1593 transported soldier legend

Imperial Spanish folktale thumb|upright|1908 illustration: the soldier from Manila watched by the Inquisition in Mexico City A folk legend holds in October 1593, a soldier of the Spanish Empire (named Gil Pérez in a 1908 version) was mysteriously transported from Manila in the Philippines to the Plaza Mayor (now the Zócalo) in Mexico City. 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 was corroborated months later by the passengers of a ship which had crossed the Pacific Ocean with the news. In 1908, folklorist Thomas Allibone Janvier described the legend as "current among all classes of the population of the City of Mexico."Janvier 1908, p.66 Twentieth-century paranormal investigators giving credence to the story have offered teleportation and alien abduction as explanations. Story thumb|300px|The Plaza Mayor, where the soldier allegedly appeared in 1593, pictured in 1836. On 24 October 1593, the soldier was guarding the Palacio del Gobernador in Manila in the Captaincy General of the Philippines. The night before, Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas 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 heart of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, 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's 1832 book Tales of the Alhambra includes the story "Governor Manco and the Soldier", which bears similarities to the legend.Janvier 1910, p.159Irving Washington Washington Irving Tales of the Alhambra https://archive.org/stream/talesofalhambra00irviuoft#page/196/mode/2up Standard Novels XLIX 1835 196–212 Richard Bentley London Governor Manco and the Soldier Janvier's 1908 account was based on a Spanish version by Mexican folklorist Luis González Obregón es, published in 1894 under the title es "Un aparecido" ("An apparition") in his series es México viejo: noticias históricas, tradiciones, leyendas y costumbres ("Old Mexico: historical notes, folklore, legends and customs"). Obregón traces the story to a 1698 account by Fray Gaspar de San Agustín es of the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, which recounts the story as fact; San Agustin does not name the soldier and ascribed his transportation to witchcraft.de Morga 1890, p.31 (fn.2) [de Morga 1868 p.36 has text but lacks footnote] Janvier says Obregón asserts that in 1609, Antonio de Morga had written that Pérez Dasmariñas' death was known in Mexico the same day, though de Morga expresses ignorance of how this came to be.Janvier 1910, pp.159–160de Morga 1890, p.36 (fn.1) [de Morga 1868 p.40 has text but lacks footnote] 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.Weckmann Luis The Medieval Heritage of Mexico https://books.google.com/books?id=E8CEBrLnh4UC&pg=PA272 19 January 2016 1992 Fordham Univ Press 9780823213245 272–273 A 1936 collection, es Historias de vivos y muertos ("Stories of the living and the dead") by Obregón's successor Artemio de Valle Arizpe es, included a version of the story entitled es "Por el aire vino, por la mar se fue" ("He came by air, he left by sea"). Several writers have offered paranormal explanations for the story.Ocampo Ambeth R. Aguinaldo's breakfast & more Looking back essays 1993 Anvil Publishing 9789712702815 8–9 Morris K. JessupJessup Morris K. Morris K. Jessup The Case for the UFO 1st 1955 and Brinsley Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty,Trench Brinsley Le Poer Mysterious visitors: the UFO story https://archive.org/details/mysteriousvisito00tren_747 limited 1975 Pan Books 9780330242523 32–33 suggested alien abduction, while Colin WilsonWilson Colin Enigmas and mysteries 1976 Doubleday 9780385113212 29 and Gary BlackwoodBlackwood Gary L. Extraordinary Events and Oddball Occurrences https://books.google.com/books?id=WeQH6z2qGC0C 19 January 2016 1999 Benchmark Books 9780761407485 suggested teleportation. See also Time travel claims and urban legends References Sources https://archive.org/stream/ahz9387.0001.001.umich.edu#page/31/mode/1up Sucesos de las islas Filipinas José Rizal Antonio de Morga es Antonio de Morga Garnier hermanos 1890 1609 Paris 18 January 2016 31–36 Morga Antonio de Stanley Henry E. J. Henry E. J. Stanley The Philippine islands, Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia, Japan, and China, at the close of the sixteenth century 1868 Hakluyt Society London 36–40 https://archive.org/details/philippineisland00morg/page/36 en https://purl.pt/26127/1/index.html#/502-503/html Conquistas de las Islas Philipinas es Part I Lib. III Cap. 12: De los Embaxadores que llegaron à Manila, enviados por el Emperador del Japon, y del Rey de Camboxa, y del lastimoso fin del Governador Gomez Perez Dasmariñas 465 1698 Madrid Manuel Ruiz de Murga Gaspar de San Agustin 18 January 2016 de San Agustín Gaspar Galende Pedro G. Conquest of the Philippine Islands, 1565–1615 / Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas 1187005265 1998 San Agustín Museum Manila 9789719157144 en, es Luis González Obregón México viejo: Un Aparecido El Renacimiento: periódico literario 27 May 1894 2 330-332 https://www.google.com/books/edition/El_renacimiento/hDNPgU1a8GUC?pg=PA330 14 July 2025 Mexico City F. Díaz de León & Santiago White es https://archive.org/details/mexico-viejo-luis-obregon/page/n114/mode/1up Un Aparecido México viejo: noticias históricas, tradiciones, leyendas y costumbres 181–185 1900 2 July 2025 Luis González Obregón es Paris; Mexico City Librería de la Vda. de C. Bouret Blanche Collet Wagner González Obregón Luis The Streets of Mexico 1937 George Fields San Francisco en https://archive.org/details/streetsofmexico0000gonz/page/126/mode/1up registration 126–128 A Ghost; Legend of the Plaza Mayor Janvier Thomas Allibone Thomas Allibone Janvier December 1908 Legends of the City of Mexico Harper's Magazine 118 703 63–66 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056097309;view=1up;seq=99 18 January 2016 Janvier Thomas Allibone Legends of the City of Mexico January 1910 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45852/pg45852-images.html#Page_96 Legend of the Living Spectre Harper & Brothers New York, London Gutenberg.org 96–107, 159–162 14 July 2025 Citations Category:Teleportation Category:Mexican legends Category:Mexican urban legends Category:Philippine urban legends Category:Alien abduction reports Category:1593 in the Spanish Empire Category:1590s in the Spanish East Indies Category:1590s in New Spain