From Indio to Bravo
In the 17th to the 19th century, the Filipino was at the bottom of the food chain.
The higher-ups were the Peninsulares (Spaniards from Spain), followed by the Insulares (Spaniards born in the Philippines, then the Spanish mestizo (half-breeds, the prey), Principales (many of these were Filipinos who could get their kids to go to school in Spain, the prey), Chinese mestizo (Catholicized Chinese), Indio (the simple farmer, the Sisas and Crispins, the prey) and then the Chinese infieles (the Chinese who refused to be converted to Catholicism, the prey).
The Peninsulares and Insulares saw all the “natives” of the Philippines as Indio, a derogatory term that meant a slave, primitive, savage, barbarian. It was in this context that Jose Rizal owned the term Indio and redeemed it, calling himself and his compatriots Los Indios Bravos or “Panalong Indio”. He would live up to the term as he proved time and time again that a Filipino can equal and/or surpass his Spanish/foreign colleagues.
Rizal definitely owned this new identity he called Filipino. But as he encountered many difficulties in his life, he also discovered that there was so much redeeming to do when it comes to this identity. Because of three hundred years under Spanish rule, he said his people was infected with a “social cancer so malignant” that it needs a cure, to once and for all break this apathy and feudalism. And so Rizal wrote the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. He realized that before freedom could be achieved, an overhauling had to happen from within, then “God himself would give the weapon, and the tyrant will fall like a house of cards.”
This is the task of every indio historian, a “mission-impossible” at that:
“Desirous of your [the Philippines] welfare, which is also ours, and seeking the best cure for your ills, I shall do with you what was done in ages past with the sick, who were exposed on the steps of the temple so that the worshippers, having invoked the Divinity, should each propose a remedy.
To this end, I shall endeavor to show your condition, faithfully and ruthlessly. I shall lift a corner of the veil which shrouds the disease, sacrificing to the truth everything, even self-love, for as your son, your defects and weaknesses are also mine.”
—Jose Rizal, Dedication of Noli Me Tangere
May every Filipino look at his history and find truth that brings freedom.
(Picture of Calle Crisologo, Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Photo taken by Scrubs n Lenses)
