Anciong bacon balintawak dress

For 333 years the Spanish had imposed its rule on the the diverse people of the Philippines. To help suppress the risk of armed rebellion the Spanish banned the carrying of bladed weapons, which the people of the Philippines were renown for.

As a consequence these art forms became veiled and the outlawed blade was replaced by the innocuous stick. For generations the arts adapted and were transmitted in secret from master to student. 1896 saw the rise of an American backed rebellion that established the government of the First Philippine Republic which battled against the colonial Spanish powers.

Faced with conflicts across the globe, the Spanish ceded authority over the Philippines, amongst other territories, to the Americans in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish American War. With the Spanish gone the masters of the Philippines were once again free to practice their arts in public though the majority chose to remain hidden from view. 

The Americans immediately insta