 Joaquín's body of written works were subtly about the "Hispanic soul" of the Philippines brought about by three centuries of Spanish rule.Joaquín's stories in particular were sentimental, reminiscing about the Philippines' Spanish past as well as lamenting its decline.Gómez has been writing on the same theme, more thoroughly about the decadence of the country's "Hispanic soul," but his style is often combative and tends to lay blame for the near demise of the Spanish language in his country on what he calls White Anglo-Saxon Protestant "domination" of the country's educational and economic life.