Mara Isabel A.

Sotto 10814051 GREATWK Synthesis Paper THE STRUGGLE: TO THINK ALTERNATIVELY

Among the three books discussed in class, there is one important point that they all adhere to, it is the value of brotherhood and how it affected the lives of the Filipinos during the Spanish era, the American war, and even up to this day. Brotherhood or kapatiran affects the ethics of a person. It is also the bases for the political system that we have. Brotherhood represents the Republic. This view can be seen in the books of Ileto and Rafael. Their main concern was about the kapatiran that exists during the Filipinos during the Spanish era that will enable them to attain the kaginhawaan. The first book discussed in class, the Pasyon and Revolution by Ileto changed the traditional view of how our fellow Filipino men achieved their independence. He introduced a lot of new ideas like the anting-anting, the pasyon, and the loob. Among these three new ideas, the most important is the loob. Ileto points out that what we really need is a change in the loob and the willingness of this loob. As for the present situation of the country, we need not to battle like that of the Katipunan. All we have to do is to live to their advocies, again, like the loob. A lot of Filipinos nowadays still lack this important element and this can be best exemplified through the government that we have. The masses seemed to be more oppressed like that of the time and era of the conquerors. There seems to be a constant struggle in achieving true democracy and independence for our country. Corruption is very rampant in our country that makes Filipinos poorer and

poorer as time passes by. Its as if we are slaves our own country. On the other hand, the book of Vicente Rafael entitled Contracting Colonialism focused more on language and religion as the major factors affecting our history. As we all know, religion has played a big role in our history in terms of conquering the country, most especifically in the spiritual aspect. Religion was used to control the Filipinos during the Spanish era. In line with this, Vicente Rafael focused on two main concepts. The conversion and the confession. As for the Spaniards, the Tagalogs where childish in accepting the Christian faith or their conversion to this religion. But what they do not know is that maybe the Tagalogs have different understanding or perspective about the Christian faith. That is the reason why the colonialism was said to be contracting or contradicting. Also, language played a big role in colonizing the Philippines. Language is a very powerful tool and it is very evident that the colonizers used language to easily colonize the Filipinos. They even imposed their own languages to the natives whereas the natives already have their language of their own. The Tagalog language during that time was based on other foreign languages that made it hard for the Filipinos to understand their own language. There are a lot of inadequacies during the past that disabled the Filipinos understanding of what was happening then. That is also one reason why colonialization was condracting in the Filipino and Spanish perspective. Lastly, Samuel Tans book The Filipino-American War discussed how the Filipinos were subdued to the Americans as colonizers. The United States of America is said to be the the strongest colonizer not only because they were able to outpower Spain as the mother colony, but in all aspects. Their goal was to exploit colonies, economically and strategically, for their own benefit. This is based on their belief that they are destined to conquer the world. Reading Samuel K. Tans book gave a lot of new insights about the Filipino-

American war. New concepts were introduced. The narration of the events were detailed, in such a way that important events were laid down. The author presented the war in 3 dimensions: the war in Luzon, in Visayas, and in Mindanao. This is the alternative history not known to the Filipinos. It is essential that he presented the events in this manner, so as to give emphasis to what actually happened all throughout the archipelago during that time. It is not only the conflict between the American and the Filipinos tha were shown, but the conflict within the Filipinos themselves. As we can see, our country is still struggling against colonizers, though it is indirect. We still are subdued to the power of the United States and other foreign countries. Setting aside foreign factors, we, within our country are facing different conflicts. As what has been mentioned earlier, the lack of brotherhood that supports the political system of our Republic, leads to the corruption and anomalies that weakens the political system that we have. What can be concluded from these three books is that we should think alternatively. Think like bayan which is from the goodness of the loob.