2. AUTHORS BACKGROUND
Juan De Plasencia came as first Franciscan missionaries in the
Philippines in 1577.
one of the seven children of Pedro Portocarrero, a captain of a
Spanish schooner.
He died at Liliw, in the province of La Laguna in 1590.
3. He establish numerous primary schools and was well known
for his linguistic abilities.
Juan de Plasencia was a Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order.
Fray joan Puerto carrero, del convento de Villanueva de la
serena. Was his real name.
Born to illustrious family in Portocarreros in plasensia in the
region of xtramadura in spain in the early 16th century
4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Customs of the Tagalog was written by Spanish friar
Franciscan friar during the early 16th century. In the first
place, the author was not a native Tagalog but a Franciscan
Missionary who first arrived in the Philippines in 1577. He was
tasked by the King of Spain to document the customs and
traditions of the colonized (natives), based on his own
observation and judgment.
5. The first issue was about the authorship or the identity of the
author; second, the discourse of power in colonial writing; and
last, the logic of dichotomy, these issues are probably the
problems of colonial writing in the Philippines. Given the huge
amount of biases and to great extent, inaccurate judgment and
pretensions of the author of the Customs of the Tagalog, the
text was clearly not for local consumption but for Western
readers.
6. it was intentionally made to provide an eroticize description of the
Tagalog natives, clearly fed by politics and propaganda. He wrote
the Customs of the Tagalog to see the continuous progress of the
Native culture in the Philippines. He used his work to inform the
Filipinos about the differences and the similarities of our culture by
then and now. Also, his work made the Filipinos realized how
amazing the Tagalog culture before.
7. CONTENT
Customs of the Tagalogs, just like any other colonial texts
written during the Spanish colonial period, was intentionally
made to provide an exoticize description of the Tagalog natives,
clearly fed by politics and propaganda and operated with the
Western-outsider's gaze, that would be appealing to them.
8. Juan de plasencia was a Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order.
He was among the firstgroup of Franciscan missionaries who
arrived in the Philippines on July 2, 1578. He was tasked by the
King of Spain to document the customs and traditions of the
colonized (“natives”) based on, arguably, his own observations
and judgments.
9. He spent most of his missionary life in the Philippines, where he
founded numerous towns in Luzon and authored several
religious and linguistic books, most notably the Doctrina
Cristiana (Christian Doctrine), the first book ever printed in the
Philippines. Customs of the Tagalogs is a part of longer
monographs written by thechroniclers of the Spanish
expeditions to the Philippines during the early 16th and 17th
centuries.
10. They appeared initially in Blair and Robertson’s 55 volumes, “The
Philippine Islands (1903)”and in the “Philippine Journal of
Sciences (1958). The Customs of the Tagalogs mainly focuses on
the government, administration of justice, slaves, inheritance and
dowries. he mentioned in his account that every Barangay, a tribal
gathering consists of 30-100 families together with their slaves,
have their own Dato, at the top of the social status, who governed
the people and was the captain in their wars, followed by the
Maharlikas, commoners and slaves.
11. Plasencia described how children were divided between the
married Maharlika and slave (Namamahay or Sa Guiguilid).
Plasencia also noted the dowry system that was practiced by the
native Tagalogs—dowries were given by the men to the
women’s parents before marriage.
14. ALIPING NAMAMAHAY
(COMMONERS)
ALIping namamahay translated as
("Servant who is housed") refers to alipin
that had their own houses, which was
usually built on the property of their
masters.
15. ALIPING SAGUIGUILID
(SLAVES)
They serve their master in his house and on his
cultivated lands, and may be sold. The master
grants them, should he see fit, and providing
that he has profited through their industry, a
portion of their harvests, so that they may work
faithfully.
