Christian Joseph M.

Cadayday
BS Architecture 3-A

Who is Antonio de Morga?

- Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay was a Spanish soldier, lawyer and a high-
ranking colonial official for 43 years, in the Philippines, New Spain and Peru,
where he was president of the Real Audiencia for 20 years.
- He was also a historian. After being reassigned to Mexico, he published the book
Sucesos de las islas Filipinas in 1609, considered one of the most important
works on the early history of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. As
Deputy Governor in the Philippines, he restored the audencia. He took over the
function of judge or oidor. He also took command of Spanish ships in a 1600
naval battle against Dutch corsairs, but suffered defeat and barely survived.
What is Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas?
- Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas is a book written and published by Antonio de
Morga considered one of the most important works on the early history of the
Spanish colonization of the Philippines. It was published in 1609 after he was
reassigned to Mexico in two volumes by Casa de Geronymo Balli, in Mexico City
Compare & contrast Rizal & Morga’s different views about Filipinos & Philippine culture.
- Antonio de Morga, lieutenant governor of the Philippines withinside the overdue
16th century, defined the meals of the Indios as follows: Their each day fare
consists of: lice overwhelmed in wood pillars and while cooking is known as
Mosqueda (that is the staple in the course of the land); cooked fish which they
have got in abundance; pork, venison, mountain buffaloes which they name
carabaos, red meat and fish which they recognize is pleasant while it has
commenced to mt and stink (Retana 1909,174).
- Rizal becomes so incensed that he later replied in print with: This is some other
preoccupation of the Spaniards who, lii every other nation, deal with meals to
which they're now no longer accustomed or is unknown to them with disgust. The
English, for ample, experience horror to look a Spaniard ingesting snails. To the
Spaniard roast red meat is repugnant and he can't understand how Steak Tartar
or uncooked red meat may be eaten; the Chinese who've taltlcn' and consume
shark can't stand Roquefort cheese etc. etc. This fish that Morga mentions, that
can't be exact till it starts offevolved to mt, are bagoong [salted and fermented
fish or shrimp paste used as a sauce in Filipino cuisine] and people who've eaten
it and tasted it recognize that it nor is nor must be rotten (Rizal 1890, 264):
Rizal's sarcastic rebuttal appears, surprisingly, now no longer in his satirical
 novels or his polemical tracts, however in scholarly paintings--his annotated
reedition of Morga's Success de has Ishas Filipinas. Aside from the racial slurs to
which he becomes reacting, however, RW maintained combined emotions for the
Morga, relying on its usefulness for his thesis that Spanish colonization retarded,
in preference to added civilization to, the Philippines and its inhabitants.
- Unfortunately, Rizal's Morga has been relegated withinside the canon, below his
"minor writings" (Craig 1927), and stays in large part unread because of the pre-
eminence of his novels, Noli me ta'ngere and El Filibusterismo. Unlike the novels,
that have been attacked and condemned often withinside the beyond a century,
the Morga stays in large part ignored. It is lamentable that, notwithstanding king,
a conventional of nationalist historic writing, Rizal's Morga is seldom examined
nowadays. That Rizal's annotations are in large part left out nowadays stems
essentially from the current advances in historic, archaeological and
ethnographic research.
- Although lots of Rizal's assertions were established via way of means of current
research, the truth is that his paintings are now dated. Moreover, Rizal's
annotations are secondary, and modern-day pupils pay more attention extra to
the number one source, Morga, than on Rizal's notes. Few Filipinos nowadays,
even the maximum patriotic, might discover the time and strength to examine the
small textual content of Rizal's footnotes, despite the fact that penned via way of
means of the countrywide hero. Another element withinside the relative obscurity
of Rizal's annotations to Morga become censorship in the course of the Spanish
colonial period. Like Noli me ta'ngere and El Filibusterismo, the Rizal version of
Morga become banned withinside the Philippines withinside the overdue 19th
century. Therefore copies confiscated via way of means of Spanish customs in
Manila and different ports of access had been destroyed.
- Due to the burning of 1 especially big cargo of the Morga, the e-book attained
"rare" and "out of print? repute within 12 months of its publication. It did now no
longer have a 2nd printing, and the few copies in the move had been left hidden
and unread via way of means of nervous owners. There is likewise the trouble of
language, which constrained the effect of the Morga to a small, educated,
Spanish-studying elite in Manila. Among this already minute circle, one ought to
remember with the hands of 1 hand, the folks that might examine historic
paintings like Morga in preference to the extra unique Rizal novels. Rizal's Morga
becomes now no longer examined via way of means of the masses, despite the
fact that humans heard an extremely good deal approximately these arguable
paintings. Rizal's Morga, therefore unread, is nearly forgotten.
- This article offers Rizal's perspectives on Philippine records. It tries to location
Rizal's Morga withinside the framework of his paintings, in addition to withinside
the large context of Philippine historiography. Rizal's Morga won't be examined
widely, however its importance lies withinside the truth that with this version,
Rizal commenced the venture of writing the primary Philippine records from the
perspective of a Filipino.