Trinidad, Lawrence K.

BSCS-3C
RpH 10 / 12 / 21

Critical Essay

Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos or Customs of the Tagalogs in

English is an interesting piece of early Philippine History created by Fray Juan de Plasencia in
1589. The author was able to disclose in peculiar detail how the early Tagalog people lived. It
also explored their cultural norms, traditions, ideals, lifestyles, and so on. This compilation of
information helped catalog our history in one way or another. However, there are some darker
undertones that people have brought up over in recent times.
One such example would be a claim that due to the issue of authorship; the perspective of
the work is heavily skewed and biased towards discriminating or exoticizing the early Tagalog
people in question. This pins the focus on de Plasencia. Since he was a friar that was ordered by
the King of Spain to catalog the life of the natives that were being colonized by the time, there is
a sense of superiority and self-biases into the mix.
Apparently, this is visible all throughout the original text on how Plasencia worded
certain phrases and described things. For instance, the friar would use words such as “primitive”,
“tribal”, or even “foolish / amusing” when describing the customs or the actions of the people he
had recorded. For the time it was probably not thought of as much, but it sheds some light on
how our colonizers looked upon us. To add to this, the constant comparisons to the culture of the
early Tagalogs to Western beliefs tended to be iffy (especially when it came down to the political
systems). Due to cultural differences, the analogies did not often work directly as an accurate one
to one port.

Catholicism was depicted as a form of erasure of some if not all parts of the culture to an
extent. Most if not all the ritual-like and superstitious nature/culture of the Tagalogs were
mocked and ostracized, saying how the newly instated religion cleansed these devilish thoughts
and beliefs entirely without a single trace remaining. A relevant case would be the worshipping
of various entities, visible or not. The traditional healers of the Tagalogs were also met with
harsh criticism. While it is difficult to say whether the introduction of Catholicism completely
wiped this culture out as the author describes OR if it was demonic to begin with, it is a point of
contention.

All in all, while these controversies do surround the colonial-pandered work of de

Plasencia there is still objectively a great amount of merit to be derived from this treasure trove
of information as the culture was catalogued in an accessible manner. The goal of the author was
ultimately met and even as time passed it remained a significant piece of historical evidence. It
allowed people to gain more knowledge on the Tagalogs and how Catholicism was embraced.
However, we must be mindful in acknowledging the biases and context from the time to properly
understand the texts.