The Historian's task in the Philippines

Primary argument of Morga's narrative

From a Filipino point of view, the Spanish rule had failed to fulfill its promises of progress for Filipinos. In fact, they have even retrogressed (moved backwards) under the spanish rule.

There was no Filipino history in 1872

The Cavite mutiny happened on January 20, 1872. Cavite mutiny: brief uprising of 200 Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal, which became the excuse for Spanish repression of the embryonic Philippine nationalist movement. After this, the death of the GOMBURZA happened; hence, the three subsequently became martyrs to the cause of Philippine independence.

Pedro Paterno

- His lucubrations (intensive studies) became the prototype of all the national history studies. - He tried to show that Christianity existed even before the coming of the Spaniards. He claims that this was drawn by some mythical inborn qualities of the race. - Contemporary Filipinos like Rizal laughed privately at these claims. - In short, walang kwenta books niya sa mga sumunod na discoveries and writings. - Paterno distorted genuine documents - He also forged Jose Marco's writings on the pre-Hispanic Philippines

Concluding idea of the reading

- a "true peoples history" must deem Filipinos as the primary agents of their history (like don't focus on just the oppression brought by the Spaniards, but also on the PH as a nation) - pag inaral mo kasi yung filipinos, you will realize na hindi lang naman oppression and forced submission dala ng catholicism. because of the revolutions. the people learned to be resistant to injustices and to the struggle for a better society. - hindi dapat nakafocus ang centrality ng history sa elite (how they were oppressed or how they lived in vain), but to every Filipino. - history's goal is to present the past that really was, in all of its varieties. - by depicting the entirety of reality, history will make it possible to reshape the society towards a better future.

Code of Kalantiyaw

- an infamous document - products of a perversely creative imagination - however, it was exposed in 1968 by William Henry Scott in his Prehispanic Sources for the History of the Philippines - it was republished in a college in textbook in the 1970s, even when it was said to be dubious.

Jose Marco

- aside from the Code of Kalintayaw, Marco also wrote a series of supposed works of Fr. Jose Burgos (GOMBURZA dude) - among these were a pseudonovel: La Loba Negra (an alleged account of GOMBURZA's trial) and other pseudohistorical and pseudohistographic works with Burgos' forged signature.

Paterno and Marco

- liars - kahit mukhang sobrang glorious ng attempts nila to make history "nationalist", potaena pa rin nila kasi sinisira lang nila yung national history dahil sa pag falsify ng documents and facts.

History being as rigorous as the hard sciences

- the gravity of the laws are identical - the method of history requires the historian to base himself on documentation - the challenge, however, is not gathering sources for interpretation, but being able to draw bridges between the gaps of documentation and the conclusions he draws from it.

1949

Catholic bishops opposed the use of government funds to publish Rafael Palma's biography of Jose Rizal because of its anti-catholicism

Hispanocentric

Hispano: a person descended from Spanish settlers + Centric: in or at the center; central.

Can history be objective?

No, bitch! History, obviously, is written from a point of view. Documents are not self-interpreting, and therefore, need a human interpreter -- the historian. Because he is human, he has his biases and prejudices. Writing without a point of view is certainly a truism (a self-evident truth)

The main problem of the formative century

The problem is not what has been done, but what has not been done -- to lay the foundation for the understanding of the revolutionary period. Ex: Grabe yung attention na binibigay sa mga friar lands, pero di pinapansin yung growth ng mga non-friar haciendas.

Rizal's take on the Spanish colonization

Three centuries of Spanish rule, for all its faults, had not been a complete disaster. Rizal was proof of that as he wrote to his friend Blumentritt, "impels nations to do great deeds". Bonifacio, Jacinto, and other Filipinos of the Revolutionary generation found much of their literary and nationalist inspiration in Rizal's writings.

William Henry Scott

a distinguished investigator into so many facets of the Filipino past; wrote "Cracks in the Parchment Curtain" Cracks in the Parchment Curtain: at first sight, conceals from modern view the activities and thoughts of Filipinos and reveals only those of the Spaniard's

Antonio de Morga's Sucesoso de las Islas Filipinas

one must unveil that history which had been hidden from the eyes of Filipinos by neglect or distortion. Having acquired an understanding of their past, Rizal hoped the it would be easier for the Filipinos to "judge the present" so that all together might dedicate themselves to "studying the future"

The problem of the formative century

the problem is not what has been done, but what has not been done - to lay the necessary foundation for the understanding of the revolutionary period.

Documentations

they don't have to be limited to those that come from government offices or memoirs and letters. Other types of documents can tell us so much about peoples' patterns of thinking. These include: literary works, books of prayers, and folk art. Since these documents are less self-interpreting (because theuy are more or less objective), it gives the historian an easier time to draw his conclusions. It's just a matter of the historian asking the right questions. Reynaldo Ileto's "Pasyon and Revolution" and other writings have demonstrated that such "documents" are a fruitful source for the historian. Basta ang mahalaga, the historian is able to ask the right questions, and gather enough research to prove that the answers he gets to these questions are the right ones as well.

goals of Rizal upon studying the Philippine's history

understanding of our past cultivation of our national identity inspiration for the future

London's British museum

where he studied Morga's account and used this as a basis for his picture of the past (writings)

Andres Bonifacio

wrote "Ang dapat mabatid ng mga Tagalog"