Quotations

from the

Correspondence of Rizal

In the letter to Blumentritt, dated 28 November 1886 written from his residence at Jaegerstrasse 71, Berlin, Rizal spoke about problems in the study of the geography of Filipinas and the ethnography of its various peoples, as well as problems in translation of works in foreign languanges. Interestingly, Rizal also made a study of the Tiruray, an animist tribe who lives mainly in northern Cotabato in Mindanao. The quotation above is found in the third paragraph--

I have translated it in order to use some of your important data in a little school geography that I am planning to publish should I have an opportunity to do so. Moreover, it seems to me important that the Filipinos should know that foreigners take more interest in the study of their country then they themselves do. I also believe that it will be a good explanatory work (Appendix) on the Malayans. Several of your works have already been translated into Spanish. It is to be desired that they be published together in one volume and that this volume be translated into Spanish. The number of Filipinos who speak German is very small and they are mostly merchants. I compared your map with mine (Coello) and I found still more differences than those you mentioned in your interesting article; e.g. I did not find in yours the great lake of Mindanao.

 

cdvictory21@yahoo.com wrote

That may have been true back in 1886 - how many think it is still true
today?

Some points to ponder on:

1) Some years ago I read that only two buildings remain from Manila's historical past - the Met (Metropolitan Theatre) and the Jai Alai building on Taft Avenue. Both buildings were set for demolition. It would have gone through without much adoo except that a couple of foreigners objected (I think they were Americans). They thought that it would be a shame for Filipinos to lose such links to their past as these two buildings. I believe they managed to get a stay on the demolition of these would-be historical landmarks.

What do we Filipinos (or should I say Tagalogs) care about a couple of old delapidated buildings? Sadly, not much.

2) We have a great shining comet in Jose Rizal. Blumentritt described one that comes around only once or twice in a hundred years (it has been over 100 years since 30 Dec. 1896, has there been a similar "comet" since JPR?). Yet who forms this RP-Rizal group for modern Filipinos to get some benefit from Rizal's life & writings (other than sufficiently knowing that he was a genius and bravely faced his executioners at Bagumbayan field) - another Malayan Dr. Yoder?!!!
Hardly, huh?

bobmanasan@hotmail.com wrote

I agree with Rizal's assessment of filipinos during his time and I would dare say that it probably still holds true today. I am not a historian but i am wondering how easy it is to find books written by Filipino historians regarding the administration of all the Filipino presidents since the time of the transfer of power from the Americans to the Filipinos on july 4, 1946, i.e., the laws they signed and the laws they vetoed, the most pressing problems they faced during their administrations, their responses to it, etc. I am also wondering how easy it would be for an amateur historian to find and have access to the presidential papers of each president, their correspondence, the documents they signed, their memos to staff, their daily schedules, etc.

Are there any historian members the RP-Rizal forum who can give us an insight on how the RP government archives and makes accessible to the general public their historical documents? How easy would it be for a historian to access primary Philippine documents post 7/4/46? Prior to that date I understand that the US archives and the US Library of Congress would have kept the Philippine documents of the period.

Please try to find out what documents are available at the philippine national archives by going to their website at The Philippine National Archives and compare it with documents available at the US National Archives and, can anyone explain why the library of Professor H. Otley Beyer, the preeminent Philippine ethnologist, is in the National Library of Australia? Was it bought from the RP government or willed by Dr. Beyer? In 1972 the National Library acquired the library of Professor H. Otley Beyer (1883-1966), the leading Philippines ethnologist of his day. The collection is rich in Philippine and other Asian imprints, and also includes a number of significant titles on American colonial and foreign policies.

A substantial part of the large manuscript component of the collection, the 200 typed volumes of ethnographic information compiled by Beyer and other informants between 1906 and 1918, which was his major life achievement has been published by the Library in microfiche form. The Library holds the carbon copies of these volumes; the originals were destroyed during the street fighting in Manila in 1945 as the Japanese occupiers of the Philippines retreated. The collection is also strong in photographs of Philippines tribal life. A collection of correspondence between Beyer and others working in his field is also held. The manuscript component can be viewed at Papers of Henry Otley Beyer MS 4877

Some rare items of Filipiniana are present, including works by Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes, Pardo de Tavera and Pedro Alejandrino Paterno. Has any Filipino historian documented the works of Rizal that were in Dr. Beyer's collection, now in the national library of australia? for the sake of posterity, the rare filipiniana items have a better chance of surviving time and nature's elements where they are now, than if they were kept in Manila. I can understand it if Dr. Beyer or his surviving family members thought so too. It should be important for us to realize that Dr. Beyer, an American, took more interest in the study of our country than we ourselves did. It is also worth noting that Dr. Robert Yoder has taken more interest in the presentation of Rizal's life and work to the whole world via his own rizal website than most of us have.

Rizal's view is still valid.

 

valkyrie47no@yahoo.com wrote

In the same letter to Blumentritt (28 November 1886) Rizal indicated the importance of knowing the language and the ethnography of a people that one is studying, which in most cases require primary materials and in situ research. This kind of study is expensive, not only in terms of material resources but also in what one has to give up.

As Rizal had noted, foreigners had taken more interest in the study of the Philippines and it is the foreign scholars who had done the spade work and written definitive studies. F.L. Wernstedt & J.E. Spencer wrote The Philippine Island World, A Physical, Cultural and Regional Geography, still the most thorough and detailed book on the subject. James Francis Warren wrote The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State, still the best. and perhaps only, book that explains the piracy in the Sulu seas. In the same book, Warren provided the clear distinctions of what where collectively called "Moro" as consisting of the Iranun, the Balangingi, Taosug, etc. William Henry Scott authored 15 books on Philippine history and is said to have marked "true discovery of the Igorots -- not by the Spanish conquistadores nor by the slangy American occupiers who followed them, but by the Filipinos. Indeed, it marked a self-discovery of the Igorots by the Igorots themselves." Stuart Schlegel is the recognized authority on the Tiruray while Frank Laubach, one of the higlhly respected experts on the Muslims of Lanao, wrote Rizal, the Man and the Martyr.

While there are Filipino scholars who have continued the work of their foreign counterparts, there are not nearly enough of them. Some of the best known are Cesar Adib Majul who wrote on the Sulu Sultanate, Mamitua Saber who wrote on the Maranao, Eric Casiño who wrote on the Jama Mapun (found mainly in the island of Cagayan de Sulu), E. Arsenio Manuel who wrote on the Manuvu, and Jose Maceda, renowned ethnomusicologist. All of these scholars spent countless months and years in their research area, and it was not easy for those who were based in Manila, used as they are to the comforts and amenities of the big city. In a lunch with E. Arsenio Manuel, we were told of how he lived among the Manuvu. He was sharing a meal that included a meat and vegetable soup and he nearly lost his composure when he dipped into the soup bowl and fished out what he thought was the hand of a baby. To his credit, he did not get up from thet able to throw up. Later, he found out that it was a monkey's paw.

Research is expensive but that is hardly an excuse for Filipinos to copy one another instead of digging up primary materials. Ian James Andres is one young man who could very well be one of what Rizal called "the youth, hope of the fatheland". As a young boy who loved kundiman, he was teased by his friends who told him, "kundiman, pang-matanda lang 'yan". Ian merely ignored them and continued buying and collecting records and music sheets of traditional kundiman. He tirelessly hunted for old records and original music sheets of the kundiman, harana, balitaw and kumintang in Recto Avenue and Evangelista streets, even when he was often told, "ano ba yang mga pinagbibibili mo, nag-aaksaya ka lang ng pera mo sa mga plakang yan!" Today he works as a medic-company nurse at tge National Engineering Services and Marketing in Jubail in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. Ian James Andres is one OFW whose idea of resting from work is transcribing original kundiman music sheets into midi, and putting together research materials on the kundiman and its composers. Ian does not have the academic training nor the material resources to pursue his passion, but he goes on with a single-mindedness that is rare among young Filipinos of his age.

Rizal made this observation more than a hundred years ago, but there is little or no indication that the Filipino has shown more interest in his country than foreign scholars have done.

 

 

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