Not just about Magellan, Lapulapu
The Cebuanos before the province was fully colonized by the Spaniards in 1565 didn’t keep records of their exploits. If they did through written history or oral lore, centuries of colonization by foreign powers surely hampered any efforts at their preservation. Thus, as the Lapu-Lapu City Government again leads today the annual reenactment of the April 27, 1521 battle of Mactan, the narrative it is mostly based upon is from the writings of the Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta.
Pigafetta was the diarist of the expedition of the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan (who at that time served the Spanish crown). That expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and featured the death of Magellan himself in the battle against the natives of Mactan led by the chieftain Lapulapu. Pigafetta was therefore an eyewitness in that encounter.
Pigafetta is known to be a conscientious chronicler, supposedly taking notes daily. While his narration of the battle included what some historians describe as “fabulous details,” his work is considered the most important source about the Magellan expedition. He was detailed (his work, for example, included descriptions of numerous animals) and determined to learn local words.
Still, Pigafetta saw things in the perspective of a foreigner. The result is that in his description of the battle, the Mactan warriors and their chieftain, whom he identified as “Cilapulapu,” became nondescript while Magellan and his men became heroic. This is apparently the reason why some Cebuanos tried to compensate by coming up with their narrative of the battle with Lapulapu as central figure.
Unfortunately for us, Pigafetta remains the sole reliable source of that historic battle. And nowhere in his narrative did he write that the native who killed Magellan was Lapulapu, or that the leader of the Spanish expedition was felled by a pestle (“alho”). Lapulapu didn’t kill Magellan; the latter was felled, per Pigafetta, by an accumulation of assaults.
Which brings us to the tendency of some historians to latch on to personalities in their writings. The battle of Mactan is not about Lapulapu or Magellan but about a people refusing to bow down to foreigners.