An Unforgettable Way of Studying History
Hi! This is Sherwin Ang, a student from the University of the Philippines. At this point, I’m taking up History I, which tackles about the history of the Philippines in different aspects-political, social, cultural and economical. You may think it’s just like any other history class that just lets you memorize certain dates and events. Sometimes, we tend to ask," Why do we have to study history, the past is already the past?" But you know after you attend this course, you sure can have different perspectives of how important our history is to our lives.
Well, during the first few weeks we discussed three essays of Mr. Renato Constantino. These three works are one of my most favorite essays because it has opened my mind to the truth. I have realized how distorted our history and how miseducated most of us are.
The Origin of a Myth was written to object about our deep trust and belief to the false ideas and fallacies of our Western colonizer, the Americans. This was evidential when the Filipinos allowed the rule of the Americans in our country. They believed the Americans that we cannot govern ourselves so they have to help us do it. The essay also shows us how the Filipinos, even up to today, give no importance to our own revolution. I guess the Americans were successful in the their plan not only for the Philippines but to the whole of Asia as well-to insult each of their culture and their revolution so that they can spread more myths.
Veneration without Understanding is also one of his great works that speak about Rizal and other different heroes who fought for our freedom. In this essay, he gives two sides if we are to consider Rizal as a national hero. It is because the Americans were the ones who chose him. They considered him as our national hero because they wanted to inculcate in our minds that it is better to accept peace than fight with war. They chose Rizal to be our hero because 1) he was already dead when the aggression started. 2) He was a symbol of Spanish oppression. 3) He stressed on reform and not for separatism 4) he was an ilustrado (This is the kind of person they look to fit for the leadership). He said Rizal could be considered as a hero because he saw the problems brought by violence. He loved our country in his own "ilustrado" way. He pointed out a need for our society to create a new historical event from which an active society is involved. On the other hand, he was not to be considered a hero because he opposed the revolution and he wanted to change everything the Filipinos wanted to do.
The essay also mentioned what Rizal said that we can be free but we cannot be independent. We can be independent but we cannot be free. Before we can reach that true freedom that we’re aspiring for, we need to have enough education to have individuality.
The last essay that I studied was the Roots of Subservience. It tells us to scrutinize closely the event and the people before we recognize them as heroes or villains. Heroes have a validity limited to their period and therefore some are not anymore applicable in present situation. We must not neglect those who are qualified as heroes. We must consider their individual good deeds and also, the significance of those negative acts, which if examined in the light of the people’s goals may consign to the individual to the oblivion. Heroes are not made by propaganda but by stern eyes of history. Our past must be examined not only to correct but because the past has become the present with all the distortions. We must be guided by the lessons of the past. A hero need not be perfect. It is his heroic acts and decisions that make him a hero. These acts only become heroic when they are in correspondence with the people’s interest. People produce heroes because it happens in correlation with the involvement of people. People should be the basis of heroic acts. This essay also talked about the criteria for independence. They are the people’s participation in the event, the hero associated with the event that is worthy of emulation and that the independence day should be a symbol of our desire for freedom from the control of any foreign power and an inspiration to continue freeing ourselves.
After reading these three essays, many things change. It has developed my social consciousness as a Filipino citizen. I discovered lots of new things that I didn’t learn during my high school days. I just really can’t help myself but share this newfound knowledge and facts to my former batchmates way back my secondary level!
Aside from these essays, Sir Karganilla, our professor has opened new doors for us to explore, which were really very interesting and most of all exciting! I have learned that history doesn’t really need to be studied in chronology with time. You can tackle one issue after the other which are not of the same time frame, yet, despite this, chronology would still be useful in the sense that it will be better to analyze occurrences and events accurately. In this particular subject, I have also learned that the search for truth is rather important and precious than finding the truth itself. Yes, I agree with this point because there’s a saying that it is better to have gone through 100 times of failures before getting to the right thing than to just get it at once. It is because when you fail, it may mean that you didn’t succeed at once but at least you learned a whole lot more than those who didn’t walk through the same way as you did. Thomas Edison was not able to come up with his inventions without committing thousands of mistakes and on the way, with those mistakes, he was able to create more things other than his expectations.
Well, at times we were required to do lots of readings and research papers. It was hard but at least, somehow it was a good training for all of us. What requirement I won’t forget was the fashion show that we organized in participation to our history week during the last week of August this year. Although simple, I’m glad Sir Karganilla liked it because of our accuracy. If you wouldn’t ask, it only took us two days to come up with this presentation and we even have to go through lots of arguments and misunderstandings to come up with this presentable show. The motif was all about the Filipino-American War. We had to rent clothes and all those stuff from the ABS-CBN Studio to ensure the quality and the correctness of our performance. I really didn’t participate in front but somehow, I realized how hard it is to be at the back. The success of the presentation will depend on you a lot. Well, although we didn’t really win, at least we know we’re not last. He he.J
Well, other things I wouldn’t forget with this subject were the sessions where we had free discussions of almost about anything Filipino. As what Sir Karganilla has mentioned, history need not to be studied in sequence, what is important and significant are the discussions of different issues and problems, so that in the future, they’ll not be repeated again. Now, I really understand when a certain saying said that you could only understand the present and the future when you learn and understand about the past. Our main reference books were the two famous history books written by the late Renato Constantino and her wife Letizia R. Constantino. The first volume is the Philippines: A Past Revisited. It tried to show how the Spanish and the American colonialist manipulated events and personalities and evolved policies to serve their own interest. Philippine history as he reinterpreted it becomes a diversion for breaking the myths and fallacies, which distort our perception of what exist. (Philippine Panorama, February 22,1976). What distinguishes his attempts to radically re-interpret Philippine history is the framework provided us by the author in understanding different historical periods and which, with almost unerring logic, gives coherence to certain sharp turns or zigzags that social development has taken in this country. (U.P. newsletter, July 14,1975).
The latter one is the Continuing Past, which undertakes to prove that the essence of these past relations has persisted in the present era. In this book, the authors restate the anti-imperialist theme as forcefully as they have always done. They pick up various historical threads and show how this, taken together, forma complex but comprehensive design. They lay sacred cows on the chopping block, an irreverent but necessary task in the course of "demythologizing" history. (R.V. Pineda, Philippine Panorama, August 13,1978). The Continuing Past is not the sort of book that would gather dust in some musty bookshelf. It does not reek of historical arena nor is it a mystical rendering of a people’s supposed destiny. It is written with the crispness and immediacy of a newspaper expose and like its predecessor, A Past Revisited, it is a relevant and significant work, which analyses past events from a nationalist standpoint. (Sheila Coronel, The Philippine Collegian, August 30,1978).
This were some of the remarks which I gathered from different sources about these two books that served as our reference books. Well, based on my opinion, without any hypocrisy, they are one of the most enlightening books I’ve ever read about Philippine history. Constantino was not biased in criticizing and when he does criticize, he gives support for everything that he says. That is why the credibility of these books is considerably high. I really recommend all Filipinos especially the young and the not so young, which are majority "miseducated". This will open new windows of social and national consciousness.
Reaction Paper on the Jim Zwick’s Pages on the Philippine American War and other Philippine-related topics
Last Monday, I went with my block mates at Robinson’s Place particularly at Global Café to surf the net and to read on this particular web site assigned to me. Aside from that I also made my first e-mail address at excite.com which was sherwin-ang@excite.com. It not only created a nice feeling to finally have a new e-mail address, but it also made me realize that I have to learn more about the Net because it’s really fun!
Well, I had an hour to visit the web sites assigned to me. This was the fourteenth topic found in the web page. Basically, the web site I visited, which was made by Mr. Jim Zwick, spoke about his outlook on wars. He made this web page last 1995. On the first few paragraphs, he was actually addressing his articles to his friend Ken. He listed some other subtopics related to the subject matter and on the latter part of his article, he wrote about an article on the World War II here in the Philippines last December 1941.He talked about the kwentong kutsero and from where it was derived. He also elaborated that we must commemorate these people who gave up their lives in this war, known or unknown. It is tabulated on the next few pages.
Well, after reading this very educative material, I learned more things about the Philippine American War. I was also able to learn into detail the certain things that happened in history that were not taught in school nor mentioned in history books. I recommend not only this site but also the whole web page as well to those who want to know more about some certain details in the Philippine history.
Written by Sherwin Ang
