7 - Colonial Racism and the Moro-Moro As Dueling Proxies of Law

Summary

They are our customs: they are the customs of our parents … they are the customs of many Filipinos and if you deprive us of that … sir! For the love of God! Do not offend us.

— Francisco de Paula Entrala, Sin título (1881)

Abstract: This chapter concerns the dual articulation of colonial racism and native custom in the period of the mission's decadence. Beginning with a famous letter written by Fr. Gaspar de San Agustín about the nature and character of the Indian, I argue that San Agustín's pessimism foregrounds the insurmountable obstacles to the successful resettlement, conversion, and acculturation of the subject population. Juxtaposed to colonial racism is the emergence of another, phantom discourse, referred to as native custom [ugalí]. For native principales who witnessed the erosion of their privileges as well as the dissolution of their communities, native custom names a form of legitimacy that, under certain circumstances, may occupy the (absent) place of law more effectively than religious authority.

Keywords: racism, secularization, native customs [ugalí], fiestas, moromoro, jester [pusong].

In 1720, former Augustinian attorney general [Procurador general] and chronicler of the Augustinian mission in the Philippines Fr. Gaspar de San Agustín (OSA) wrote what many Philippine scholars would recognize as the most infamous work in the history of Philippine letters. The original title reads: “Letter by Fr. Gaspar de San Agustín to His Friend in Spain Who Inquires After the Nature, Genius / Temperament of the Native Indians of These Philippine Islands [“Carta de Fr. Gafpar de San Agustín a un Amigo fuyo en España que le pregunta el natural i genio de los Indios naturales de eftas Islas Philipinas,” which I will henceforth cite as “Letter”]. The addressee remains somewhat of a mystery: an addendum to the letter by Jesuit priest Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde (SJ), dated 1738, has led at least one scholar to believe that the letter was destined to him. Its publication did not take place until 1756, where it appeared in slightly abbreviated from in the Jesuit historian Fr. Juan José Delgado's Sacred-Profane General Political and Natural History of the Philippines [Historia general sacro-profana, política y natural de las islas del poniente llamadas Filipinas].