Published April 16, 2021, 1:05 PM
And what this says about our understanding of our colonial history
Philippine history teaches us that we have been under one foreign power and the next for the majority of our societal consciousness as a budding nation. There were the Spaniards, the Americans, and then the Japanese—oh, and you might want to add the British who were in Manila for a couple of years, just for good measure. Of these, the longest “reigning,” were the Spaniards, who occupied the Philippines for over 300 years.
A Spanish mestizo family in the Philippines (National Library of Spain)
Now, the question is: Why is the Philippines not a Spanish speaking country? The answer is rather simple, and points to how nuanced our Spanish colonial history is.