Looking

at the Filipino Past

During the Spanish colonial period, Philippine history was primarily
written by Spaniards. Many of these early histories depicted Filipinos
negatively and often obtained biases against the colonized people.
Rizal’s annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas was an
attempt to redress this biased view of the Filipinos. His annotations has
been credited as the first Philippine history to be written from the
viewpoint of a Filipino.
Who is Antonio Morga?

 Born in Seville, Spain in 1559

 Worked for Spanish government in
1580
 Lieutenant-Governor of the
Philippines in 1593
 Judge of the Real Audiencia de
Manila in 1598
 President of the Real Audiencia in
Mexico in 1615
 Found guilty of corruption
 Died in 1636, before he was
executed This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

 Published in Mexico in 1609

 Consisted of 8 chapters
 Chapters 1-7 dealt with the terms
of the governors-general in the
Philippines
 Chapter 8 titled “An Account of the
Philippine Islands” provided ample
descriptions of early Filipinos upon
the arrival of the Spaniards in the
16th century

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Rizal’s Annotation of Morga’s Sucesos

 While at the British Museum in late 1889, Rizal found a copy of the first
edition of Morga’s Sucesos and began copying the text by hand. He annotated
the work along the way with the intention of creating a critical work on the
history of the Philippines.
 On September 1889, Rizal published the annotations in Garnier Hermanos, a
printing press in Paris.
Sample Excerpt 1
Morga’s Sucesos
 Their regular daily food is rice together
with boiled fish of which there is an
abundance, and pork or venison, likewise
meat of wild buffalo or carabao. They
prefer meat and fish, saltfish which
began to decompose and smell.
Rizal’s Annotation
 There is another preoccupation of the
Spaniards who, like any other nation, in
the matter of food, loathe that to which
they are not accustomed or is unknown to
them. The English, for example, is
horrified on seeing a Spaniard eating
snails; to the Spaniard beefsteak is
repugnant and he can’t understand who
raw beefsteak can be eaten; the Chinese
who eat tahuri and shark cannot stand
Roquefort cheese, etc., etc. The fish that
Morga mentions does not taste better
when it is beginning to rot; all on the
contrary, it is bagoong and all those who
have eaten it and tasted it know that it is
not or ought not to be rotten.
Sample Excerpt 2

Morga’s Sucesos Rizal’s Annotation

 In the rivers and streams, there are very  Perhaps for the same reason, other
large and small scorpions and a great nations have great esteem for the lion
number of very fierce and cruel crocodiles and bear, putting them on their shields
which frequently get the natives from and giving them honorable epithets. The
their bancas on which they ride… mysterious life of the crocodile, the
However much the people may trap, enormous size that it sometimes reaches,
catch, and kill them, these reptiles hardly its fatidical aspect, without counting any
seem to diminish in number. For this more its voraciousness, must have
reason, the natives build on the border of influenced greatly the imagination of the
their rivers and streams in their Malayan Filipinos.
settlements where they bathe, traps and
fences with think enclosures and bars of
bamboo and timber within which they do
their bathing and washing, secure from
these monsters which they fear and
respect to the degree of veneration, as if
they were somehow superior to them.
Rizal’s Reasons for Annotating Morga’s
Work
• Morga’s work in its original Spanish edition was rare.
1

• Unlike other early Spanish chronicles written by ecclesiastics, Morga was a civil administrator
2 and provided a secular view of historical events during the early Spanish colonial period.

• Secular account was more credible than those written by religious missionaries.
3

• Morga’s work was more sympathetic towards the natives in contrast to the biased accounts
4 written by the friars.

• Morga was an eyewitness to historical events that occurred in the Philippines during the period
5 of early Spanish colonization.
Impact of Rizal’s Annotations of Sucesos
to the Propaganda Movement
 Rizal’s annotation of Morga’s work must be seen within the context of the
Propaganda Movement.
 At a time when Filipino propagandists were clamoring for reforms in Spain,
presenting a critical narrative of the country’s history might be considered as an
endeavor to create a sense of national consciousness or identity that was anchored
on a glorious past.
 Whereas early Spanish chroniclers ridiculed the early Filipinos for being barbarians,
Rizal’s notes of Sucesos revealed early Filipino culture as rich and flourishing.
 Thus, Rizal’s annotations may be an effort to assert Filipino identity within an
oppressive colonial framework.