Today is Bonifacio Day, the day marked red in our calendars to honor Andres Bonifacio, the Great Plebeian according to our local historians. The day students from elementary to college also celebrate since they will have more time to watch tv or go malling. But what do we really know about Bonifacio? Well, our teachers in elementary, particulary in the subject Sibika at Kultura, taught us over and over again the following things about the man:
He was born in Tondo, Manila.
He came from a poor family.
His father and mother died while he was still 14, forcing him to stop schooling and became the breadwinner for his younger brothers and sisters.
He made canes and paper fans, which he sold in the streets, for living.
Because of low income, he supplemented his studies through reading a lot and self-study.
He read Rizal's novels, Victor Hugo's Les Miserable, and the lives of the presidents.
He married Gregoria de Jesus.
He founded the Katipunan and presided the Tejeros Convention.
He was executed by Aguinaldo's men at Cavite.
These are the facts about Andres Bonifacio that long time ago, when I was still wearing my porontong and watching Voltes V and AstroBoy, I memorized by heart. But what if the things we know about Bonifacio were all bogus and were just fabricated by our early historians? What if the qualities and facts attributed to Bonifacio were all just invented?
American professor of history Glenn Anthony May wrote in his book titled Inventing A Hero: The Posthumous Re-creation of Andres Bonifacio that our historians have committed the crime of misleading the younger generation of Filipinos by reconstructing and cleaning Andres Bonifacio's image, making him an ideal hero which would eventually promote nationalism among Filipinos. He supported his claim by challenging the authenticity of Artigas and de los Santos' accounts about the Supremo's life in which the latter two indeed failed to prove their accounts as genuine since they haven't cited even a single source for their information.
He was born in Tondo, Manila.
He came from a poor family.
His father and mother died while he was still 14, forcing him to stop schooling and became the breadwinner for his younger brothers and sisters.
He made canes and paper fans, which he sold in the streets, for living.
Because of low income, he supplemented his studies through reading a lot and self-study.
He read Rizal's novels, Victor Hugo's Les Miserable, and the lives of the presidents.
He married Gregoria de Jesus.
He founded the Katipunan and presided the Tejeros Convention.
He was executed by Aguinaldo's men at Cavite.
These are the facts about Andres Bonifacio that long time ago, when I was still wearing my porontong and watching Voltes V and AstroBoy, I memorized by heart. But what if the things we know about Bonifacio were all bogus and were just fabricated by our early historians? What if the qualities and facts attributed to Bonifacio were all just invented?
American professor of history Glenn Anthony May wrote in his book titled Inventing A Hero: The Posthumous Re-creation of Andres Bonifacio that our historians have committed the crime of misleading the younger generation of Filipinos by reconstructing and cleaning Andres Bonifacio's image, making him an ideal hero which would eventually promote nationalism among Filipinos. He supported his claim by challenging the authenticity of Artigas and de los Santos' accounts about the Supremo's life in which the latter two indeed failed to prove their accounts as genuine since they haven't cited even a single source for their information.
If this is true, then who really was the man in whose statues we erected in our plazas? Sounds like very Da Vinci Code-ish, isn't it? This is the challenge for our present day historians: refute what May claimed Bonifacio was!
-oOo-
Speaking of heroes, our very own Efren Penaflorida was awarded by CNN as Hero of the Year for his dedication and passion to educate our unfortunate fellowmen through his mobile classroom which he called as "Kariton Klassroom". Efren is one of the unsung heroes which was recently noticed by international institutions such as CNN because of his selfless humanitrian act. His deeds are inspirations for other Filipinos, including yours truly. But sad to say, a lot of personalities as of the moment, most of them politicians, are now riding the band wagon of Penaflorida's success and popularity. Of course, the government will not be absent from the scene. Instantly, upon Penaflorida's arrival, they honored him the Order of Lakandula Award. If they have honored Penaflorida prior from heralding him as Hero of the Year by CNN, people won't give any color of malice to it. But now, I think it's too late. Philippine politics --- very lousy.
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