Chapter 1 ee IAL TIMES (1564) ‘ORAL LORE FROM PRE-COLON)eve of colonization, Scot Filipinos were wearing bark and woven cloth and gold, bronze, Stone and shell hair ornaments, earrings, pectoral disks, bracel finger rings jewelry and iron for tool blackened or chipped thei and had been chewing betel they owned tens jars and plates but a history going back to 1,000 jemoved them, preserved them, and rone or flexed in caves, graves, jars or srarure are fortunate in that they no of precolonial Philippines, thanks to researches and rchistory which have appeared during the past two ferred about precolonial re of Filipinos whose ‘ing beyond the longer have ‘writings about Philipps Philippine ancestors were able to preserve the seach of Spanish colo sixteenth-centut Europe. These Filipinos—variously referred to a8 “natives,” “ethnic minoriti “eribal Filipinos,” ete—have been able to preserve for us epics, riddles and proverbs that are now our windows to a past with no written records we can stud The selections presented in this section are not cultural artifacts, like tools cles, actualy gathered io remote times. Rather, they are to be seen as cultural items useful ia the reconstruction of a period in out literary history that has been obscured by the intrusion of a foreign culture, but which nevertheless exerted and continued to exert influence on the literary works of succeeding {enerations, in terms of outlook, theme and technique. ary works created in the setting of a society where the resources rence—-land, water and forest—were communally owned, the for economic s oral literature of the preco Filipinos bore the marks of the community. The .¢ common experience of the people constituting 1g, creatures and objects of nature, work in the home, te like the riddle, the proverbs and the song, wl the audience is familiar with the situations, activities and of expressing a thought or emotion ture, unless the piece was part of the culeural e epic, was the language of daly life. At this objects mentioned in ‘The language otential Jlopment, any member of the community was 4 potent language and had been attentive 1e singer of the epic that had to ind of melodic inventiveness — hhave 8 sp% put that was because the epic was a form of 01 cure, the content and the rary forms, like formulaic repetitions, stereotyping of characte aids to the performers who were better a fer times as they moved ‘ne community to another, aad one generation to colonial power. The Tagbsnwas, Tagebilis, Mangyans, Bag. Bukidnons and Tsnegs could cling on to their traditional liliterature Riddles and proverbs are the simplest forms of oral literature. In them, et a sampling of the primordial indigenous poem, at the heart of which was she Talinghaga analogue, metaphor ot figure). The riddles and proverbs in our anthology have been drawn from a 1754 Tagalog-Spanish dictionary on which work wee supposed to have started eatly in the seventeenth centuty. Pedro de Santueat and Juan de Noceda’s Vocabulario de la lengua tagalais one of the taze Spanish sources that provide us with samples of eatly oral lote obtained direet from the people, ‘As such, the book is a rich collection of riddles, proverbs and short poems that gives us a clear picture of oral literature among the Tagalogs in precolonial times. “Monoriming heptasyllabic lines appear frequently enough in samples from the Vocabulario and in otal poetry from many tribal Filipinos to warrant saying wach of precolonial poetry probably employed single times an syllables per line. The ambahan of contemporary Hanunoo-Mangyans’ might very well be ilusteative of the form and techaique of indigenous precolonial poetry. A ‘Tagslog poetic form found in the Vocabulario, the fonaga, being a stanza form with a fixed number of lines (four), would seem to be a Hispanized descendant of the ‘ambahan o% 4 related poetic form. Itis important to note that the ambahan is often ‘chanted (without a predetermined musical pitch or musical accompaniment), a phenomenon that might explain why vernacular Philippine poetry is invariably performed in a sing-song rhythm, ata pitch above the tone of conversation. ‘The ancient Filipinos possessed a wealth of lytic poetry. The Tagalogs, for instance, had as many as 16 species of songs, each one deriving its particular character from the occasion for the performance. An carly Spanish chronicler rnoted the social function of these songs when he pointed out that the political and religious life of the people was based on tradition “preserved in songs they have memorized and which they learned as children, hearing them sung when folks rowed, worked and made merry and feasted and mourned their dead. Ia these barbaric songs were told the fabled genealogies and vainglorious deeds of theit gods.” Many of what would now appear to be poems probably originated as rics were transcribed without the songs whose melodies were lost when the accompanying music. As in other oral cultures, prose narratives in prehistoric Phil consisted largely of origin myths, hero tale, fables and legends. Their function in ty was to explain natural phenomena, past events and contemporary ss fearsome by making it more edious by filling pines ‘order to make the environment ‘comprehensible and, in more instances, to make idle hours les them with humor and fantasy ‘Drama as 2 literary form had not yet begun to evolve among the Filipin when the Spanish conquest took place. From the evidence of anthropologi ‘ological studies, it appears that Philippine theater at this stage con Gmplest form, of mimetic dances imitating natural cycles and work pphistcated, theater consisted of religious rituals presided 08 1 ated in by the community. Of these rituals, ae vow ite when combined with pl he Ce aged dena. The Cab pst of Wolk play the husband Wigan and the two sons: Dancing to the rhythm of beaten shields, Fe cg compe by eg amon tee wedding feast and the purification rites are performed. Bo eee a cs Rede sara eee! family who inos in the hinterlandspied agains: the bedegroom when the bride decides itis Tawaang she wants ro ‘Barry An presome duel berweea the oro wassors takes place, which culminates in Tinmaang’ viory after he smashes the goldes fute i which the bridegroom leeepe bis Ste “Himlesed is also 4 pagan epic, recorded only in receat times among the Scled of Panay It consist of reo parts the first ove about Labaw Denggan, his for the Western culture that the colonizers brought over from Europe.) Chapter 2 See LITERATURE UNDER SPANISH COLONIALISM (1565-1897) When Spain established her first permanent settlement in the Philippines in 1565, she imposed on the Filipino people the Spanish monarchy and the Roman, Catholic religion, and along with the wo came feudal represented European civilization as far as the new centuries to come, a distinction would be made between settled where they were in pueblos (taga-bayan), and those who administrators and their 0 se to the sources of their livelihood in the mountains or the hinterlands (taga-bukid, taga-bund distinetion went beyor hic ofigins and took o of cultural snobb: n seeped deep consciousness of 3, aga-bayan came term for the Hispanized ivilize ly (native) who had not learned the jong the brutos salvages (savage ipinos come to be regarded with ways of brutes). sntempt and suspicion, by lowlanders who soon ” Filipinos. Although it endowed ‘colonial rule was supposed to derive its authority from the union . The patish priest, however, was practically the only Spaniaed contact with Filipinos. As such, he became the embodiment of and culture among the colonized populace. Through their contact lues he carried, religion exerted a pervasive influene® inds of Christianized Filipinos. The literature of the entire period wa ceeated under his encouragement and supervision, although in the cof Spanish rule, the attitudes and outlook of medieval Catholicism fe were sepresented by the friar/ missionary/ parish priest began (0 PS by Filipinos who had, by virtue of a university education, come itt? -ral minds in nineteenth-century Spain and Europe. [Confluence of Two Cultures. Monopoly of printing presses by religious ders port the nineteenth century explains the religious content of ee Sn ture. The Dominicans were the fi ‘op # printing press, and Dostrina book ever published in the jad Augustinians put up recive presses and turned out grammars, es and catechism and confession manuals. The first printed literary work Wg appeared in one of the books produced by the f ‘This was the poem “May Basyo Mat May Relim » which was published in Memorial dela vida erstiana 1605) along with poems by San Jose himself 1ando Bagongbanta of the book in which it appears, “May Bagye Ma May ture imagery to affirm Christian heroism. Significant is the monorime and the falinghaga (metaphors) of ae earmarks of indigenous culture on which colonial culture, The work exemplifies what t ete bal SeFilipino Response. Reading, writing and aritheneye ‘oat which was usually the farthest the Filiping gr nurse, the main purpose of schooling w the time could go in education. Of course, ewan impart the fundamentals of Chistian doctine to the children who WOU, in time aie svee ftom the adults as loyal subjects of the monarch and devoted flock of the Church, Up unt the eighteenth century itwas arate Filipino who had schooling beyond the catecheia evel s0 that anyone who could read the Roman alphabe, Jeuuned Spanish well enough to write ia tand interpret forthe missiona 1 privileged person. Among these F inane Soa Ge tata pow to whom the poblihed often attributed), Tomas Pinpin (the printer/author of a manual titled Ang Librong Pag aval ng mgo Tagoeg ng Wikang Castilla (The Book the Tagalogs Must Study 10) and Feraando Bagongbanta (the poet mentioned eatlier for his San Jose's Memorial de la vida cristiana). The first Filipino literary artist, the first one to come up with a long work that bore the signs of conscious desiga and careful composition, was Gaspar Aquino de Belen (no dates available) ‘The long poem Ang Mabel a Passion mi Jesu Chrstong Panginoon Natin (The Sacred fed as an addendum to Aquino’s Tagalog octosyll n, starting from ‘were taught red for the vigor of the poer’s yey of the biblical figures who emerge vividly as though they were the poet's own contemporaries. Like the traditional epics, Aquino’s poem was sung to a fixed melody and was intended to cedify its audience at special occasions. After Aquino, the genre that evolved came to be designated as pason, Petmanent tribute to the 1704 poem. A related gente in the native theater was the snake, a stage play on the passion and death of Christ. Both the pasyon and do were performed during the Lenten season, and this endowed them left a deep impression on the consciousness of of Christian Filipinos who at given times in theit isa model of humility and submissiveness to reli tcbel withthe zealand recess daring of 2 ries in their wosh $0 that whatever was published * Populace. As a bilingual Filipino of his tim 0 the res for love and fame, highborn warriors and their colo Filipino viewers a glimpse of an idealized Ei virtues of religious piety and steadfast loyalty to the monarch. Along with the jn direct contrast to the instability and misery of life in their ime and their country. ‘Two types of narrative poems became popular at about the same time that the komedya appeared them drawing many a domedya with plots. The anit differed from the tor: consisted of four monoriming dodecasjabic lines while the strophe of & consisted of four monoriming octosyllabic lines. Both were sung. never simply read, and apparently they cicculated the way oral literature: enabling the more popular ones to reach a wide audience at a time: ‘greater majority of the population was iterate. ef ‘The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed the peak of the awit as ‘a poetic genre in the masterwork of the poet Francisco Baltazar (1788-1862), popularly known as Balagtas. Of Balagtas’ total output, only three complete works are now available:a short fatce (Le India Eleponte'y of Negro Amonte [The ° Fashionable India and Her Negrito Suitor] 41 Zafira (Orosmman and Zafira), ca. 1857-60): Bubay ni Plorante at ni Laura sa Cabariang Albania (The Life Florante and Laura ‘Went through in the Kingdom of Albania), ca. 1838). In spite of the lack of 2 big corpus of published works, historians have put Balagtas in the forefront of Philippine literature, designating him as the first of the two literary giants of the period of ‘colonialism. Filipino writers during Balagtas’ time wrote not c sing” audience, so that many written works seemed to .d only as manuscripts that passed from hand to hand. However, ing were opening up with the establishment of commercial 1g presses in Manila. ‘The colony had begun to enjoy a measure of economic ing from the development of cash crops; direct trade between Spa ines; and active participation of foreiga firms in the export trade* ~ Economic prosperity stimulated the growth of a Filipino middle clses which had the money and the leisure to avail itself of the trappings of European culeure in terms of education, clothes, food, ornaments and social graces. Whereas before, Printed works were almost exclusively for the use of mitsionaries, now they had become available to the wealth, literate members of the middle class. triad titi: ip,4 Laura) was indicative of the PEeSSUres thay daoring the eacly pact of the nineteenth he inescapable awareness that he could Florante at Laura (Florante 206 acted upon the Filipino man of lee ccentusy, On the one bat reach his audience main! literacy being limited up unt > Fpno love of a ee : a nl more recent pasyon, the figurative language was clearly Jb poetry of the Middle Ages. aaaeated the story of two lovers who are parted by the political ose Sate fil member of the royal household of Albania. Because We of Florante who has won Laura's hand, Adolfo seeks the death of Migrant after he seizes the throne of Albania, When Albania comes under the power of Adolf, Float is avay fighting in a wat, He is lured ino a trap by hia od is expoved to wild beasts in a forest outside the kingdom. On the verge ar eenin death, Florante is rescued by Aladin who has wandered into the forest. ‘Aladin is Persian, son of a wicked sultan who wants Aladin’s sweetheart for himself In another part of the forest, Laura is about to be ravished by Adolfo but is saved by Fleida, a Persian princess in the disguise of a warrior, who has been searching for her sweetheart who was banished by the sultan. The voices of the women are heard by the warriors and thete is a joyous reunion. News comes that Albania bas been liberated. Florante and Laura are proclaimed the new ‘and Aladin and Flerida submit themselves to Christian baptism. Langit (Vengeful Heaven) is the first of the celebrated soliloquies that make Flrante at Laura a rich source of ethical precepts many of which have entered the traditional lote of Filipinos. This passage is the well loved lamentation by Florante in which he bewals the ot that has befallen Albania in a recital of the effects of tyrannical rule often interpreted as Balagtas’ indictment of colonial oppression by Spain. Whether the political meaning #8 part of the original desga of the poem is a matter no longer susceptible to proot for neither Balagtas nor any of his contemporaries left records to help the mode! reader resolve the issue. The factis, however, the last half of the ninetecat® century, Jose Rizal and his generation were to read foreshadowings of nationalis™ in Balaptas’ poem: transmission of the poem from on generation of read another had allowed the growing disaffect#o” ra Sota to soles ‘ound the text until the poem was thought a curate reflection of the misery and outrage of a people refusing '@ eruthedb foreign oppresion. Thus thappenedhatby the time the Propagan® foverment was agitating the emerging Filipino intelligen grievances agunst colonial rule, Horan at Laura had, by 0 At the same lusions to Greek and Roman mythology, and rene after the extravagant rhetoric of Spa t would seem, .<° own condemnation of colonial abuses ken purely a8 poctty, Florante at Lawra unquestionably rowers above other vwosks written in Tagalog before it, Skill in manipulating the rich melliiucus opie of the Tagalog language and a deft hand in creating artful metaphors highly rized by lovers of traditional poetry ~ these put Balagtss ina class Py himself a5 All succeeding poets in the language were to be measured against \¢ appearance of modern etry in the twentieth century teas to come in the form of 2 revolt again as, The discovery of a text of Orosman at Zafira in 1974 does not only confirm femporaries but, above all, t found fuller and freer exp Florante at Laura was described as “the cause of ns happening 0 Orosman at Zafira suggests that Balagtas” litical ambition th: father and devotion to a parent fighting a war to hold on to power that had been usurped. "The second plots about Abdalap and Zelima. Abdalap abandons Zelima when he becomes enamoured with Zafira. Spurned by her loves, Zelima turns to unseat Abdalap. In the third plot, lady in Mahamud’s court, fall but remains steadfast in her loyalty to Zat Boulasem: ie ‘Although the Aomedya was traditionally about Christians and Moors, Balegtas he did in Floranfe at Laura, to tise above the theme of religious war. His real concern, it would appea, is with the clash of human motives when men and their women are caught up in the turmoils of social disorder. In Orosman af LurenenvarinersmNBH COLEMAN 4 dling the days of the revole against choosZafira, his concern engages him in the creation of character porteits that haye frenter depth and dencion than the conventions cardboard heroes and heres of the celebrated au, revealing a more mature attist than the one we know the Florante at Lawra. The verse a8 utterances by characters tossed about by pa and ambition as they move against a background of court intr Ugh sion, and sses in many places the grandeur of the poetry nt fact, the lines are mote sinewy and substantia, always equal wing us insights into the characters and the sirations in which the plot embroils them. Given all the conventions and the cramping limitations of the Aomedya as a popular dramatic form inthe nineteente century, Balagas had been able to crete an artistically intricate and absorbing study of power and passion. Prose by Filipinos did not make its appearance in print until the nineteenth though prose works by missionaries using the vernacular had been published since the early years of the conquest. Modesto de Castro was a nating priest who lived inthe fist half of the nineteenth century, notable for his sermong in Tagalog. His lasting contribution to the history of literature was the popular Sook of manners called Pagnilain ng Dalawung Binbin’ na si Urbana at Pain (Exchange of Letters between Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza, 1864). $4 Katunghalan 1a Bayon (On Public Off from the book that help us appreci prescriptions and proscr aly in the Tagalog regi in other regions as well where the work reached the People through translation. In literature, Urbana at Feliza was to establish the Stercorypes of popular characters who were to people Tagalog dramas and novels in the early years of the twentieth century: ‘The Growth of a Nationalist Consciousness. A royal dectee in 1863 opened new herizons to the emergent middle class when it provided for a complete educa em consisting of elementary, secondary and collegiate levels. From "re to come the writers who would go Bagongbanta did in the seventeenth ing the Spanish language for lteraty purposes. Pedro Paterno the eatly Filipino products of this system wet beyond what Tomas Pinpin and Fernando Century as Filipinos us rol when te Gomer, argon sad Zamora were caeeted in 187, but as hs Spanish wovld seve) he was acave tothe forces tat were bulding up in scythe amo for efor was net with toprension ht in en feowsed more istet clamor for change, Not Me Tong leuch Me Nov s abou the Youngman Tbe wh ia Eatope, comes home othe Pilppines is a sequel to Noli Me Tangere. A mysterious stranger named Simoun is bent on hastening the downfall ofthe cotonial ig the corruption of friars and civ through money on the one hand, and on the other, instigating an armed rebellion among the masses. Actually Simoun is Ibarra in disguise. He has come back to rescue Maria Clara from the convent in which she had sought vierual. entombment after the rumored death of Ibarra. As a novel, Bf Fillbusterisoo is even more loosely plotted than Nodi Me Tangere but its wealth of politica iusight makes it an interesting window into Rizal's mind, It is a bitter book, attesting to. LUTERATURE NDERSMNDHCULENSI—45,Rizal’s darkening vision of the P future. The final chapter of the nove view of revolution through charact and anguish are juxtaposed with Padre Flo ly moving conclusion. novels, was to leave a deep imprint 10's quietism and moral cere Pain tude ry growing around a saint. ideberg (To The Flowers of Heidelberg) and Uy, nl Farewell) represent two different modes ~ the first is conversation, sonorous and incantstory, achieving Adios ‘only hinting at the pain of the exile; the second 2 cumulative emotional impact by piling det climactic penultimate stanza Rizal we have a p: memorable because in dovetailing with his ‘The essay as literary form found a congenial time to develop during the st quarter of the nineteenth century. The Propagands \ded the impetus for its development ~ issues h espaper La So that would project the views of the movement was found reaction, to impede all retrogression, to hail and accept defend all progress...” It was in the pages of La Solidaridad that the essay became Philippine Spanish literature’s significant contribu Barrantes) by by Marcelo H. del Pil two leading propagandists. Sardonic and caustic humor Rizal as a weapon in his attack on the Spanish journalist whose writings on the Philippines were markedly anti-Filipino, and the essay is decided of the gente. Del Pilar’s essay is of an altogether different type, a coo! and dispassionate analysis of the issue of assimilation. in some of his Spanish duplo before he assumed the post of editor of La Salidanidad, The long poem Sagot ng Espanya sa Hibile * Pitpinas (The Response of Spain to the Pleas ofthe Philippines) was a companio#® piece to Hermenegild Philippines to ) plight of the Hibit ng Piipinas sa Inang Espanya (The Plea of the ayal of the #44 1¢ poems together being a ilippines under the “monastic supremacy” effe c Poe ia which the form of the folk game has been given patniove froma depo discourse in which the form of the Clk content became increasingly clear to hhe nineteenth century drew to a clost ia subscribing to the Propaganda that the campaign for ringing about desired changes in colonial po! % the language of the nationalist movement signaled more ‘was above all a shift in tactics. A new audience was ‘es rather than Spanish liberals and fellow ism had been abandoned and the Spanish to Tagalog # than a change of medium: .d - the Filipino masse ¢ reformis revolution had begun, “The Katipunan used the vernacular of Manila and surrounding proviness language. Consequently, Tagalog came to be associated with ‘rationalism, and the lterarure that was to be writen in it in the years to vould play up the nationalist cause. Katipunan supremo Andres Bonifact 1896) and Emilio Jacinto (1875-1899) used 1e masses. “Kafapusang Hibik ng Pulpina: (The organizing the of independence in Kawit, Cavite, brief though it was, gave Filipinos a feel of how it was to be in control of their fate. Soon enough, regionalism and Jater capitulationism began to undermine the solidarity of those in the leadership. When Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States the Philippine Republic was doomed. Apolinario Mabini was among those who tied through reason and passion to keep the Revolution going. But the Republic was up against a powerful imperialist countsy and the class interests af rich ‘middleclass Filipinos. Mabini was steadfast as a revolutionary at a time daring UsrEANTURELNDERSPAMIEH COLORIALIBN. 45of the American forces in Batangas, called for the surrender of the Fine revolutionary forces on the ground that it was the duty of an army faceq ™®® insuemountable odd to ay down its arms, Mabioi wrote back and when gq of his reply were read by Filipino soldiers, there was widespread approbayig™ St his staunch position s the generals remarks. Mabini’ letter partages the same rational air that informs his major work La Revolucion Filiping the Philippine Revolution, 1902), a quality that bespeaks the author's prodi intelligence and wisdom. Women a iterary atts doubles existed prior to the nineteenth cen It may be presumed without fear of contradiction that in precolonial time alongside the menfolk, women also invented riddles, proverbs, songs and tale! When the printing press was introduced by the Spaniards and with it the custog of appending a by-line t a lterary piece assign of ownership, mysteriously nop 2 single poem or essay ever got attubuted to a woman, Why? Researchers have fot yet come up with a definitive ceply. Pethaps writing for print carried with tg set of expectations that women, inthe social setting of the times, wete not given the opportunity to meet. The literary forms that Spanish colonial cultute bad introduced necessitated a certain amount of familiarity with rules of writing as these had been laid down in Spain and Europe, and the severely limited education made available to women did not give them access to such knowledge Nonetheless, wating by women, though this did not see print, was going on Urbana at Feliza, in which two sisters exchange letters on sundry topics that included the requisites of public office and proper decorum at the dinner table, suggests that the personal etter was widely cultivated as a form of expression by gion women. As researchers in women writing go deeper into the literary past, we ‘ought to be getting fine samples of the lever as a gente specially developed by women, Under the less constri ing socio-political atmosphere in the latter half of the nineteenth century, early literary pieces by women surfaced, all of them poems Three samples are by the Hokano poet Leona Florentino, whose opinions and married life departed from the moral and social expectations of the period. Oné Poem is by the Supremo’s wife Gregoria dz Jesus who addresses her deceased husband Andres Bonifacio, poignant in its recollection of details of her married past that had now become reminders of her bereavement. ‘The third beats the names of nine women, each one an allegorical pen-name, victims of the ravages of US. colonial rape. All these pieces, each in its 8 way, dramatize the constricted role of women in a society dominated in the publ sphere by male colonial officials and in the home by fathers and husbands. At the close of the nineteenth centary, the body of written Philippi lterature was in general largely religious, consisting of poems and homiletic #47 in Catholic pamphlets and newspapers. The greater bulk of seco} lated amon ited inthe otl tation and in manuscripts that ciated sm00g : 1s made up of poems, plays and songs on romas Eatlds Nevertheless Philippine Hteratare had become svate ashors friends This ken from medieval Spanish 1o have come of age during this period, in t ae Svs the product of a colonized people struggling against A The writings of the intelligentsia involved in the f the leaders of the Revolution of 1896 trace ‘The self-conscious literature that this ’ the ato wes wy be jos free power ie eranda Movement and ie, ret retace of the Flping peo om ane oogh forth mar the begining of «uly Flip NOTES Metres, RUT, aly sath, 18) p12 Lumbera, Bienvenido. Tagalog Poetty, 1570-1898: Tradition and Influences in its: Development. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1986. Schumacher, Joba N. The Propagands Movement: 1880-1895, Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1973. Lunmurureunnckimen coun | 47