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| Reference Material |
| The Enlightened Elite By Jonathan Best June 05, 2006, Newsbreak Still hard at work in his 70s and drawing on a lifetime of research and critical analysis of Philippine history and the arts, historian Alfredo Roces now enjoys the freedom of not having to worry so much about currently fashionable theories. Roces was recognized as an outstanding young man of the Philippines with a TOYM award in 1961 and fulfilled his youthful promise with outstanding work as a painter, a popular newspaper columnist for the Manila Times, and a writer of books on outstanding Filipino artists. In 1975, he was editor of the encyclopedic 10-volume "Filipino Heritage" series published in Sydney, Australia, where Roces has lived the last 30 years. In 2005 he launched an exceptionally beautiful monograph on the artist Anita Magsaysay Ho. His latest work "Adios, Patria Adorada: The Filipino as Ilustrado, the Ilustrado as Filipino" is a straightforward history of the formation of Filipino national identity, from the mid-19th to the first years of the 20th century. As the Philippines opened up to international commerce, a new prosperous class of Philippine-born Spanish criollos and a native mestizo elite came into being, a complex mix of Spanish, Chinese, and indigenous indios. This ilustrado class was typified by such men as Dr. Jose Rizal, the painter Juan Luna, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Pedro Paterno, Marcelo del Pilar and the group of the Propaganda Movement that settled in Spain in the 1880'S and '90'S. The Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and subsequent arbitrary garroting of Father, Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora radicalized this generation. The continuing depredations of the arch-conservative Catholic Friars and the ineffectual colonial bureaucrats eventually drove this new class of idealistic and patriotic young men to the revolutionary barricades. They eventually gave up their identification with Spain and sought a new identity as "Filipinos." Roces makes the somewhat unfashionable point that despite the romantic notions of leftist historians of a generation ago such as Agoncillo and Constantino, it was the ilustrados' elite education, money, mobility and unbridled love of "Las Filipinas, patria adorada" that was the driving force behind the formation of a modern Filipino identity, and the demand for independence and revolution in the late 1890s. Whether it was Rizal and Del Pilar fighting over who would pay for the champagne, or Juan Luna at the Caf� Ingles in Madrid in 1883, or Aguinaldo's famous inaugural banquet complete with silk top hats and a French menu in 1899, these leaders were not struggling workers and peasants. The ranks of the revolutionary movement swelled as members of the indigenous principalia were recruited and working-class leaders like Andres Bonifacio joined in, but it was the ilustrados who spearheaded events as early as the 1870s. Roces adds more fuel to the controversy by suggesting it was even the pre-Spanish traditions of kinship politics endemic to the indigenous principalia where "personality and personal prestige mattered far more than principles and issues" that made a unified national stuggle for identity and liberation so difficult. Rizal dreamed of a pre-colonial Lost Eden, which clearly never existed.The real Eden was his patriotic dream of a united and egalitarian nation. After documenting the rise of the ilustrados and their failed fight for equality and political representation in Spain, Roces turns to the struggle at home. The rise of the katipunan, the outbreak of fighting, and the tragic execution of Dr. Jose Rizal ended all hopes of reconciliation with Spain. Roces describes how, sadly for Philippine history, Andres Bonifacio and his brothers were no match for Aguinaldo's Cavite�o kinship and crony politics in 1897. This same parochial divisiveness proved fatal in the struggle against the American invaders two years later as Aguinaldo's own Secretary of Defense, Antonio Luna, was murdered by fellow Filipinos as well. As the American troops continued to arrive and lucrative opportunities were offered to the remaining ilustrados, many followed their class instincts and accepted the promise of a progressive American administration. Most of the true idealists such as Rizal, Lopez Jaena and Del Pilar were dead or in exile by then. Roces tells the story of the ilustrados with the flowing pen and good eye for cultural detail. Unlike so many history books this one is a good read and in fact hard to put down once you start. Roces is especially revealing in his candid analysis of racism which was an intrinsic part of colonial domination. In the past, mainstram Filipino historians seem to have avoided this painful but highly relevant issue, which continues to haunt Filipino society. Alfredo Roces takes the liberty of ending his good work with a bit of encouragement for present-day Filipinos, possibly with an eye on the denizens of elite civil society. He writes: "Isn't it time we examine this Filipino identity that the Ilustrados invented, and accept it as a phenomenon over which we have been given the power to shape and develop? The 'Perdido Eden' of their dreams has long been amidst us to reclaim." It's laudable that De La Salle University chose to publish this excellent book by a prominent historian, but why did they print only 500 copies? Are there really so few readers of history left in this nation of 83 million souls? |