Doce Pares Eskrima is the world's leading organization of the traditional Philippine martial art known as Eskrima or Arnis - stick fighting. Magellan's sword-wielding conquistadors fell to Maharaja Lapulapu who used Eskrima to defeat the Spanish at the battle of Mactan. Doce Pares traces its history to Lapulapu.In the late 1920's, eskrima attained a high level of popularity in Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines (Cebu island is located in the center of the Philippine archipelago). In 1932, the most renown eskrimadors, mainly from Cebu, founded Doce Pares as a society to promote the only original native martial art of the Philippines. The name Doce Pares reflects the Spanish influence on the Philippines and signifies "Twelve Pairs," referring to the twelve basic strikes and twelve basic defenses of eskrima. Another explanation is that there are twelve original Masters of the Club. To date, none of them is alive. However , there are other several senior instructors or Grandmasters, who belonged to the second generation of Eskrimadors still living and are teaching their own interpretation or styles of Doce Pares Eskrima.