WHO IS FILIPINO? (4)
16. WHO IS ‘INDIO’ VIS-À-VIS THE FILIPINO NATIONAL IDEAL?
It is modern historian Ambeth Ocampo who has perhaps given the most accurate definition of the ‘Indio”.
We already said that for the Spanish official records, “indio’ means native or aborigine of these Islands. But Ambeth Ocampo in his essay “1896 Philippines: Racial context of the revolution” writes:
“…the historical memory has to be stretched back to 1492, when Christopher Columbus mistook America for India and labeled the red-skinned inhabitants of the so-called New Word, “indios’. From then, the term “indio” became generic for “natives” of succeeding Spanish colonies. x x x x … When the archipelago was renamed Felipenas, and later made more euphonic, Filipinas, in honor of the future Philip II, the “indios” were not renamed “Filipinos” or “Filipinas” …. (Pp. 101, 102).
Let us note that it was still the Spanish that gave a “generic” name to all the natives of these Islands with the name “indio”. It appears that the said natives could not even give themselves a “generic name”, because of their lamentable disunity, that would attest to their so-called “Austronesian national unity” before 1571.
(In the case of the also dis-united “Moros”, it was also the Spanish that gave them their generic name of “moro” which they use up to the present time. This just proves that the name “Bangsamoro” is pure fiction and has no historical basis, nor right, whatsoever. It is part of their culture of piracy and plunder with the Filipino tax money as the target for the sustenance of even their so-called proposed “sub-state” called with a half-Spanish name like “Bangsamoro”. Pirates that they are, they even want the Filipinos to finance their “independenct Bangsamoro” because they can not even support themselves with an honest and functional economic system. )
It is true that the appellation indio became, for a time, derisive and pejorative. While the Spanish government in the islands effectively used the word indio to mean “native” or “aboriginal” in official documents like partidas de bautismo, certificados de matrimonio, actas de defunción, etc. some Spanish, Chino Christiano and even Principalia ilustrados, who were bereft of any social conscience or Christian piety in favor of the downtrodden and the underdog, also made the appellation indio synonymous to ignorant; uneducated, (walang alám) uncouth, unproductive, (tamad) tax evader, (hampaslupa) social parasite, stupid, (‘tarandado) childish, dishonorable, (buhong) dishonest, domestic thief, social burdens, ill-mannered, (bastos) useless, unprincipled, (walang principio) hopeless, unworthy of trust, bums, (gago) uncivilized, etc., etc.
Of course, the indios also had a pejorative word for the Spaniards, the Spanish mestizos, and the entire clase ilustrada. They called them kastilà, a corruption of the Spanish Castilla, meaning “Castille.” They also had a generic name for the Chinos Cristianos, “insik”. To the indios, the ilustrados were “too demanding” (maciado), “arrogant” (matá pobre), “oppressive” (ualáng pusò), “strict” (estricto) and “hard to understand” (mahirap maintindihán).
However, it is also a fact that most indios did envy the social status and position of the ilustrados. To them, the life-style, language, graces, traditions, fashions, skills, science, culture, intellect, beauty and values of the ilustrados summed up what they considered their life’s ideal, an ideal to excel through education. As expected, the Spanish mestizo terciado beauty became the indio’s romantic, and even sexual, ideal. The indio hated the ilustrados, the Spanish criollos and the Parian Chinos Christian mestizos, because they could not have them for spouses. Those who had them for lovers were generally elated.
It was then, and could still be, a love-hate relationship. This attitude was accurately summarized in one of the songs of the famous zarzuela tagala of later years, “Ang Mestiza” who sings in Tagalog:
Acó ang mestiza, calaban/ ñgunit nais naman/ng lahat…
(I am the Spanish half-breed,/ the enemy, but also everybody’s /object of desire… BTW: This role was played by the reluctant Spanish mestiza actress-singer, Armida Ponce-Enrile-Siguion Reyna in the CCP main theatre during the Marcos Marshall Law.)
At this point in the history of the Philippines, the administration and love for the Spanish criolla, later mestiza, is still active, though subtly subdued. The majority of Philippine Cinema actors and actresses are mestizas, mestizas terciadas, and even pure criollas of Spanish ancestry. The mestizos, as a whole, love back their indio compatriots with the shameless heat of the proverbial “Spanish-Latin sensuality.”
As years went on, what was mistaken as a racist wedge between the criollos, mestizos, and the indios, has happily vanished through constant intermarriages or miscegenation, the result of which is the “beautiful people” of today’s troubled Republic of the Philippines.
Historian Ambeth Ocampo proposes, on the other hand, a distinct recognition of the “Indio-Sangley”. We respectfully disagree for the Sangley, by his very foreign provenance cannot be “an Indio”, a “native”, of these Islands. The Sangley per se is a Chinese traveling merchant, therefore a native of China who emigrated to this country because of the Galleon Trade of which he was a principal co-participant with the Spanish peninsulares for over 200 years. It is as simple as that. But upon Christianization and Hispanization, many of the Sangleyes became Chinos Cristianos, intermarried with native or Indio Filipinas and even Spanish women or Spanish criollas, settled in what was then called “Sector de Mestizos” or the Parianes which, in turn, made them Filipinos. Again, it is as simple as that. A study of the organization of the Parianes and their development both culturally (Hispanization, mestizaje) and economically, will give us the answer why those from the said Parianes became the full blooded Filipinos at par with the criollos.
But, again, due to the Americanization of even our Chinese emigrants, the precious Hispanic traditions of the Parian, now vulgarly called “China-town”, have also waned with the new denizens therein having a crisis of identity. A Filipino language taught from the start with a 32 letter Spanish sounded alphabet, instead of the English alphabet being rammed into the teaching of Tagalog Filipino, might give the new denizens of what we wrongly call “China-town” an initial notion of being Filipinos without losing their imported Chinese heritage.
17. THE RIZAL IDEAL IS THE MESTIZA TERCIADA IN MARIA CLARA AND THE SPANISH CRIOLLO CUARTERÓN IN CRISÓSTOMO IBARRA
Thus, as Rizal himself made María Clara “a sweet daughter of the Philippines” in spite of her being a mestiza terciada (Spanish, Chinese, Indiofrom the Binondo Parian), he also made of Crisóstomo Ibarra, a criollo/mestizo, as the proto-type Filipino rebel.
Next to the criollos, who were the first Filipinos, the mestizos terciados became the Filipinos. Filipinos in the racial or physical aspect of their presence. The Filipino with Spanish blood became the physical symbol of the FILIPINO IDEAL. Being physical in nature, it has happily spread toward the basic racial component of almost every native Filipino. In this sense, the physical sense, the ordinary Filipino of today has received, wittingly or unwittingly, his share of the physical aspect of what has always been his ideal, his paragon, his dream.
But what the ordinary Filipino of today has lost is his cultural and spiritual ideal, as well as the FILIPINO IDEAL which symbols are: Emilio Aguinaldo; Macario Adriático; Rosa Sevilla de Alvero; Cecilio Apóstol; Librada Avelino; Jesús Balmori; Manuel Bernabé; Andrés Bonifacio; Manuel C. Briones; Burgos; Carlos Cálao; Horacio de la Costa; Mariano Jesús Cuenco; José Ma. Delgado; Julián Felipe; Pedro Gil; Guillermo Gómez Windham; Fernando Ma. Guerrero; León Ma. Guerrero; José Hernández Gavira; Emilio Jacinto; Nicomdes Joaquín; Teodoro M. Kálaw; Arsenio Lacson; Graciano López Jaena; Margarita López; Apolinario Mabini; Enrique Magalona; José Palma; Rafael Palma; José Ma. Pañganiban; del Pilar; Elpidio Quirino; Claro M. Recto; Rizal; Pedro Sabido; Macario Sákay; Epifanio de los Santos; Felimon Sotto; Juan Sumúlong; Varela; Evangelina Guerrero de Zacarías; Flavio Zaragoza; Francisco Zaragoza; and so many other great Filipinos.
Hence, at this point in our national history, the FILIPINO is he/she who struggles, fights, and even dies, for the FILIPINO IDEAL that, according to the Preamble of the 1935 and 1973 Constitutions, is to be EMBODIED by the Philippine Government in all its functions and activities.
In recapitulation, in answer to WHO IS A FILIPINO?, the FILIPINO was, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the vassal of King Philip II (El Rey Felipe II) of Spain.
In the 18th century, the Filipino was the Spanish criollo.
By the end of this same century, the Filipino was the Spanish mestizo.
But with the advent of popular education in Spanish by the second half of the 19th century, the Filipino was the Christianized, Hispanized, and Spanish-speaking inhabitant of the Islas Filipinas regardless to whether he had indio or native blood, Chinese blood, or Spanish blood.
16. WHO IS ‘INDIO’ VIS-À-VIS THE FILIPINO NATIONAL IDEAL?
It is modern historian Ambeth Ocampo who has perhaps given the most accurate definition of the ‘Indio”.
We already said that for the Spanish official records, “indio’ means native or aborigine of these Islands. But Ambeth Ocampo in his essay “1896 Philippines: Racial context of the revolution” writes:
“…the historical memory has to be stretched back to 1492, when Christopher Columbus mistook America for India and labeled the red-skinned inhabitants of the so-called New Word, “indios’. From then, the term “indio” became generic for “natives” of succeeding Spanish colonies. x x x x … When the archipelago was renamed Felipenas, and later made more euphonic, Filipinas, in honor of the future Philip II, the “indios” were not renamed “Filipinos” or “Filipinas” …. (Pp. 101, 102).
Let us note that it was still the Spanish that gave a “generic” name to all the natives of these Islands with the name “indio”. It appears that the said natives could not even give themselves a “generic name”, because of their lamentable disunity, that would attest to their so-called “Austronesian national unity” before 1571.
(In the case of the also dis-united “Moros”, it was also the Spanish that gave them their generic name of “moro” which they use up to the present time. This just proves that the name “Bangsamoro” is pure fiction and has no historical basis, nor right, whatsoever. It is part of their culture of piracy and plunder with the Filipino tax money as the target for the sustenance of even their so-called proposed “sub-state” called with a half-Spanish name like “Bangsamoro”. Pirates that they are, they even want the Filipinos to finance their “independenct Bangsamoro” because they can not even support themselves with an honest and functional economic system. )
It is true that the appellation indio became, for a time, derisive and pejorative. While the Spanish government in the islands effectively used the word indio to mean “native” or “aboriginal” in official documents like partidas de bautismo, certificados de matrimonio, actas de defunción, etc. some Spanish, Chino Christiano and even Principalia ilustrados, who were bereft of any social conscience or Christian piety in favor of the downtrodden and the underdog, also made the appellation indio synonymous to ignorant; uneducated, (walang alám) uncouth, unproductive, (tamad) tax evader, (hampaslupa) social parasite, stupid, (‘tarandado) childish, dishonorable, (buhong) dishonest, domestic thief, social burdens, ill-mannered, (bastos) useless, unprincipled, (walang principio) hopeless, unworthy of trust, bums, (gago) uncivilized, etc., etc.
Of course, the indios also had a pejorative word for the Spaniards, the Spanish mestizos, and the entire clase ilustrada. They called them kastilà, a corruption of the Spanish Castilla, meaning “Castille.” They also had a generic name for the Chinos Cristianos, “insik”. To the indios, the ilustrados were “too demanding” (maciado), “arrogant” (matá pobre), “oppressive” (ualáng pusò), “strict” (estricto) and “hard to understand” (mahirap maintindihán).
However, it is also a fact that most indios did envy the social status and position of the ilustrados. To them, the life-style, language, graces, traditions, fashions, skills, science, culture, intellect, beauty and values of the ilustrados summed up what they considered their life’s ideal, an ideal to excel through education. As expected, the Spanish mestizo terciado beauty became the indio’s romantic, and even sexual, ideal. The indio hated the ilustrados, the Spanish criollos and the Parian Chinos Christian mestizos, because they could not have them for spouses. Those who had them for lovers were generally elated.
It was then, and could still be, a love-hate relationship. This attitude was accurately summarized in one of the songs of the famous zarzuela tagala of later years, “Ang Mestiza” who sings in Tagalog:
Acó ang mestiza, calaban/ ñgunit nais naman/ng lahat…
(I am the Spanish half-breed,/ the enemy, but also everybody’s /object of desire… BTW: This role was played by the reluctant Spanish mestiza actress-singer, Armida Ponce-Enrile-Siguion Reyna in the CCP main theatre during the Marcos Marshall Law.)
At this point in the history of the Philippines, the administration and love for the Spanish criolla, later mestiza, is still active, though subtly subdued. The majority of Philippine Cinema actors and actresses are mestizas, mestizas terciadas, and even pure criollas of Spanish ancestry. The mestizos, as a whole, love back their indio compatriots with the shameless heat of the proverbial “Spanish-Latin sensuality.”
As years went on, what was mistaken as a racist wedge between the criollos, mestizos, and the indios, has happily vanished through constant intermarriages or miscegenation, the result of which is the “beautiful people” of today’s troubled Republic of the Philippines.
Historian Ambeth Ocampo proposes, on the other hand, a distinct recognition of the “Indio-Sangley”. We respectfully disagree for the Sangley, by his very foreign provenance cannot be “an Indio”, a “native”, of these Islands. The Sangley per se is a Chinese traveling merchant, therefore a native of China who emigrated to this country because of the Galleon Trade of which he was a principal co-participant with the Spanish peninsulares for over 200 years. It is as simple as that. But upon Christianization and Hispanization, many of the Sangleyes became Chinos Cristianos, intermarried with native or Indio Filipinas and even Spanish women or Spanish criollas, settled in what was then called “Sector de Mestizos” or the Parianes which, in turn, made them Filipinos. Again, it is as simple as that. A study of the organization of the Parianes and their development both culturally (Hispanization, mestizaje) and economically, will give us the answer why those from the said Parianes became the full blooded Filipinos at par with the criollos.
But, again, due to the Americanization of even our Chinese emigrants, the precious Hispanic traditions of the Parian, now vulgarly called “China-town”, have also waned with the new denizens therein having a crisis of identity. A Filipino language taught from the start with a 32 letter Spanish sounded alphabet, instead of the English alphabet being rammed into the teaching of Tagalog Filipino, might give the new denizens of what we wrongly call “China-town” an initial notion of being Filipinos without losing their imported Chinese heritage.
17. THE RIZAL IDEAL IS THE MESTIZA TERCIADA IN MARIA CLARA AND THE SPANISH CRIOLLO CUARTERÓN IN CRISÓSTOMO IBARRA
Thus, as Rizal himself made María Clara “a sweet daughter of the Philippines” in spite of her being a mestiza terciada (Spanish, Chinese, Indiofrom the Binondo Parian), he also made of Crisóstomo Ibarra, a criollo/mestizo, as the proto-type Filipino rebel.
Next to the criollos, who were the first Filipinos, the mestizos terciados became the Filipinos. Filipinos in the racial or physical aspect of their presence. The Filipino with Spanish blood became the physical symbol of the FILIPINO IDEAL. Being physical in nature, it has happily spread toward the basic racial component of almost every native Filipino. In this sense, the physical sense, the ordinary Filipino of today has received, wittingly or unwittingly, his share of the physical aspect of what has always been his ideal, his paragon, his dream.
But what the ordinary Filipino of today has lost is his cultural and spiritual ideal, as well as the FILIPINO IDEAL which symbols are: Emilio Aguinaldo; Macario Adriático; Rosa Sevilla de Alvero; Cecilio Apóstol; Librada Avelino; Jesús Balmori; Manuel Bernabé; Andrés Bonifacio; Manuel C. Briones; Burgos; Carlos Cálao; Horacio de la Costa; Mariano Jesús Cuenco; José Ma. Delgado; Julián Felipe; Pedro Gil; Guillermo Gómez Windham; Fernando Ma. Guerrero; León Ma. Guerrero; José Hernández Gavira; Emilio Jacinto; Nicomdes Joaquín; Teodoro M. Kálaw; Arsenio Lacson; Graciano López Jaena; Margarita López; Apolinario Mabini; Enrique Magalona; José Palma; Rafael Palma; José Ma. Pañganiban; del Pilar; Elpidio Quirino; Claro M. Recto; Rizal; Pedro Sabido; Macario Sákay; Epifanio de los Santos; Felimon Sotto; Juan Sumúlong; Varela; Evangelina Guerrero de Zacarías; Flavio Zaragoza; Francisco Zaragoza; and so many other great Filipinos.
Hence, at this point in our national history, the FILIPINO is he/she who struggles, fights, and even dies, for the FILIPINO IDEAL that, according to the Preamble of the 1935 and 1973 Constitutions, is to be EMBODIED by the Philippine Government in all its functions and activities.
In recapitulation, in answer to WHO IS A FILIPINO?, the FILIPINO was, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the vassal of King Philip II (El Rey Felipe II) of Spain.
In the 18th century, the Filipino was the Spanish criollo.
By the end of this same century, the Filipino was the Spanish mestizo.
But with the advent of popular education in Spanish by the second half of the 19th century, the Filipino was the Christianized, Hispanized, and Spanish-speaking inhabitant of the Islas Filipinas regardless to whether he had indio or native blood, Chinese blood, or Spanish blood.
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