Journal Entry 8: Walang Mukha: Destruction of Culture

The 2014 war film presented how a team of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, etc. risked their lives to save the thousands of years culture and work of arts stolen by Hitler and the NAZIs. Art Scholar Lynn H. Nicholas said, “Without the [Monuments Men], a lot of the most important treasures of European culture would be lost. They did an extraordinary amount of work protecting and securing these things.”

To start the road of development, Rizal initiated the rewriting of Philippine History. He emphasized the significance of the past on his quote:
“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.”
“He who does not know where he came from, will never reach his destination.”
Dr. Jose Rizal was rewriting Philippine History because there were numerous Spanish chronicles who wrote erroneously from the late 16th to 19th centuries. He presented the character of Pre-hispanic Filipinos and disproved the Spanish claim that Filipinos had no culture of their own prior to their introduction to the Hispanic way of life.
To present the rich culture of Pre-colonial Philippines, he wrote annotations to Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Isla Filipinas that presented an amazing report about the archipelago and its people opposed to the claim made by Spanish contemporaries. He also cited Ancient writers, like Chirino, Colin, and San Agustin on His essay, “On the Indolence of the Filipino People”.
Dr. Rizal summarized, “All the histories of those first years, in short, abound in long accounts about the industry and agriculture of the natives; mines, gold-washings, looms, farms, barter, naval construction, raising of poultry and stock, a weaving of silk and cotton, distilleries, manufactures of arms, pearl fisheries, the civet industry, the horn and hide industry, etc., are things encountered at every step, and considering the time and the conditions in the islands, prove that there was life, there was activity, there was movement.”
According to Dr. Ernest Rafael Hartwell, a fellow professor at Harvard University who has a fascinating interest in Philippine studies writes, “This knowledge of the past allows Filipinos to know themselves and to ‘study their future’ (vi).

Movies (like “Quezon’s Game”, “Juan Luna”, “Goyo” etcetera) that narrates about Filipino heroes and way of life will help preserve our Identity as a Filipino leading to a great Filipino nation.

References

1. Ocampo, Ambeth R. “Rizal’s Morga and Views of Philippine History.” Philippine Studies 46, no. 2 (1998): 184-214. Accessed September 15, 2018. file:///C:/Users/James/Downloads/riza’s morga.pdf.

2. Hartwell, Ernest. “Imperial Endnotes: The First Filipino and Boricua Historians.” Latin American Literary Review, Latin American Literary Review Press, 28 Nov. 2018, www.lalrp.net/articles/abstract/10.26824/lalr.46/.

3. Morrison, Jim. “The True Story of the Monuments Men.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, February 7, 2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/.