| The Ilustrados (Spanish: [ilusˈtɾaðos], "erudite", "learned" or "enlightened ones") constituted the Filipino educated class during the Spanish colonial period in the late 19th century. Elsewhere in New Spain (of which the Philippines were part), the term gente de razón carried a similar meaning.
They were middle class Filipinos, many of whom were educated in Spain and exposed to Spanish liberal and European nationalist ideals. The Ilustrado class was composed of native-born intellectuals and cut across ethnolinguistic and racial lines—Indios, Insulares and Mestizos, among others—and sought reform through "a more equitable arrangement of both political and economic power" under Spanish tutelage.
Stanley Karnow, in his In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines, referred to the Ilustrados as the "rich Intelligentsia" because many were the children of wealthy landowners. They were key figures in the development of Filipino nationalism. |
