BY ROSEMEL CALDERONRight away, at first glance, the title of Christine L. Diaz’s books – The Other Philippine History Textbook, Book 1 and 2 – piques one’s curiosity and makes one wonder why it is “the other one.”
One soon finds five reasons.
Packaging is the first reason. The cover layout immediately impresses. It speaks volumes about the contents. Caricatures – not the “prim and proper” touch of a usual history textbook – wrap the books’ exteriors, and the inside pages are flooded with illustrations that make information digestible.
Flow is the second reason. It is difficult to put the book down. The moment one starts reading Book 1, one cannot stop; one feels the urge to move to Book 2.
“Engagability” is the third reason, if one is allowed to coin a word. Unlike other history books, Christine L. Diaz‘s approach is atypical. She is extremely engaging. She connects. She communicates history to today’s Filipino in today’s language. Reading her books is like having a pleasant dialogue with the author over a cup of coffee. Diaz makes her readers take a moment to pause, breathe deeply, think, and even argue with her. She presents lost stories –stories about what Filipinos were really like, instead of what the colonizers made the Filipino believe himself to be. And she does it in a way that makes one grasp the truth and become aware that he is part of the whole.
Creativity would be the fourth reason. The chapters are creatively titled, entrap attention, and afford easy recall. For example, “Paella and Relleno vs. Hamburgers and Sushi” in Book 2 instead of simply tagging the book section “The Colonial Period.”
Contagion would be the fifth reason. The booksare a sheer reflection of the author’s profound love for her country from the perspective of faith. The authenticity of her convictions is infectious and catching.
If every classroom had a Christine L. Diaz for a history teacher, history would be a favorite subject, and love for country would be entrenched in the heart of every Filipino.
And if every library had a copy of the book, it would be a dispenser of hope to every learner.
Diaz is a gift to this generation and to the next. Not receiving this gift would be such a waste of one of our country’s most recent and valuable resources.
by Charity Oh
These books, aptly called The OTHER Philippine History Textbook Book 1 & 2, are not like any other history book I have encountered. The author is history-teacher-cum-first-time-book-author Christine L. Diaz. The book was birthed from the truth that history is a much-abhorred subject among students, and that ordinary Filipinos do not wish to learn about it. Many Filipinos will plunk down to read the thick, hardbound novels of Stephanie Meyer but will not do the same with the twists and turns of the true-to-life stories of our country and people. Having realized the connection between learning and living, though, the author set out to write the books. In her own words, “…if we do not know our people, we would never grow to love them. And if we do not love our people, we would never endeavor to work for their good—for OUR good as a people” (Book 1, p. 7). Life and years in teaching taught the author that history can be taught in such a way as to instill its important lessons in the hearts of the learners, and that knowledge of history can become light and truth that will change its possessor and set him free.
Armed with love for her motherland, meticulous research, and her burning desire to tell the true heart-wrenching story of her country’s colonial past, the author courageously defied and dismantled the current and common beliefs that hold the Filipinos perennially stuck six feet below the ground. Treading on dangerous waters, the book valiantly and with clarity exposes the brutality of our colonizers and the extreme suffering that the Filipinos experienced under them. But citing a line from the movie Scent of a Woman, the author tells her fellow Filipinos, “You’re not bad; you’re just in pain.” Once the ordinary Filipino comes to learn about the past pains of his people, the healing can begin—and as the author believes—the ordinary life can turn extraordinary.
Book 1: Precolonial Philippines to the Philippine Revolution begins with an attempt to identify the Filipino. As explained by the author, it’s quite difficult to define the Filipino because of the various influences he has received and because he is a virtual mix of indigenous cultures. Indeed, we have yet to definitively establish our identity. In Christine Diaz’s own words, “…the foregoing information…hardly tell us who we really are. At best, they tell us what we have made of ourselves – which, unfortunately, is not much, to say the very least, considering the gloomy picture painted by the facts that have just been cited” (p. 34).Then comes the thought-provoking question, “Could it not be that we do what we do because we really don’t know who we are?” Then begins the telling of the saga of our people, who started out as belonging to a great precolonial kingdom but who were later overpowered by the greed of faraway conquistadores who caught a glimpse of our land’s gold, raw beauty, and untapped resources and thus called our land their own. Passing on to the people the very traits they called “savagery” or “lack of civility,” our erstwhile colonizers then erased in the process the valiant and honorable culture of the true Filipino.
In Book 2: The American Period to the Present, history becomes a living, breathing being seeking to be heard and understood. What really happened between the year 1898 and the present? Why have we become who we are presently? Unraveling the Filipino psyche calls for an understanding of our contradicting emotions and tangled past under the American rule, and the lies that we were made to believe; the harrowing three years when the Philippines hit “rock bottom,” as the book calls this chapter, under the imperial Japanese rule; and the awakening of Filipino nationalism. It all comes together in this book, as it asks every Filipino, “Quo Vadis, Filipinas?” The author does not stop here, though. She connects the past to our present privileges and responsibilities because she believes that the Filipino who knows the pitfalls of his past and the ugly truths of his present can better see the possibilities presented by the future. Christine Diaz tells us that armed with this knowledge about our past and present, we can no longer just sit around and do nothing to lift ourselves out of the quagmire we presently find ourselves in as a people. She ends with hope, saying, “It is darkest before the dawn.”
The real protagonist of this book is the reader, as he sees himself in every page. He then becomes no longer just a “Manileño” or an “Ilocano” or a “Santos” or a “Paras,” but a Filipino. A Filipino will always be a Filipino. We may leave the country and wear winter clothes, but our past will always be our past, our skin will always be brown, and our taste buds will always long for the taste of home. When asked the question “Who are you?” while sightseeing in Italy or working in Dubai, will we always be at a loss for an answer, or will our answer remain a confused and embarrassing hodge-podge mirroring our chaotic national identity? When asked again “Where do you come from?” will our timid reply constitute the name of a city or town as well as a landmark that may make that place recognizable to people abroad, and nothing else? Will pride not accompany our answer?
One who does not know his country’s past will have no identity. On this matter I quote America’s poet, Abram Joseph Ryan: A land without ruins is a land without memories; a land without memories is a land without a history.
History is OUR memories, not just those of the people of the past, and our memories make up our peculiar national identity as a people. With it, we will understand why we are the way we are today. But our past is in danger of being lost amidst the tide of survivalism. When we are too preoccupied with the business of daily survival, might not the act of voting come to suffice as a way of showing our love for our country? But love for one’s country cannot simply be a show; it must be a lifestyle, and the push to adopt such a lifestyle can be provided by Christine Diaz in The OTHER Philippine History Textbook. Read it so you would understand who you really are.
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