Regaining our soul
BECAUSE history is written invariably by the victors not by the vanquished, March 16, 1521 has always marked the date when Magellan “discovered” the Philippines and Spain began “civilizing” and “Christianizing” the people of what today is the Philippine Islands.
If, however, we the vanquished were to rewrite history, March 16, 1521 could go down just as easily as a most unfortunate day in our lives. For on that day we lost our native land to the King and Queen of Spain to soon become their royal tenantsubjects. On that day we bowed to a superior power and lost our freedom as a people to carve out our own dest i ny.
No, Magellan did not “discover” us. First of all, we were just where we were when Magellan accidentally bumped into us just like Japan and Thailand were where they were never “discovered”. Second of all, the Chinese have traded with us while the Arabs have brought Islam to sultanates in the south long before Magellan “discovered” us.
Why then did Magellan’s “discovery” give the royals of Spain the right to claim exclusive ownership of our tribal lands? Why did this “discovery” give them the right to distribute our land to their favorites in government, in business and in the Catholic Chur ch?
The truth of the matter is they did not have any right. What they had was a superior stick (sword) and carrot (heaven by way of the cross or religious submission to authority) that they used mainly to fulfill ambitions of empire and only incidentally to civilize and Christianize us.
Hence, to this day majority of Filipinos are still mostly landless and voiceless when before 1521 we owned tribal lands communally and participated in tribal affairs robustly. Spain changed all that by awarding our lands to royal favorites, the precursors of today’s local oligarchs who continue to resist all reforms that could loosen their grip on the nation’s wealth and p ow er.
We have claimed war reparations from Japan. Why not from Spain? This is a question the marginalized could ask but helplessly. It would never occur to the elite that inherited the country from the colonizers.
Anyway, it’s too late for that. I am merely provoking us to start realizing that while we started to get “civilized” in March 1521 we have since lost our national soul that now the rich and powerful among us continue to sell to globalizing foreign neo-liberal gods of untrammeled sales and profits.
So, what right exactly has the European Union (EU) or UN to tell us what to do? Nada. Like Spain in 1521, the EU or UN has no right to re-“discover” and re-colonize us. Self-respect demands that we welcome helpful suggestions but resist self-righteous impositions. It’s not too late to regain our Filipino soul.