Colorum Party Term Analysis

This Colorum Party refers to a variety of sects that fell under a broader resistance movement among the Filipino peasantry and the urban proletariat in the early 20th century. These sects incorporated both Messianic and revolutionary ideals to resist the growing consolidated power of the large plantation owners and the Catholic Church. The origins of the Colorums date back to Spanish rule. In 1843, a man named Apolinario de la Cruz sought to join the Dominican friars, but the Spanish Dominicans rejected him because he was Filipino. Outraged, de la Cruz formed his own religious order that attracted other Filipinos disenchanted with Spanish religious and political rule. The movement soon spread and splintered, but collectively became known as colorum after the groups’ mispronunciation of the Latin prayer saecula saeculorom. When Carlos encounters the Colorum, he disparages them as “a fanatical organization of dispossessed peasants that terrorized Luzon.”