The term indio was the colonial classification imposed by Spanish authorities on indigenous Filipinos, placing them within a rigid social and legal hierarchy that governed daily life across the archipelago for over three centuries.
This 1847 watercolor by José Honorato Lozano depicts two figures in everyday dress. A woman sits barefoot on a wooden bench wearing a floral headscarf and striped clothing, looking up at a standing figure whose back faces the viewer. The standing figure wears a wide-brimmed woven hat, a blue tunic with a yellow floral shawl, and carries a decorated stringed instrument. Lozano's illustrations are among the few detailed visual records of common Filipino life from this period, documenting dress, posture, and daily interaction with a precision that written colonial records rarely preserved.
This illustration belongs to a body of work that documented Philippine society at a time when most of its people had no other means of visual representation.
This piece is part of the Maynila Archive, a curated collection of Philippine historical visuals preserved and made accessible as fine art prints.
Available as a fine art print
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