NAME: RODRINER BILLONES SCORE:

YEAR/ SECTION: BSEE 4 STEM DATE: 11/30/2021

Directions: Analyze the primary sources and the arguments presented in this lesson, and decide on the main
issue/s using your own arguments.

MAIN ISSUE: Which Version of Cavite Mutiny Is Accurate

DECISION:
The Spanish version of Cavite Mutiny of 1872 is narrated by Jose Montero y Vidal. His account
anchored on the thesis that the fateful event of the 2oth of January 1872 happens due to the
concerted effort of disgruntled native soldiers and laborers of Cavite arsenal who willfully revolted to
overthrow the Spanish rule, and thus, guilty of rebellion and sedition. By such acts, the execution of
prominent critics of the Spaniards and friars by the Spanish officials are justified, and the sentence of
life imprisonment and deportation of some natives critical of their incongruous rule is unquestionably
legit if not morally blurred. The account of Jose Montero y Vidal was even made credibly possible by no
less than Rafael de Izquierdo, the governor-general of the time when the revolt of 1872 happened.
ARGUMENT/S:
1. It seems that for the Spaniards, the mutiny was simply a civil disturbance; judging from how
the newspapers described the priests as “Spaniards born in the Philippines”
2. La Madrid, Burgos, Zamora and possibly Saldua were creoles; 1872 was a time that the
creoles were more troublesome than their obedient and mostly loyal indio counterparts.
3. Philippines was not alone in experiencing chaos from the secularization issue and war
conflict between liberals and royalists, the root of the mutiny. In Spain, the mother country
itself was literally in arms against each other, kings and queens being replaced violently by a
revolution after the other, fighting happening in the streets; men, women, children dead.
Philippines did not have a monopoly of liberals and reformists; liberals and reformists were
also being executed in Spain. In fact , the Philippine Revolution and Latin American
Revolutions was an overflow of the chaos in Spain. Spain will finally erupt to a full blown
fighting war in the 1930s between royalists and liberals, ending in Francisco Franco’s
victory.
4. Although the colonists began to call themselves “Filipinos”, this did not pose much threat to
the crown as late as 1872. The likes of Varela, Pelaez, Burgos were probably considered “a
few troublemakers”. When Andres Novales revolted in 1823 and declared Philippine
Independence, accounts say that the people were cheering Novales and his army as he
marched towards Fort Santiago, but that was as far as they went, nobody did made any
move. In fact, it was Novales’ own brother who quelled the rebellion like a minor civil
disturbance. It was in 1872 that government officials realised that the crowd before the
gallows were for the first time united as a nation. It was the first time a crowd knelt in unity
to pray for the executed “convicts” as if they were one of them. To increase the paranoia of
the government and church officials, the crowd included indios whom they had counted on
for loyalty against the creoles (note that the creole dons must have been cruel themselves,
Burgos himself had accounts of punishing indio priests for insubordination against a creole
or peninsular priest). But that morning of 1872, a crowd of indios, mestizos, creoles and
even peninsulars -who considered Philippines their homes, developed a sense of
nationhood. The Cavite Mutiny sparked the beginning of emotional divorce between Spain
and its colony and little did they know will be the beginning of their demise.