uniform and began to question who he was. The news of the assassination of the Governor of the Philippines was still unknown to the people in Mexico City. The transported soldier was reportedly wearing the palace guards' uniform in Manila and knew of his death. (In fact, Pérez Dasmariñas was killed at sea some distance from Manila.) The authorities placed him in jail for being a deserter and with charges of being a servant of the devil. Months later, news of the governor's death came to Mexico on a galleon from the Philippines. One of the passengers recognized the imprisoned soldier and said that he had seen him in the Philippines a day after the death of the Governor. He was eventually released from jail by the authorities and allowed to go back home.

Development

Thomas Allibone Janvier, an American folklorist living in Mexico, recounted the story as ''Legend of the Living Spectre'' in the December 1908 edition of '' Harper's Magazine'', naming the soldier as Gil Pérez. The story was one of a series entitled ''Legends of the City of Mexico'' published in a collected volume in 1910. Janvier notes that similar motifs are common in folklore.

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

's 1832 book ''

Tales of the Alhambra ''Tales of the Alhambra'' (1832) is a collection of essays, verbal sketches and stories by American author Washington Irving (1783–1859) inspired by, and partly written during, his 1828 visit to the palace/fortress complex known as the Alhambr ...

'' includes the story "Governor Manco and the Soldier", which bears similarities to the legend.Janvier 1910, p.159 Janvier's 1908 account was based on a Spanish version by Mexican folklorist , published in his 1900 collection ("Old Mexico: historical notes, folklore, legends and customs") under the title ("An apparition"). Obregón traces the story to a 1698 account by Fray of the

Spanish conquest of the Philippines Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, which recounts the story as fact; San Agustin does not name the soldier and ascribed his transportation to

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

.de Morga 1890, p.31 (fn.2) Janvier says Obregón asserts that in 1609,

Antonio de Morga Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay (29 November 1559 – 21 July 1636) was a Spanish soldier, lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official for 43 years, in the Philippines (1594 to 1604), New Spain and Peru, where he was president of the Real Audie ...

had written that Pérez Dasmariñas' death was known in Mexico the same day, though de Morga expresses ignorance of how this came to be. José Rizal notes many other miraculous stories from the Spanish Philippines of the time; Luis Weckmann makes the same point in relation to Spanish Mexico. A 1936 collection, ("Stories of the living and the dead") by Obregón's successor , included a version of the story entitled ("He came by air, he left by sea"). Several writers have offered

explanations for the story. Morris K. Jessup and

Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, 7th Marquess of Heusden (18 September 191118 May 1995) was a prominent ufologist. He was an Irish peer, as well as a nobleman in the Dutch nobility. Biography He was the fifth son o ...

, suggested

, while

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

and Gary Blackwood suggested

References

Sources

* * * ** * *

Citations

{{reflist Teleportation Mexican legends Alien abduction 1593 in the Spanish Empire 1590s in the Spanish East Indies 1590s in New Spain