Palaris

Juan de la Cruz, also known as Palaris, (8 January 1733 – 26 February 1765) was a Pangasinan leader in the province of Pangasinan in the Philippines who led a revolt against the colonial authoritires during the 18th century. The uprising is known as the Palaris Revolt.

De la Cruz was born to Santiago de la Cruz, a village chief, and Catalina Ugnay, both of the town of Binalatongan (now San Carlos City), Pangasinan. He had a brother (Colet) and a sister (Simeona). Being a family of a village chief (or cabeza de barangay, in Spanish), the De la Cruz clan were members of Binalatongan's principalia (ruling class).

Little is known of the personal circumstances of De la Cruz except that he was educated in Binalatongan and was orphaned in his teens. He then moved to Manila and worked as the coachman of the Spanish official Francisco Enríquez de Villacorta, a member of the Audiencia Real, which served as the privy council of the governor-general who governed the Philippines.

After the British Invasion of the Philippines during the Seven Years' War, the Spanish colonial government, including Villacorta, had relocated to Bacolor in the province of Pampanga, which was then adjacent to Pangasinan.

It was at this time that the principalia of Binalatongan protested the abuses committed by the provincial governor. The town leaders demanded that the governor be removed and that the colonial government stop collecting taxes since the islands were already under the British.

But Governor-General Simon de Anda dismissed the demands and the revolt broke out in November 1762. The name of de la Cruz, who began to be known as Palaris, emerged as one of the leaders of the revolt, along with his brother Colet, Andrés López, and Juan de Vera Oncantin.

By December, all Spanish officials, except the Dominican friars who were in charge of the Catholic mission, had left Pangasinan. The Spanish colonial government had to deal with the British invaders and the simultaneous Silang Revolt, led by Diego Silang, in the neighboring province of Ilocos in the north. (The present-day province of La Union was still part of Pangasinan and Ilocos.)

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