Ilustrado

Ilustrado

The Ilustrados (Spanish for "erudite," "learned," or "enlightened ones") constituted the Filipino educated class during the Spanish colonial period in the late 19th century.

They were the middle class who were educated in Spanish 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.