PAST FORWARD: A deeper understanding of history, with pictures to boot!

JOBERS REYNES BERSALES

Jose Raymundo Canoy’s work, “An Illustrated History of the Philippines” was launched in Cebu by National Bookstore yesterday.  One should not be fooled by its simple title. It  is no mean feat to write in so fewer words the history of a nation than one would expect, much less threading through the country’s history with a critical approach. The end result is not just any ordinary history book properly interspersed with well-captioned and beautifully-shot photographs but one that offers us s a deeper understanding about this country and why it is what it is today.

As a historian worthy of his craft, Ray does not disappoint in this book. Easily mistaken for a simple reference volume, the questions he asks in the introductory chapter immediately grounds this important work as not a mere or simple travelogue into the centuries that make up the Philippines. Rather, it provides the reader with a deeper understanding of this country. This is clearly not just designed for first-time visitors to the Philippines or some foreigner intent on getting to know more about these 7,000 plus islands’ past and present. It is also a must for Filipinos who grew up in the tradition of outmoded trivia-driven and uncritical presentation of the nation’s history.

In fact for Filipinos, this book is a painful but nonetheless necessary reminder that to understand what we have become as a nation today, one with so many myriad challenges and difficulties—despite a good command of English and a large body of educated masses—we need to look back at what went before us.

Although clearly exhibiting a deep scholarly bent in the way he presents the story of the Philippines, Ray has clearly taken pains to reach out to as many possible readers of different motivations by using words that can be understood by just about anyone. There is no pretense at high theory or overarching grand explanations. Even a high school or late elementary school reader can comprehend the contents of this book.

Historian and author Jose Raymundo Canoy during the Cebu launching of his book “An Illustrated History of the Philippines” at the National Bookstore on Feb. 17, 2019. |Photo by Jobers Reynes Bersales

What I immediately loved about this volume is the use of photographs that are not Manila-centric. The book opens with a spread of Fort Pilar in Zamboanga instead of Fort Santiago in Manila. Its introductory chapter opens with Miago-ao Church in Iloilo province. This is a clever attempt and a very welcome one at that for those of us who are ‘promdi’, which can only be because the author himself is not from the imperial center of Manila. In this alone, Ray has already won my vote. For it is also very clear that this is not going to be just the story of the nation’s capital and its ruling elite but also of the little people who, in the end, matter most especially now that the elections are coming, when voters become kings and queens for a day.

As an archaeologist, I also like the way the author has swept away forcefully all these fake news about the country being a rajahnate, dismissing such high notions of grand centralized chiefdoms, such awkward fakery as the country being part of the Madjapahit or the Sri Vijaya empire or even at the center of it all.

In sum, we have here a well-written book by a fellow Cebuano at home in the world who began his career here in Cebu but who went further to earn his spurs, as it were, but never forgetting where his roots lay. The book will surprise you in many ways but it will clearly evince the fact that, it is always good to see someone write not from the bastion of imperial Manila but from the so-called margins, shedding light on the darkened places in this nation’s history that have never before been illumined in the noble attempt to explain as much as possible the whys of our past.

For those looking for trivialities and superficialities this book is obviously not for you. That is for those who cannot imagine beyond lists and bullet points. This is a book that allows your to imagine beyond the trivial, no matter how painful that imagination will be for some or all of us Filipinos. Let me congratulation Ray for giving us this book, this mirror, for us to reflect about ourselves and where we have been. For it is only by looking back that we can move forward.