History revisited
This fact has been drilled into my identity since childhood. A curious youngster, I always interrogated my grandparents about their past, in turn hearing about their family histories and amazing stories they liberally told me. I heard about priests having dalliances with members of my family, these illicit affairs often told in hushed tones but weirdly punctuated with family pride. I heard about powerful relatives said to have lived feudal lives with servants imported from as far as Mindanao, or traitors and war collaborators who sold out their townmates during World War II, and the occasional heroes and true-blue good guys. I was even told that a cousin of my great-grandfather sailed in the Titanic!
As I grew older and became a dedicated historian, I was able to provide more context into our history. Many of the established histories in my family were debunked by primary sources. I was able to provide more information and details about many things that were just plain apocrypha before. Many of the stories told to me when I was young were exaggerated at best, or total fiction at worst. The romantic priestly dalliances were actually between septuagenarian priests and almost prepubescent local maidens, while the vilified relatives who supposedly collaborated with the Japanese did so to protect their own families. And no, there was no relative who went down with the Titanic.
He did cross the seas on a ship but not the famous one and even lived well into his seventies.
I have learned many things in my more than 30 years of tracing my and other people’s genealogies. Some stories are told from different perspectives, but they are essentially the same story. Some stories are sanitized to protect those involved, in the process only a portion of a historical event is known. There are many aspects of history, whether it is one’s own family’s, or one’s town’s, or the nation’s, that are not always fully known, or fully told.
As a people, we have been forced to discuss our more recent histories. One side has accused the other of historical revisionism while the other of sticking to a one-sided version of history. There is nothing wrong about revisiting history. The problem with many of us is we think we know everything about our history. But every day new things are discovered. Things that make our stories better, fuller, and more complete. We used to think that Lapu-Lapu was this young, virile warrior who led the charge against Magellan and his troops. Recently, primary records unearthed in Spain and Portugal have painted a different picture of a hero: That of an older man who was not really in the thick of battle but was most likely directing everything from a distance. That is a big adjustment that many Filipinos had to make and continue to accept, but adjust and accept we should. And while our visual of Lapu-Lapu has changed from young warrior to old general, the truth of the Battle of Mactan remains the same. That has not changed. Lapu-Lapu’s defense of Mactan, and ultimately the early Philippine’s independence, remains unchanged.
History, then, is a living, breathing thing despite it having happened in the past. Each day brings new discoveries to what many may have believed to be gospel truths. Call it historical revisionism, or relativism, or even history being observer and experience relative. Martial law. The Japanese occupation. World War II. The retraction of Rizal. And many more. These are matters we need to revisit and discuss. Things we need to explore. These are historical matters that are worth discussing. Matters that make history matter.
“History, then, is a living, breathing thing despite it having happened in the past.”