ABSTRACT
The enclosure of women, men, and children in a host of different urban institutions, including monastic houses, schools, and hospitals, was relatively ubiquitous across Europe and the Americas by the time the Spanish entered Manila in 1571. City administrators in Intramuros, Manila’s walled city, saw institutional enclosure as a strategy to create a colonial order that prioritized a Spanish-Catholic model of gender. This essay argues that institutional enclosure was an integral part of Spanish colonization efforts in Manila, where Spanish administrators often depicted the archipelago as a chaotic periphery. However, despite the imperial goal of establishing social order through institutional confinement, enclosed inhabitants regularly challenged that goal by prioritizing their personal motivations and desires. An examination of scandals surrounding Manila’s female institutions points to how institutional administrations struggled to curb disorderly behaviour.
