A Review of How Philippine Colonial Experience Influenced the Country’S Approaches to Conservation of Cultural Heritage

PADAYON SINING: A CELEBRATION OF THE ENDURING VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES Presented at the 12th DLSU Arts Congress De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines February 20, 21 and 22, 2019 A Review of How Philippine Colonial Experience Influenced the Country’s Approaches to Conservation of Cultural Heritage Geoffrey Rhoel C. Cruz Mapua University [email protected] Abstract: The colonial experiences of the Philippines have greatly influenced the preservation of the nation’s literary cultural heritage and built cultural heritage. Apparently, colonial experience has defined how heritage is treated and conserved. The colonial legacy has set a precedent that destroys the old practices, ways of life, structures and edifices to favor the creation of a new set of world order, thus setting a culture of neglect and disregard for cultural heritage conservation. Apparently, the politics of memory and the quest for a new identity has influenced how heritage conservation is defined and perceived. From the time before the Philippines was discovered by the Europeans and the way the nation was passed on from one colonizer to another, minimal sense of heritage conservation was developed. The perception that anything related to the historical past is a sign of antiquity and underdevelopment has comprised the way present communities perceive development. Henceforth, cultural heritages are given the least importance unless its relationship with economic activities has been clearly established. This study connects the implications of the Philippines’ rich colonial experience to approaches of heritage conservation in the country and in the end presents a way of how to possibly reverse some of its impact. The study presents an exploratory and descriptive approach using case studies of heritage districts in the Philippines that illustrate how can a practice of cultural neglect be converted to culture of concern and conservation through the development of creative industry and culture capital. Key Words: Cultural Heritage, Psychocultural Marginality, Heritage Conservation, Colonial History, Creative Culture Industry (Viray, 1968). That is why it is not impossible that 1. INTRODUCTION even a Filipino feels alienated with its own culture. The Filipino culture has been characterized The Philippine cultural heritage can be classified as hybrid in nature being a mixture of elements under two categories, intangible and tangible. The from different and often incongruous sources such former latter includes oral and written customs and that Filipinos are oriental about family, Chinese traditions, practices, representations, expressions, about business, and American about ambitions knowledge and skills recognizable within a PADAYON SINING: A CELEBRATION OF THE ENDURING VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES Presented at the 12th DLSU Arts Congress De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines February 20, 21 and 22, 2019 particular set of cultural or social values that of the literatures were condemned as heresy and communities recognize as part of their cultural ordered to be destroyed, Spanish literatures were heritage; while the latter considers built structures introduced with focus on the spread of Christianity with historical, archival, anthropological, and catechism such as the Holy Bible, Doctrina archaeological, artistic and architectural value Christiana, prayer books and the lives of saints and (Radzuan and Ahmad, 2015). martyrs. Furthermore, majority of the literatures were in Spanish language to aid Filipinos to Usual discussions on Philippine cultural gradually disregard anything non-Hispanic. heritage are typically presented through Moreover, the revolutionary period produced some comparison from the indigenous or pre-colonial of the finest in Philippine literary history in the period, the colonization period, and post-colonial latter years during the peak of the propaganda period. Moreover, the colonization period is further movement such as the works of Jose Rizal, categorized under the Spanish colonization (1571- Graciano, Lopez Jaena. Marcelo H. Del Pilar, and 1896), American colonization (1896-1942, 1945- other illustrados (Viray, 1968). 1946), and Japanese colonization (1942-1945). The literary composition in the American colonization was greatly influenced by significant developments in education and culture. When the The Philippine Literary Cultural Heritage American rule was formally established in the country, the introduction of free public instruction In the beginning, most literatures were with the use of English language was initiated. reflective of the people’s beliefs and superstitions as This assimilation strategy employed by the manifested in various legends, folk tales, Americans provided a complete turn around for the incantations, and religious poetry. The other Filipinos, such that anything Spanish was replaced literary forms that have been formally documented with English including books, printed materials, include the cradle of song or lullabies, domestic and medium of communication and instructions, and occupational songs, folk verses and folk songs, the lifestyle. Most literary works took the form of free salawikain or maxims, proverbs, and epigrams, verse, modern short stories, and critical essays and which have been handed from generation to some known literary writers of the time include generation. These can be characterized as the national artists Jose Garcia Villa and Virgilio people’s responses to the forces of the Unknown or Almario. Developments in press production also a reaction to the nature of their environment and to stimulated the massive production of literary works the rhythms of life (Viray, 1968). Nevertheless, in English such as the Philippine Free Press and most of those forms of literature are no longer the Philippine Herald that later on encouraged available today because of cultural deterioration development of critical and seditious literary works that transpired during the Spanish period. and school publications such as the College Folio. After the Philippines was discovered by However, literary progress was almost the Spaniards in 1521 and sovereignty was completely halted with the sudden colonization of established in 1571, Philippine literatures the Japanese. With the strict censorship being underwent a paradigm shift providing a certain implemented, almost all newspapers in English religious feelings and romantic mood, which later were stopped and freedom of speech and the press on included a strain of fatalism. Such literatures were almost absent making Filipinos bitter and were mostly oral art, consisting not only of epics pessimistic. The Japanese language also replaced but also of songs, riddles, stories, and debates the English as the medium of communication, such focused on the triumph of good over evil. Since most that writers were encouraged to write in Filipino PADAYON SINING: A CELEBRATION OF THE ENDURING VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES Presented at the 12th DLSU Arts Congress De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines February 20, 21 and 22, 2019 again and contribute to vernacular literature until The Philippine Built Cultural Heritage the Americans returned during the liberation war and granting the Filipinos their independence Seemingly, it is not only the literary shortly. heritage that is being left out by the society today. Dissention is more obvious for built cultural Moreover, such colonial experiences have heritage. In the Philippines, many heritage sites greatly influenced the Philippine literary heritage and ancestral houses have been demolished, making it very aggressive and ever dynamic, adapted as local warehouses or converted to high- evident even during the post-colonial such that the rise condominiums in the sake of modernization fame of Philippine literature lost most of its and development, or just left out to deteriorate. substantial value in the 21st century. The expansion provided by technology and development Indigenous structures in the Philippines contributed to the loss of Filipino interests in such were manifestations of the basic lifestyle prevalent cultural treasures, particularly in the urban in the community such that everything is patterned setting. Although in rural areas some forms of oral according to their basic needs to ensure customs and traditions are still being practiced survivability. Early Filipino settlements were that includes singing of lullabies, domestic and located near river and streams to facilitate easy occupational songs, folk verses and folk songs, access to transportation and other economic sharing of salawikain or maxims, and proverbs, it resources but the arrival of the Spaniards provided is usually the elders seen doing such practice. It a complete turn around by organizing settlements may be hard for a millennial to pay more attention into structured community centered on a plaza to such practices and behaviors as the trend goes surrounded by major Spanish structures like digital and everyone is busy catching up with the churches, municipio or municipal hall, schools, and latest fads that gradually consume human convents for evangelization purposes and easy interaction and socialization. Thus, the supervision of their colony. The Spaniards development of heritage from generation to another facilitated the construction of brick-made has been slowly fading. structures made of mud transforming primitive structures made from the light materials of dried In perspective, Viray (1968) suggested that cogon grass and bamboo called bahay kubo it is tempting

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