Transitions of Literature from Ethnic to Spanish

The Philippine literature comes in various forms that influenced and become part of our lives that
help us to communicate and transform lives by composing and appreciating the creations of folk
people. The richness and diversity of Philippine literature evolved in tandem with the country's
history. This is best understood in the context of the country's pre-colonial cultural traditions, as
well as the sociopolitical histories of its colonial and current traditions. Literary development in
just this history reflects the imprint of American colonial control, which encouraged the absorption
of forms and topics from other literatures into Philippine literature through the educational system.

Throughout two distinct administrations, the Philippines' literary culture reflect cultural impacts
of the Spanish and American colonial governments. Works can be classified according to the
dominant tradition or traditions at work in them. The first grouping belongs to the ethnic heritage,
which includes precolonial oral knowledge and works that circulate within modern tribal
Community members or among lowland Filipinos who have preserved contacts with their non-
Islamic or non-Christian progenitors' cultures.

At least five-sixths of the works written in the languages of this group are of a religious nature,
written by the friars of the various orders for the instruction and deification of their flocks, for in
the Philippine Islands under the Spanish regime, the friars had become the occupants of practically
all parishes in the archipelago to the exclusion of the native secula. This was one of the primary
reasons for the people's hostility against religious orders. The corrido and the theater are
unquestionably borrowed genres of literature, but lyric poetry is not. If anyplace, we have the
germs of a literature in the narrower sense. There are different influences that made a change and
improve the Philippine literature by introducing new literature that can be add-up to the culture
and tradition of the Philippine literature form our ancestors up until the end of Spanish era.

The developing attitude toward independence was largely fueled by hostility to the dominance of
the clergy. Injustices, bigotry, and economic tyranny in Spain fueled the movement, which was
significantly influenced by José Rizal's outstanding writings. It expanded throughout the larger
islands following Rizal's execution that December. The Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo,
achieved considerable success before a peace was patched up with Spain. The peace was short-
lived, however, for neither side honored its agreements, and a new revolution was made when the
Spanish-American War broke out.

When the Spaniards arrived, tribal leaders and elders were deposed from their traditional
responsibilities and became the colonial society's "folk people." Although some of them were later
co-opted by the colonial authority to form a new class of petty local rulers to aid in the pacification
and administration of the locals, legends and epics about their traditional heroes who acted as role
models for the young continued to be passed down. Unlike myths, however, the topics of these
heroic stories reflected the ideals and beliefs of this developing elite of new rulers, emphasizing
their growing separation from and dominance over the original population as a result of the onset
of colonization.