The author examines the role of language in the religious conversion of the Tagalogs to Catholicism and their colonization during the early period (1580-1705) of Spanish rule in the Philippines. By tracing this history of communication between Spaniards and Tagalogs, Rafael maps the conditions that made possible both the emergence of a colonial regime and resistance to it. This new edition contains a preface that places the book in theoretical relation to other recent works in cultural studies and comparative colonialism.