Inarticulate
means unuttered of not articulate, and in the context of Constantino it means a
lot about history of the Philippines dating back before the Spanish regime. In one of his works, he
talked much about the local history here in the country which he emphasized as a very vital
thing to study because as I see it, we can’t construct a history book with
accurate information and can be understand by many if it does not contain
something that came from local stories. I believe that this is a big deal in
making our history more understandable and comprehensive in which it will give a more
specific story which are important and that have been left out due to lack of
research.
Local history is an issue whether
academicians/historians focus on it, in another field of history or focus
on rewriting our past starting from below. I do agree with the historians who understand the importance of our local history and I say that these really pose a
real challenge to our historians because our country lacks its background. We
have much about our great heroes; why not make more about those locals who also
make a resistance during the Spanish era. They have stories to tell too and
that they may also have something to tell about the pre-Spanish era which is a
very important piece of writing a comprehensive history of the land. But somehow this is not an
easy task to do; we may not see the obstacles ahead of knowing this.
If it’s about the evidence written by the Spanish, it will be easy to be
debunked by the experts but if it’s about the story before their arrival, it
will be so difficult, because somehow, stories which were not written down were
sometimes the invention of the imaginative mind of the locals who sought in a
supernatural being. It might lead only to exhaustion of the story.
There were
sometimes stories made for literary purposes and yet somehow contains historical
background but it takes time to find it out with thorough investigation and
analysis. And another was that our country is compose of diverse cultures and
languages which make it more difficult because one who studies the local
history should also be fluent of the dialect of the locals because sometimes
this languages pose something historical.
To sum up the things regarding local history, there were instances that stories were
merely invention of the mind who sought through the magical world but somehow
they were helpful in constructing a good story of the past, they just need to
examine it. Local history was an important aspect of learning the overall
framework of our history for they support the events that took place before. Having
an in-depth study of the localities will help us make a great researched
statement of our past. We won’t only rely on the events written down by the
chroniclers because the resources were available here, they are just waiting to
be found and study.
