Note 8 — THE FRIAR VIEWPOINT

The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal, Don Patricio de la Escosura,8 the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famous Memoria on Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small work Recuerdos [i.e., Remembrances] which could better be entitled Infundios [i.e., Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence and supreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”