Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:37:23.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Masonic Myths and Revolutionary Feats in Negros Occidental

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr.
Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr.
Affiliation:
James Cook University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The popular interpretations of the end of Spanish colonial rule in Negros Occidental, Philippines, are closely intertwined with Masonic-related imageries that suffused the colony's export-oriented economy in general and the province's sugar industry in particular. Through an investigation of folklore as a bearer of historical consciousness, it is argued that the elite-led one-day uprising that led to Spain's downfall in the province contained a mythical dimension that helped solidify the dominance of the local sugar planter class.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , September 1997 , pp. 285 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The mythical figure that Araneta is to the Negrenses inspired the character of Magnon in a magical adventure series broadcast over the local radio station, dyRH in the 1970s. Magnon, like Araneta, flies on his white horse and remains a captivating figure in the popular Negrense imagination.

2 Emilio Aguinaldo, who fought the Spaniards and the Americans in Luzon and who established a short-lived revolutionary government, was similarly portrayed in local legends as having magical connections with the spirit-world. This folk understanding of Aguinaldo, however, has been eclipsed by the scholarly and polemical works written about him. See Santos, Alfonso P., “Aguinaldo on Rizal — And ‘Three Aguinaldo Tales’”, Historical Bulletin 3 (1959): 55–60Google Scholar.

3 Hees, Peter, “Myth, History, and Theory”, History and Theory 33 (1994): 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Turner, Terence, “Ethno-ethnohistory: Myth and History in Native South American Representations of Contact with Western Society”, in Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past, ed. Hill, Jonathan (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Thompson, Edward, “Folklore, Anthropology, and Social History”, Indian Historical Review 3 (1977): 247-66Google Scholar.

4 Antonio Ma. Regidor, “Masonry in the Philippines”, The Cabletow (Official Organ of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines), 59 (1982; originally written in 1896): 4–5; Myrick, Conrad, “Some Aspects of the British Occupation of Manila”, in Studies in Philippine Church History, ed. Anderson, Gerald (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969), p. 123Google Scholar.

5 Lea, Henry Charles, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies (New York: MacMillan, 1908), pp. 299–317Google Scholar.

6 Greenleaf, Richard, “North American Protestants and the Mexican Inquisition, 1765–1820”, Journal of Church and State 8 (1966): 186–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Behar, Ruth, “Sex and Sin, Witchcraft and The Devil in Late-Colonial Mexico”, American Ethnologist 14 (1987): 34–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Fisher, Lillian Estelle, “Early Masonry in Mexico (1806–1828)”, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 42 (1939): 198–214Google Scholar; Greenleaf, Richard, “The Mexican Inquisition and the Masonic Movement: 1751–1820”, New Mexico Historical Review 44 (1969): 92–117Google Scholar.

9 Fay, Bernard, Revolution and Freemasonry 1860–1800 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1935), pp. 120-22Google Scholar, 216.

10 Myrick, “Some Aspects of the British Occupation of Manila”, p. 123; Greenleaf, “The Mexican Inquisition and the Masonic Movement”, p. 99.

11 Greenleaf, “The Mexican Inquisition and the Masonic Movement”, p. 94.

12 Lynch, John, The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826 (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1973), pp. 24–36Google Scholar; Fay, Revolution and Freemasonry.

13 Greenleaf, Richard, “Recent Historiography of the Mexican Inquisition: Evolutions of Interpretations and Methodologies”, in Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and The New World, ed. Perry, Mary Elizabeth and Cruz, Anne J. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1991), p. 258Google Scholar.

14 Callahan, William, Church, Politics, and Society in Spain, 1750–1874 (Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

15 Bernaldez, Manuel, “Reforms Needed in Filipinas”, 1827, in The Philippine Islands 1493–1898, ed. Blair, Emma and Robertson, James, vol. 51 (Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Park Company, 1907), p. 208Google Scholar.

16 LeRoy, James A., “Philippine Life in Town and Country”, Book One in The Philippines Circa 1900 (Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild, 1968), p. 116Google Scholar.

17 Wickberg, Edgar, The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850–1898 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965)Google Scholar, ch. 1.

18 Before that date, Negros planters who were Masons were formally affiliated with the lodge at Iloilo. See Jose Estacion, History of Kanla-on Lodge No. 64, F. & A.M. (Bacolod City: The Author, n.d.). On the opening of the Iloilo port to world trade, see my “Beyond Inevitability: The Opening of Philippine Provincial Ports in 1855”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 25 (1994): 70–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Varona, Francisco, Negros: Historia Anecdotica de su Riqueza y de sus Hombres (Manila: General Printing Press, 1938)Google Scholar, trans. Raul L. Locsin and serialized in the Western Visayas Chronicle, Jun.-Sept. (1965). This section draws from the 25th to the 28th instalments.

20 The ‘ng’ in dungan is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in the English word, singer. On the pervasiveness of the theme of soul stuff as well as of men of prowess in Southeast Asian history, see Wolters, Oliver W., History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1982)Google Scholar.

21 Although farm workers served as the sources for this reconstructed legend, beliefs in the spirit-world are not restricted to the labouring classes as many hacenderos and wealthy people share the same fundamental beliefs. This cultural legacy knows no class boundaries.

22 Francisco Ignacio Alcina, “The History of the Bisayan Islands”, Part 1, Book 3, preliminary trans. Paul S. Lietz (Chicago: Philippine Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1960 draft ms.; originally written in 1668), ch. 15.

23 For an analysis of sharecropping in Negros sugar farms, see my “Sugar Planter-State Relations and Labour Processes in Colonial Philippine Haciendas”, Journal of Peasant Studies 22 (1994): 50–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Christian, William Jr., Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 190-93Google Scholar.

25 Aguilar, Filomeno Jr., “Of Cocks and Bets: Gambling, Class Structuring, and State Formation in the Philippines”, in Patterns of Power and Politics in the Philippines, ed. Eder, James and Youngblood, Robert (Tempe, Arizona: Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University, 1994)Google Scholar. Cf. my “Sugar Planter-State Relations and Labour Processes”.

26 The martyrdom of Jose Rizal was first memorialized in the shape of a Masonic-inspired obelisk on which were written the titles of his two great novels. Erected in the throes of the revolution, the monument found in Daet, Camarines Norte does not contain Rizal's image or statue. Anderson, Benedict, “Replica, Aura, and Late Nationalist Imaginings”, Qui Parle 7 (1993): 1–21Google Scholar.

27 For a study of Papa Isio and the babaylan movement from the perspective of the modernisa-tion school, see Cullamar, Evelyn Tan, Babaylanism in Negros: 1896–1907 (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1986)Google Scholar.

28 Libro de cosas notables por Fr. Angel Martinez, Jimamaylan 31 Dec. 1897, Archivo de Marcilla (Navarre, Spain), Legajo 57, No. 4.

29 Negros Governor Luis Martinez to the Governor-General, Bacolod 25 Jan. 1897, PNA Guardia Civil, Bundle No. 39 (1897-A). Cf. appended letter of Juan Adarves, Primer Teniente Comandante de Guardia Civil, Hog 22 Jan. 1897.

30 Negros Governor Eduardo Subinza to the Governor-General, Bacolod 1 Aug. 1884, with two enclosures, PNA Sediciones y Rebeliones, Vol. 3, Book 1 (1884–96).

31 Jose Ner, “El Porque del Levantamiento de Negros Occidental”, La Republica Filipina (18 Nov. 1898), p. 2.

32 Cuesta, Angel Martinez, History of Negros, trans. Felix, Alfonso Jr. and Sevilla, Sor Caritas (Manila: Historical Conservation Society, 1980), p. 467Google Scholar, n. 72.

33 Ner, “El Porque del Levantamiento de Negros Occidental”.

34 Anonymous, “Una Interview”, La Republica Filipina (26 Nov. 1898), pp. 1–2.

35 Ner, “El Porque del Levantamiento de Negros Occidental”.

36 This account of the Spanish defeat in Negros is based on two main sources: Fuentes, Cornelio, Datos Para la Historia: Apuntes Documentados de la Revolution en Toda la Isla de Negros (Iloilo: El Centinela, 1919)Google Scholar, chs. 5 and 6; and Juan Araneta, “Rendicion de Bakolod”, La Independencia (28 Dec. 1898), pp. 1–2.

37 Fuentes, Datos Para la Historia, p. 42.

38 Aniceto Lacson to the Senor Presidente del Gobierno Revolucionario de Filipinas, Bacolod 7 Nov. 1898, PIR, SD 13, Folder 315.1; Stewart, Alonzo, “Agricultural Conditions in the Philippine Islands”, in Senate and House Documents and Reports: Hearings, 60th Congress, 1st Session, Doc. No. 535 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1908), pp. 185Google Scholar and 199.

39 The appointment of Araneta as General and Governor was issued by the Aguinaldo, the Presidente del Gobierno Revolucionario de Filipinas, on 12 November 1898, with Araneta assuming the post on 8 December. Circular of Diego de la Vina, Delegado de la Guerra, to the local military chiefs of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete 17 Dec. 1898, PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4679.

40 Fuentes, Datos Para la Historia, p. 72.

41 Stewart, “Agricultural Conditions in the Philippine Islands”, p. 182.

42 Araneta, “Rendicion de Bakolod”.

43 Stewart, “Agricultural Conditions in the Philippine Islands”, p. 198.

44 Interview with Juan Araneta's granddaughter Emma Arguelles, 85 years old, in Bacolod on 25 October 1990.

45 “Statement of Gerow D. Brill, 25 June 1901”, in Report of the Philippine Commission, Part 2, Appendix FF (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1901), p. 554Google Scholar.

46 Stewart, “Agricultural Conditions in the Philippine Islands”, p. 182.

47 Fuentes, Datos Para la Historia, p. 122.

48 Ibid., p. 149.

49 Ynstrucciones o deberes del Comandante del sitio de Cambalay en medio del monte de Ysabela de Jimamalaylan [sic], Juan Araneta and Dionisio Segovela y Papa, Bacolod 19 Dec. 1898, PNL Noble Collection, 25, 4141–4143.

50 Estadistica de las Causas Criminales, negocios civiles y espedientes de Gobierno, despachados por la Real Audiencia de Filipinas, 1871–87, Archivo Historico National (Madrid), Legajo 2238, Expediente No. 99.

51 Rivers, W. C., “Report of the District Director, Third Constabulary District”, in Report of the Philippine Commission 1907, Part 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1908), p. 311Google Scholar.

52 Appointment of Generals and formation of plantilla by Dionisio Papa, Alabhid o Paraiso 2 March 1899, PIR SD 58, Folder 970.8 (also PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4655–4657).

53 Acta of the Republica Filipina de Negros, Alabhid or Paraizo 2 May 1899, and Filomeno Auit, Comandante del Ejercito, to Arcadio Maxilom y Molero, Jefe de Operaciones en Cebu, Kabalanan 26 April 1901, PIR, PR 91, “Daily Account of Operations in Negros” Folder; Undated and unsigned circular requesting contributions to the revolution (original Ilonggo in the PIR file), PIR, SD 58, Folder 970.11 (also PNL Noble Collection, 14, 2387–2388); and Dionicio Papa to Rufo Oyos, Campamento General 13 June 1901, PIR, SD 58, Folder 970.4–4 (also PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4646–4648).

54 Leandro Fullon to the Ejercito Expedicionario para Negros, San Juan de Buenavista 25 September 1899, PNL Noble Collection, 26, 4299–4300.

55 Dionisio Papa to Jose de la Vina, Paraiso 3 August 1900, PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4669–4670.

56 Acta of the Republica Filipina de Negros, Alabhid or Paraizo 2 May 1899, PIR, PR 91, “Daily Account of Operations in Negros” Folder.

57 Sample pledges in Ilonggo by followers of Dionisio Papa, with Spanish translations, Paraizo 6 April 1901, PNL Noble Collection, 25, 4132–4135.

58 Undated and unsigned circular requesting contributions to the revolution (original Ilonggo in the PIR file), PIR, SD 58, Folder 970.11 (also PNL Noble Collection, 14, 2387–2388).

59 Schurman, J. G. et al. , “Preliminary Report of the Commission, 2 November 1899”, in Report of the Philippine Commission to the President, 31 January 1900, Vol. 1, Exhibit I (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1900), p. 180Google Scholar.

60 Taylor, W. C., “Report of the Third District, Philippines Constabulary, Cebu 11 September 1902”, in Third Annual Report of the Philippine Commission 1902, Part 1, Exhibit G (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), pp. 217-18Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., pp. 218–19. The Third District covered the Provinces of Antique, Bohol, Capiz, Cebu, Doilo, Leyte, Misamis, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Samar, and Surigao.

62 Dionisio Papa to Jose de la Vina, Paraiso 3 August 1900, PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4679; Calistro Segubila to Rufo Oyos, Cartagena 9 November 1900, PIR, SD 58, Folder 970.4–1 (also PNL Noble Collection, 29, 4645–4646).