Matud Nila

When I was looking for a place to stay [I'm really on a super tight budget] I was looking for some inexpensive spaces, I found many places that were old and neglected, many offer rooms that were like dirty bomb shelters. I was hopping from one barrio to the other, unfamiliar with urban Cebu, I would always end up asking for directions, I was at the mercy of strangers, and true enough, people here are generous and kind.

Like the Zubiri's of Cebu.

Their Grandfather was a renowned Visaya musician, "an all around" musikero, his daughter now confined to her wheelchair recalls. I was interviewing her for sometime when I realized that I was giving her a hard time, I was told that she has survived several medical emergencies, I no longer dared to ask more. After thanking her I left her alone with her good lady caretaker.

His father was Ben Zubiri, aka Iyo Karpo, the composer of the immortal Visayan ballad, "Matud Nila" [they say]. A tagalog version, "Ikaw na Lamang" was made by Levi Celerio. Zubiri was also a Cebuano actor, acting in one of the first Cebuano movies released in theater houses locally. A matud nila has been sung by countless Filipino musician from Pilita Corales to modern crooners like Mark Bautista. Its the greatest Visayan song my Mama would tell me.

My Mama, a Visayan woman herself, would listen to a radio drama to an AM station, the background music was this timeless classic, sung by a soothing female voice [anyone knows who the singer was on that show? its on DZRH I believe, the drama was played every noon time, mid 1980's].

Zubiri was also a fierce guerrilla fighter during the Japanese occupation, he met his wife in Bohol, where he was stationed. He died on 1969.


Ben Zuburi and his awards on top of his beloved piano where he created his memorable Cebuano ballads

Soy Latina Tambien by Kathleen Ferraren

High School Filipino Kathleen Ferraren wins Latino Essay Writing Contest in DC

Tue, October 2, 2007 7:37 am

Kathleen's Dad, Patrick Ferraren (in Virginia), a long lost friend, 30 years ago a co-staffer of The Forward at Colegio de San Jose-Recoletos, after we got reconnected wrote:

"How can a young contemporary Filipina lay claim to Hispanic Heritage, compete with other DC area high school Hispanics in an essay contest about how being Latino is the best of both worlds in the USA, and win? Answer: By weaving a connection that is indisputably valid, drawing on her life's experiences that enhance the connection, and expressing her feelings about the significance of that Spanish connection-utilizing her unique personal style of literary writing that appeals to her audience. She made it light reading and interestingly anecdotal, with relevant facts. The dozen or so judges approved and gave it to her. Who would have known? Pardon my "estoy muy orgulloso" father attitude, but this makes for an interesting English Lesson because it is true. Here is an example of how to write a winning piece! In the real world!" (I asked Patrick that I post Kathleen's winning piece as I find this very inspiring for our young Danawanons in California as well as all other young Pinays. - Monching)

SOY LATINA TAMBIEN

Kathleen is my given name but I recall my parents called me by my Spanish name, Catalina, when I was four years old. Both my parents are Filipinos of mixed origin-mostly Spanish and Asian. Having immigrated to America from the Philippines, they brought their colorful cultures to the melting pot that is America. I was brought up in a Roman Catholic household where the Santo Niño and the Virgen stood on an altar.

Although my parents' home country, the Philippines, is located in Asia, it has a lot to share with other Latino countries. Named after Madrid's King Philip II, the country was colonized by Spain from 1565 to 1898.

My parents decided that I would grow up learning English only. However, they would often insert Spanish words-embossed into their culture from 333 years of Spanish rule-into daily conversation. I was used to hearing other people muttering about my and other children's foibles, complaining with sacrilegious words of Jesús y María, and when we were especially clumsy, Jesús, María y José. Refusals to eat my empanada or drink my leche earned me a slap on the arm and an order of habre.

Around this time, when I was about three, my mother and my tía thought that it would be charming to dress up my cousin and me up in matching outfits. Next to my lacy camisetas, beautiful fans from Sevilla, and handed down jewelries, my mother's favorite outfit for me was a bright red tiered Spanish dress with puffy sleeves and white lace. I hated it and cried often when I was forced to wear it to parties.

"Put it on, hija" commanded my mother.

"No, mamá" I replied defiantly.

"You'll never go to Nicky's again," warned my mother, forcing the itchy heap over my head.

"Jesús, María y José!" I protested, promptly earning me a time-out.

After that episode, my parents considered augmenting my Spanish in addition to the trite expressions. Already I was going around telling my fellow preschoolers that yes, babies could talk, because ga-ga in Pilipino (a language sporadically infused with Spanish) meant stupid. My father especially nudged me to learn Castilian, and he continues to advocate the vosotros conjugation and th lisp to this day.

After seven years, I began to grumble. It irked me when another student was given the Spanish name Catalina. I had to settle for Catrina. The misnomer tormented me, and my interest waned. "Soy Catalina," I used to murmur. "Why do I have to learn, anyway? In America, people speak English."

"Huh," my mother replied. "It is your heritage, and many people in America speak Spanish. Besides, don't you want to be able to read Don Quixote in its original Spanish?"

That last reason remains my biggest motivation of all. Since I am still not fluent in the language, my second-hand hardcover still lies enticingly on my bookshelf. I will suffer patiently like the steadfast Florentino Ariza. However, I have succumbed to the charms of Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, whose words I devour amid sobs and laughter. I have also given way to telenovelas, RBD, and reggaeton.

I finally had a chance to practice my Spanish during this year's spring break on a school trip to Perú and Ecuador. I spent many happy hours enjoying the warmth and joy of the people, and I nearly leapt out of my chair in a restaurant when local musicians played "Qué sera, sera," a song that my father used to sing to me when I was very little. Cheering and wearing red, I ran into the celebrating throngs in Plaza de Armas when the local Cienciano team won the South American World Cup. I gaped at the majestic Sacsayhuamán, I ate cuy, and I took care not to use the Sagrada Familia's names in vain in the beloved Iglesia de San Francisco. My most unforgettable experience, however, was getting lost on the mountain Machu Picchu.

By the time I started to descend, it was already sunset. Anyone who has been up that long, treacherous mountain can understand the terror it inspired in me as I stumbled in the dark, often losing my footing and hearing snakes in the undergrowth. I found myself conversing with the Urubamba below and clutching my Incan cross that I had bought from the tienda. When I finally emerged along with my fellow hikers, our guide tried to calm us down with Inca Kola and stories of his home life in Lima.

"Well, I like to spend time with my wife and daughter," he began. "And I catch up on telenovelas."

"Ooh, do you watch Rebelde?" I asked eagerly, and conversed with him in as much Spanish as I could muster.

I returned home victoriously spouting colloquial Spanish and proclaiming myself a Latina. That entire trip, more than anything else, made me realize how much the Spanish culture is ingrained in people's lives, including mine, albeit not entirely native. I consider myself a far-extended product of Spanish progeny and regale, however vicariously, in its influence and impact to the world. We as a people have a proud history, and our language unites us and defines our culture. Culture is how one lives his heritage: the dances my mother knew, the songs on the guitarra my father would sing, the religion we practice, the wars we fought, and the glorious lands of our fathers that are worth dying for. Everything is filled with our passion for life. And so we are fortunate to live in the United States, who celebrates and integrates our unique culture with her own. Here, we are offered opportunities that we may not have had back home, and our countries stand together in friendship.

My dream is to take a road trip across Spain and to dance the flamenco in the middle of Madrid, amid shouts of Olé from the audience. And then, of course, to eat chicharrones and vindictively spill them all over my puffy and lacy red dress.

---

Article contributed by James <jamessob@yahoo.com>

The Challenge of Philippine Historical Studies

Someone asked me if I believe that the Spaniards really helped ["may nagawa ba sila"] us throughout their almost 400 year rule. The query was sarcastically solicited since I've been known to blog about the gifts of our Spanish past, it was a simple query that I regularly get even from family, teasingly posed, but certainly merits to be answered.

Never once did I assumed that the Spaniards were absolutely guiltless from acts of cruelty and pilferage against the natives. It is a historical fact that even the boldest Hispanist could not refute. But the focus of our studies must not end in exploring colonial errors but also the consequences of that contact, between an imperialist Christian power and a group of indigenous tribes, this I believe is a balanced approach that ultimately would make us better students of our history.

In our orthodox history education, its regrettable that the core appears to be lessons in history with a 'nationalist' attitude. That in order to glorify the homeland we must acknowledge that colonialism was entirely immoral and therefore never produced any meaningful transformation, that we have an obligation to focus on ways to remove its influence, and that we must to go back to our pristine origins - that the more aboriginal mind-set be, the more Filipino we become. Along the lines there are those who argue that to be a Filipino, the correct attitude must be above all that of an Asiano [Asianization], this essentially puristic approach is an attempt to undo the path of our evolution as a society. The trouble with this is that the Filipinos base can only be traced in its Mestizo genesis, even the formation of its name, Filipino & Filipinas, is the outcome of that merger.

Colonialism has its faults and we all could say now that it was unjust, this knowledge is the gift of history, we've already learned our lessons and has move on. In contemporary time, it should no longer be accepted there is no room for it, but even at present everyone appears to be tolerating some nation invading other independent nation. As Filipinos we must never permit being under any country again, but it appears that we are still silently under the American colonial influence, what we thought ended 50 years ago is enduring, proof is our government's consenting position with all of its policies, locally and globally.

Spaniards had long disappeared, leaving a country that proudly calls herself after one of its great monarch, with an impression that can not be simply removed from a people that embraced not only its religion but some of its character. For almost 400 years, its culture has pervaded with that of the native, forming a culture we now call Filipino, its way of life, ideals and concepts had influence our otherwise Asian mentality. Since they were the dominant culture they discriminatorily imposed on the natives what they perceived was good for themselves, for the people and the new colony.

The accounts of Spanish coercions of the natives are numerous, its well documented, even the first Spanish Bishop of the new colony had wrote about it in disgust and frustration. But if we would've ended our lessons with those dishonorable acts by the conquistadores and disregard the kind efforts made by that Spanish Bishop and the Friars established, when he initiated the first synod for the new colony [one of them, a wise Augustinian even raisgin the question, "what right do we have to conquer them?"], we would've subjected ourselves in a narrow and meaningless course in Filipino history.

People could go endlessly on the cruelties that took place and there are not far from the truth, a look at our written records would actually expose it more, but here is where I always challenge everyone to keep on researching, don't just simply focus on those already identified error, so far we have already established those. but also search for the true meaning of the Filipino - his being and his society, how he developed and reacted to the challenge posed by the Spanish colonialization, is his identity hispanic or oriental?, was he less a Filipino because of the Spanish influence or was he truly hispanized? or will he ever be Filipino without Hispanization?

---

The ASEAN Rizal (Part 1)

The Peninsula Hotel, Old site of the Hotel de la Paix

When I arrived here in Singapore, one of the first thing on my "to do list" was to retrace Jose Rizal's footsteps by utilizing his journal entries on May 9 and 10, 1882, his first, and his most significant visit to the islands. I thought that it would be easy, I had in mind an undersized island that I could effortlessly trek within a day, But I was mistaken, it was easier said than done. The City state is a colossal metropolitan, it could be small in land mass but what it lacks in space, it very well compensates in constructing enormous infrastructures, they have roads wider than our expressways, parks that would dwarf our Luneta, a library that's built like a corporate tower, a Ferris wheel that ranks as the world's highest, they even allocated a nature reserve that has more species of trees than that of the entire North American continent. In business school, there is a stratagem that is taught to undergraduates: make small appear Big, this best illustrates the character of the second wealthiest state in Asia.

In the end, I did [I hope] found the places I was looking for, but it took me nearly three weeks! the two raisons why it became time-consuming was, First, Rizal wrote his journal entries without supplying names and exact settings, giving indistinct descriptions, like viewing a "Portuguese church" or entering a "French church", he gave brief commentaries on its appearance but he never revealed any specifics, he was cleanly sketching what he saw, recounting places that he found to be interesting. Second, the colossal land development that has taken place in the last two decades has totally altered the landscape, they did, however, preserved some of the well-known heritage sites and edifices, and they did a splendid job, but the Singapore of 1882, now only exist in B&W photos and old records that can be found in their impressive National Library, the outstanding monuments are but a reminder of what was once a active city harbor of colonial Britain.

Rizal visited Singapore in five occasions, but the first was something special to the brown superman [this was his first ever foreign country visit], for it was here that he begun his pursuit of what he refers to as his "enlightenment", a quest that would take him all over the world and make him the greatest Filipino, in the words of Guerrero, The First Filipino!

We begin our journey with Rizal's rented room at the "Hotel de la Paix", located at Coleman Street, named after Singapore's pioneering city planner, George Coleman. The hotel was in fact the residence of Architect Coleman, constructed in 1829, converted into a lodge after his death. Hotel de la Paix was later renamed Burlington before it was totally demolished in 1965, the contemporary and chic Peninsular hotel, built in 1971, now stand on its place.

According to Marsita Omar, a Singaporean researcher from NLB, "the principal hotels in Singapore in the late 19th century, were Raffles Hotel, Hotel de L'Europe and Hotel de La Paix ". The hotel were Rizal was staying had a fine location, it was pricey but had good quality quarters, but it had terrible service, and the chow according to Rizal, "There was neither order nor coordination in the service...I ate rice which was inferior to ours". Hotel de la Paix sits in the hub of what was recognized then as the island's civic center, amongst its neighbors is the City Hall, Treasury and the Parliament.

In his journal he wrote, "I'm in my room which overlooks a patio adjoining the Hotel Europa, I hear English spoken everywhere...", The Hotel Europa, another classic structure was brought down in 1937, the site was use for the creation of the Supreme Court building, which was finished in 1939.

The old Masonic lodge could also be found in the same street, less than a block away, it's a possibility that he got in touch with his Mason brothers during his short stopover and that they were the ones that prearranged for his boarding in Singapore. Rizal, it seems to me, was already admitted into Masonry long before he came to Spain [this connection however could not be verified, since this ancient fraternity disallows unrestricted disclosures and Rizal never wrote anything about it, older historians believes that he became a Mason in Spain]. It should also be noted that in November 1896, during his last stop in Singapore on board a ship bound to Manila, were he was already in custody as a prisoner, his brothers had lodged a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to save him from being hurled back to Manila, the authorities of Singapore has denied the appeal, the following month he was executed.

He repeated his discontent with the hotel staff as he wrote, "When I returned to the hotel, I waited a long time for supper. At last it came after I had leafed through an illustrated German magazine with beautiful drawings", if he was hotel critic writer, reporting for a travel magazine, he would've failed this hotel, regarded then to be a premier destination.

Rizal was noticeably astonished by what he had been witnessing he wrote, "I'll remember everything I have seen since this afternoon", There were a "thousand enigmatic things" he added, he took pleasure being on the road, but what's worth mentioning is that he never felt at ease with all the oriental culture that surrounded him, he sought for Christian churches and preferred to speak with Spanish speakers. It could very well be the strangeness of the place, far away from the customary sceneries of picturesque Calamba, but then again we should evaluate the established culture of a Filipino, during those years, someone like Rizal, for example, and compare it with other advanced Asian society and we would notice that we had already been hispanized and it would be quite unattainable to alter its effects. Here is Rizal, plainly detached from the preponderance of the Asian way of life. Calling Rizal, a Malay would be improper because aside from his lineage [Chinese and Castillian], he never saw himself as a Malay, on no account did once he declared that he was, but there are many who find it irresistible to associate him with being Malay, chiefly those who sponsors Asianization, believing that culturally, Filipinos belongs to Asia, when it is a historical fact that Asia was never with us.

There were a lot of first for the youthful Pepe, and this is what makes his Singapore experience essential, not only to him but to us, for it was the launching point of his mission to help rid his Filipinas of what he calls its "social cancer". The Rizal that spent that short holiday in Singapore had some dilemma with the language used, his English was awful, could be worst than his Tagalog, and he had trouble conversing with it, although he had already mastered French and his German at this point, English was the foremost language of the island nation [even today] The language barrier could very well be the reason why he never attempted to elaborate and know more about the places he visited, he was merely avoiding the nuisance of inquiring from inhabitants with a "language that they alone can understand".

End of Part 1

Filipinos Lack of National Pride and Identity

This article was written by an American, Barth Suretsky. His observations are interesting and his comments about our culture and his respect and love of the Philippines are nicely written. Due to the worsening situation in our country, let's hope this will make an impact on other Filipinos who read it...

BE PROUD TO BE A FILIPINO

My decision to move to Manila was not a precipitous one. I used to work in New York as an outside agent for PAL, and have been coming to the Philippines since August, 1982. I was so impressed with the country, and with the interesting people I met, some of which have become very close friends to this day, that I asked for and was granted a year's sabbatical from my teaching job in order to live in the Philippines. I arrived here on August 21, 1983, several hours after Ninoy Aquino was shot, and remained here until June of 1984.

During that year I visited many parts of the country, from as far north as Laoag to as far south as Zamboanga, and including Palawan. I became deeply immersed in the history and culture of the archipelago, and an avid collector of tribal antiquities from both northern Luzon, and Mindanao.

In subsequent years I visited the Philippines in 1985, 1987, and 1991, before deciding to move here permanently in 1998. I love this country, but not uncritically, and that is the purpose of this article. First, however, I will say that I would not consider living anywhere else in Asia, no matter how attractive certain aspects of other neighboring countries may be. To begin with, and this is most important, with all its faults, the Philippines is still a democracy, more so than any other nation in Southeast Asia.

Despite gross corruption, the legal system generally works, and if ever confronted with having to employ it, I would feel much more safe trusting the courts here than in any other place in the surrounding area. The press here is unquestionably the most unfettered and freewheeling in Asia, and I do not believe that is hyperbole in any way! And if any one thing can be used as a yardstick to measure the extent of the democratic process in any given country in the world, it is the extent to which the press is free.

But the Philippines is a flawed democracy nevertheless, and the flaws are deeply rooted in the Philippine psyche. I will elaborate... The basic problem seems to me, after many years of observation, to be a national inferiority complex, a disturbing lack of pride in being Filipino.

Toward the end of April I spent eight days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. I am certainly no expert on Vietnam, but what I saw could not be denied: I saw a country ravaged as no other country has been in this century by thirty years of continuous and incredibly barbaric warfare. When the Vietnam War ended in April, 1975, the country was totally devastated. Yet in the past twenty-five years the nation has healed and rebuilt itself almost miraculously!

The countryside has been replanted and reforested. Hanoi and HCMC have been beautifully restored. The opera house in Hanoi is a splendid restoration of the original, modeled after the Opera in Paris, and the gorgeous Second Empire theater, on the main square of HCMC is as it was when built by the French a century ago. The streets are tree-lined, clean, and conducive for strolling. Cafes in the French style proliferate on the wide boulevards of HCMC. I am not praising the government of Vietnam, which still has a long way to travel on the road to democracy, but I do praise, and praise unstintingly, the pride of the Vietnamese people. It is due to this pride in being Vietnamese that has enabled its citizenry to undertake the miracle of restoration that I have described above. When I returned to Manila I became so depressed that I was actually physically ill for days thereafter. Why?

Well, let's go back to a period when the Philippines resembled the Vietnam of 1975. It was 1945, the end of World War II, and Manila, as well as many other cities, lay in ruins. (As a matter of fact, it maynot be generally known, but Manila was the second most destroyed city in the entire war; only Warsaw was more demolished!) But to compare Manila in 1970, twenty-five years after the end of the war, with HCMC, twenty-five years after the end of its war, is a sad exercise indeed. Far from restoring the city to its former glory, by 1970 Manila was well on its way to being the most tawdry city in Southeast Asia. And since that time the situation has deteriorated alarmingly. We have a city full of street people, beggars, and squatters. We have a city that floods sections whenever there is a rainstorm, and that loses electricity with every clap of thunder. We have a city full of potholes, and on these un-repaired roads we have a traffic situation second to none in the world for sheer unmanageability. We have rude drivers, taxis that routinely refuse to take passengers because of "many trapik!" The roads are also cursed with pollution-spewing buses in disreputable states of repair, and that ultimate anachronism, the jeepney! We have an educational system that allows children to attend schools without desks or books to accommodate them. Teachers, even college professors, are paid salaries so disgracefully low that it's a wonder that anyone would want to go into the teaching profession in the first place. We have a war in Mindanao that nobody seems to have a clue how to settle. The only policy to deal with the war seems to be to react to what happens daily, with no long range plan whatever. I could go on and on, but it is an endeavor so filled with futility that it hurts me to go on. It hurts me because, in spite of everything, I love the Philippines.

Maybe it will sound simplistic, but to go back to what I said above, it is my unshakable belief that the fundamental thing wrong with this country is a lack of pride in being Filipino. A friend once remarked
to me, laconically: "All Filipinos want to be something else. The poor ones want to be American, and the rich ones all want to be Spaniards. Nobody wants to be Filipino." That statement would appear to be a rather simplistic one, and perhaps it is. However, I know one Filipino who refuses to enter a theater until the national anthem has stopped being played because he doesn't want to honor his own country, and I know another one who thinks that history stopped dead in 1898 when the Spaniards departed! While it is certainly true that these represent extreme examples of national denial, the truth is not a pretty picture. Filipinos tend to worship, almost slavishly, everything foreign. If it comes from Italy or France it has to be better than anything made here. If the idea is American or German it has to be superior to anything that Filipinos can think up for themselves. Foreigners are looked up to and idolized. Foreigners can go anywhere without question. In my own personal experience I remember attending recently an affair at a major museum here. I had forgotten to bring my invitation. But while Filipinos entering the museum were checked for invitations, I was simply waived through.

This sort of thing happens so often here that it just accepted routine. All of these things, the illogical respect given to foreigners simply because they are not Filipinos, the distrust and even disrespect shown to any homegrown merchandise, the neglect of anything Philippine, the rudeness of taxi drivers, the ill-manners shown by many Filipinos are all symptomatic of a lack of self-love, of respect for and love of the country in which they were born, and worst of all, a static mind-set in regard to finding ways to improve the situation.

Most Filipinos, when confronted with evidence of governmental corruption, political chicanery, or gross exploitation on the part of the business community, simply shrug their shoulders, mutter "bahala na," and let it go at that. It is an oversimplification to say this, but it is not without a grain of truth to say that Filipinos feel downtrodden because they allow themselves to feel downtrodden. No pride. One of the most egregious examples of this lack of pride, this uncaring attitude to their own past or past culture, is the wretched state of surviving architectural landmarks in Manila and elsewhere.During the American period many beautiful and imposing buildings were built, in what we now call the "art deco" style (although, incidentally, that was not a contemporary term; it was coined only in
the 1960s). These were beautiful edifices, mostly erected during, or just before, the Commonwealth period. Three, which are still standing, are the Jai Alai Building, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Rizal Stadium. Fortunately, due to the truly noble efforts of my friend John Silva, the Jai Alai Building will now be saved. But unless something is done to the most beautiful and original of these three masterpieces of pre-war Philippine architecture, the Metropolitan Theater, it will disintegrate. The Rizal Stadium is in equally wretched shape. When the wreckers' ball destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and New York City's most magnificent building,  Pennsylvania Station, both in 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architectural critic of The New York Times, wrote:

"A disposable culture loses the right to call itself a civilization at all!" How right she was! (Fortunately, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station proved to be the sacrificial catalyst that resulted in the creation of New York's Landmark Commission. Would that such a commission be created for Manila...)

Are there historical reasons for this lack of national pride? We can say that until the arrival of the Spaniards there was no sense of a unified archipelago constituted as one country. True. We can also say that the high cultures of other nations in the region seemed, unfortunately, to have bypassed the Philippines; there are no Angkors, no Ayuttayas, no Borobudurs. True. Centuries of contact with the high cultures" of the Khmers and the Chinese had, except for the proliferation of Song dynasty pottery found throughout the archipelago, no noticeable effect. True. But all that aside, what was here? To begin with, the ancient rice terraces, now threatened with disintegration, incidentally, was an incredible feat of engineering for so-called "primitive" people. As a matter of fact, when I first saw them in 1984, I was almost as awe-stricken as I was when I first laid eyes on the astonishing Inca city of Machu Picchu, high in the

Peruvian Andes. The degree of artistry exhibited by the various tribes of the cordillera of Luzon is testimony to a remarkable culture, second to none in the Southeast Asian region. As for Mindanao, at the other end of the archipelago, an equally high degree of artistry has been manifest for centuries in woodcarving, weaving and metalwork. However, the most shocking aspect of this lack of national pride, even identity, endemic in the average Filipino, is the appalling ignorance of the history of the archipelago since unified by Spain and named Filipinas. The remarkable stories concerning the Galleon de Manila, the courageous repulsion of Dutch and British invaders from the 16th through the 18th centuries, even the origins of the Independence movement of the late 19th century, are hardly known by the average Filipino in any meaningful way. And thanks to fifty years of American brainwashing, it is few and far between the number of Filipinos who really know - or even care - about the duplicity employed by the

Americans and Spaniards to sell out and make meaningless the very independent state that Aguinaldo declared on June 12, 1898. A people without a sense of history is a people doomed to be unaware of their own identity. It is sad to say, but true, that the vast majority of Filipinos fall category. Without a sense of who you are how can you possibly take any pride in who you are?

These are not oversimplifications. On the contrary, these are the root problems of the Philippine inferiority complex referred to above. Until the Filipino takes pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured.If what I have written here can help, even in the smallest way, to make the Filipino aware of just who he is, who he was, and who he can be, I will be one happy expat indeed!

---

Thanks to Liz Medina for sharing this.

ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1950's, 60' s, 70's and early 80's !!

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us...

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw,and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, nokneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula),or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na).

Riding on the back of a carabaoon a breezy summer day was considered a treat.(ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata).

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso).

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this.Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on.Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day( di uso ang cellphone , walang beepers ). And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys(yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (seweage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cellphones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents.The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo... ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns  gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan... pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks  (syatong), and cans (tumbang preso)and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay. Paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teamshad tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

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I just want to clarify that I belong to the 80's batch...

Thanks to Ken of Circulo Hispano Filipino for sharing this funny but true observations.

Pacman and his Politicos

Pacquiao comes home like one of those successful ancient general, fresh from conquering new lands for the empire.

He’s indeed a hero to the Filipino – with all the bad things that has been going on, he provides us with the much needed hope; he inspires even the poorest of our kababayan to dream. He unites Filipinos, even for just an hour, or when he goes around waving his hand on top of a truck, seeing him makes us all feel one, everyone seems to connect – who would’ve thought that a once poor Mindanao native could project the best qualities of a Filipino to the world.

As that arrogant, all knowing, spikey haired broadcaster said after the bout, “and sarap maging Filipino”. That’s how most of us felt.

Just a few months ago, there was some stupid congressmen who planned to pass a resolution or some crap to ban Pacquiao from fighting the bigger ala-adonis latino boxer turned singer turned promoter slash boxer, De La Hoya. They were contending that since Pacquiao is a national treasure, it was their job to protect him. WTF!?! I wonder where are they now, these nutless monkeys.

Politicos in our country would do anything to get some media mileage, from stirring senseless issues to having some useless TV shows that would probably get them some viewers that could recognize them sometime in the future if ever they become senatorial candidates. Nobody’s really surprise, as if politics in our country could get any lower.

Just over a month ago, the young Bautista boxer, once called the next Pacquiao, the talented boy lost to an unheralded latino foe. It must’ve been devastating for the once promising pugilist, I was quite surprised that the bout did not had the same unanimous support we generously give to our fighting warriors abroad, well, of course Pacman would draw more, after all he’s Pacquiao. So, I must be comparing a man from a boy but the kid needed some backing, no one was there for him but his clueless manager and corner who mistakenly pitted the young man to a dangerous veteran journeyman. Tough luck.

After doing some research, the poor Boom-Boom has been losing quite a few matches in his last outings. He was undefeated for so long, he once starred as the main bout, now I doubt it if he could even land a supporting bout for the big fights. No congressman, no nut hugging Atienza or Singson or kabayan here, no support even from celebrity Filipino boxing fans and media, the fallen boxer needs to start winning again or else he’s in danger of being forgotten.

Another fighter, another story.

Espinosa?

That 2 time world champ who once put us on the edge of our seats, that guy who once made us - 'proud Filipinos'?

He’s doing some security personnel work and some other part time job in the morning  somewhere in Cali I heard. He even had to beg to be given tickets to watch the past Pacquiao fight for he can't afford to buy a good seat, man, life’s tough for this old boxers.

I remember, back in the days, even Prez Ramos would go watch the ‘Lindol’. I saw him Espinosa in the mid 90’s he was mobbed for autographs, he occasionally gets dragged for a picture – I was told that the man he was with was a Governor, I’m sure some other VIP’s tagging along, he was a star. Now, he’s lucky if he gets any visits from friends during his late night shifts.

Everybody loves a winner, they say – so in our land, before you get attention, before you get funded, you have to prove yourself first. There is no such thing as sport development in our country, only celebrities that has managed to create something out of their hard work and luck. Now if your someone like Pacquiao, you get all the politicians inside you pockets, I bet good money that if Pacman want those desperate politician to play monkey they will but – if your some unknown skilled boxer, in your teens, chances are you’re not going to make it – the odds is staggering. With the level of talent we have, how many Brandon Vera or Pacman we have?

Even Pacquiao knows this sad reality, in an interview with a US sports network he said, “I know how it feels not to eat... boxing was my way out” , and here he is with the politicians responsible for making his province crawl, at least they will be making the man do the peace dealing for them, (not too sure if that a good idea – but Manny is a winner, you can’t argue with success right, so some people believe that he could win peace too?)

So, while they continue to starve and drain the resource of that island known for its promise, they get some good publicity by embracing this son of Mindanao – in fairness to Pacman, he really has a genuine heart for his beloved province - so he could be using the attention to get the government to do its job in the impoverished island. He's also doing something concrete out of his own pocket, he now runs a free boxing gym with all the facilities for young kids in his town.

Government of course does not have any interest in these things, they see an opportunity in Pacquiao – and they're grabbing it whiles it last.

Pacquiao would definitely be used for political purposes (I believe the politicos around him are doing it now), he’s influential, he’s a proven winner, a media darling – who wouldn’t want to be with him?

Of course the politicos are just proud to be with the living Filipino hero!

So while DENR bigman Atienza parades Pacquiao in his Manila, hoping that the Pacquiao magic could revive their political career in the ever loyal city, where his young boy miserably lost an election, somewhere in Zambales a mountain was lost – with the use of bulldozer and dynamites, a once flourishing mountain, a source of livelihood among the poor inhabitant (they watch their mountain pushed to the sea, they could not go close to the operation, if they do –they risk getting shot, not by security guards but Army conscripts!), was levelled for mining purposes, upon checking some DENR officials claims to have made a mistake in handing out clearance to operate.

One more fighter. The other man from Gen Santos.

Naverette was Pacquiao decades ago, he was boxing king! He would be paraded, interviewed nonstop and worshipped by provincial politicos. When he lost his boxing glitter, he lost everything- his family and his money, of course without money – some of (or most) of the once best buddies goes out with it. He now walks the streets drunk, shirtless, penniless and chances are we’ll hear his name again in national TV, dead (he was stabbed several times already). No congressman, no nuthuggin’ Atienza and Chavit here, he’s chicken shit now you see.

Of all the fighters that got big, Elorde is an exception. He was uneducated but he had the biggest heart, his very smart too like what we see now in Pacquiao - unlike Navarette and Espinosa, he was well taken care of. His handler did a pretty well job, seeing to it that he goes out to the sunset with enough money. He married his handlers daughter, he was with the right people.

I hope that the native brown bomber, Pacman, this national pride of ours would realize that he’s better off in the boxing business (or showbiz since I heard he’s fond of boobsy leading ladies) and that he could help his impoverished town by just being the great boxer that he is. He should learn from the likes of once sporting hero, Jawo, who after leaving the hoop world and getting his ass elected as Mr. Senador top notcher, was forgotten midway his term, he found out later that he was a basketball guy not a politico and that he’s better off elbowing his opponents in the face and coaching his players in his ‘wala ng isip isip’ way, politics is not for everyone. Last time I saw Jawo was when he was defending his son for carrying fire arms, his son was allegedly shooting rats.

What is it in politics that makes it hard to resist?

Sometimes power and money is nothing compared to the ability of a man to inspire his people – and Pacman doing it right now. There will be more Pacquiao, he’s just the beginning.

Lag(g)ing Behind

A blogger friend has been running a mini series on the Filipino’s chronic social woes and what seems to be his inability to improve his condition. Another frustrated individual – but who could blame people for feeling down these days?

A notable novelist made a series of essays tackling the reason behind why we are poor. For the most part the old man was right, we have these “self defeating” traits that keeps us where we are, at the very bottom – cawawa, the old Tagalog word that best describes our predicament. But when the same novelist started to invade history in his quest for answers, the book became laughable. Let’s stop blaming the past shall we?

Some social scientist say that the people themselves, the Filipinos, is the problem. They say that we keep on shooting ourselves on the foot, that we are who we are, as one writer (Emerita Quito) points out it’s the “ambivalence of Filipino Traits and Character”, these according to the writer is the reason why were lagging behind. She weighted the pros and cons, trying to best describe the Filipino’s famous “ugali” and why it continues to work against him.

I really have no qualms with the analogy, a flawed character  would always be dethrimental. What has been said about some of our traits and character is true but what I don’t subscribe to is that these traits are the one to be blame, as if all these things uniquely belongs to our race. Quito’s list includes Hiya, Ningas Cogon, Pakikisama, Utang na Loob, Bahala na, Kasi (sisihan) to name a few from her essay.

What many forget is that a “Hiya” or say, “Pakikisama” also exist on other parts of the globe. Some of the most richest men in US history for example are the shyest people around, some celebrities even have insecurity issues – with all their money and beauty I’m not sure what’s there to feel insecure about. The “Pakikisama” on the other hand is not solely Pinoy, let’s look at the Italians, they are known for this trait, some even believe that it runs so deep in their culture that these was the reason why mafia flourished in their conservative society.

Lets look at this train we call the “padrino” system, is it Pinoy? No, even the mafiaso's would be embarrassed to claim it as theirs but they have been known to carry it out just like all the grandfathered deals around the world - it’s not foreign, not Filipino either but some of us just enjoys claiming all defects as Filipino originals, clearly a not so good national mindset.

All of these so called traits and character are universal. Some points to the “ningas cogon” and “manana habit” as proof that Filipinos are often times lazy, as if we have the laziest people in the world! Just lookat some real time stats and one could see that the fattest nation (US) have the biggest economy and the second largest economy belongs to a nation so in love with making things small.

So why, some ask, are we the only ones in the world that have people peeing on the streets, violating traffic laws or throwing garbage in the estero? Why are we so undisciplined?

The simple answer is that our government tolerates such gross behaviour. I mean every nation has their share of punks, ours is increasing in number because our government is doing nothing, the difference is that some government has more political will than others.

The fact is that our government has gone soft on its overly sensitive citizens, a news crew reported that illegal vendors are being ‘violently’ removed, then came a Congressmen and traded blows with the government demolition crew, what does these shows us? – I mean, its a sad reality, never easy to watch but that’s why we have laws. Some people would be quick to say, “Mali ang gobyerno, dapat hayaan nila sila” or “dapat hanapan ng malilipatan yan, hindi basta-basta pinapaalis”, what if it’s your land being illegally squatted on? Would you still express this generous support?

The nations law protects its people, its designed to look after those who follows it, not the ones who don’t suppory it. Yes its tragic but then again it goes back to my point earlier, the leaders, what the hell are they in power for?

The most developed nation in South East Asia once had a problem, they were losing their greatest river to squatting and pollution, the leaders never waited for the people around the river to change and grow a conscience because if they did, the river would’ve be dead in a few years time. It only took them a few years to fix the problem, they have cleared the river of illegal structures, regulated boats and fined or imprison those who would be caught polluting the river. End of story, river’s alive – everybody’s happy, except of course for the violators.

The problem sometimes is that we see each other as the problem, that the Filipinos problem is because he is Filipino. We should look at what’s the “real” reason why we have this kind of country. We have great people, diverse and educated. The greatest resource of our land is our people and yet we see them go abroad in mass numbers, something that our government seems to welcome.

Some of the most successful story we hear are those coming from the OFW, some Filipinos made it big in the US, there was a governor, congressmen, mayors, entrepreneurs, artist and union leaders – endless list of accomplished Filipinos – they represent what we are capable of doing anywhere but here, even common folks that has been working as clerks and engineers, as cooks and seamen, they come home with good retirement money and with all their labour has sent apo’s, nephews, and brothers to good schools – have we ever wonder why a Filipino can do so much outside and so little inside his island?

Yes, of course the value of money makes all the difference. But isn’t this admitting that the country is not good enough for its people? that Filipino skills and talent is better utilized abroad? That other nation deserves Filipinos more than his home country where he seems to have no place?

We compliment these OFW’s by calling them bayani, because of their sacrifice, I say they are heroes indeed for some of them have already lost their heads (literally), suffered unbearable living conditions, some experienced descrimination, so that a country can grow its dollar reserves and by doing so, help the national economy, no wonder they’re the leaders heroes – more remittance the better say the government. What kind of a government would rather send professional abroad than have them serving their people? the remittance is a small picture solution weall know this but leaders would rather bet on it than having any long term project.

The people as I’ve said before on other foras is not the problem, we’re not at fault because we have “pakikisama”, “bahala na”, “ningas cogon” etc etc, believing that we have a monopoly on all these negative traits is being stupid. When we talk of Filipino’s we speak of a race that stood against the Spaniards, survived the Americans, fought the Japs, weathered dozens of coup de etat, deposed Marcos, survived countless natural calamities, dethroned Erap and now trying to live with GMA’s incompetency. Is this not an impressive fight record? Is there anything more we could ask from the Filipinos? Aside from being urged to learn skills so they can get employed elsewhere so they can send dollars?

They say people here are timid, that we’re not self starters, that we are lazy – I know for a fact these are gross generalization for the hardest working individuals I know are all Filipinos, here in abroad and back home. We never lack the genius also, we had some of the smartest inventors around, what happen to their inventions? That’s the million dollar question, one inventor said, “I wanted to sell this to an investor so it can be marketed in the US” – government help, anyone? This is the sad picture my friends, we have what it takes to make it, too bad we don’t have our leaders with us.

We fail to recognize the role of our leaders and how their inability to lead the nation has caused us a lot. We never had good governance, when we study Philippine government, the trend seems to be a familiar pattern, from bad to worst. Just look at Erap and GMA. We removed the corrupt and the one that succeded turns out to be worst.
These leaders do make good speeches but it has always been asking more sacrifice when we had already done our share, “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”, but where is our government when we needed them?

News about the OFW’s just the other day, men sentenced to death without even having the benefit of an attorney courtesy of our embassy. The DFA cites the lack of fund but you have millions of tax money getting stolen by government officials. When it elections comes all the money seems so accessible but when Filipinos need them, all of a sudden its lacking.

Yes, Filipinos do possess some weak character, but its overrated – its not enough to be his downfall, its not the reason why were behind, we are at bottom because our leaders impeded our development by not having a genuine love for the Filipino.

If you’ve ever been in the US you’d understand why Filipinos are very productive there, because they can do all kinds of work normal Americans usually wouldn’t accept. So how is it that Filipinos are productive elsewhere, possessing strong work ethic and just as good as the citizens of the land they came to work for, when they too have this ‘Ugaling Filipino’?

What we need are leaders that can take us to the promise land. The kind of leader that can turn things around and make us a better people. Leaders inspires people – effective leadership that has its people in mind, like private business, an establishment needs to be efficiently run from top to bottom. We can give all the support, all the dollars to the motherland but if our leaders would not have us in mind, what’s going to happen?

So how do we break the cycle? if the leaders is the problem - how can we remedy the situation? Are these leaders a clear representation of who we  are as a people or we just haven't been lucky getting the right ones? that we are indeed a corrupted society and that we could not change? borrowing from Carlito Brigante, "right or wrong" we can't change, is this who we really are?

For now, there's no other choice but to keep our faith, in God and ourselves. Just like a people waiting to be save, were on the look out for a Moises - or men that could take us to the promise land. Even the Jews needed a leader, being the chosen people was not enough.

Filipinos need to take care of their fellow Filipinos, I’ve seen this here abroad – I hope that our leaders would have the same commitment. We have given our share, we deserve better...

The Singlish, English in Singapore

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Singapura Experience"][/caption]

There's much that we could learn from a country like Singapore, particularly with our 'language situation'. There are two major (or maybe more) factions that presented itself at the turn of the century after the Spaniards packed up and left our shores hurriedly. The first one, the traditionalist those who would like to bring back the old Tagalog (with its abecedario of 32 letters) together with the Spanish language as, again, the lengua franca. The second one, are the puristas, this are the so called nationalist, a group that would love nothing but to see the eradication of anything that is of foreign, they would want to revert to the days when the Islas de Felipenas was untouched by western influence, something that I believe never existed, the Philippines was, let's face it, a Spanish creation.

Going back to the issue of language, here in Singapore, they have lots of it, four, all in all, not counting the other Chinese languages (i.e., Cantonese, Fukien), the Government advocates the use of Mandarin instead but still maintains the freedom of those who wish to speak using this traditional languages, the state preference to Mandarin was to push for a single and unified Chinese language amongst the Sino population, to date Mandarin has the largest percentage. The languages in use here are: Mandarin, the one with the largest speakers, Malay, the national language, Tamil, and English, their other official language.

With all this language in such a confined area, the question is, was there ever a problem in their sociological structure (with regards to the people's ability to communicate with each other)?

The answer is a simple no. Because they embraced, as their own, the English language, the mother tongues of their colonial rulers. This, in my view, saved them from the paralyzing effects of having too many languages. English gave them, what they call here, the 'Administrative' language, it became a powerful tool. The bonus for them was, this colonial language - is the global language now.

Language represents ethnological groups, these among other factors causes friction in some other countries, not here, it's their well of strength. Singaporean history has shown that there were social unrest (Pro Malay groups wanting to get the island nation back in the Malayan confederacy and the Communist) in the past, arising from the conditions it found itself in, when they became independent (all too sudden according to their historian) but the great leadership by men like Lee (Lee Kwan Yew defeated this groups early on) suppressed such movements that could've easily dismantled their ongoing progress then.

If there is one thing that can be said of their progress, is that, it is the result of a strong government (in deed not like GMA's so called 'strong republic), who made the laws of the land, the backbone of their nations development. Discipline and the fear of state laws puts everything in order, one could sleep in the plaza's or walk late at night without worrying that some punk would try to steal from you, you could hardly find a police in the vicinity, theirs is a land in order.

The Island state did not pushed for any one single language for they recognized their racial diversity, believing that such moves would only cause unrest, they did however named their official language (Malay) which of course was a mere formality, but in reality everyone here speaks in their own mother language, the Chinese, the Tamil and Malay - they're free to communicate using their mother tongues. Observing them made me think that, like in our country, diversity should be celebrated for it can be a source of strength, unfortunately, most of us have regionalist tendencies, like for example, a Tagalog sneering at a Visayan's accent - here people freely speaks their own language without a worry in mind, without any fear of being discriminated, here exist a strange kind of mix, I have never seen a country so diverse, in culture and race, yet so unified.

Those who opposed having Spanish back, as a language should visit and stay here, it's the perfect example that we can emulate back home. There really is no need to eliminate (like what Aquino did in '87) but rather add, because it is by accumulation of knowledge that we become better human being (imagine how Spanish could've made our workforce more formidable, add to this the markets that we could've opened).Learning languages is always a good thing. Learning our old language back, together with our native language will only enlighten us about our heritage, when we begin to appreciate all our languages, only then we would know who we truly are. This would illuminate our true identity.

So how can they understand each other (Singaporeans) when they speak separate languages?

This is where English (or Singlish as they call it here) comes into play; it is the administrative language of the nation. Like us, their former colonial masters where westerners, the British, this is where their common sense and economic genius becomes evident - instead of debating if they should keep it or get rid of it, they used it! While back home, we untiringly put our heads on the 'language situation' of whether or not to use Tagalog (or Filipino or any other language) or English, they on the other hand enforced their teachers to use English as a mode of instruction, by this celebrating what they see as a gift from Raffles' imperial ambition. They have yet to achieved our proficiency in speaking English  but they are on their way to towards that goal (they already have extensive English subjects in their curriculum).

Their brand of English is difficult to understand, not really smooth, especially if your used to the 'Americanized' way of hearing it, here they call it Singlish, but make no mistake about it, it's very effective. Almost all people here speak English, in varying degrees. Shops and its owners could transact in English with ease.  So, I ask myself, was there ever a time that this confused them or did anyone here felt alienated, that they needed to adapt to something that's not Asian, something representing the English rule, not Singaporean?

Here lies our fundamental difference with this South East Asian brothers of ours, the Singaporeans, although they treasure and are proud of their Asiatic origins, they continue to  recognize early in their history that theirs is a 'global race', that in order to move forward, one must adapt, one must learn, become global. While we were busying ourselves trying to figure out how the Spaniards retarded our national and economic progress (as most of this Filipino nationalist loves to claim), they, on their side paid their respects, honored the former motherland and the language it brought to its shores. They knew that they were once British subjects but they are not captives of that past, no, they are not prisoners of that colonial mentality in fact they are grateful, they see it as part of the evolution that created them.  A huge monument somewhere near the city hall was dedicated to Thomas Raffles, the British founder of Singapore,  grateful people these Singaporeans, to the imperial power that made their shores, the greatest port city of the world.

Could we be like them? Grateful  of the former colonizer, who they as an independent nation now recognize as having unified the small island nation and made it what it is today, one of the richest nation on earth? Could we, in our lands, be brave enough to accept that we too, are like them, that we were founded by western hands? And that much of what we see now, was in fact, contributions from this foreigners for the expansion of their kingdom but later led to unification of lands and of people?

Here in Singapore, they have not forgotten about how important their cultural heritage, theirs is prominently Asiatic, their cultural programs are geared towards maintaining the Asian identity, but at the same time, they never looked back at their colonial past as something that must be omitted in their history text books. Thinking of our country and how it contends with its colonial past - we are wasting our time with this 'nationalistic' ideas, are we not being foolish? wanting to sever its ties rather than learning to appreciate, we all can learn from this great nation.

Remember Heneral Cailles!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The great Heneral Cailles"][/caption]

One of the greatest commander in Aguinaldo's army, Juan Cailles the great field general in Tayabas and Laguna is all but forgotten now. Unpopular to our history text, unfamiliar to most of us, the Nasugbu born, half French half Indian Cailles, got his early education in the Jesuit run Escuela Normal in Manila and became a maestro in Cavite towns. He taught in Spanish and would be regarded even later in his life as ‘El Maestro', a fitting moniker for he was a brilliant strategist in battle and in public administration.

At the outbreak of the war against mother Spain, he enlisted and held an officer rank under revolution heroes Evangelista, Tria Tirona and Noriel. Due in part to the deaths of his battle masters, the colonel rose from obscurity to become head master himself, he was commissioned heneral by Aguinaldo in the years that followed. And this adopted son of Laguna would not disappoint.

He was with Noriel when the General was itching to capture the walled city, American historian Benjamin Beede in his book "The War of 1898", "assigned to the primera zona, Cailles warned of a US troop build up and defied US forces' attempt to persuade him to retreat. His daring won him praise from Aguinaldo."

But Aguinaldo, cowed by that American might, later conned by its sales pitch, never took the city. Much to the disappointment of his field commanders, Noriel and men like Cailles, so close but it must have felt like light years for the brave Filipino warriors. No, Intramuros, Manila belongs to the new American lords, not to Aguinaldo's revolutionary state. The American stole what could have been the greatest victory of the revolution, Americans became new conquerors, It completed the vicious cycle from one master to another. The cry for freedom, remained a cry for it never materialized, no one was liberated. It snapped before it could fulfill its promise. Foreign domination looms as the future of the Filipino state.

The Tagalog warrior would continue fighting for his el Presidente. The most skillful commander in Aguinaldo's army was only in his mid 30's; he was young, brilliant and fearless. He was battle tested, he gained invaluable experience fighting the most powerful military force then, and now. The white men he saw  Manila bay, the same men who stole Intramuros from his hands is already inland and there is nothing more he could ask for. The war is now in the Tagalog heartland.

"War, War, is what we want!", he told Aguinaldo. The size of the American contingent is nothing to him, he was a confident fighter.

The same year he was appointed by Aguinaldo's revolutionary government as military Governor of Laguna. He would employ guerilla warfare, it was his antidote to the overly large American army. Hit and not be hit. He was so successful in his campaigns that it was told then that the confident General proclaimed himself successor to Aguinaldo. The self appointed heir apparent was the shimmer man of the Luzon battlegrounds.

He was ruthless; he commanded deaths for Filipino collaborators. He used terror to his advantage. The New York Times on April 29, 1901 reported about a unit in Cailles army called Mando-Ducats, this men conducted assassinations for American collaborators. In that paper, it was reported that the group was also involve in burying men alive, an act intended to strike fear among the population. He went after the Federalistas, tagged them as traitors and executed them in public. He was branded; warlord by some, Aguinaldo never restrained his actions, communication between the leader and follower even reflected a common stand. He would not be held responsible for the alleged war crimes even during the peaceful years of Quezon's commonwealth nation. He smoothly transitioned from warrior to public servant.

The American so hated him that they would employ their entire arsenal chasing the Lagunense's army, much to their disadvantage. He was fighting small, they were fighting big, and it was a classic elephant versus tiger confrontation. So effective that he dealt a major blow to the Americans when he defeated them in their invasion of Mabitac.

The Americans in their desperation to capture the mustached hero circulated 16 blown up photographs and suggested rewards leading to his capture.

Americans portrayed him barbaric and murderous but he would surprised everyone, even his men and his adversary Col. Cheetham when the morning after the battle he allowed Cheetham to retrieve his dead soldiers in the fields of Mabitac, making sure that wounded and dead would be brought to their camps, a sharp contrast to the American propaganda against the brave Heneral.

His military genius would be put to use as Governor when he suppressed the Sakdalan rebellion.

Cailles failure to make progress in Tayabas and in light of Aguinaldo's capture led him to accept terms for his surrender in Santa Cruz, ending his legendary war career that goes back to his gallant stand with Noriel in the gates of Manila. Together with 650 of his men they laid down their arms. In a ceremony, he tendered his sword to Gen. Summer. The General would return the sword and revolutionary flag to the local hero. Cailles would present these items to Gen. MacArthur, marking the end of his resistance.

He served Laguna as its Governor in 1901 - 1910 and again 1916 - 1925. Later on he was appointed, representative of Mountain Province in the national legislature in 1925, until 1931. He then again became Laguna governor in 1934. He was Laguna's first Filipino governor.

During his term he built the capitolyo, regional hospital and other important provincial service buildings. He donated years of his salary to a school, being a schoolteacher he understood the importance of educacion, this would later became  the Cailles Fund. His adversaries hated him but during his years as public servant, his people loved him.

Aside from the jueteng allegations that Quezon administration raised as a concern, the president said it was more of his wife's doing - "brave as he is", the Mestizo leader said, "like all men he's afraid of his wife", he would later recognize and call on Cailles as the greatest provincial governor the nation ever had. He lived a peaceful and honest life after he swore allegiance to the new government. He died in 1951 of heart attack.

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I dedicate this incomplete history of General  Cailles to his great grandchildren, who now tries to learn more about the heroism of their great lolo.

Remember Cailles.

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THE BLACK LEGEND ON THE STATE OF EDUCATION

THE BLACK LEGEND ON THE STATE OF EDUCATION

By Pio Andrade

Filipinos in the 20^th Century were repeatedly taught or told in schools and in the press, that Spain always kept their ancestors uneducated to have them ignorant and the always docile subjects of Spain. The blame was, in particular, thrown upon the friars, "who, from motives of their own, discouraged the learning of Spanish by the natives, in order that they may always act as intermediaries between the people and the civil authorities, and thus, retain their influences over their charges". The most common proof cited for the alleged uneducatedness and ignorance supposedly reigning in Hispanic Philippines is the incontrovertible fact that only the Philippines, among all the other former Spanish colonies, is not Spanish-speaking today. But was this really so?

The 1896 revolution, the first revolution in Asia by a colonized people for independence from the colonizer, refutes the charge that Spain did not educate the Filipinos, for revolutions are not made by the ignoramuses but by the educated folks. Indeed, most of the leading lights and leaders of the 1896 Revolution were Ilustrados, or educated folks. The propaganda literature and the communications coming from the Revolutionaries were mostly in Spanish; and, the Malolos Constitution was debated and drafted in Spanish. The revolution was made possible by the widespread knowledge of Spanish. Thus, Spanish was the language of the 1896 Revolution and Philippine nationhood.

King Philip II's Law of the Indies (Leyes de Indias) mandated Spanish authorities in the Philippines to educate the natives, to teach them how to read and write and to learn Spanish. However, the latter objective was well-nigh impossible given the realities of the time. First, there were very few Spaniards in the Archipelago to teach Spanish at that time. Second, the Philippines, at the coming of Spain was inhabited by diverse tribes with different languages, customs, and religion. Third, the geographical barriers - - - the seas, the mountain ranges, lush virgin forest and the absence of enough roads made travel and communication difficult during those years. Thus, the friars, the vanguard of evangelization and education, opted instead to learn the native languages first and in order to use them as tools to evangelize and teach the natives in the missionary schools.

But Spanish was also taught to those who wished to learn the language. Among these were the native principalía and the Chinese traders who only began to come in greater numbers after the coming of Spain to the Philippines.

Another proof that Spain's language education was taking place in the first years of Hispanization in this Country was the Galleon Trade. The Galleon Trade would not have been possible if the Filipinos, Spaniards and Chinese could not communicate with each other in Spanish.

In 1863, with the passage of the Education Reform Act in the Spanish Cortes, the Philippine public school system was born. Separate schools for boys and girls were established in every pueblo for the compulsory education of Filipino children. The law also established the Escuela Normal to train male and female teachers. This was ten years before Japan had a compulsory form of education and forty years before the American government started a so-called public school system in the country.

One of the most vociferous voices claiming that Spain did not educate the Filipinos was UP historian emeritus Teodoro Agoncillo who wrote in THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES that "When the Americans took over the Philippines, only 2.5% of the Filipinos spoke and wrote in Spanish". This figure was taken from the 1880 book of Cavada Mendez de Vigo. Later, in his history textbook , THE HISTORY OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE, Agoncillo also claimed that "it is safe to say that the literacy rate of the native population was somewhere between 5% and 8%". These Agoncillo claims are wrong for these two statements on the Philippine literacy can not be sustained by factual evidence.

Agoncillo failed to see that since 1811 with the publication of DEL SUPERIOR GOBIERNO, the Philippines had a popular press which further disseminated the Spanish language in the country. The Philippines was the first country in Asia to have a popular press in Spanish and, by the coming of Dewey, there were many more popular newspapers and books published in Spanish. The several newspapers in the native languages most always carried Spanish language sections. Manila, itself, (then with about half a million people) had three Spanish language dailies in the morning and three other dailies, also in Spanish, in the afternoon. These dailies in Spanish had no equal counterparts in other Oriental countries.

Another factor for increased Spanish literacy was the Chinese population. The Chinese community obligates Chinese cabecillas or Chinese barangay captains to teach rudimentary Spanish to new Chinese immigrants. After a month in these Chinese-owned schools, the Chinese immigrants spoke kastilang tindahan, or Caló Chino Español, a kind of Spanish Chabacano, that later become fluent albeit accented Spanish . When these Chinese immigrants intermarried, they brought forth Spanish-speaking mestizos. The 100,000 Chinese population at the turn of the century were all conversant in Spanish though in varying proficiency, from the kastilang tindahan of the new Chinese immigrants to the fluent Spanish of Chinese old timers.

Actually, Spanish grew even more during the 1900-1920 period. Professor Henry Jones Ford of Princeton University in his 1913 secret report on his six months travel and research about the Philippine situation to President Woodrow Wilson, had this to say on the use of Spanish in the country at that time: "There is however, another aspect of the case that should be considered. I had this forcibly presented to me as I traveled through the Islands, using the ordinary conveyances and mixing with all sorts and conditions of people. Although on the basis of School statistics the statement is made that more Filipinos now speak English than any other language, no one would think of the testimony of one's own ears. Everywhere Spanish is the speech of business and social intercourse. For one to receive prompt attention, Spanish is always more useful than English and outside of Manila, is almost indispensable. Americans travelling about the Islands, use it habitually. What is more, they discourage the use of English. This was a development that took me by surprise. I asked an American I met on an inter-island steamboat why he always spoke Spanish to the stewards and waiters, and whether they could not understand him in English. He said that probably many of them could but one would not be treated with as much respect using English and not Spanish; that Filipinos seem to loose their manners using English, becoming rude, familiar and insolent."

Professor Ford further underscored the widespread use of Spanish in the country by writing about the existing press thus: "There is unmistakable significance in the fact that there is not in all the Islands one Filipino newspaper published in English. All of the many native newspaper are published in Spanish and in the dialect.

It is relevant to mention here that as late as 1930, the Spanish dailies had a much bigger circulation than either Tagalog or English dailies. Noteworthy also is the fact that in the 1930's there were a few Chinese periodicals in both Chinese and Spanish.

Modesto Reyes Lim in a 1924 issue of the Rizalian Magazine ISAGANI vehemently criticized the imposition of English upon the Filipinos. He wrote: "¿No es acaso de sentido común, que hubiera sido muy fácil propagar más el castellano, que ya se usaba como lengua oficial y se hablada ya por muchísimas familias filipinas dentro y fuera de sus hogares, y del cual contaba entonces el país con muchos literatos, poetas y escritores distinguidos?" (Is it not of plain common sense to know that it would have been far easier to further propagate Spanish, which was already the official language and the mother tongue of so many pure Filipino families, in and out of their homes, and from whom where born so many writers, poets and distinguished men of letters?)

"Indudablemente, como dice un ilustre filipno miembro actual prominente de la administración de justicia, que con el mismo tiempo y dinero gastado, sistema y otros medios modernos de instrucción empleados en la enseña del inglés, si en lugar de éste se hubiera propagado en mucha mayor proporción que se haya hoy propagado el inglés."

(There is absolutely no doubt, says a Filipino jurist of today, that if the same time and money, and the same teaching system and methods, now employed in the teaching of English were instead dedicated to the teaching of Spanish, the latter would have been propagated in a much larger proportion in which English has been propagated.)

MESTIZAJE

MESTIZAJE
By Señor Guillermo Gómez Rivera
Filipino dance and music researcher, historian and Bayanihan Consultant

When Suzie Moya Benitez, Bayanihan’s executive director, wanted a name for the projected super-show involving Bayanihan and the visiting Folklorical Group from the Island of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, the word "re-encuentro" (re-encounter) was given. She paused to think and found the word "warlike" for that is the word for "shoot-out" in present day Tagalog and Visayan. So "re-encuentro" would not do. The lady opted for another given word "Mestizaje" which means "fusion", "unity", "a dynamic step forward". She then directed the use of "reencuentro" for the suite where both Bayanihan and Palma de Mallorca dancers do dances to the same music of the jota, the fandango and the bolero.


And indeed, "Mestizaje" is the right word for this over-all new meeting with folklorical Spain of the Mallorcan variety. This new meeting is the of-shoot of Bayanihan’s victory last year as the world’s best folklorical group in a worldwide "concurso" held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

It is obvious that the word "Mestizaje" is kindred to that other word we all know in these Islands. Mestizo. And Mestiza if feminine. For us who were born in old native Cabeceras like Vigan, Malolos, Lingayen, Iloilo, Zamboanga and Cebú the "Sector de Mestizos" or "Pari-án" is a place familiar to us. But the mestizos there, or the "kamistisuha ng Par-ián", are not blood mestizos of Spaniards. They are cultural mestizos because Native and Chinese by blood but Christian Catholics by religion and Spanish by their language, their food, their songs and their dress. Thus the first mestizos were the children of a Chino Christiano father and an Indio mother.

And since the Chinos Cristianos were traders, usually involved in the Galleon trade, the "Sector de Mestizos" was an enclave of the rich and the educated who spoke and sang in Spanish and wore the "traje de mestiza" and lived in those big Vigan houses and those Malolos mansions, to cite but two examples. Those who ignore history rashly label these "Sectores de Mestizos" as "a gheto" when these are not enclaves of poverty and misery but precisely of opulence and good taste.

The hispanization by blood of these old "Sectores de Mestizos" became later intensified when many Spanish government officials, employees, businessmen and military settled in the Islands and married into the families of these "Sectores" or "Pari-ánes". The offspring of these latter marriages were called "Mestizos terciados" because aside from Native and Chinese, they also had Spanish blood.

These dynamic fusion of Catholic Spain and the Philippines is Christian "Mestizaje" and the virtues of this fusion can be seen in all Christian Filipino dances which are classified into three kinds: (1) bailes criollos (the creole dances). These are dances that directly came from the Spanish Peninsula and New Spain (Mexico) but which were later indigenized, (2) bailes urbanos (dances from the big cabeceras and ciudades), and (3) bailes municipales y rurales (rural dances). The pre-Hispanic dances were called danzas tribales ( tribal dances).

Bayanihan’s multi-awarded Choreographer and Director, Ferdinand "Bong" José, has observed that many of our Filipino regional dances are very similar to the regional dances of Spain. This merely confirms our thesis about Mestizaje and the fact that under Spain, all Filipinos were Spanish citizens or subjects upon the acceptance of King Felipe Segundo as their "natural sovereign"..


But the Mestizaje of Filipino native dances is not only limited to what is Spanish and native but also to what is Filipino and Chinese (El collar de Sampaguita) and to what is Filipino and Japanese (Habanera Japonesa de Paco). These dances we have offered when the suite called Extramuros de Manila (Beyond the Walls) was staged, ----with the 1873 Manila visit of Hong Kong Governor-General, Sir John Bowring, as the theme. While Intramuros had purely Spanish or creole dances, (kri-olyo in old Tagalog), the arrabales beyond the walls, like Binondo, Santa Cruz, Quiapo, San Miguel, Paco, Ermita and Malate had their respective Mestizaje dances.

Some sectors of course did ask: What about "American Mestizaje"? And the simple answer is that there is no such thing as a fusion between native and American dances and songs. This never happened since Filipinos were never made, wholesale, American citizens like they were previously made Spanish Citizens. With English as our compulsory medium of education, no such fusion took place. We simply were made to adopt, wholesale, American pop culture with its Hollywood movies, popular jazz, blues and the cowboy square dance. Thus, although still under American suzerainty up to now, its either Filipinos sing and dance jazz, the charleston, the boogie-woogie, the swing as they are wont to do, or we change what folkdance means within the accepted concept of authentic Filipino dance culture.


This re-encounter with the folkdances from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, should prove to be an experience for Bayanihan and Manilas culturatti. It is a pity that with the destruction of Intramurso de Manila, the grand old Palma de Mallorca Hotel y Panadería, the cultural center then of old Intramuros and of greater Manila, has also disappeared. If Intramuros had survived, Mestizaje would have been also staged in its big function hall complete with a good sized stage. Bienvenidos a Manila, amigos mallorquines.

---
MESTIZAJE
EN CCP Sept. 4, 8PM, Sept. 5, 3 y 8 PM, Sept. 6, 3 y 8 PM.

A Hispanized Philippines: A Good Option?

A Hispanized Philippines: A Good Option?
© Elizabeth Medina, Santiago, Chile, March 30, 2000

Recently a Filipino friend who lives in the U.S., Rafael Onrubia, asked me why I thought it feasible and positive for the Philippines to be hispanized, and my answer was as follows:

The Philippines has 479 years of written history (from 1521 to the present), and 379 of them have been recorded in Spanish. It is a fact that we have a documentary legacy that is untranslated into English and that therefore we are unable to read - a motherlode that has hardly been mined by our historians. Aside from this, the works of modern Spanish historians, who have researched and published innumerable works on our Hispanic culture and past with such dedication and skill, are accumulating in libraries without the Filipinos' being able to make use of such an invaluable store of new contributions.

It is undeniable and curious that the Spanish wrote much on the Philippines, and I suspect that they wrote more about her than about the majority of their American colonies. This surely is due in part to the fact that the Philippines only became independent 88 years after Spanish America. However there can be no doubt that the Philippines in and of herself was a fascinating geographical and cultural space that captured the imagination, scientific interest and human sensibility of the many scholarly Spaniards who spent long years living among the people.

Speaking as a non-expert and basing myself on what I have been able to gather from the few contacts I've had with Filipino academics and their writings, from my own inquiries and those of independent researchers, it seems to me that the Spanish-language documentation overflows with gems that still wait to be rediscovered by the scholars of Philippine history. Our historians have not paid them much attention, preferring to study the writings of Anglo-Saxon historians and the few works written by Spaniards and translated into English, for a very simple reason - because unless one has profoundly assimilated Hispanic language and culture, it is impossible to penetrate the deep, implicit levels of meaning in the documentation.

We therefore have a double magnification of the problem. Filipino historians and scholars cannot read Spanish documents on one hand; on the other, they study their own history by reading Anglo-Saxons' interpretations of the Spanish documents. Thus they study it from third hand, through the cultural filters of researchers who, though they may possess an operative knowledge of the language, nevertheless have cultural filters that invariably select only those contents that reinforce the particular way of knowing that characterizes their non-Hispanic sensibility and understanding.

Therefore, no matter how sincere their interest in penetrating into the profound messages ciphered in the documents, they lack the pitons that they need to scale that cultural glacier. Without pitons and all the specialized equipment that only profound experience and study of the culture that has produced that documentary wealth can give, it is impossible to receive its messages and capture its spirit. This is because, even more important than the external information that they offer, is the inner landscape, adequately grasped and then deployed, that equips a researcher for perceiving all the other information - implicit, invisible, unstated - that underlies the external linguistic content.

The result is that, although data and interpretations of apparently great scientific value are accumulated, the human and spiritual significance of that history remains unapprehended.
And if we assume - as I do - that knowledge must always incorporate a cultural and spiritual component that goes far beyond mere accumulation of neutral data, that concerns itself most of all with giving orientation to human development, then this manner of proceeding ought to be corrected and reoriented, without further loss of time and effort.

Culture, I am convinced, is the gold mine of this new century. It is the last undiscovered continent and the greatest wealth of nations. If a people discovers the way to create in other countries a vivid interest in their culture, and they materialize that fascination in marketable products, they can assure themselves of an inexhaustible source of earnings. Spain has created markets for her music, literature, architecture, fashion; Italy has done the same, particularly through her gastronomy and haute couture; Germany with her engineering know-how, her cars; likewise France, and of course, the U.S., whose products fill our homes to overflowing, even our brains, and everywhere on our planet.

The Philippines necessarily must learn to create external markets for her culture, not just the culture of folklore and tradition, which leads to not much more than a proliferation of objects. Most important, the innate talents of the Filipino people, which are already recognized worldwide, must be developed - in the culinary, plastic and visual arts, music, fashion, inventiveness and - something that today is just beginning to arise - the creation of a new literature that gives witness to the marvelous complexity and richness of our historico-cultural experience. All of these things have their deepest roots, their creatives sources, in the culture of the Hispanic-Filipino past.
This, without mentioning another issue of extreme importance, which is the development of our trade relations with the Spanish-speaking countries of the Pacific Rim.

An Invisible World that Refuses to Die
The 377 years of Filipino hispanization gave birth to a culture and a past that some have tried to annihilate and that is still under siege -- but that refuses to disappear and die. It is a culture and a past that only become visible when -- like the Little Prince of St. Exupéry -- one learns to see with the heart.

If one doesn't know how to speak Spanish fluidly, one cannot realize what a wealth of Castilian words there are in Tagalog and in so many other Filipino dialects. If one doesn't carry Hispanic culture within oneself, one cannot recognize the Hispanic culture that informs and suffuses Filipino social customs and practices.

If one has no familiarity with the landscapes of Spain and Hispanic America, with their imposing buildings from the Middle Ages and the Colonial Era, one will be unable to recognize the Hispanic past whose faithful witnesses are the old churches, homes and towns of the Archipelago.

The Responsibility of the Cultural Guardians of Filipino Society
The fact that the majority of our years of written history took place during the Spanish colonial period and that they are recorded in the idiom of our Hispanic-Filipino culture necessarily places the guardians of culture and education in a position of heavy responsibility. To erase the past is to erase the future. The greatest cultural problem that we Filipìnos face, in my opinion, is that fact that we do not have the habit of reflecting deeply on cultural and educational issues in the Philippines, because as we have said, we were not clarified about the importance of profound culture. Part of the blame rests without doubt on our old Spanish administrators; another on the North American educational system that was implanted afterwards, which necessarily tried to erase the cultural past in order to impose an Anglo-Saxonized present and future.

But another portion of blame rests squarely on those who have governed the country and have allowed the love of the old generations for Hispanic-Filipino language and culture to be abandoned under the new conditions of independence, when they surrendered themselves completely to the new foreign power, to the detriment of their own identity and historical legacy.

Therefore, though our new proposal cannot be an attempt to flip the cultural tortilla from one day to the next, and - just as English was imposed on us - to impose Spanish this time, what is indeed indispensable is the modification of the educational canon so that our historians, sociologists, anthropologists, writers, architects - all of our agents and formers of culture - may recover a full awareness of the past and be given the option of undertaking profound studies, whether in the Philippines, in Spain or in Latin America, in Hispanic-Amerasian history and culture, in the Spanish language.

I am likewise convinced that cultural exhange between Hispanic America and the Philippines cannot but lead to a new synthesis that in turn will produce a blossoming of the best in each one of our countries, thanks to the new climate of brotherhood and unity that it will tend to promote. A synthesis that will help lead our relations with Spain to a new level of maturity and mutual cooperation.

The foregoing does not mean that I advocate the separation of the Philippines from her Asian family, which would be absurd, a new backlash under the sign of the very same purism of those who today advocate our fanatic separation from our Western past. The fact is that we Filipinos are a living link between East and West. We come from both worlds, and both worlds are ours. The naturalistic and deterministic look, first of the Spanish and the North Americans, and now of ourselves in front of ourselves, said that we were Indians or Asians and therefore we had to be what we were and nothing more.

And this is the origin and the root of the continuing absurd debate about whether the Philippines should be hispanized once again, or not. When the Philippines has always been hispanized, except that the "Filipinos" born from 1901 onwards rapidly suffered, first of all, a cultural switch and the suppression of the past, and later, the outright deformation and annihilation of their historical consciousness.

In synthesis, I would say, in answer to the question of "Would it be positive for the Philippines to be hispanized once again?" that the Philippines already is hispanized. All that is lacking is for the Filipinos to realize this truth and make it work for their own benefit, to enrich themselves and progress, instead of impoverishing themselves and regressing. Because regression - unlike progress - has its limits, and it seems to me that we have already reached those limits.

Comment on the article by Alfredo Chicote, a Spaniard born in the Philippines, residing in Madrid, who considers himself Hispanic-Filipino:

"As you know, I am in complete agreement with your thesis. It is a fact, without the Filipinos' knowing it, that the Philippines is a hispanized country. I believe the article is well written and argued. It is necessary to know Spanish in order to dig into one's own past. We must see things as they are: the Philippines - for good or ill - was born as a country under Spanish dominion and her history -- as W.E. Retana well saw it -- must be read in that language, as well as in English, Tagalog, Bisaya, etc.

To give you an example to illustrate your thesis of the deformation of Philippine history, I cite a passage from a tourist brochure that I've just gotten:

"In the 19th century, Spain's colonies were racked by corrupt administration and internal disorder. Liberal ideologies fired the spirits of enlightened manileños (residents of Manila) like Philippine national hero José Rizal, who studied abroad, and Filipino rebel leader Andrés Bonifacio, who read books on revolutionaries and philosophers........"

"But freedom would not come so easily, for the Filipinos found themselves under their erstwhile ally, the Americans. Under the new conqueror, Manila spread outwards, roads and bridges were built and schools taught Filipinos Western culture in a new language -- English. Democratic processes were introduced; and Neo-Classical government edifices rose around the old city..."

Not one word about the Revolution and the war between the United States and the Philippines, which cost more lives, perhaps, than all the years under Spanish rule! And of course, they also taught the Filipinos Western culture -- as if Spain had not done. But Spain, aside from being Western, is also mestiza [of mixed blood] -- is Jewish, Arab, Roman and Phoenician; in other words, she is as mestiza as her former colonies. Therefore perhaps she has a greater capacity to understand the Philippines than the North Americans.

From another brochure, written at least by a Spaniard, I send you this very brief passage:

"When Magellan landed on the island of Homonhon in 1521, he claimed these islands for King Philip II and called them 'Felipinas'." Well, my dear, I don't know who taught this writer his history -- two huge mistakes in just one short sentence! The king at that time was Carlos I, and the name 'Felipinas' was coined by Ruy López de Villalobos in 1542 for part of Mindanao or Leyte -- we do not know with precision. Only with the passing of time was the name used for the entire archipelago. At that time, in 1521, it was known as the Western Isles or the Spice Islands, the latter because it was believed that spices grew there, as in the Moluccas Islands.

In other words, two vivid examples that illustrate your thesis:

An absolute lack of knowledge about one's own past -- no doubt inherited from an equally ignorant "Thomasite" -- that no one throughout the years has bothered to correct.

An utter disregard for the achievements of the Hispanic period. In the Philippines, before the Americans arrived, there was nothing -- only corruption and disorder. Western civilization and democracy reached the islands with Merritt's soldiers (the Cádiz Constitution never existed). And Manila, far from being the vibrant and beautiful city that the chroniclers describe for us (See Morga), did not have a single building worth mentioning, until the "Neoclassical" government buildings were built (might they be copies of those in Washington, D.C.?).

Worst of all, Elizabeth, is that the people who publish these brochures really believe these things. There are a lot of false beliefs that must be changed! Long live Sr. Gómez and his grain of sand![*]
Regards,

Alfredo

[*] Refers to Prof. Guillermo Gémez, Head of the Spanish Department, Adamson University, Manila, who to this day publishes two Spanish-language newspapers in that city.
Everybody is invited to discuss this article on our Discussion Board.
See also by the same author:Who was Wenceslao Emilio Retana?
The book "Rizal According to Retana: Portrait of a Hero and a Revolution" is available from the author.