CHAPTER 3:

THE HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE
OF PHILIPPINE POPULAR
CULTURE
NATIONALISTIC CULTURE OF
THE PHILIPPINES

SPANISH ERA

AMERICAN
ERA
 SPANISH ERA
According to Lumbera, popular culture in the Philippines was created and
used by the Spaniards to the native Filipinos or indios via plays and literature
to get the heart of the natives and win it. The colonial origins of popular culture
found in the Philippines can be traced by looking at salient developments in
Philippine literature.

The children of the native elite under the tutelage of missionaries became
a core group of intelligentsias called ‘ladinos’ as they became instrumental “in
bringing into the vernacular literary forms that were to be vehicles for the
“pacification” of the natives.” Forms of popular theatre and literature such as
“the pasyon, senakulo, and korido ensure the acceptance and spread of
Christianity, and the komedya and awit did the same for the monarchy.”
 Forms of Popular Theatre and Literature
The pasyon is a verse narrative about the life and
suffering of Jesus Christ. The verses are structures
in five- lines stanzas, with each line containing
eight syllables. The pasyon is commonly sung
during Holy Week, starting Holy Monday. This
practice is seen by practitioners as vow or panata.

Pasyon ( Pasiong Mahal) was a book by Gaspar

Aquino de Belen published in 1704.

Genre: epic poetry, narration, religious, prayer

The senakulo (from the Spanish cenaculo) is a
Lenten play that depicts events from the Old and
New Testaments related to the life, The earliest
known Filipino pasyon sufferings, and death of
Christ. The senakulo is traditionally performed on
a proscenium-type stage with painted cloth or
paper backdrops that are called telon.

The senakulo actually started in the year 1904 in

Barrion Dayap, which is presently the area
covering three barangays in Cainta- Sto.
Domingo,Sto. Nino, and Sta. Rosa.
The korido (from the Spanish corrido) is a popular
narrative song and poetry that form a ballad. The
songs are often about oppression, history, daily life
for peasants, and other socially relevant Senakulo
topics.
In 19th century Philippines narrates the life of a
romantic hero, the travails he undergoes and the
obstacles he overcomes in pursuit of his end
The komedya otherwise known as moro-moro or
pretending to be Moors, is a traditional Filipino
play in the vernacular adapted from the Spanish
comedia de capa y espada. It was used by Spanish
colonizers in the Philippines, circa 1766 to
evangelize and strengthen the faith of indios to
Christianity.

The earliest known form of organized theatre in

the Philippines ; it was created by Spanish priests.
The awit (Tagalog for "song") is a type of
Filipino poem, consisting of 12-syllable
quatrains. It follows the pattern of rhyming
stanzas established in the Philippine epic
pasyon.

The existence of the awit/korido in the various

Philippine languages and up to the present
time attests to their continuing popularity,
especially Ibong Adarna, Siete Infantes de
Lara, Don Juan Tioso, and Florante at Laura.
Moreover, features of this genre interweave
with the Philippine poetry and novel traditions.
 Popular culture as introduced by the Spanish was “popular” to
the extent that it was a “watering-down of Spanish-European culture
for the purpose of winning the general populace over to the ‘ideology’
of the colonial regime.” Popular culture at the time was created by
colonial authorities, with the aid of the local intelligentsia, to promote
the interests of the Church and the State.
However, once the native intelligentsia saw the effects of popular
culture and knew how to work its way as propaganda, they soon used
the Spanish weapon against them. In the 19th century, through the
Propaganda Movement, the native intelligentsia used the same forms
of popular culture to “undermine the power of the abusive friars and
rally the populace to put an end to colonial rule;” one example is the
work of Marcelo H. del Pilar when he soon used prayers such as ‘Aba
Ginoong Maria’ and ‘Ama Namin’ in a sort of parody to strike against
the abusive Spanish friars.
Dasalan at Tocsohan (orihinal na
baybay) o Dasalan at Tuksuhan
( kasalukyang baybay) by Marcelo H.
del Pilar was written in 1887-1888
during the Propaganda Movement. To
expose the abuses of the friars, he
parodied Spanish Creeds and prayers.
It was published like the Catholic
Novenas (formatted as pamphlets.)
 AMERICAN ERA

The advent of American colonialism brought the

properly so-called, popular culture to the Philippines.
The liberal policy regarding the printing press, soon
through radio, television and film, increased the
circulation of popular cultural forms. Not only through
these forms but also in new media then, such as films.
Hollywood films had a near-monopoly in the Philippine
market especially in the absence of European movies
due to World War I.
•Early on, the local intelligentsia has the same
apprehensions over mass media as they called it
commercialization, or vulgarization of art.
•The local intelligentsia noticed that "Popular literature as a
commodity intended for a mass market was seen to pose a threat
to serious artistic work, because the writers accommodated his art
to the demands of the publishers and editors who were more
interested in sales rather than aesthetics." "...popular culture is not
created by the populace... rather, it is culture created either by the
ruling elite or by members of the intelligentsia in the employ of that
elite, for the consumption of the populace and “packaged'
entertainment or art intended for the profit of rulers, be they colonial
administrators or native bureaucrats and businessmen."
Reporters :

Bayani, Marie Claire

Calamasa, Presie Joy
Cariaga, John Ashlie
Corpuz, Arell