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.

The Prewar Intramuros

If youre a history junky chances are you've already seen this video by an American journalist taken before the war.

I need not say more... precioso!



Another video called, "Manila - Castillian Memories"

[youtube=http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOI6rc38Qic&feature=channel]

Glimpse at the Origins of Filipino Surnames

Almost all Filipinos have Spanish names, these names came from a decree (1849) that required everyone to have surnames similar to that of a Spaniard or at least derived from a list they government provided. Before the implementation of the decree, most Filipinos were patronymic, there were no clear standard in naming children upon baptismal, the practice of adopting names from the Catholic Saints were influence taken from the Friars. Narciso Claveria, the liberal and vigorous governor, foresaw that such practices of incoherent names of the natives (some even without it) would present troubles later on both in tax collections and records. Also, written records were very deficient it made document verification difficult, tracing ancestry before 1800's was almost impossible.

Some Prehispanic tribes does not even possess surnames. There were instances that a child's name was taken from his appearance or some natural event (some tribes even had a tribal culture of having no names). When the Friars started baptizing the Indios they initially started using names of saints, mostly naming people based on what the Saints feast day, which, after decades of practice became the norm. Claveria's decree would ammend this practice in 1847, giving Filipinos its first standard when it comes to naming  infants.

Aside from significantly improving the governments collection of tributes, the decree's greatest gift was that it paved the way for the native to wholly integrate in the society (as would be in  the case of the Chinos). When the so called evolution of the Filipino identity finally became clear, the Catholic names, made it uncomplicated for the native without the education like that of an elites to function as fully accepted citizens within a society. A Christianized native, that had acquired a Christian name enjoy the benefits of having an name familiar with the the general public. This method of making Hispanized names obligatory to all is often slandered as the doing of the Spaniards for they intend to completely control every area of Filipino life, but a clear reading of its anon effects would illustrate how it improved the Filipino way of life, as it was visualized by Claveria.

Loose Guidelines

In most towns, individuals would have names opening with the same letter of the alphabet. The surnames were based on the town of origin. Those starting with "A" (like mine) are set aside for those people who dwells in capital. The outlying town receives names starting with the subsequent letters, "B" for the second town, "C" for third town. This practice was never across the board, there were exemptions. The last names was also based on the first letter of the town, such is the case of Capas, it was assigned to "C", this explains the predominance of the surnames that starts with this letter, such is the case on other towns all over the islands colony.

The authors of the book State and Society in the Philippines has this to say, "A town would choose the names of one letter of the alphabet, a second choose the names of another letter, and so on. Until recently, one could tell the hometown of the an individual by his or her surname. This was true, for example, in Albay province. Those of Oas town, those with "O" from Guinobatan, and those with "B" from Tiwi. This also explains why many Filipinos today bear Spanish names although they may not have Spanish blood"

What was Claveria Thinking

Nowadays, whenever someone would raise the question on how a Filipino got his Iberian sounding name, others would be quick to point to the "decree" ordering everyone to take on a Spanish name without apparent explanation of what's the reason behind it.

Claveria offers us his explanation:"During my visits to the majority of the islands, I observe that natives in general lack individual surnames which distinguished them by families. They arbitrarily adopt the names of the saints as their last names, this results to the results in the existence of thousands of individuals having the same surnames. Likewise, i saw the resultant confusion with the regard to the administration of justice, government, finance and public order and the far-reaching moral, civil and religious consequences to which thismight lead, because the familynames are not transmitted from the parents to their children, so that it is sometimes impossible to prove the degress of consanguinity for purposes of marriage, rendering useless the parochial books which in Catholic countries are used for all kinds of transactions." he continues,"for the purpose of catalgue of family names has been compiled, including indigenous names collected by the reverend fathers provincial of the religious orders, and the Spanish surnames they have been able to acquire, along those furnished by the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, geography, arts, etc. In view of the extreme usefulness and practicality of this measures, the time has come to issue a directive for the formation of a civil register, which may not only fulfill and ensure the said objectives, but also serve as the basis for the statistics of the country, guarantee the collection of taxes, the regular performance of personal services, and the receipt of payment for exemptions. It likewise provides exact information of the movement of the population, thus avoiding unauthorized migrations, hiding taxpayers, and other issues."

The decree after all was not conceived out of greediness and malevolence intent but by having a successful administration of records. The Governor plainly stated the benefits of having surnames for the natives on the long run would prevail over its initial awkwardness. This order that gave us the names that we still bear with us until now is perhaps the greatest impression of the Spanish era aside from our religion.

Some Exceptions

There were exceptions, indication of the orders flexibility, i.e., the direct descendants of ancient rulers (i.e., Mojica, Tupas etc.) were excluded and were permitted to maintain their surnames. The Tagalog nobility was also spared (i.e., Gatmaitan, Hilario etc.) this is the reason why we still hear these surnames up to now. For the rest were given regulated name (based on the Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos). There were those who were ordered to take on unique surnames (usually names of flora & fauna) to make them more visible, like in the case of the Rizals, which already had Mercado, a name taken by the first Francisco Mercado (Domingo Lam Co's son). Its interesting to note however that Asuncion Bantug pointed out in her book "Si Lolo Jose", that the reason behind the change was that original Francisco hated the name Mercado for it means "market", choosing another name, Ricial. The Mercados later on started using their second last name, Rizal, as an act of uniting behind Jose's flight.

With the decree also came the opportunity for those without surnames to obtain one. A catalog of names where one could pick was handed to the natives (a directory of Spanish names). The Friars being elected as the agents of organization during the initial years of the decree proved to be successful. The policy was generally realized and Claveria's requirements of a unified registry was created and this would give the Filipino today a way to trace their lineage. The practice also made sure that the surname of the the mother would be attached, this explains "y" (police, NBI and other national records) after the fathers surname. According to the study prepared by Pepe Alas, we're the only nation now that still follow this format.

The Chino Christiano

These Mestizos were allowed to hold on to their name Chinese surnames. This was accredited by the administrators so as for these Mestizo's not to lose their lineage and culture. It was a regular practice also then to generate a last name by merging Chinese names, like that of their parents (i.e., Yu -chen -co, Lim -cau -co etc.). Many of this surnames having "co" at the end because of the Hokkienese polite suffix of "ko" (meaning "big brother"). There were also occasions that the Catholic Filipino Chinese would blend their native names to that of a Christian name, this adaptation is unique and is said to be the only one of its kind in the world. Contrary to what most accept as true, that these names were imposed without due considerations, the Christianized Chinese mestizo's supplies us with a clear example of the laws flexibility (like the considerations for the Tagalog noble clans). The decree was in no way meant to disassociate the Filipino to his native origins and his family.

The Filipino Chinese then was different from the Baba of Malaya and the Javanese Peranakan, both Chinese immigrants, as Wickerberg says, " the Chinese mestizo in the Philippines was not a special kind of Chinese, he was a special kind of Filipino".

This points to the fact of the Filipino Chinese integration to the Filipino society - they became a Filipinos, their prosperity and influence during the Spanish era is a proof of their contributions to the society as key actors.The other Sino immigrants in the neighbouring colonized regions, the Filipino Chinese was not restrained in their comunity but was encouraged to integrate and participate. It was observed that some eventually lost attachment to the Chinese culture and as the author of the book "Brains of the Revolution" says, "instead, a very strong affinity for a Philippine version of Hispanic culture", referring to the Mestizo's preference to the hispanic culture."

Looking back

Contrary to the claims of reknowned historians that this decree stripped us of our native identity, the scheme actually restored the self-esteem for the Filipino then. Today, as we go on with our contemporary lives, we have government agencies going up the mountains and registering natives (for administration, medical and educational purposes), in some cases, missionaries meet up with this tribes to baptize them and give them Christian names, how is this different from what the Claveria decree formed?

Food Identity

Being away from the homeland makes you think about a lotta things. In a foreign land is where a Filipino becomes more Filipino. You get to compare things about you, you realize that you are, well, Filipino pala talaga. You get to see yourself in a totally different light.

Identity as they say is what makes you unique from the others. A friend told me that you are ‘what you eat’, it was a funny way to describe the Filipino identity but I understand why he said that. Food would give you a good picture of what a nation is, you can glimpse its past through its plate.

Expats in foreign lands serves homegrown dishes with ‘yabang’, they’re proud of how we make food and how it taste. A tinola here, even if its missing some key recado taste better than a tinola that’s completos recados back home. For some strange reason, eating tinola with fellow Filipinos here makes me feel Filipino, so it must be true that ‘you are what you eat’.

Our food basics are steamed rice and all the viands that always starts with a cooking technique called guisa. The tastiest dishes are of Spanish origin but they have evolved to be Filipino, Filipinize, so to speak. So adobo, sarsiado, mechado, bopiz, tinola, jamon, relleno, embutido, tapa. menudo, pochero, callos, lechon, paella are Filipino, we cease to call this dishes Kastila, we present these us ours, Lutong Pinoy we call it.

We are often told that we are Malay, in fact whenever there is an application form, most Filipinos would still place Malay as their race on the blank space. Some still regard Rizal as the great Malay (is he?), if he is then my mom is French. The foodie question is, why is it that if Malay is our racial origin, why don’t we eat like them? we have the Malay tradition of bi-hoon, cang cung and mee-sua but nothing more, why is it that we never had a taste for mutton? why are we voracious pork eaters?

The Chinese on the other hand they say was already doing business in our shores long before the Kastilaloys came but why is it that our cookery is more Spanish than Chino? are we to think that the natives then only picked the alien Spanish dishes over the flavory familiar Chinese cuisines? are we to believe that we snub the Chinese way of cooking that we seem to enjoy this days?

Stir frying is a cool way to cook our fishies,meaties and veggies (we see this with Martin Yan all the time), a Chinese original but it never became a technique we can call ours. We still go back to the guisado. When it comes to the prehispanic Filipino dishes we could refer to the accounts of Pigaffeta’s gastronomic odyssey with the natives. There’s not much, they did got drunk though, but even that aboriginal drink is a thing of the past for us, we rather entertain our guess with the good ol' cerveza or some fancy European wine at home.

The only logical answer for all this is that our dish became hispanized, we had little choice because we were flooded by all this strange objects and traditions brought by the Spainiards. It is not as if we elected to be influence, we never called them, they came to us. We all end up having this strange appetite for the Espanola cuisine. A strange taste for an Asiano to acquire. When Christmas is around our tradition calls for the quezo de bola or the jamon or the lechon, of course all of this with the cerveza or some delightful vino, or some chocolate to match our versions of mantecadas and pastillas. What seems to be evident is that this Kastila's were the only once who showed us how to culture our food. The bland cookery all of a sudden became sophisticated. What was handed down to us was not only simple Iberian imported recipes but a tradition that we would be identifying with up to this day. Just the other day, we were looking for some cocoa power (the popular brand, cocoa ricoah) when this elderly Chinise looking woman, probably recognizing were Filipinos, looked at us and asked, 'Champorado?'. we are identified with this unique culture, I told myself, 'oh my, she can identify my nationality by what I was about to buy from her'.

That is why I always tell my friends that would ask me about identity or debate me on the topic, that if we want to get rid of that past and revert to the true state of Filipino (I don’t know what that is, Igorot? maybe) we start with ridding ourselves with everything that was created by that past, aside from losing our Hispanic sounding ala Antonio Banderas names, we’ll lose a lot including our cuisine (nooooh!!!). There is no alternative when we speak of identity, that is why countries like Australia or the US would not look back at their precolonial days as the one representing their true identity for if it was the case, they would be anulling the colonial contribution to their advancement both in education, culture and eventual self governance. When they say we that we had no choice, well, I say we deal with the cards that has been dealt to us by this thing called history.

It is this simple logic that should guide us towards embracing our true identity, its the ugly reality for those people who try hard to identify the Filipino identity with the prehispanic tribes of the islands, our soul is not there, we could trace our lineage there but certainly not our character. The thinking that the more aboriginal we make ourselves the more Filipino we become doesn't sound right, actually it sounds stupid. This identity was a process that started when the state was founded, followed by a series of events that started from a Spaniard born in the islands claiming the Filipino as his identity, then to the coming of a generation of educated men that proved that they're equal if not superior to the Spaniard. If we view this process as a retardation of our natural evolution, that all of this are foreign and therefore evil, then we say today that we are indeed retarded, that we are byproducts of a failed process that led to this beautiful identity and this should answer why we are continually moving back wards.

There is no starting over, its not like some subject in college that you flunked and that you can take it up next sem, history is evolution, never static, it waits for no one. Rather than denying it, Hispano culture deserves a second look, acknowledge it and embrace it, there is nothing we can gain from believing that we don't deserve this foreign traditions when we are unconsciously following it, it is our tradition. There’s a real danger in teaching ourselves to hate something we don’t understand, we could end up hating ourselves.

Now back to this foodie identity, make no mistake about it, there is a Filipino cuisine and its alive. Its origins could be hispano but its Filipino no doubt. I remember what Fr. Galende, that nice Augustinian Padre who supervises the lone original Intramuros church, said about all the beautiful century old churches we have in our land, that it is a mistake to call them Spanish because they’re Filipino churches. To say that this are all Spanish culture is to say that there is no Filipino culture, like when we say that because we had great literature written in Spanish, that they are Spanish, not Filipino. All of these belongs to us, this is us, and to tell our children that they were all the creation of the Spaniards is the same as telling them that the Filipinos during those days stayed in the caves and learned nothing.

The same with our food but we should recognize the history behind it. Only when we begin to understand and appreciate we’ll be able to understand how we became Filipinos. This could be an oversimplification of the definition of our identity but if you think of it we really are what we eat.

Now, its morning here. Let me go find some Pan de Sal! ay, wala pala dito.

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.

Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista

The Franciscan Garden

Just when you thought that Quezon City has nothing to offer but the metro feel, top schools, colossal malls and trendy subdivisions, think again.

When you reflect on the old Filipinas what comes to mind is Manila and the well-known  provincia's (Vigan, Taal etc) but rarely someone would think of Quezon City as having something similar to the grand old churches and casa's of this enchanted Filipino Spanish towns.

The new fascade of the ol' Iglesia (it still stands on the original foundations of the first church, the rearrangement and renovations has drastically altered the first church)

Well, of course there are fine historical sites in Quezon City, I've always wanted to visit President Quezon's final resting place in Quezon circle but never had the time (or find not to have time). In Bagong Silang you have the site of the "Battle of San Mateo", Pugad Lawin and the Tandang Sora Shrine, just to name a few.

But the most amazing discovery I made recently was the Franciscan church in San Francisco del Monte, and it was a wonderful discovery. For hundreds of years it has served its dominion, not only establishing Christianity, which it has successfully completed but also introduce arts, like music. The town organizer and church builder, San Juan was a gifted musician.

Driving from Manila via España to Quezon City most of the times is a taxing charge(especially if your from the south metro), passing through this major roads are always better during the weekends. I thought for awhile that Sr.Gomez would take us to Santo Domingo, the church that was originally built in Manila but was later relocated because of its demolition during the American's unrelenting offensive of Manila (Liberation?). The La Naval de Manila (in Quezon City?) culture lost its continuity - but there must be some divine explanation we don't know that would explain why, the old site I believe is where BPI now stand in Intramuros.

Going back to this goldmine of a discovery, we headed to the San Francisco del Monte Church and was welcomed by its historical markers, appraising it made me appreciate that I was in one of the oldest church in this once Spanish province, here, in the heart of the metropolis.

The Antillan

I found this brief history of the place and its venerated Spaniard saint, San Pedro Bautista & his Iglesia.

Pedro Bautista Blasquez arrived in 1584 with the 4^th group of Franciscan Missionaries to the Philippines, was not an inexperienced man. He was 42 years old who acquired fame as a preacher in the cathedral of Toledo, Spain. He taught philosophy for three years in Madrid and was an excellent musician. He arrived as the head of the mission and was to preside as the chapter of custody. In a word he was a mature man, educated, experienced and placed in a position of authority.



The fourth Chapter of Custody and the first after the arrival of Pedro Baustista was held in the convent of Manila on September 24, 1584. The conference elected Pedro Bautista, Custos of Superiors of all Franciscans in the Philippines.



Apparently he preferred not to accept the position of authority. After the election Fray Pedro hid and only later when his brethren refused to accept his resignation did he took the position. That was in 1588. having accepted the responsibility he put himself dynamically into his work. He animated his religious to live out their profession and to care the conversion of others. To encourage them he learnt the language of the natives. He counseled his Friars living at a distance and encouraged them with his letters worthy of a holy man.

Because of his  deep concern for the spiritual welfare of his friars, Pedro Bautista saw the need for a secluded place where the missionaries, true to reform spirit of their province, could revive their spiritual vigor by prayer, reflection and discipline. After a long search, he selected a site a little over a league from Manila.



On February 15, 1590 Gov. Santiago De Vera donated "Una Pequeña Encomienda", an estate of some 150 hectares to the Franciscans: Pedro Bautista immediately ordered the construction of a small  bamboo  and nipa convent and church under  the title of Nuestra Señora de Montecelli, which however, was popularly known from the very beginnings of "San Francisco Del Monte".



It was opened as a retreat for missionaries and as a novitiate house from 1580 the novitiate had been in San Francisco De Manila but the noise of the city and the coming and going of the friars to the Provincia headquarters made it less than appropriate for contemplation. The first profession recorded in San Francisco Del Monte took place in December of 1591.

The cave for prayers (yes, this guys are pretty serious with their prayers that they dug a cave where they can pray in complete silence)

In 1699, a church was made of stone was built and the convent restructured. This was dedicated t the newly beatified Blessed Pedro Bautista and his companion martyrs. This church had now become the sanctuary with the Baroque altar that is still preserved today.



In 1895, the friars abandoned the lace and Filipino revolutionary forces occupied the church. In 1898, American Negro soldiers of the occupued the church. the church was left idle until it was repaired in 1912. In 1914, the Church was blessed and a town fiesta was held in honor of San Pedro Bautista.



On November 11, 1932, the Church was declared a parish name in honor of its founder and patron saint, San Pedro Bautista, before the decree, the parish belonged to the parish of Caloocan.



In 1989, the three century old baroque altar was transferred to the main sanctuary. In 1990, a statue of San Pedro Bautista was enshrined at the center of the altar. One February 5, 1997, the parish marked the 400^th anniversary f the Martyrdom of San Pedro Bautista. On February 25, 2007  the parish church was declared an  archdiocesan shrine to be known as Sanctuario de San Pedro Bautista in view of its monasterical and religious significance.



After a successful effort from Padre Gobo left for Manila but he was lost at sea. Gov. Dasmariñnas waited one futile year for his return then decided to send Pedro bautista as his new ambassador. brother Gonzalo Garcia who knew Japanese very well was designated as the new emissary's interpreter; tow other completed the group. after his diplomatic mission Pedro Bautista was to stay on as the permanent representative of the Governor of Manila and labor for the conversion of the Japanese.



That was the plan of the Governor but the "Superior of the Jesuits in Manila" reminded him of the prohibition of Gregory XIII. The Governor called a meeting at the church of San Agustin on May 18, 1593 to discuss with the prominent theologian and authorities what could be done. The outcome was his firm decision to send Bautista's party.



On May 30, 1593 Pedro Bautista and his companions sailed for Japan, their new work and eventually their martyrdom four years later.



Continuing  the policy of his famous predecessor Fray Juan de Placentia, "The Father of Reductions", San Pedro worked to gather  the native of the towns. In Morong, he obliged the numerous rancherias spread throughout the mountains to form the "Doctrinea" of Morong. He was the moving spirit behind the behind the foundation of many towns. In Camarines: Quipayo, Cagsawa, Baac, Oas, Libmanan and Buhi. In Laguna - Rizal area: Tanay, Baras, Longos and Paquil. And in Bulacan: Catangala (Polo). He likewise started churches and convents of Meycuayan and Calilay, centers in the days of Bulacan and Tayabas.

It was a great experience walking around, seeing people celebrate mass on a Sunday, thinking that Catholic tradition here is almost as old as the founding of the walled city, it was alive, surviving the wars (both sectarian and military conflicts). The place is a legacy of the Catholic missionaries. It reminded me how it all happened, the religion and the country.

One of the most interesting historical facts that were not taught in schools is that this Catholic missions, founded almost all of our old towns, paving the way to unanimity, inspiring the shape of the islands into what we know now as the Philippine Islands, christianization and domination, and perhaps its unseen and under valued gift, our identity.

As I was walking along the Franciscan garden I tried to visualize what it was like living their lives, far away from their beautiful mother country, the endless prayers and the remote, often, perilous missions to convert, some say we never desired their interference and Christian convertion but we still remain transformed Katoliko's anyway, to say now that 'all Friars' - are wicked and that they corrupted us, is plainly erroneous.

Let's give credit, where credit is due

...speaking of credits, this two brought me here.

...speaking of credits, this two brought me here.

Gracias, mis amigos...

Pepito, me & the man, the legend GGR

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.

---

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.

---

The Cross of Tunasan San Pedro

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="302" caption="San Pedro's Cross of salvation"][/caption]

The ‘Cross of Tunasan San Pedro' has been with the old town of San Pedro for centuries. Its miraculous healing powers became popular during the epidemic years, were countless of towns folk sought divine healing from the deadly diseases that ravaged the once rustic town.

It's a silent witness to the transformation of the small town from a Sampaguita plantation and a narrow passage to the richer Laguna towns to what it is now, a residential and industrial urban municipality. It survived both natural and man made disasters - during this difficult years the older generation of San Pedro knelt in front of the miraculous cross and prayed for a better tomorrow.

Legends varies, from its sudden apparition from some unknown San Pedro barrio to its creation by some miracle Abbott, some even claims that it came straight from heaven. Its one of those icons that represented time and people, one could not tell a story about the small town without suggesting to see it for a visit to San Pedro Tunasan during the old days is incomplete without touching its base.

Today, its odd that its not as revered as it was once, one could watch people go in and out of the church without even noticing the mighty Cross, the Krus ng San Pedro Tunasan. Once it attracted hundreds of churchgoers from different places in La Laguna during Sunday's and dates of Catholic religious importance. Now, it sits quite in its dark place, with out lights, without candles and if you were to sit inside and attend mass, your back would face it. How could such an important relic be relegated to an obnoxious space inside the church that it practically created?

Rizal appreciated its role both as spiritual and cultural representation of the people of Tunasan San Pedro, he mentioned the cross in his first novel together with the other celebrated Catholic images of the old Spanish era .The least that we can do is its restoration as the center piece of the church, it deserves no less.

A closer look would reveal that its base is of poor construction; a piece of rock holds it in place. Some genius mind painted over the original varnish. Obviously the preservation and its location in the church was not one of those well thought out plan. It could be attributed to a miracle that this Cross made of wood and is said to be the oldest Catholic cross in the whole of Laguna is still in a very good condition.

Perhaps, the reason why its not being noticed is that, today - church and government officials failed to highlight not only its place inside the iglesia but its role as San Pedro's greatest religious icon.

There is no IKON in this small struggling town that could better represent its past than this cross! La cruz de Tunasan San Pedro!

Response to the post "Filipinos Are Not Hispanic"

I stumbled upon this post by FIl-American Jon Torres over the popular site Associated Content. I would like to share my response to all my reader to some of his well intentioned subjects regarding his reaction as a Filipino to 'being referred to as Hispanic', something that is a common experience for those Filipinos who lives close to big Latino communities in the US. (All the italics are mine)

Filipinos Are Not Hispanic

A Few FAQ's I Keep Having to Answer

By Jon Torres, published Mar 21, 2007

Yesterday I was making a remark to my friend about my Asian heritage and he replied, "Asian? But I thought you were Filipino!" I could only laugh (politely, of course) at his statement, not only because it sounded wrong, but also because I had heard it once too often. This cannot be dismissed away with some flippant remark I'm tempted to make, like "Don't you ever wonder why there's no Filipino food at Taco Bell? "

---

*This is quite common in the States, Filipinos - are being recognized as Hispanics, mainly because of the last name, facial feature & religion but Filipinos historically are Hispanics. Our Hispano culture makes us Hispanics. Mistake is made when hispanization is equated with blood relation and geography.

---

There seems to be an all-too prevalent belief among the many westerners I meet, which is the notion that Filipinos are Hispanic. While I can see (more or less) how this could be reasoned in a roundabout way, and make its own odd sense, it is nonetheless wrong. To someone who has grown up in the Philippines, it does sound plausible from a certain point of view, yet still very strange for a number of reasons. I will address some questions I frequently get asked on this apparently novel piece of information.

Where is the Philippines? According to Wikipedia ( as well as every single one of my social studies teachers) the Philippines is in Southeast Asia. At this point, I rather think this should end any further explanation. We are much, much closer to Taiwan, China, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore than any country in Europe or Latin America. The geographical neighborhood alone should clue you in to the probable ethnicity of the Filipinos. Perhaps it is simply this lack of awareness as to where the Philippines actually is, that causes many people to guess and consequently, make mistaken assumptions based on that.

___

Our location makes us Asian, but this does not undue our Hispanic roots for the simple reason that hispanization refers to history, language and culture. So if I were to answer the question "if Equatorial Guinea (an African nation) is a Hispanic nation?" my answer would be yes, not only because they speak Castilian but also because hispanization has taken root in their culture and society. Their geography, being a small state in the middle of the African wouldn't nullify their identity. Same with ours and some of the pacific islands that were under Spain then.

If one is to travel to China, Japan or Thailand - a Filipino would almost immediately feel like in a different world, an alien, "Asia was never at home with us", Nick Joaquin said and this is true, Manila is a city with little similarity with cities like Bangkok, Beijing and Tokyo etc etc - theirs is an oriental culture, ours is of Hispano origin. On the other hand, if you were to visit Mexico and all the other Latino countries - you would be awed how strikingly similar our culture is with them. So don't be surprised if American's see them in you.

___

How do you explain the 80% Catholicism, which is obviously from Spanish colonization of the Philippines? This is true. We were converted from mostly earth-based, ancestral worshipping spiritual beliefs, and baptized as Catholics in the 16th century. This was instrumental in Spain's control over the Philippines for over three centuries as colonial property, by using organized religion along with political manipulation (without separation of Church and State). This had the effect of having Filipinos subservient to Spanish rule, without enjoying the benefits of being citizens. In short, we were the property of Spain, but we were not Spanish citizens.

___

Part of the reason why Americans looks at Filipinos as Hispanic is because of our religion. Most Asians are seen as Orientals in the US, Orientals for them practices Buddhism, Hindu or religions they see as unfamiliar and mystical. Since Filipinos are Asians in their mind, they would be surprised to see Filipinos practicing the religion of the immigrant Latinos.

Since hispanization is the process by which a place or a person absorbs characteristics of Hispanic society and culture. We are Hispanos more than asianos. Unfortunately, most are not aware of this fact.

"Property of Spain?" - I think this author never heard about the Cadiz constitution - anyway we were all subjects, under a monarchy that translates to citizenship. This is the reason why Filipinos with means then were able to study, live and travel abroad, they were Spanish by right. Could you imagine the Ilustrados, founding a liberal paper called La Solidaridad in the heart of Spain? If they were not protected by their right as Spanish citizens they could've been easily executed. In the days of the Yankees, anyone who stood up here and oppose them was blasted into oblivion, they only ceded leadership after they've been able to guarantee that they would still be in control, in terms of economic policies and the nations resources.

In the American years, it would be good to review that we never became citizens under their commonwealth, they never wanted us even with the noisy clamor of the federalistas. I'm sure all Filipino immigrants know that it is not an easy process to go there and work - this is how we were repaid. Our glorious stand with the Americans during WWII and all the service we render under their flag is all but forgotten now. While The Japanese and Germans, on the other hand, who fought against them, today, can freely travel in the US without being bothered by the process we usually face. Talk about history and how it is easily forgotten by this western power.

___

But don't Filipinos speak Spanish? I get this question several times a year, almost on a monthly basis, and every time I want to say a resounding "No!", they point out my own particular situation, because I happen to speak it passably well. In my case, as I believe is the same with many Filipinos living in the United States, I learned it here: both from Mexican friends and the local community college. The truth is, most Filipinos do not speak Spanish at all. Almost none of us do. From the 19th century American occupation, English has long replaced Spanish as the western lingua franca of the country, and has been for a hundred years.

___

We used to speak Castillan as a nation, but when the American's came it slowly eroded but it is, as it was pointed out the 'lingua franca' back in the days. The American system then recognized literacy based on the use of the English language. Regardless whether you speak or write in Tagala or Castilian you would still be tagged as illiterate if you would neglect the use and study of this foreign language and since there is no way for someone to progress in the new American standard of education if one would not take up English, everyone had no choice but to learn it.

___

It certainly doesn't help that Filipinos are generally adaptable, and being from a country with over a thousand local dialects, will be averse (or too polite!) to saying they do not understand, or are unable to learn a certain language. We eventually pick up enough of the local language to get by. True, our main dialect, like many others, is in fact peppered with Spanish words, making it fairly easy for us to learn Spanish if we tried. But what few Spanish words that we use in our daily colloquial speech are mostly pidginized and remarkably different from their original meanings (Get this: "leche" is a mild curse word in Tagalog!). Also, we have much more of the neighboring language groups in our vernacular: mostly Malaysian, Chinese, Arabic, and more recently, plenty of English.

___

It seems that the author of this failed to research on how many Spanish words there are in what most scholar's claims as 'pure' tagala. Aside from thousands of Castilian words in the recognized national language, a study of the Spanish language would also highlight that some of the common words we use that we thought were ours were from the Castilian language. Adapted to suit local pronunciation.

I don't even want to describe what "leche" means as a curse. :)

___

Why do you have a Spanish last name? Doesn't that mean you have at least one Spanish bloodline? A Spanish surname is very common among Filipinos, and this understandably can lead to confusion. It's like meeting a Japanese person named Park, or more commonly, a Caucasian person named Lee. It however, does not reveal a person's ancestry automatically. In the case of most Filipinos, the mass-conversion also led to our being relabeled with 'Christian' surnames. Genuine intermarrying was probably quite rare back then. I can confidently say that I am no more Hispanic than your roll of "Scotch" tape has been anywhere near Glasgow.

___

Your last name has nothing to do with your identity. You could be Chinese and possess a name like Juan de la Cruz but you would still be Chinese when you wake up in the morning not unless you got that name from the history and culture of your people - only then that it would mean something. Ancestry and places of origin does not define an identity. Again, there is confusion in the definition of nationality, location, ancestry and identity.

It was not just "relabeling" - it was in effect, creating identity for the natives the aside from of course the benefits it would provide the Government then.

They say, your name says a lot of things about you, this is true, a Hispanized name tells the history of adapting to the Spanish ideals of society then, as it was enforced by Claveria, the fact that it was accepted (voluntarily or involuntarily) means our ancestors assimilated into a Hispanic society.

These are 'Christian' names as he pointed out goes back to the process of hispanization. The one thing that the author failed to study is the process of becoming a "Filipino" . The review of this would bring one closer to our real identity. The author already mentioned the Catholic religion earlier, that's Filipino identity along with the culture and heritage.

Some backward thinking folks would elect to go back to the old tribes for which I'd rather not, what we have, we should keep and respect.

___

So I hope it no longer seems to you a bold statement to say that Filipinos are not Hispanic, not from Latin America, do not speak Spanish nor are even of mostly Spanish ancestry. I encourage you to look up even more information on sites such as Wikipedia, and if possible, find some Filipino friends and raise a discussion, which I have no doubt will be a lively one. And have share some Filipino food while you're talking. We like to think it's better than Taco Bell, anyway.

___

I think everyone would be in agreement that our dish is the best in the world!

By the way, thanks to Jon for improving my calligraphy. I happen to take interest in this old art, his on line videos were awesome.

See it here

NATIONALISM: THE PHILIPPINES' EXPERIENCE THUS FAR'

In line with the questions raised by some of our friends on the topic below, I'm posting this article.

i would like to apologize that I misquoted Bro. Andrew's book, it was not 1% but 2.8% - that's the percentage of Filipinos according to him that spoke in Spanish (at the turn of the century, 1900's).

---

A REVIEW OF BROTHER ANDREW'S BOOK: "LANGUAGE AND

NATIONALISM: THE PHILIPPINES' EXPERIENCE THUS FAR'

By Pío Andrade

(Historian, Researcher and regular contributor of the Philippine-Chinese weekly magazine TULAY published by Teresita Ang See in Binondo, Manila. Author of the best selling book, ‘The fooling of America'.)

Brother Andrew's treatise "Language and Nationalism" was praised in the forword by Cecilio López as "the most exhaustive and up-to-date treatment of the language problem in the Philippines".

It may have been up-to-date when it was published, but by no means could it be described as exhaustive. One look at the list of references shows the absence of very important sources such as the following but which were not consulted at all:

1)The Official Census of 1903;

2)The Ford Report of 1916, which shows that the use of Spanish

was more widespread than commonly admitted, and,3)Velenzuela's History of Philippine Journalism.There are many big and important facts on the language question that are not mentioned at all in Brother Andrew's book, such as the fact about Spanish being the language of the Revolution, the role of Spanish in effecting the unity of the various Filipino ethnic groups which made the 1896-99 Revolution possible; the role of the Chinese Filipinos in disseminating the language of Cervantes all over the country due to the fact that the Philippines was the most thoroughly educated Asian colony in the last decades of the 19^th century, and, the fact about the much higher circulation of Spanish language dailies than either the Tagalog or English dailies in the 1930s.
Brother Andrew González, FSC, uncritically accepted the figure of 2.8% as the percentage of Filipinos who can speak and write in Spanish at the turn of the century given by Cavada Méndez y Vigo's book. This book was printed in 1870, just seven years after the establishment of the Philippine Public chool system in 1863 by Spain.

Surely by 1900, more than 2.8% of the Filipinos were speaking and writing in Spanish and there was incontrovertible proof behind this assertion.

Don Carlos Palanca's Memorandum to the Schurman Commission listed 8 Spanish-speaking provinces in the islands in addition to the 9 Tagalog-speaking provinces which, according to him, are also Spanish-speaking. To this total of 17 Spanish speaking provinces, Don Carlos added that there were only 5 other provinces where "only a little Spanish is spoken". Don Carlos Palanca was the gobernadorcillo of Binondo and the head of the Gremio de Mestizos. (Chinese Christians were the ones referred to as Mestizos since the Spanish half-breed was called Criollo).

William Howard Taft's 1901 statement after his tour of the Philippines clearly says that Spanish was more widespread than Tagalog.
This fact about Spanish being even more widespread than Tagalog in the entire archipelago is further attested to by the well-documented fact that American soldiers during the Fil-American war had to speak bamboo Spanish to all Filipinos, ----not bamboo Tagalog----, in order to be understood without any interpreter. There is still that other fact about the early occupational government of the American Military in the Philippines having to publishe, in Spanish, not in Tagalog, all its official communications in order to be understood by the Filipino people. An English translation was appended whenever necessary for the consumption of the Americans themselves.

This official use of Spanish by the Americans themselves went on up to 1910 when they started to issue communications in English but still followed by a corresponding Spanish translation of the same. In view of this fact, if a national Filipino national language needed to be established other than English, the correct choice should have been Spanish, not Tagalog.

A big fault of Brother Andrew's book lies in his uncritical acceptance of Teodoro Agoncillo's History of the Revolution. Agoncillo's History book has already been proven to be heavily distorted by omission of facts, false interpretation of events and documents and by outright lies.. The omission of these other facts was done because the same could not be reconciled with Mr. Agoncillo's own personal bias in the narration and teaching of Philippines history.
An example of Brother Andrew's fault with regard his uncritical acceptance of Agoncilo's distortion of history is the conclusion that the founding members of the KKK (Katipunan) were Filipinos of lowly origin. The founding Supremo of the KKK is Andrés Bonifacio and it is not so that he is of lowly origin. Bonifacio was definitely not a poor man when he got into the Katipunan. Nor were the other Katiputan charter members. Agoncillo also failed to mention that the Philippine economy was booming during that decade and that Bonifacio, unlike most other Filipinos, approved of the torture of a captive Friar.

The years 1900 to the Commonwealth period (1935-1941) were not well researched by Brother and "Doctor" Andrew Gonzalez. Thus, the language issue affecting the Filipinos then are not well discussed. Had Brother Andrew researched more on the language issue of that period, he would have found out that as late as the 1930s Spanish dailies out-circulated both the Tagalog and English language dailies.

He would have found out also that the use of Spanish during the following decade of 1940 was bound to even get stronger had it not been for the devastating 1943-45 war.
The strength of Spanish is evidenced by the majority of cinema films shown between 1900 and 1940. These films, even if made in Holywood were in Spanish subtitles and talkies. And several of the Philippines produced full-length films had an all-Spanish talkies.
Another important fact not found in Brother Andrew's book is the role of the Spanish language in assimilating and integrating the Chinese emigrants into mainstream Filipino society. The 100,000 Chinese in the Philippines at the turn of the century spoke Spanish in varying degrees of proficiency. The Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce since its establishment in 1904 wrote its minutes in Spanish until 1924. When they ceased using Spanish in their official meetings and minutes, they reverted to Chinese, not English. Today, strange as it may seem, the last bastion of whatever Spanish language is left are the Chinese Filipinos, and not those of Spanish descent except the Padilla Zóbel family that maintains the annual Premio Zóbel.

Finally, Brother and "doctor" Andrew González treated very superficially the question of nationalism and language. There should have been more discussions on the point that adopting a foreign tongue, or using foreign words, are not per se against nationalism. If nationalism is love for ones country and foreign words and language can best help literacy and communication, it is nationalistic doing so.

Neither did Brother and Doctor Andrew González realize that nationalism in the question of language can be destructive as has been the case in the Philippines. Doing away with Spanish orthography and the cartilla, the educational authorities did away with a very inexpensive and very effective method for teaching reading skills to the young Filipinos.
Exterminating Spanish in the schools made the Filipinos today estranged to their Hispanic past and made Filipinos prey to nationalist historians who misled several generations of Filipinos in the sense that Spain had done the Philippines very little good when the contrary is true.
What is the prime purpose of language? Is it not to make us understand one another better. Yet, Brother and Doctor Andrew González' book gives the impressions that showing nationalism is the prime purpose of language.
To be fair to Brother Andrew González, we want to think that he is a victim of too many distortions found in Philippine History including the history of language among Filipinos. Thus, the remark of Cecilio López in his introduction to Brother Andrew's book "Language and Nationalism", that the same "is the most exhaustive and up-to-date treatment of the language problem in the Philippines" is only true in the sense that the very few books on the same subject are mostly superficial.
Perhaps it will be correct for us to recall a Spanish saying that prays: En el país de los ciegos el tuerto es rey.

---

Thanks to Senor Gomez for sending me this article.

What's Pinoy?

A classmate back in college, stated that the word Pinoy was derived from "PILIPINONG UNGGOY" , I remember everyone bursting into hysterical laughter. He would regret that they, my friend, for he was teased through out his college life.

Immediately my Professor corrected my classmate, according to this Professor (who already passed away in 05, rest in peace sir!) the word PINOY(This word came to being in the late 60's), is from the word Filipino the tagalogs then added -y, a dimunitive suffix. Its like Toto, when you want to make it sound small, it becomes Totoy.

Filipino as a subject way back in college, is not among my favorite subjects but origins of Filipino words always gets my attention.

This one, the Pinoy word, tells us how we look at ourselves. Though we are proud to adapt it as a word that defines our race it also mirrors our attitude.

Not that there is something wrong with it, we Filipinos love giving names (Kano, Sakang, Tsekwa, bombay etc etc...) ours is a fun loving culture. Making fun does not mean we are looking down at those people who receives it. Naturally, Mahilig tayo mangasar. But giving ourselves a word that would describe us as small, is something we all should think about.

Its just that it occured to me that we seem to make things smaller when it should be bigger, I remember Nick Joaquin's "Heritage of Smallness" -- he hits it on the spot. We tend to regress, desire only those of small value, we fear things that would grow big, we show lack of confidence when confronted by giant task. Go little when we should be prepping to go full blast, baka hindi kaya.

A good example is Makati's Congressional districts, A small town - now due its success, a giant city in terms of wealth and progress. Divided into two districts, why? because it got too big. Why can't it be just one guy? why is it that when population grows, when towns becomes cities, government and people would vote to divide it - now, instead of a lone representation, we get politicians who can't agree with each other. Philippines is the size of California they say, but they don't have this many politicians, our politicians could easily outnumber theirs. Of course some would argue that it is not a country, but there lies my point.

We always look forward at cutting to pieces things that increase in size. We wanted to play big time sports but shy away from spectacle games like football and baseball, instead we prefer basketball, because we can play it in small groups, play it half court, represent our small baranggay, be with our short team - we seem satisfied, even in sport, to play it small.

Its the mentality that has been embedded in our minds, that Filipino - is a Pinoy, that we are small, mga totoy, bunsoy at popoy. The term used to described our physical attribute has become the very word that displays our attitude towards progress.