Local History: becoming articulate from below

           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.