Readings in Philippine History Lecture 2: Towards a People's History (August 2018) PDF

DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Readings in Philippine History Lecture 2: Towards a People’s History by Renato Constantino August 2018  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Learning Goals ▪ Who is Renato Constantino? ▪ What is history according to h...

DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Readings in Philippine History Lecture 2: Towards a People’s History by Renato Constantino August 2018  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Learning Goals ▪ Who is Renato Constantino? ▪ What is history according to him? ▪ What do we mean by “people’s history” and what is its significance?  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Who is Renato Constantino? Born: March 10, 1919 in Manila Died: September 15, 1999 in Quezon City Education & early career: UP Diliman During WW2 ---fought in Bataan; journalist Executive secretary of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations (1946-1949) Counselor for DFA (1949-1951) Academic Career: Professor (UP Diliman & Manila, FEU, Adamson Univ., Arellano University Visiting lecturer abroad  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Who is Renato Constantino? Works: The Miseducation of the Filipino (1959) Excerpts from the Speeches of Claro M. Recto (1965) Veneration Without Understanding (1969) The making of a Filipino: A story of Philippine colonial politics (1969) Dissent and Counter-consciousness (1980) The Philippines: A Past Revisited (1975) Philippines: A Continuing Past (1978) History Myths and Reality (1992)  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University What is history according to him? Towards a people’s history  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Colonial Scholarship Filipino historians: Trained as captives of Spanish and American historiography Wrote Philippine history from the lens of past colonizers The need to rewrite Philippine History from the point of view of Filipinos There were scholars who tried but they failed  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Task at Hand Task: to advance the writing of a truly Filipino History Main focus: must be on the anonymous masses of individuals and social forces generated by their collective lives and struggles History is the story of man the collective, not the story of man the individual (associated man) “Without society there can be no history and there are no societies without men” “Struggle as the essence of life” Human society: the cause and result of people in motion and in constant struggle to realize the human potential Human being: the only species with unlimited possibilities for development  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Motivators of History Mass of human beings: the motivators of change and of history The common people possess the capacity to make history Historic struggles: provide the people with lessons in their upward march and give form and strength to the constantly changing society What has hitherto regarded as history is predominantly a conscious record of the rich and powerful… not necessarily just and correct DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University “History is the recorded struggle of people for ever increasing freedom and for newer and higher realizations of the human person.” ---Renato Constantino  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Inarticulate in History The individuals who made history colorful could not have made history without the people The advances of society, the advent of civilization, the great artistic works were all inspired and made by the people who were the mainspring of activity and the producers of wealth of societies The inarticulate as individuals cannot have their deeds recorded in history. However, their collective effort can and should be chronicled and given its deserved importance  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Inarticulate in History All powerful leaders, and especially tyrants, exerted efforts to insure that the history would be written in their image It is only within the context of a people’s history that individuals, events, and institutions can be correctly appraised It is the people who make or unmake heroes---ultimate judge of an individual’s role in history A people’s history can serve as a concrete guide for understanding a developing society  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Redressing the Imbalance New approaches and new techniques in viewing events and writing history is a reaction to the official histories used to justify the backward conditions of their colonies When intellectual decolonization shall have been accomplished, a historical account can be produced which will present a fuller, more balanced picture of reality  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Limitations and a Beginning To obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the activities of the masses in each period of our history will be an arduous task The immediate concern of the times is for a work that can present in a practical way The need for a real people’s history becomes a more urgent we Filipinos search for truly Filipino solutions to Filipino problems  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Rediscovering the Past A people’s history must rediscover the past in order to make it reusable o History can serve as a guide to present and succeeding generations in the continuing struggle for change o It must deal with the past with a view to explaining the present o It must be not only descriptive but analytical o It must not deal only with objective developments but also bring the discussion to the realm of value judgments o In our particular case, history should show how a nation was born o A history that serves as a guide to the people in perceiving reality is itself a liberating factor  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Unifying Thread The ideas of the dominant classes predominates at any given period but they are not the only ones that exist. Dissenting ideas emerged to coexist with the dominant ones and come into confrontation with them Economic struggles are often fought as political and intellectual battles The various revolts that broke out in the Philippines constitute practice which changed not only the circumstances but man himself These struggles were the schools of the masses: their quantitative occurrence as localized or regional actions led to a qualitative change: the birth of a nation  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Motive Force The rich tradition of struggle has become a motive force of Philippine history Participation in mass actions ---raises the level of consciousness of the masses The more active they are the more they become active and the more telling their contribution to the changing of society and the changing of their own attitudes Struggle is the people’s historic right and it alone can make them free  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University The Motive Force The only way a history of the Philippines can be Filipino is to write the basis of the struggles of the people, for in these struggles the Filipino emerged The Filipino resistance to colonial oppression is the unifying thread of Philippine history  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University “Renato Constantino has expounded on the pernicious role that the official view of the Filipino past inculcated by colonial historiography and the American educational system has had in disfiguring in the minds of Filipinos the true story of their past.” --- John Schumacher, SJ  DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University Reference: Constantino, R. (1975). The Philippines: A Past Revisited. Vol. 1. Manila, Philippines. pp. 3-11 DPSS-STELA, Saint Louis University