Cracks  in  the  Parchment  Curtain  

 

• A  reference  to  the  “iron  curtain”  and  “bamboo  curtain,”  referring  to  the  Soviet  Union  

and  to  China,  respectively.  

• State  control  of  information  in  these  states.  For  the  Philippines,  there  is  the  

“parchment  curtain,”  where  the  Spanish  regime  used  their  “official”  documents  to  

prevent  modern  Filipinos  from  forming  a  clear  picture  of  their  past.  

• Teodoro  A.  Agoncillo:  it  will  never  be  possible  to  write  a  real  history  of  the  Filipino  

people  under  Spain  because  the  colonial  government  enjoyed  a  monopoly  on  the  

production  of  source  materials.  

• The  cracks  refer  to  fleeting  glimpses  of  Filipinos  and  their  reactions  to  Spanish  

dominion.  These  insights  do  not  generally  appear  in  the  official  histories.  

 

Some  examples:  

• Juan  Salcedo’s  hojas  de  servicios  or  “service  record,”  which  is  a  collection  of  sworn  

testimonies  to  a  man’s  service  to  the  King  (for  some  personal  reward  or  pension).  

The  procedure  was  for  a  notary  public  to  swear  in  a  number  of  witnesses  and  ask  

each  of  them  a  series  of  set  questions  about  the  actual  deeds  of  the  person  involved.  

• Notarized  document  of  18  April  1571,  formalizing  Legazpi’s  occupation  of  Manila.  

• Origin  of  the  word  “Igorot.”  It  was  found  that  their  existence  and  characteristics  

were  known  for  some  time  before  the  time  of  writing  of  one  of  the  documents  found.  

 

Insights/Reaction  to  Spanish  dominion:  

• From  the  hojas  de  servicios  and  the  notarized  document  of  1571,  it  was  shown  that  

the  native  Filipinos  back  then  were  very  much  against  or  hostile  to  the  Spanish  

occupation.  The  accounts  show  both  the  defenses  and  offenses  that  the  Filipinos  

have  made  against  the  Spaniards  during  this  period.  

• These  accounts  aren’t  really  highlighted  in  official  histories,  but  are  available  to  us  

as  “cracks  in  the  parchment  curtains.”