Did Marcelo Del Pilar Own the 1st Dalmatians in the Philippines?
If a young Jose Rizal had Usman, then Marcelo Del Pilar had Moltke and Bravo. Much like the other pets of our national heroes, Del Pilar's two Dalmatian dogs occupy an interesting space in the becoming of the country. They were witnesses to the propaganda movement, and were quite the companions.
In fact, Del Pilar might have been the first owner of Dalmatian dogs in the nation's history, or at least their earliest, most famous owner. According to Ian Christopher B. Alfonso's Dogs in Philippine History, the two Dalmatians were said to have accompanied him in his propaganda activity in Bulakan, Bulacan. This is based on the accounts of Del Pilar's own daughter Anita Marasigan, who had then been too young to fathom the foreign dogs.
Right around 1888 or the period when Del Pilar was still based in the Philippines, the dogs were with the family. Nobody really knows what happened to them after Plaridel left for Spain. He would pass away in Barcelona in 1896 because of tuberculosis.
Of course, there still isn't much evidence to actually conclude that Del Pilar was the first Filipino to bring the breed here. That much, and the dogs' origins, is still a mystery. There might have ben other European settlers in the Philippines who could've brought the breed here.
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Popular history suggests that Dalmatains come from Croatia, and would later find themselves in the United Kingdom then the rst of the world. They were hunting dogs, apparently, and were beloved in households in the 18th century and beyond.
But the breed itself can trace its roots to different regions, including, of course, the Dalmatia region. Nevertheless, finding its actual place of origin is still difficult, given the fact that depictions of the spotted dogs can be found in Italian, German, and other European art and literature. The Dalmatian would reach Hollywood in the '20s and would become an icon of a breed soon enough.
In Alfonso's book, he further details how the Philippines ended up becoming a conduit for dog breeds. Read more about Dalmatians, Chows, and more in Philippine history in Ian Christopher B. Alfonso's Dogs in Philippine History. Copies are available via shopee.ph/dogsphi or bit.ly/AsoBookOrder.
