municipal councils to the higher and lower houses of the legislature, and from local mayors to the president-the more we see mestizos, descendants of the three mixed races. The same is true in business, such as plantation agriculture, manufacturing, and shipping. The exception is in the field of culture, where, if I am not mistaken, we see brown skin just as often as white or yellow. The high position held by the mestizos was a result of the political revolution in the Philippines, which, viewed even from the political angle, let alone the economic one, was a failure.
Almost 100 percent of the Veterano, the former revolutionary fighters of 1898-1901 who struggled first against the Spanish and then against the Americans, consisted of indigenous Indonesians. A revolutionary veteran who knew him told me that the father of the revolution, Andres Bonifacio, was an indigenous Indonesian from Tondo on the outskirts of Manila. The revolutionary president, Aguinaldo, the famous minister of foreign affairs, Mabini, and, finally, the “father of the Philippines,” Jose Rizal, were all indigenous Indonesians who had little if any mixed blood.6 The Philippine revolution was a revolution of the workers and peasants under the leadership of a truly revolutionary section of the intelligentsia.
[125] But with the capture of President Aguinaldo by the Americans, the leadership of the revolution fell apart and the guerrilla war could not be maintained. Aguinaldo took an oath before the Americans, swearing to withdraw from politics as long as the Philippines were under American rule (1901-1946).7 Mabini, paralyzed but still unwilling to collaborate with the Americans, was exiled to Guam and died there, together with many of his comrades who would not make peace with America.8 Some guerrilla generals, such as Ricarte, were able to escape to Japan and to stay there until the Philippines surrendered to Japan.9 Andres Bonifacio, the first to unfurl the flag of freedom and to attack the Spanish troops, was murdered, supposedly by Aguinaldo’s soldiers, during the revolution.
So you can see that those who were the most prominent in the revolution did not take part in the American administration afterwards. And those in the front lines, particularly the ordinary fighters, were mostly indigenous Indonesians.
Because under Spanish rule the children of rich Spaniards and Chinese formed the majority of those attending secondary and tertiary schools in the Philippines, it was in the main they who were used by American imperialism to “develop the Philippines.” Thus, nearly all Philippine administrative offices were staffed by mestizos who became American subjects and willingly cooperated with American imperialism. Likewise, nearly all the mestizo-owned plantations, factories, shipping lines, and stores (including those bought by mestizos during and after the revolution) were left intact, while many of the peasant-soldiers returned from the battlefield to find their land sold or mortgaged. As the people of Jakarta say: the master eats the jack-fruit, and I get the sap.10
It would not be accurate to say that the mestizos consciously manipulated the native people in order to topple Spanish imperialism, only to lead them under the rule of American imperialism. In history such a development is but a natural process. Those who are most oppressed—the workers and peasants—form the mass base for the struggle. The workers and peasants chose as their leaders indigenous Filipino intellectuals because they lived directly in their midst and shared the bitterness of foreign oppression.
[127] The oppressors and the oppressed in the Philippines, although of different races, did have much in common. First and foremost they shared a common religion, Christianity, and the culture which developed from that religion in the Philippines. It is this common religion and culture that has blurred or even eliminated the difference of skin color between the indigenous people and the mestizos and that drew the lower classes of the mestizos into the storm of the revolution. This is how a very popular general, such as Luna, could be a mestizo.11 The late President Manuel Quezon was only twenty-four years old at the time of the revolution, but with a bolo (machete) in his hand he was able to reach the rank of major. Dearly loved by his soldiers, he was a genuine mestizo: fifty-fifty Filipino and Spanish blood.12 Up to the time I was there (1927) the mestizos were not a class apart, distrusted and hated by the indigenous Filipino. On the contrary, the word “mestizo” was not pejorative, but a symbol of a privileged group in Filipino society. In the annual Queen Contest it was the mestizo form and appearance that was used as the measure of beauty. The Indo-Chinese or Indo-Europeans, however slight the Chinese or European blood in their veins, preferred calling themselves mestiza rather than using the name of the race of their father or mother. This all relates to the high position held by the mestizos in the economic, social, and political fields.
It would not be far from the truth to say that the Indo-Europeans and Indo-Chinese in the Philippines during the time of Spanish imperialism were in general far more radical and more integrated with the indigenous people than were the Indo-Europeans and Indo-Chinese in Indonesia. As mentioned above, many of them played an important part in the revolution.
Since they shared language and religion and action during the revolution, it is not surprising that the mestizos in the time of American imperialism entered the administrative offices and even the legislature without opposition from the common people. What conflict there has been with the mestizos (and this has become more evident in recent years) arose from economic and social conflict—that is, the conflict between the Indonesian (indigenous Filipino) workers and the mestizo capitalists. Most of the haciendas, factories (sugar, tobacco, and so forth), and shipping lines were owned by mestizos. But this conflict did not give rise to an anti-mestizo feeling since other mestizos were not exempt from the process of proletarianization.13
[128] Even at the height of the revolution the Filipino revolutionaries did not direct their attacks and their slogans against foreigners. There are many stories, some written by American observers, that describe how nearly all the Spanish soldiers held by the Filipinos were well treated and returned to their commanders after being disarmed. Frequently they were even left with their weapons, since the Filipinos fought only with bolos. Not a few Spanish soldiers, after getting to know the Filipinos, felt deceived by their government and regretted their past actions, staying to risk their lives with the Filipinos and refusing to return to Spanish-held areas. But one also hears of executions and torture suffered by the Spanish priests, because they were so hated by the Filipino people. Do not forget that it was the priests who, in the time of Spanish imperialism, possessed most of the property (land, churches, etc.) and political and social power in the Philippines. In essence the Philippine revolution was directed against landholders cloaked in priestly vestments, and not against foreigners themselves or against foreign religion.14
Agricultural workers, particularly in the Mariquina area—who organized before World War II into the rebel Sakdalista and after the war into the Hukbalahap—continually mounted attacks on the landholders (hacienderos).15 This only proves that the revolution of 1898-1901, like many before it, did not solve the agrarian problem.
That completes my rough outline of the greatest and most recent Philippine revolution. I feel that now I should fill in the sketch with some detail.
The Filipino pemuda of today have a right to be proud of the three hundred or so rebellions, half of which were of substantial size, carried out by the Filipino people over some four hundred years with the aim of freeing themselves from the shackles of cruel and reactionary Spanish imperialism.16 I say they have a right to be proud because these continual rebellions were the clearest expression of a spirit that resisted colonization. Naturally we are unable to relate the history of all these revolutions here. Let us just take a few facts from the most recent Philippine revolution, that which aimed to overthrow Spanish and American imperialism (1898-1901).
Inseparable from this revolution is the name “La Liga Filipina” (the Philippine League) and that of its founder, Dr. Jose Rizal. To shorten the story and to make things clearer, it might help if I compare La Liga Filipina with our Studieclub, later to become the PBI (Persatuan Bangsa Indonesia) and still later Parindra. I shall compare Dr. Rizal with Dr. Soetomo, the late
