Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Pre-colonial Heritage (original) (raw)

"The Philippines: A Past Revisited from the Spanish Colonization to the Second World War"

2021

The "The Philippines: A Past Revisited from the Spanish Colonization to the Second World War" is a book written by Renato Constantino published in year 1975 to discuss and open his thoughts and ideas during the Spanish and American colonization in the Philippines. We all know that the Philippines was colonized by the said countries, and he is the one of many people who introduced a different perspective on what really happened during those times. He is a well-known Filipino historian and part of a leftist tradition of the Philippine historiography. In his book, he exposed a lot of things, traditions, and ways that the Filipinos are not able to have within their own identity and ways. He inducted that we should establish a foundation in which we understand what really happened in the past and how it affects our lives in this present time. We need to revisit our past and focus on the things on what the Filipinos should learn and give identity for themselves. The book itself has 18 chapters, in which every chapter has its own subject and topic. We can explore each chapter and extract each point presented in them. Let us revisit the past and know what truly happened in the colonial period and see if there is a connection and relevance on what happened in the things that is written in the books that reflects our history and with the lives of the Filipinos today. Let us start in the first chapter where it talks about the people's history, in which it must be refined that fits in the views of the Filipinos. Our history is very dependent on our colonizers back then. They run the tempo of our lives and even chose the path of our history and how it should be absorbed by the Filipinos. In short, we are not free to learn our own history and it points towards the history that our colonizers want us to have. But many Filipino historians have their own way of successfully align our history to have a perspective in a Filipino sense. The problem is with in the Filipinos themselves. They are not ready to accept their own history or even build and manifest with their experiences during colonial period. We should have a better understanding regarding on what truly happened in the past. And with this, we can relive and revisit the history of our country.

A Critique Paper on Renato Constantino's "The Philippines: A Past Revisited" Jam A. Ritual BSTMOUMN 1-C Readings in Philippine History

2022

History is essential for comprehending past events and planning a brighter life for everybody. It helps individuals to obtain vital insights and viewpoints on modern society's current concerns. Many textbooks represent the Philippines as having a rich and colorful past, with our forefathers' fighting wars with Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese conquerors in order to gain independence. Even so, the Filipinos' documented and known historical past is insufficient and not enough to properly comprehend how a sequence of events profoundly influenced the way we live now. With all this material, it appears that the expression "tip of the iceberg" accurately describes Philippine history as recorded in certain texts. There is far more to the efforts, pains, and manipulations that Filipinos must endure in order to achieve true economic and intellectual freedom. The author of the book, The Philippines: A Past Revisited is written by Renato Constantino. He was a Filipino historian and academic who taught us to investigate, correct, and learn from our colonial history. He desired for Filipino to have a helpful remembrance of a history that would help them in their search for true nationhood. He was be recognized as one of the most prominent Filipino authors of the twentieth century, influencing numerous generations of Filipinos through his pamphlets, essays, and novels. On the other hand, The Philippines: A Past Revisited, a book by Renato Constantino, was released in 1975. This work primarily serves as Constantino's endeavor to widen and enlarge the knowledge of the Filipinos in Philippine history. It critically evaluates Philippine history from early colonial era through the end of World War II, providing thorough information on conquerors' manipulation, struggles, and persecution of the Filipino people. This work was an eye-opener as well as an honest work of literature; its clarity and directness allow readers to comprehend his views in a clear and understandable manner. Constantino's work includes extensive and plain historical details of Americans and Spaniards' arguments throughout colonialism. In their quest for true independence, the Philippines developed awareness, animosity, and hostility against these countries.

"THE PHILIPPINES: A PAST REVISITED" From the Spanish Colonization to the Second War

Academia.edu, 2022

Resonated in this paper was Renato Constantino’s prominent book authored in 1974, that was published in 1975, entitled, “The Philippines: A Past Revisited”, this book was one of his prompts to correct and re-angle another perspective on how citizens in the Philippines should address themselves as Filipinos. He wanted to make the past reusable for the present so that his interpretations can be kindled to ignite the true definition of history to his own countrymen—so that they can embark on the true freedom its ancestors fought for (Constantino,1975). Paired with the same momentum, this paper will also critique and reflect on such masterpiece he wrote, which was divided into four parts, namely, Liberation Transformed, The Crucible of Practice, Unity and Disunity, and Prologue, wherein it covered the start of Pre-colonial set-up until the disastrous world war II. These parts were well discussed in the eighteen chapters of the book which will enlighten its readers about the anonymous mass that sacrificed their lives in order to achieve the true glory of independence of our nation from its colonizers. Overall, to understand our history itself, we not should be a foreigner to our own land. Our national anthem once said, “Alab ng puso sa dibdib mo'y buhay, Lupang Hinirang, duyan ka ng magiting, Sa manlulupig, di ka pasisiil”, are we still igniting the flames of a true Filipino spirit?, do we still stand the same ground as our Filipino ancestors who fought for greater freedom? is liberty really at the palm of our nation’s hand?. Our history reflects us as citizens, yet in a developing country, the key to understanding it better is to know who we truly are and what made us ¬–‘us’ as a nation.

The Philippines: A Past Revisited (Critique Paper) by Seus Piolo G. Mesina

2021

The Philippines: A Past revisited was a book written by a Philippine historian named Renato Constantino. The book tackles the oppression of the Filipinos from being colonized by the Spaniards in the early years dating way back to 1565 and after the Spaniards lost to the Americans, the Americans take over the Philippines and the struggle of being a Filipino because of the different stereotypes that was told by the Spaniards and Americans about Filipinos. This book serves to reeducate the people about the misleading information that the other historians are telling and to serve as being unbiased to everything that happens in the past. The book serves a deflection of biased ideologies of the Filipinos that is based of colonial ideas. It allows Filipinos to reexamine the past historical facts of the Philippine history that most of it was being written by its colonizers. Renato Constantino wants to reeducate us about the misconceptions that the other historians have told the people from way back because it was kind of biased in their part and that is what Renato Constantino wants to change. He wants us to look at a new perspective of what truly happened on those times. He wants to re write the Philippine history with more accurate and unbiased information and to debunk those biased Spanish-American colonial teachings that were taught to Filipino scholars. He wants to correct the wrong concepts and information that has been imprinted on every history book and, he wants to show to the Filipinos what is really our identity. Rewriting the Philippine history in the perspective of the Filipino was a huge step of enlightening the people and uncovering the truth about the things that happened during the colonial period. We were once under the oppression of the Spaniards and the Americans which both viewed the Philippine history with their own thoughts and biased teachings. And those misconceptions lead to the Filipino historians the need to rewrite the Philippine history with a more accurate facts and without that biased misleading information about the Filipinos. Upon learning the truth, they unraveled the truth and highlighted the abuse of the Spaniards. In the first chapter of the book, it discusses how Filipino historians are being captive of the Spanish and American historiography. They are forced to view the history with the Spanish and American perspective. And through it, comes to a point where Filipino historians feels the need to change the Philippine history and should be seen in a Filipino perspective. And by doing so, a very important thing has change to the course of our history. Something has changed and feels like something is finally right.

The Philippines: The Past Revisited by Renato Constantino

A Critique Paper of The Philippines: The Past Revisited by Renato Constantino, 2021

Colonial scholars ruled by the perspective of the foreign have been dissected and is still being dissected from the viewpoint of the Filipinos who were "liberated" by the foreigners, attempting to remove and clear all the bias and maintain objectiveness as to what really had happened in the Philippine history beginning with the conquest of the Spanish. It is an attempt to analyze given documents to further pursue a Filipino's perspective while maintaining its objective aspect and prerogative to a Filipino experience.