A paper presented at Pagpopook at Pagdadalumat: Kasaysayang Lokal Tungo sa Pagbuo ng Kasaysayang Nasyonal, Ferbary 21, 2017, Cultural Hall, Mabalacat City College, Mabalacat City, Pampanga sponsored by SAMAKA-MCC
Introduction
Like
many cities in the Philippines,
the history of Mabalacat, Pampanga during the Spanish period is very
much intertwined with the history of the friar activities in the
area. Filipino historian Leon Ma. Guerrero once wrote, “the Spanish
history of the Philippines begins and ends with the Friar.” Indeed,
in Mabalacat, the Spanish era history began with the respected Fr.
Andres de San Fulgencio and ended with the dreaded Fr. Gregorio
Bueno.
The
Spaniards were record-conscious race and the Friars were prolific
writers. They left behind thousands of pages of records kept in
archives in the Philippines and overseas. These records may vary from
the writing of personal letters, evangelization reports, requests and
even complaints to the writing of grammar books, treatises,
dictionaries, expedientes, maps and sketches, name it the friars
wrote it. Besides, by mandate, they were required to keep canonical
books. It seemed like not a single day passed without the Friar
writing something.
This
paper surveys some friar parchments present in some archives and
offers illustrative reconstructions of parts of early history of
Mabalacat. This is with a view of emphasizing usefulness of Friar
documents in writing local histories. In particular, the Friar
writings surveyed include: Cartas, Vocabularios
and Grammar Books, Canonical Books, and Expedientes.
I. Cartas
Cartas
are letters written by the Recollect Friars to their superiors
detailing their evangelization efforts, the challenges they
encountered as well as their achievements. During their stint at
Mabalacat, the Missionaries assigned wrote a number of letters. The
letters were now preserved at the Archivo Recoleto of Saint Ezekiel
Moreno Province in Quezon City and Archivo Histórico Provincial of
Saint Nicholas Province in Marcilla, in Navarra, Spain.
For
a long time, historians believed that Mabalacat was founded in 1712,
the year Governor General Martin Ursua y Arizmendi ordered the
establishment of towns along the Pampanga-Pangasinan route. However,
a carta from Fr. Andres de San Fulgencio revealed that he founded
Mabalacat in 1717. Thus, from
the Cartas, the reconstruction of the Founding of Mabalacat goes:
The
Founding of the Mission of Mabalacat
Father Andres de San Fulgencio founded the Mission of Mabalacat in
the year 1717. He noted that in the mountains of Mabalacat, there
lived more than a thousand Aetas and Balugas. Fr. Andres convinced
the heads of the clans to relocate to a more convenient town site to
facilitate their Christianization. He believed that when the heads
are resettled, their followers would be tagged along. More or less
thirty (30) native chiefs and their families acquiesced. They
constructed their houses and fields around the town site centered on
the church. They comprised the core populace of the town. On
September 3, 1717, Fr. Andres de San Fulgencio blissfully reported:
The
town of Mabalacat, that began in the year 1717, is currently showing
auspicious beginnings, not only in spiritual terms but also temporal,
with the fields and houses that were already made, with many requests
for baptism and of making the township an excellent foothold towards
the mountains, where, as I already indicated, it is more convenient
and proportionate to the ends that are being attempted.
I have dwelt this year (1717) among them in these mountains of
Mabalacat; having reduced the natives of the elevated vicinity,
making them go down and settle in this place that I believe at this
moment is very convenient for such purpose...[1]
Fr. de San Fulgencio started the catechism, instruction and baptism
of this new town. Before September, he baptized at least ten natives.
However, many of the natives slipped back to their nomadic lives. The
natives were, by occupation, hunters and gatherers and as such, they
relied on the mountain resources for their sustenance. The attempts
at relocation drove them to hunger.
II. Vocabularios and Grammar Books
Clever
historians have long recognized the importance of bocabularios
and grammar books in giving flesh to the otherwise lean historical
data. Bocabularios lists native words and detailed its meaning or
description in Spanish. As it defined the native words, it
unwittingly, it gave out some local colors, customs and traditions or
other cultural features of a place or period. Fray Diego Bergaño's
Vocabulario de Pampango en Romance, y Diccionario de Romance en
Pampango for example gave out archaic words that described
pre-hispanic cultural practices. And Fr. Francisco Coronel's Artes
y Reglas de la Lengua Pampanga treated
Kapampangan
slavery very casually as he used them as examples to illustrate word
usages.
Through Vocabularios and other friar documents, the culture of the
inhabitants of Mabalacat during the Spanish contacts may thus be
reconstructed as:
The
Early Culture and Society of Mabalacat
According to Fr. Andres de San Fulgencio, the region of what is now
the present territory of Mabalacat was inhabited by the natives who
were ‘so savage and barbarous whose innate inclination is bow and
arrow and the taking of lives, of cutting heads, having magnatos and
feasts, drinking in skulls…’[2] Albeit brief, the description
provided a glimpse of the early culture and society of Mabalacat.
The Pinatubo Aetas were the first inhabitants of Mabalacat.
Physically, they possessed dark complexion, curly hairs and small
body stature. With this racial phenotype, they belong to the Negroid
race. The Spaniards called them negritos taking into account their
black skin tone and small stature. The natives referred to themselves
as Aetas. Early Spanish accounts confirmed their reputations of
ferocity and notoriety not only among the Spaniards but also among
the neighboring Kapampangans and Ilocanos.
Primarily, Pinatubo Aetas lived by hunting and gathering forests
products for family consumption and for trading with its neighbor,
the Zambals. As such, they mastered the forests and sharpened their
skills in bows and arrows. They combed the mountains and valleys for
honey, fruits, edible roots and other forest products. They hunted
wild animals such as boars, deer and carabaos.
The constant and long standing trade between the Pinatubo Aetas and
the Zambals resulted to many shared cultural practices among the two
cultures. These included magnatos (religious rituals), ambas
(chants), mangaw (head taking), among others.
Magnatos were religious rituals performed during celebrations,
assemblies, marriages, feasts and healing the sick. These were
facilitated by high priests called Bayoc. The rituals included a
repertoire of chants, dances and non-stop drinking. The enemies’
skulls, accumulated during mangaw, were dried out and polished and
fashioned into drinking cups and were used during these ceremonies.
Ambas were the songs and chants sung and recited during magnatos and
during celebrations of victory over enemies. These songs and chants
detail their exploits as they present cut heads of their enemies. The
heads were displayed in their houses to flaunt their valor. Other
terms of similar import are gamba and alaula – to sing of, or
celebrate a victory after cutting off heads. The enemies’ heads,
treated as war trophies, were known among the Kapampangans, the
perennial victims, as dangin. [3]
Mangaw were headhunting expeditions to attack and cut off heads of
enemies and intruders. The Pinatubo Aeta and Zambals always kept with
them a long pointed blade called bararao. This weapon was sharp
enough to cut off human head with one stroke. During the mangaw,
brave Pinatubo Aetas hid themselves behind thick vegetation along
travelers’ route awaiting ambush. When an unfortunate passer by
traverse the ‘dangerous passage’ (cabalingan) or the ‘scary
place’ (pipacdayan), the Pinatubo Aetas began to scream (buyao) and
stage the heinous attack. If by miracle, traveler escaped, then he
was just ‘scared away’ (mabuyao), [4] if not, then his head
became ‘war booty’ (dangin).
III.
Canonical Books.
Canonical
Books are the parish registers (libros de asientos, libros de cargo y
data, libros de bautismos, casamientos and difuntos). These books
keep track of the parishioners,
parish expenses, baptisms, marriages and deaths. The contents of
these books may give a glimpse of the historical socio-economic
situation of a particular mission or town. Unfortunately for
Mabalacat, only a few of these canonical books survived. Those which
survived belonged to the later part of Spanish period and are now
deposited in Archdiocesan Archives of San Fernando (AASF) in
Pampanga. Some of its contents, however may be gleaned from the
cartas and other reports. Thus,
from the canonical books, together with the cartas and other friar
writings, the reconstruction of the early history of Mabalacat goes:
A
Fledgling Mission
Poverty struck the Mission of Mabalacat. The books of accounts were
the silent witnesses of the budget shortages suffered by the
Religious assigned therein. In 1729, the missionaries begged
Recollect Superiors to excuse two- third of their required
remittances because the church collection barely covered the
expenses. The expenses of the Mission of Mabalacat and Bamban were
subsidized by the King of Spain through his Royal Haciendas in the
Indies. Time and again, the Recollects expressed disappointments on
these endeavors, which they considered as wastage of missionary
effort and government resources.
While
considerable success had been achieved with regards the
Christianization and pacification of the Zambals, Kapampangans and
the Tagalogs, the same cannot be said with that of the Aetas. After
baptism, the Aetas tend to abandon their newly-acquired faith, slip
back to the mountains and resume their nomadic lives. On his 1737
report to the King, the Rector Provincial, Fr. Jose de la Concepcion,
echoed previous requests for the Superior Government to subdue the
Aetas by force. Fr. Concepcion candidly reported that these previous
requests fell on deaf ears because of lack of funds. [5]
Thirteen
years later, in October 1750, the same disappointment resonated from
the report of the aging Rector Provincial. He reported to the
Superior Government that despite the enormous efforts of the
Recollect missionaries, the registers of the towns of Patlin,
Panipoan and Mabalacat showed insignificant number of Christians.
This was far from the expected yield. As such, the maintenance of the
said towns proved to be costly for the Spanish colonial government.
At the time of the report, there were only 226 Aetas and Balogas in
the town and mission of Mabalacat. They were under the care of Fr.
Francisco de la Natividad since 1737. Mabalacat had 32 straw huts,
thus per 1722 instruction, there were at least 64 married persons. In
addition, there were 89 taxpayers, 49 of which were bachelors and 36
were women (widows and maidens). There were also 29 school children
and 48 catechumens.[6]
IV. Expedientes.
Another set of Friar Documents which are useful in the writing of the
history of Mabalacat expedientes
written
by Vicaria Capitular de Manila, Vicaria Foranea de Pampanga or the
Parish Priests assigned to Mabalacat. Expedientes are dossiers or
set of documents dealing with a particular issue. Kept in the
National Archives of the Philippine are documents relative to the
separation of the Bamban Mission from the its Mother Parish,
Mabalacat. Thus, from the expedientes, the reconstruction of the
separation of the Visita of Bamban from Mabalacat Parish goes:
Mabalacat Parish Gave
Birth to Bamban Mission
Since
its foundation, the Town of Bamban had been under the Spiritual
Administration of Mabalacat. The distance between Mabalacat and
Bamban is three (3) leguas that is about an hour and a half walk.
Recollect missionary priests based in Mabalacat regularly visited
Bamban to administer Catholic Sacraments. However, during rainy days,
the Parua River, which served as a boundary between the two towns, is
difficult to cross, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the
Missionaries to go to Bamban. This resulted to the neglect of the
religious duties of the rather fragile Aeta faithfuls. [7]
Thus,
in 1875, the Governor of the Politico-Militar District of Tarlac
presented a petition before the Vicaria Capitular de Manila for the
creation of an independent Mission of Bamban. The Vicaria Foranea de
Pampanga and Fr. Felix Perez de la Soledad, the Parish Priest of
Mabalacat Parish supported the petition. They explained that the
Creation of the Mission of Bamban is important as it would result to
a better civil and religious lives of the natives. [8]
The
petition was found to be meritorious. On February 3, 1876 the Vicar
Capitular de Manila formally declared the creation of a Mission in
Bamban, Politico-Military District of Tarlac, separate and
independent from the mother parish Mabalacat, Province of
Pampanga.[9]
Conclusion
At
the outset, the idea of writing the early history of
Mabalacat, Pampanga is challenging. The town was too rustic and
remote during the Spanish period to merit bigger spaces in the
Spanish colonial writings. Historians seemed to have reached a dead
end before they even started. But as Friar writings surfaced, the
writing Mabalacat's early history became very exciting. This is
especially intensified with the advent the availability of digital
copies of many friar writings in the internet. Thus, with Friar
documents, taken together with civil writings plus some historical
imagination, coming up with a comprehensive history of Mabalacat is
not impossible.
________________________
[1] Fr. Andres de San Fulgencio to Father Provincial, Mabalacat, 3
September 1717, Dr. Lino L. Dizon (trans) See “Archaeology of
Reduccion and (Re-) Settlement Narratives Among Recollect Missions in
Upper Pampanga, 1712-1898,” Alaya: The Kapampangan Research Journal
, vol. 5, December 2007-2008, 55-56.
[2] Andres de San Fulgencio, to Father Provincial, Mabalacat,
September 3, 1717, Archivo General de Indias, Indice 31, Doc. 94.
[3] Dangin - Fray Diego Bergaño, Vocabulario de Pampango en Romance,
y Diccionario de Romance en Pampango. Translated by Fr. Venancio Q.
Samson (Angeles City: The Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan
Studies, Holy Angel University, 2007), p. 146.
[4] Buyao - Fray Diego Bergaño, Vocabulario de Pampango en Romance,
y Diccionario de Romance en Pampango. Translated by Fr. Venancio Q.
Samson (Angeles City: The Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan
Studies, Holy Angel University, 2007), p. 91.
[5] Fr. Jose de la Concepcion to Your Majesty, Convent of San Juan de
Bagumbayan, Outside the Walls of the City of Manila, July 4, 1737,
Archivo Provincial Lib. 1.º 2.º de Consultas, fol. 3 vto.
[6] Jose de la Concepcion, “Reseña Historica: de nuestra Provincia
de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Filipinas, desde su origen hasta el
año 1750,” Boletin de la Provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de
Filipinas de la Orden de Agustinos Recoletos, Año IX Enero de 1918
Núm. 91, 61.
[7] Fr. Felix, Letter to
Gobernador Eclesiastico de este
Arzobispado, 15 Diciembre 1785, National Archives in the Philippines.
[8] Vicaria Foranea de Pampanga, Letter to Gobernador Eclesiastico
de Arzobispado de Manila, 18 Diciembre 1785, National Archives in the
Philippines.
[9] Vicar Capitular de Manila, February 3, 1876, National Archives
in the Philippines.
