In 1975, Yi-Fu Tuan argued that to know a place well requires long residence and deep involvement. "Experience takes time. Sense of place is rarely acquired in passing" (164)*. This humanistic perspective has since undergone various revisions, reiterations and reinterpretations, but this tenet's school of thought persisted and has stood the sediments of time.
A recent research on sense of place was undertaken to explore how first-generation Filipino immigrants in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPGC) develop and negotiate a sense of place through emotional, cultural, and spatial practices in an island setting. On Monday, 24 August 2026 at 5:30PM, Angelo Galindo will give a talk for the Heo/Geo Lecture Series for 2026: Tracing First-Generation Filipino Immigrants’ Sense of Place in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Migrant Narratives and Spatial Patterns of Attachment, Identity, and Dependence. Jointly sponsored by the UP Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS), the talk -- the ninth for 2026 -- will be done via Zoom (5:30PM PHT / 11:30AM CEST).
Grounded in sense of place theory—the talk revisits the dimensions of place attachment, place identity, and place dependence. The study utilizes a multimodal framework for representing migrant spatial experience by combining ethnography, participatory mapping, and spatial-statistical analysis. With 14 participants, the study generated both rich qualitative narratives and 126 spatial data points for LPGC of Gran Canaria —a peripheral island setting with a demographic that remains understudied. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the capital of Gran Canaria Island of the Canarian archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
Findings reveal that, place attachment is shaped by sensory and nostalgic connections to built and natural environments as well as spiritual and social connections to people within community spaces; Place identity is enacted in intimate built environments such as churches and Filipino gathering sites spearheaded by Filipino grassroots organizations; Place dependence is strongly linked to the migrant labor landscape, migrant obligation, and the pursuit of actualization—both self and familial. Moreover, while the island setting forms a relevant spatial backdrop, it is the transnational labor experience that most significantly structures Filipino migrant sense of place in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Ultimately, this study invites further work exploring multimodal approaches that foreground migrant place experiences for diasporic island contexts.
Angelo Galindo earned a BSc in Environmental Science from Ateneo de Manila University (with minors in creative writing and literature) and completed his MSc in Geography at the University of the Philippines Diliman, with a thesis on land cover change simulations and the lived experience of urban transitions. After which, Angelo pursued an Erasmus Mundus Research Master in Spatial Sciences in the University of Groningen and Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (cum laude); his thesis combined spatial narratives with spatial statistical analyses—exploring sense of place of Filipino immigrants in Spain. Prior to moving to the Netherlands, Angelo worked in local environmental consultancy firms, tech (ML) startups, government-funded research projects, and as an environmental science and GIS lecturer in the Philippines. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) where he works to reconstruct the history and spatial patterns of deforestation in the Philippines since 1850 and trace its enduring colonial legacies through archival research and spatial analyses.
The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a monthly event that brings together geography-focused scholars, field and industry practitioners, communities and civil society to engage in a conversation about a broadly geographic topic based on research, pedagogy, field practice, and new innovations in geospatial technology. In its rebranded form, the Heo/Geo Lecture Series was carried out continuously since August 2019, and facilitated by the various research clusters of the UP Department of Geography. This talk is co-sponsored by the Human Geography (HUG) research cluster and in line with the SDG #4 (Quality Education) of the United Nations.
To participate in the lecture, register to this link: https://bit.ly/4bZBV7o
* Tuan, Y. F. (1975). Place: An experiential perspective. Geographical review, 151-165.
