Pacto De Sangre:Why We Were Conquered

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Pacto de Sangre. Blood compact, or sandugo in Filipino, the act of friendship

made by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, as representative of the Kings of Spain, and by
Sikatuna, a chieftain of Bohol, transcends the original and possibly very political motives
of both parties. As celebrated in this book, Pacto de Sangre is symbolic of the cultural
transfusion which transpired after Sikatuna drank the wine mixed with Legazpi's blood.
The transfusion, perhaps, is largely one-sided. In the real politik of colonialism, it is
almost impossible to think of even a hint of Filipino blood in Spain. But who knows? A
future researcher may someday write a treatise on the effects of abaca on Spanish
shipping or of manton de manila on Spanish fashion. Or, and this is more likely, the
influence of our highly Hispanized cultural icons, like Jose Rizal and Juan Luna, on
Spanish literature and painting.
Surprisingly, from the same period, the oil-on-canvas El pacto de sangre (1886,
The Blood Compact) by Juan Luna y Novicio (1857–1899), today a Filipino “national”
hero, assumes a different representation and meaning. Luna was a close friend of José
Rizal in Europe and a leading representative of the Propaganda Movement, expressing a
growing Filipino national consciousness. However, analyzing The Blood Compact from
the perspective of Hispanic cultural studies shows that Luna painted the perfect opposite
of the Leyenda Negra (Black Legend), a version of the Conquista highlighting the
illegitimacy of the Spanish colonial presence in the Philippines. In contrast, The Blood
Compact depicts the peaceful and even friendly meeting of the two peoples, through the
sandugo ritual between Datu Sikatuna de Bohol and Miguel López de Legazpi, in 1565.
This version of the Conquista invites us to comprehend the Philippineness underlined by
the pictorial discourse in connection with a larger belonging and cultural identity, the
Hispanidad (Hispanity), and to consider Luna’s ilustrado position as proto-nationalistic –
as defined by Eric Hobsbawm – rather than nationalistic.

Hey there! Want to catch up to this Lesson? Click the link below for access:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/30/
https://www.slideshare.net/GidChrisMalenab/pacto-de-sangre-143640143

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