Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
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Loreto G. Camiloza
Abstract
Filipino nationalism confuses Filipinos. It either leads the Filipino into a
deeper reflection on his/her human identity or leads him/her into an empty silence. It
seems it is no longer relevant to talk about nationalism as the spirit and the power of
globalization thrives and affects the whole life of the Filipino including his/her
consciousness. Nationalism is not clearly defined in the consciousness of the
common people. Even some people in the academe consider it as a shadow of the
past. Thus, it is no longer the main concern of Filipinos today.
The Filipino nation before was archipelagic. It was not a nation at all. Each
island or community had its government and leader (chieftain, sultan) independent
from other communities. Moreover, island had its language/s (dialects). However,
people in these different communities shared a common if not the same culture,
traditions, and beliefs. They engaged in various forms of commerce and trade,
native agriculture, fishing, or handicraft, etc. Nonetheless, the colonizers with
Christian teachings transformed the hundreds of islands into one nation; a nation
subjected to the foreign decrees and caprices. Sovereignty was not a tenet that
questioned manipulation and injustices to the natives by the colonizers.
In such a context, Filipinos realized that they are Filipinos. ―We became
Filipinos only through colonial exploitation – we became Filipinos because we learn
to protest, to resist, and to fight, to hand together in fear and in hate of the brutal
conqueror‖ (http://www.manilatimes.net). This was a seed to nationalism, to national
Filipino identity.
In the course of Philippine history, the evolution of the Filipino nation is the
foundation of the rise of Filipino nationalism. Nonetheless, we cannot conceive
nationalism as neither construction of certain groups, nor certain persons,
particularly that of the elite groups. Otherwise, we can never call it Filipino
nationalism. To elucidate further Filipino nationalism, Benedict Anderson provides
key concepts for analysis, which we can find in his, book Imagined Communities.
Moreover, Anderson (1983) asserts that nations and nationalism are modern
artifacts. We need to discover and elucidate them in a concrete context, e.g. of the
Filipino people. Nation, as the locus of nationalism, is difficult to deal with if we
conceive it as pathology of modern developmental history. Anderson suggests that, it
would make things easier if one treated it as if it belonged with ‗kingship‘ and
religion, rather than with ‗liberalism‘ or ‗fascism‘. Filipino nation as the contextual
matrix of Filipino nationalism ―is an imagined political community—and imagined as
both inherently limited and sovereign‖ (Anderson, 1983, pp. 5-6).
Death, therefore does not lead the Filipino nation into the threshold of
oblivion. The collective memories and solidarity that are inherent in the collective
unconscious of Filipinos, urge the Filipinos to confront and overcome the threat of
national emptiness. Nationalism considers suffering and death necessary aspects
for the Filipino nation to undergo the process of transformation of fatality into
continuity, contingency into meaning (Anderson, 1983, pp. 11-12). This unfolds
because Filipino nation looms out of an immemorial past and leads into a limitless
future. It is the power of nationalism to turn chance into destiny, national identity and
progress.
These printed materials link together unrelated events worldwide, and when
locally transported connect diverse events in the Filipino nation. This was unfolded in
two ways: first, by substituting them under a calendar date; and second, by ensuring
that they are simultaneously read at specific time by Filipino people. Specifically, the
publication of newspapers and disseminations pressured the Filipino nation as
imagine community. And in the course of time these printed materials aids to create
the remarkable confidence of the nation in anonymity, which is the hallmark of the
Filipino nation (Anderson, 1983).
The occurrence of such situation was aided by three factors. First, the sacred
tongue, Latin, became remote from everyday life and the masses. Second,
Protestantism influenced and exploited the vernacular market in order to reach the
ordinary people in its war against the authority of the Pope and monarch. It means
that the print-capitalism aided the spread of Protestantism. Moreover, Protestantism
brought familiarity with the Bible to Filipino people, particularly the masses. This
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atmosphere generated the wider understanding and literacy of local vernacular.
Even the interpretation of the Bible was locally contextualized. Third, in a localized
context there was an urge to make one of the local languages as an official channel
of administration and political centralization. And this vernacular language circulated
by means of mass print-circulation (Anderson, 1983). It challenged the dominant
language (e.g., Latin), its sacred script community and its relevance to the ordinary
lives of the people. Consequently, Filipino people became aware of the meaning of
freedom. They began to be responsive of the coming of liberal ideas. In addition,
The evolution of Filipino nation and the rise of Filipino nationalism are
unfolded not only through one and single factor alone. Their genesis lies also on the
interaction of these three factors. One comes to play with the other. What, in a
positive sense, made the new communities imaginable was a half fortuitous, but
explosive, interaction (Anderson,1983) between a system of production and
productive relations (capitalism, a technology of communications (print) and the
totality of human linguistic diversity.
This means that the element of fatality of both death and diversity of
languages, capitalism and technology of communication set a condition for the
emergence of Filipino nation and Filipino nationalism. Capitalism played an
important and determining role in the foundation of print-language, e.g. Filipino
language.
We are not called upon at this moment to die for our country. We may
soon be but our immediate need is not to die but to think calmly,
clearly, patiently, to understand, in order that we may shape a foreign
and domestic policy that shall be to the public interest. This is what
nationalism must mean to us, as it meant fighting and dying to our
forefathers. (Constantino, 1989, pp. 85-86)
Conclusion
Filipino nationalism is not only a mere concept, but a reality that unites, and
directs the Filipino people towards self-determination, self-possession, and toward
the realization of national and self identity. Nonetheless, this endeavor is not limited
to a certain sector only or to a certain group only. Otherwise, it can never be called
Filipino nationalism. It means that its realization is always in the context of existential
communication, which leads to communion of meaning, values, dreams, and life
among Filipinos. This communion reaches its meaning when it becomes a
foundation of the Filipino nation.
Notes
Books
Agoncillo, Teodoro. (1981). Ang Pilipinas at mga Pilipino, noon at ngayon. Quezon
City: GAROTECH Publishing.
Constantino, Renato. (1989). The essential Tañada. Quezon City: Carrel, Inc.
Karl Jaspers. (1967). Way to wisdom. Heaven and London: Yale University
Press.
Romulo, Carlos P. (1965). Identity and change: towards a national definition. Manila:
Solidaridad Publishing Homes.
On-line sources
http://philippinestoday.net
http://www.manilatimes.net
http://www.quezon.ph