User:RafaelMinuesa

About Me

This is the Wikipedia page of Rafael Minuesa.

I was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. I have lived in Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Paris, London, New York, Miami, San Diego, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Guam, Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Taipei, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Cebu, and a few more than I don't care to disclose. Those are places where I lived, and by living I mean both working and taking up (temporary) residence. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't enjoy the privilege of being rich which means I have to work for a living, and trust me, living as a traveler is about ten times more expensive than living a sedentary life. As a tourist I have traveled to hundreds of different places, literally, and I never get tired, kind of addicted I guess.

Regarding Wikipedia, even though my signed contributions started not long ago, I have actually contributed to Wikipedia quite a lot, for over 7 years now (2011) and in different languages, mostly anonymous edits. I have finally decided to do the proper thing and register, only if it's just a way of keeping track of my contributions.

Believe it or not, I'm a very busy man, these days mostly doing web design and development, but I always try to find some time to contribute to this great project, in my opinion the best thing that ever happened to the Internet. OK, maybe second after YouTube.

My Contributions

Some of the Pages I have created

Toledo School of Translators

The Toledo School of Translators (Spanish: Escuela de Traductores de Toledo) is the name that commonly describes the group of scholars that worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from classical Arabic, classical Greek, and ancient Hebrew.

The School went through two differentiated periods separated by a transitional phase. The first was led by Archbishop Raymond of Toledo in the 12h century, who promoted the translation of philosophical and religious works, mainly from classical Arabic into Latin. With King Alfonso X of Castile during the XIII century, begins a period when translations no longer target Latin as the final language, but a revised version of Castilian, establishing that way the foundations of the modern Spanish language.

Education in the Philippines during Spanish rule

During the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines (1565-1898), most of its territory underwent a deep cultural, religious and linguistic transformation from Asian cultural influences and Islamic and animist religions to Westernized values and Catholic Christian practices.

Spanish education played a major role in that transformation. The oldest universities, colleges, vocational schools and the first modern public education system in Asia were created during the colonial period, and by the time Spain was replaced by the United States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated subjects in all of Asia.

Captaincy General of the Philippines

The Captaincy General of the Philippines (Spanish: Capitanía General de las Filipinas) was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire. The Captaincy General encompassed the modern country of the Philippines and associated Spanish Pacific possessions. It was founded in 1565 with the first permanent Spanish settlements.

For centuries all economic aspects of the Captaincy were administered in Mexico by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, while administrative issues had to be consulted with the Spanish Crown or the Council of the Indies. However, in 1821, after Mexico became an independent nation, all control was transferred to Madrid.

Royal Audience of Manila

The Royal Audience of Manila (Spanish: Real Audiencia de Manila) was the highest tribunal of the Spanish Empire with jurisdiction over all territories administered by the Captaincy General of the Philippines, an administrative unit that had been established in 1574 as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The Governor-General of the Philippines was appointed as its highest judge, although on many occasions his absence forced other members to rule the tribunal and assume temporary civilian and military powers, such as in 1607, when it maintained the defense of Manila and Cavite against the Dutch, or between 1762 and 1764, when Oidor Simón de Anda y Salazar assumed military power on behalf of the Audiencia, organizing and maintaining a defense against the British force that had invaded Manila.

Diario de Manila

Diario de Manila was a Spanish language newspaper published in the Philippines, founded on October 11, 1848, and closed down by official decree on February 19, 1898, after the colonial authorities discovered that its installations were being used to print revolutionary material.

The Diario was edited by Felipe del Pan and published by the Ramirez y Compañia, whose headquarters were based in Intramuros, Manila, and its business and editorial offices in Binondo.

Doctrina Christiana

Doctrina Christiana was written by Fray Juan de Plasencia, and is believed to be one of the earliest books printed in the Philippines, in the year 1593.

The Doctrina Christiana is remarkable not only for having been printed at such an early age in a elaborated Gothic font of the Spanish language, but also for having copies made in Tagalog versions, both in Latin script and the commonly used Baybayin script of the natives at the time, plus another translation made in traditional Chinese language.

Francisco Hernández Expedition (1570-1577)

The Francisco Hernández Expedition (Spanish: Comisión de Francisco Hernández a Nueva España) is considered to be the first scientific expedition to the New World, lead by Francisco Hernández de Toledo, a naturalist and physician of the Court of King Philip II, who was highly regarded in Spain because of his works on medicinal botany.

Among some of the most important achievements of the expedition were the discovery and subsequent introduction in Europe of an incredible amount of new plants that had never seen before in the Old World, but that quickly gained acceptance and become very popular among European consumers, such as the Pineapple, Cocoa, Corn, and many others.

Malaspina Expedition

The Malaspina Expedition (1789-1794) was a scientific exploration that took place during a five-year voyage around the globe, commanded by Alessandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. Although the expedition receives its name from Malaspina, he always insisted on giving Bustamante an equal share of command. Bustamante however acknowledged Malaspina as the "head of the expedition" since the beginning.

The expedition was funded by the Spanish government and originally pursued strictly scientific goals, in the same fashion as the voyages of James Cook and Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse. Some of the leading scientists at the time collected an impressive amount of scientific data that even surpassed what was collected during Cook's expedition, but due to Malaspina's involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish government, he was jailed shortly upon return. Most of the expedition's reports and collections were put away unpublished, and didn't see the light until the late 19th century.

Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru

The Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru (Spanish: Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú) took place in the territories of the Viceroyalty of Peru and Chile between 1777 and 1788.

It was commissioned by King Charles III of Spain and headed by botanists Hipólito Ruiz López, José Antonio Pavón Jiménez and Joseph Dombey.

Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada

The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada (Spanish: Expedición Botánica al Virreinato de Nueva Granada) took place between 1783 and 1816 in the territories of New Granada, covering present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Peru and northern Brazil and western Guyana.

The project was rejected twice before being finally approved in 1783 by King Charles III of Spain, and was headed by José Celestino Mutis, a Spanish priest, who was also a botanist, mathematician and teacher.

Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain

The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain (Spanish: Expedición Botánica al Virreinato de Nueva España) was a scientific expedition that took place in the territories of New Spain between 1787 and 1803.

It was sanctioned in 1786 by King Charles III of Spain who approved the allotment of financial resources, and headed by Martín Sessé y Lacasta, who lead a team of botanists selected by the director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid.