THE

HISTORIAN’S
TASK
John Schumacher

The Making of A Nation Essays on

19th Century Filipino Nationalism

Prepared by : CJ Zamoranos-Abordo
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Jose Rizal
-One needs to know his people’s
past

-El Filibusterismo
a solution to the country’s
problems exposed in Noli Me
Tangere

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APPROACH:
1. Used Antonio de Morga’s SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS
– his basis of picture of the past
- A Filipino point of view based from the chronicles
2. Rizal is the best past proof, a new look at the Filipino past
and uncovering the roots of what was good and bad in
contemporary Filipino society.
3. Rizal shared a sense of national identity with Andres
Bonifacio – “ Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog”
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RECOVERING THE PAST
- the lack of method to recover the past – no Filipino history
before 1872.

William Henry Scott- “ Cracks in the Parchment Curtain”

- a documentary of curtain parchment
-the concealing from modern view the activities and thought
of Filipino and reveals history only the activities of Spaniards.

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FORMATIVE CENTURY
1. understanding further on the REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD—
the necessary foundation
ex: agitation concerning the friar lands non friar haciendas
: commercialization of agriculture
2. exploration of the variations in different socioeconomic
classes of regional societies and the political, economic,
religious, cultural resons for these differenes
ex: The Negros : nearby ILOILO- widely embracing the
Americans , is a betrayal to the Revolution
_ Socioeconomic ELITE (Negro hacenderos)
_ Provincial Principales – a society below them.
_ The Filipino clergy – the wider population
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METHOD IN HISTORY
Task : to get rid of the prejudices

FACTS- arriving at “facts” demands that the historian should

demonstrate in detail how he bridges the gap between the
documentation and the conclusions he draws fro it.

DOCUMENTS-the facts of people’s ways of thinking or their

perceptions of reality.
-documents are even less self-interpreting
Ex: literary works, books of prayers, folk art

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Ex: Pasyon & Revolution by: Reynaldo Ileto
- religious values are much stronger than economic factors in
moving people to revolutionary action

NATIONALIST HISTORY
-writing history from a nationalist point of view
examples of FORGERIES:
1. Pedro Paterno – Pre Hispanic past
- Christianity was the first fruit of some mythical inborn
qualities of the race and had before the coming of the
Soaniards

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2. Jose Marco on Povedano and Pavon manuscripts-
CODE OF KALANTIYAW- exposed in 1968 by William Henry
Scott in his Prehispanic Sources for the History of the
Philippines

3. La Loba Negra – the supposed pseudonovel written works

of Fr. Jose Burgos.
- the alleged Burgos trial, and more than 2 dozen other
pseudohistorical works all forged with signatures of Fa. Jose
Burgos. Continued to be believed as if genuine until 1970s

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Conclusions
1. reconstructing the Filipino past on false pretenses can do
nothing to build a sense of national identity; much less offer
guidance for the present or the future.

2. rejection of the colonialist and elitist approaches to national

history

3. a truly Filipino history, can not but be a history of the

Filipino masses and their struggles.

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4. free ‘Historiography’ from colonial myths
ex: American benevolent guidance of the Filipinos toward
democracy and progress

5. Avoiding a deterministic framework which tasks is to be

merely an analysis of how that history fits into a presumed
general historical process of capitalism & imperialism creates
a new myth to replace some old ones.

6. a true history of “people’s history” therefore must see the

Filipino people as the primary agents in their history—not
just as objects repressed by theocracy or oppressed by
exploitative colonial policies.
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7. A historiography – a real Filipino expect to find that
religious values have not simply led to docilely and
submission, but also to resistance to injustice and to the
struggle for a better society.

Religion- both official & folk varieties of Christianity & of

Islam –have played forming Filipino society.

8. A nationalist history will try to understand all aspects of the

experience of all the Filipino people.

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Used Antonio de Morga’s SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS –
his basis of picture of the past
- A Filipino point of view based from the chronicles
APPROACH:
1. Rizal is the best past proof, a new look at the Filipino past
and uncovering the roots of what was good and bad in
contemporary Filipino society.
2. Rizal shared a sense of nat

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Thank you.

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