Chapter Seven

Cultural Changes and Identity(1600 – 1800)

Spanish Influences

• clothing• cooking• eating habits• forms of amusements• Spanish

words• Christianity

Change in Filipino Names

Before the coming of Spaniards, Filipinos had no surnames. Their names was taken from their physical appearance or from any natural event or object.

Governor-General Narciso Claveria issued a decree in 1849 allowing the Filipinos to change their names.

Intermarriage

The Spaniards as a rule did not intermarry wit Filipinos. There were, of course, exceptions and these exceptions led to limited intermarriages between Spanish men and Filipino women. There were very few recorded marriages between a Filipino male and a Spanish female. The child of the marriage of a Filipino and a Spaniard was called Spanish mestizo.

Mestiza de Sangley – used to refer to children of a male Chinese and a native woman.

Indios or Indias – called to those who belonged to the pure indigenous stock.

Social LifeThe social life in any Christian community during the Spanish times revolved around the church because the friar-curate was all-powerful person in the whole community.

Church was the municipal building called Tribunal (court of justice).

The fiesta was always in honor of the town patron saints. Religious societies were very active in the preparation for the fiesta and other religious event.

Social Life

Moro-moro – a musical stage play on the conflict between Christians and Muslims, and their resolution; romantic and humorous.Comedia – another name for moro-moro

Zarzuela – classic, romantic musical play on ordinary life, enriched wit lessons; later with socio-political themes.

Amusement

Cockfighting – was the principal form of entertainment of the Filipino men.

Feodor Jagor – a German scientist, Filipino used cockfighting as amusement and as a form of gambling.

Pigafetta – the chronicler of the Magellan’s expedition, saw a men engaged in cockfighting.

Changes in Clothing

The barong, or what is popularly called today barong Tagalog, began to be worn at this time by the ordinary menfolk.

Putong – the indigenous counterpart for male head gear or hat, consisting of a cloth wrapped on one’s head or a round or rectangular shaped hat.The women, in the other hand, still wore their skirt or saya, the tapis, and the patadyong. They learned to wear a camisa in a Spanish way.

The Antillean Houses

This was either a rectangular or square house made of strong materials such as first class wood like narra, ipil and molave. The roof was made of eiter nipa or tiles. At the back of the house was the azotea.

Position of a Women

• Their rights over property which they enjoyed during pre-Spanish times were curtailed.

• They could not sell the property they inherited from their parents before their marriage w/o the consent of their husbands.

• They should be very obedient to their husbands.• The friars taught them to prepare themselves for marriage, which

was thought to be the only function of women.• They were taught prayers and how to behave in public.• They were not, however, taught how to be independent, how to

help their husbands in earning more for the family, how to work in order to earn when their husbands were sick or away and they were not how to think for themselves.

A Common Religion

The Spaniards introduced Catholicism to the Filipinos, who, contrary to earlier views, did not readily accept the new religion. In fact, many of the earliest resistances or uprisings were due to the desire of the people to return to the religion of their ancestors before Spanish colonization.

Geographical Identity

When the Spaniards came, they organized a central government through the plaza complex. A central authority ruled the whole country, except the non-Christian areas. The Christianized Filipinos, who constituted the great majority of the people in the lowlands, recognized this central authority and followed the laws promulgated either by the Government of the Spain or by the governor-general. The same laws were followed in all Christianized areas because there was already geographical unity in the colony under the Spanish empire.

The Influence of the Spanish Language

While it is true that the Spanish administrators, including the friars-curates, did not teach the Spanish language to the Filipino, nevertheless, many Filipinos who had contacts with the Spaniards learned the language.Such contacts led to adoptions of Spanish words among many Filipino languages.

Printing and Engraving

The Dominican missionaries introduced printing by woodblocks when they published the first books in the Philippines, the Doctrina Christiana, one in Tagalog and one in Chinese. Later, printing by typography was introduced. Filipino and Christianized Chinese aided the Spanish friars in their printing work.

Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay – a Filipino printer and a good engraver. He engraved a map prepared by a Jesuit.

Tomas Pinpin – “Prince of Filipino Printers”

Domingo Loag – also a printer and an engraver. He printed many religious and dictionaries.

Education

During the early period of Spanish rule, education was not available to the majority of the Filipinos. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century, primary and secondary schools were opened to Filipino school-age children.

Science courses were not taught as they should be.

They were not allowed to study to become a lawyers, chemist, pharmacists and the like

Impact of Cultural ChangesNaming the islands after King Philip II as “Felipinas”, later becoming Filipinas.

Christianity may have deepened and enriched the indigenous spirituality or faith of the people, but its colorful processions, fiestas and pilgrimages rendered them generally oblivious, if not passive, to the difficult and worsening economic and political conditions around them.Clothes, shoes, houses, among others, may have advance in style and comfort, and may have been a delight in sight, especially as the Spanish and the Filipino styles produce a beautiful mix.

Intermarriage between a male Spaniards and a native women produced te mestisaje among the population whose looks, languages, values and ways of the colonizers, further widened the gap between the Indios and the non-Indios.

Education which was limited to a few, was conservative in orientation and kept the majority ignorant for a long time.

End of Chapter 2