I hated my grade school History classes. They were taught in Tagalog (which I struggled with, coming from a household that primarily spoke English) and mostly consisted of memorizing names and dates. Yet here I am, almost a decade later, taking up my Master’s degree in Philippine Studies. It wasn’t that I found Philippine culture boring - far from it; I’d hole myself up in the library for hours at a time reading books on Philippine mythology. I didn’t realize it at the time (give me a break, I was like, nine) but what I had an issue with was how it was being taught. With that, here are a few things I wish we focused more on when it came to learning about Philippine history.
Our textbook's chapter on how life was in the archipelago before Magellan's arrival was short, to say the least. It gave me the impression that we were primitive, uncivilized cavemen. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Precolonial Philippines had technological advancements - our ancestors knew how to build boats, work with metal, and make ceramics, to name a few things. We had extensive trade networks - between the 10th and 14th century, the barangay of Butuan was a flourishing trading center, having links with Borneo, Sulawesi, and even imperial China. We had writing - a syllabic system that the Spaniards acknowledged and were even impressed by, to the point of publishing the Doctrina Cristiana, one of the first printed books in the Philippines, in our script. We had our own religion - just look at the spirit leaders (babaylan is one of the terms for them) that served as mediums and healers. These facts I had to read about in other books, and they were all new to me. If only my grade school education had highlighted how rich our culture was even before the advent of colonization.
Many Filipinos today bemoan the fact that we were colonized by Spain, seeing it as an erasure of our culture. That's a topic for another conversation, but I will say this: we weren't passive receptors of Spanish culture. We indigenized it and made it our own, incorporating numerous other influences.
Let me give some examples. Our bahay na bato isn‘t purely Spanish - its support pillars are to cope with the Philippines’ earthquake-prone conditions, its windows with latticework panels are modeled after those found in China and Japan, its grilled wooden balconies are from Arab tradition (called mashrabiyya), and the overall structure resembles the Bornean longhouse.
There's also our food. Take adobo - it's pickled in vinegar, an indigenous technique; uses bay leaf, peppercorn & garlic, a Mediterranean/Spanish touch; and has soy sauce, which is Chinese-Japanese. We consider adobo uniquely Filipino - and we're right in doing so! It was a synthesis on our part - after all, culture doesn't develop in a vacuum.
History is taught as if the Philippines was in locked in a world of its own with its various issues. During the Spanish colonial period, various foreigners visited the country, some even writing about it. We even had a trade mission sent to Siam to establish an embassy in 1718. Then there's the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, which linked the Philippines with Mexico. Our country was not closed to the outside world.
Overall, my History classes gave me the impression that our country started out as an uncivilized flock of savages, had its culture completely erased by oppressive colonizers, and ultimately had various failed revolutions that were all for nothing. I for one think that we skip over a lot of the interesting parts for the sake of forming a cohesive narrative! This doesn't make sense for a country with an extremely diverse population. While we can't change the past, I hope we can take the time to learn it in a meaningful way that gives us a sense of pride in ourselves.
To reply you need to sign in.