Fray Casimiro Díaz, O.S.A.

(1693–1746)

was a Spanish friar, of the Augustinian order (vows in 1710), who accompanied the first Spanish expedition to the Cordillera

Cordillera

A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, that runs along a coastline . It comes from the Spanish word cordilla, which is a diminutive of cuerda, or "cord"...

.

Casimiro Díaz wrote Conquistas de las Islas Philipinas in 1718 (published in Valladolid in 1890). He also wrote Parrocho (1745). Casimiro Díaz reported, "The Igorot

Igorot

Cordillerans are the people of the Cordillera region, in the Philippines island of Luzon. The word, Igorot is a misnomer term invented by the Spaniards in mockery against the Nortnern Luzon tribes. The word ‘Igorot’ also as coined and applied by the Spaniards means a savage, head-hunting and...

s are a barbaric people."

Life and work

Casimiro Díaz was born in Toledo, Spain in 1693.
He took his vows in the convent of San Felipe el Real in 1710, and after arriving at the Philippines, he finished his literary studies. Díaz was stationed in the missions at Magalang (1717), later in Mexico (1728), 6 years later in Aráyat (1734), Betis (1735), Minalin (1737), and Candaba (1740). He was procurator-general (1719), twice provincial secretary (1722), definitor (1725), presiding officer of the chapter (1731), qualifier of the Holy Office, chronicler of the Augustinian province in the islands, reader (1744), and conventual preacher. Díaz died in Manila in 1746, having completed many writings.

External links

• "The odyssey of Captain Arriola and his discovery of Marcus Island," webpage: FA-Arriola.