PRIMARY SOURCE SECONDARY SOURCE

The revolt of the masses: The

The Katipunan and the revolution:
story of Bonifacio and the
Memoirs of a general by Santiago
Katipunan by Teodoro Agoncillo
V. Alvarez

Santiago Alvarez was born at Teodoro Agoncillo was born at

th
Cavite on 25 of July of 1872. He Lemery, Batangas on 9th of
was a son of a revolutionary November of 1912. He was
leader named Mariano Alvarez. considered as one of the pre-
Santiago Alvarez became Captain eminent Filipino Historians of the
General of the forces of 20th century. Agoncillo was
“Magdiwang” and fought with considered as one of the pioneers
distinction against the spanish for promoting a distinctly
regime. However, being nationalistic point-of-view of the
outranked by Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino history. He was an essayist
Alvarez became an active and a poet. During his course of
nationalist after the revolution’s study at University of the
defeated by the U.S army. Due to Philippines, he obtained a
this event, Alvarez became the bachelor’s degree in Philosophy
president of the Nacionalista and a master’s degree in arts. He’s
Party directorate in 1901 and also way of living was a professor at the
served the Philippine Independent Far Eastern University and a
Author’s Background Church. With these being said, Linguistic assistant at the Institute
Alvarez became a part of the birth of National Language. His seminal
of the historiography of modern work “Revolt of the Masses: The
Southeast Asia as he first story of Bonifacio and the
published a Tagalog weekly Katipunan” was acclaimed and
entitled “Sampagita”. Together received some criticism from
with Paula Carolina Malay, they conservative historians. In the latter
reproduce the memoirs of this part of his life, Agoncillo was
volume with an English invited to join the Faculty of the
translation. Furthermore, Department of History at University
historians recreated the Philippine of the Philippines and he lasted
Revolution to align with the until his retirement. With his
political needs of succeeding passion to re-tell the course of the
generation, but the difference of Philippines History, President
the re-animated version from the Diosdado Macapagal named him as
original one was the lack of a member of the National Historical
factionalism, strong undercurrents Institute on 1963. He served in this
of messianism and animism, and a capacity until his final breath on
violent machismo which was 1985.
stripped off in order to provide
originality of their own. Sadly, he
 died at San Pablo, Laguna on
1930

When was the

account written?

Sequence of events

 Source: Primary  Source: Secondary

Differences between  Language:
the two accounts Tagalog/Filipino
 POV: First Person
 More explicit
 Perception: Limited;
self
 It is more factual and
Subjective compared
to Revolt of the
Masses.
 Language: English
 POV: Third Person
 Less explicit
 Perception:
Multifarious
 It is more objective,
but it is less detailed
compared to Memoir
of a General.

Strengths and
weaknesses of the
accounts

Author’s bias