Lesson 2 : The Spanish Period
The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language editors. The Spanish conquerors, governing from Mexico for the crown of Spain, establish a strict class system that imposed Roman Catholicism on the native population. Augustinian and Franciscan missionaries, accompanied by Spanish soldiers, soon spread Christianity from island to island. Their mission was implemented the forced relocation of indigenous peoples during this time, as the uprooted natives turned to the foreign, structured religion as the new center of their lives. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos.
The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.
In the early 17th century a Chinese Filipino printer, Tomas Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized phonetic script writer, His intention was to teach his fellow Tagalog-speakers the principles of learning Spanish. His book, published by the Dominican press (where he worked) appeared in 1610. Unlike the missionary's grammar (which Pinpin had set in type), the native's book dealt with the language of the colonizers instead of the colonized. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and printed by a Philippine native. As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period. Pinpin construed translation in simple ways to help and encourage Tagalog readers to learn Spanish.
The natives, called "indios", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.
In the early 17th century a Chinese Filipino printer, Tomas Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized phonetic script writer, His intention was to teach his fellow Tagalog-speakers the principles of learning Spanish. His book, published by the Dominican press (where he worked) appeared in 1610. Unlike the missionary's grammar (which Pinpin had set in type), the native's book dealt with the language of the colonizers instead of the colonized. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and printed by a Philippine native. As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period. Pinpin construed translation in simple ways to help and encourage Tagalog readers to learn Spanish.