More than a century after Spanish rule ended in the Philippines, Filipinos on opposite sides of the world are taking another look at what Spain left behind.

In Manila, an anthropologist is challenging some of the country’s most enduring narratives about more than three centuries under the Spanish Crown.

In Barcelona, children of Filipino immigrants are writing about growing up between the country their parents left and the one they now call home.

The two projects are part of a series of events organized by the Embassy of Spain in Manila this month, placing questions of history and identity alongside exhibitions on the Manila galleon trade, Spanish engineering, the cultural links that survived colonial rule.

Fernando Zialcita, an anthropology professor at Ateneo, examined what he describes as persistent myths about the Spanish period in an 11 August lecture at Instituto Cervantes.

His talk, “Why Does the ‘Black Legend’ Persist? Three Myths,” will question traditional accounts of the Philippines under the Spanish monarchy and argue for a more nuanced reading of the period.

The abuses of Spanish colonial rule, including those linked to powerful religious orders, became part of the nationalist awakening that helped drive the 1896 Philippine Revolution.

Spain ruled much of the archipelago for more than three centuries before ceding the Philippines to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War.

Eight days after Zialcita’s lecture, Instituto Cervantes will launch Mosai-KO, a collection of 15 stories written by children of Filipino immigrant families in Barcelona.

The writers, ages 11 to 24, describe life in El Raval, a densely populated Barcelona neighborhood shaped by generations of migration.

Their stories offer a contemporary reversal of an old historical movement: Filipinos building lives in the country that once governed theirs.

Other Spanish-backed events are examining the same relationship through objects and places.

A new gallery at the National Museum in Baler, Aurora, focuses on Philippine-Spanish history and cultural exchange.

Exhibitions in Manila cover the galleon trade, centuries of Spanish engineering overseas, photography and contemporary art.