The Ilustrado’s Orphan: Generational Misrecognition and the Filipino Self

Abstract

From being the language of the first Republic of the Philippines, Spanish
practically vanished in the archipelago. Its disappearance was not a natural
process, but a projected program aimed at erasing its role in building the
Philippine nation and the Filipino self, starting from childhood. By constructing
a new historical narrative and pedagogical intervention taught to infants, the
United States of America created a generational break between Filipinos that
ended in the estrangement with the written national heritage. This paper focuses
on the beginnings of the process towards de-Hispanization during the first part
of the American period, and the human and cultural consequences of such for
generations of orphans without forefathers.