I have noticed that in all this material about Hispanic Philippines there is a preponderance of the topic of American policies as the root cause of the fact that Spanish is “no more” spoken in the Philippines. I consider this type of argument quite sterile and time wasting. We should not press the point any more than we should bewail the romanizing “policies” of imperial Rome for the destruction of the Iberian languages and local cultures of Spain. Among other considerations we must think that many original Iberian cultural and linguistic elements are preserved in the Spanish culture today although molded through history by a multitude of factors both internal to the culture and external.

All of the faits acomplis that resulted from the invasion and/or activities of the peoples named above form today integral part of the Spanish cultural wealth and it is sober to consider that all of it were fought against savagely in their times. Undoubtedly, this is also the case in the Philippines with Hispanic cultural elements, and perhaps much more so. Cultures are just this messy and it does not pay or make sense to be choosy on emotional or nationalistic grounds.

It is also true that cultural developments should not be left alone hoping that some kind of ‘natural selection’ would shift out what is worthless and keep what is worthwhile. If the insistence on discussing the “great Satans” that suppress cultures is a sterile discourse, this kind of socio-Darwinian argument is at best naïve. For it is also a fact that mankind has more than enough capacity to shape, and also misshape!, its affairs and that the natural thing for mankind is to influence and alter natural and cultural trends and phenomena.

(1) To base it in a statement of non-debatable facts.

I would leave to philologists and linguists the discussion of whether Spanish ever became the language of the Philippines. I would leave to political scientists and historians the discussion of whether there was ever a grand design to “destroy” the Spanish language in these islands. I would leave to sociologists and political scientists the discussion of whether the “loss” of the Spanish language here has lead to the chronic socio-economic prostration of the country. And I admit that those topics ARE fascinating, but I would set them aside and start from the realization of two facts:

• The Philippines is a Hispanic culture.

I use the term ‘culture’ here in its anthropological sense as a set of values and patterns of behavior shared by a society in its daily affairs. As this is not the occasion and I am not in the position to review them, let me just state here that there are many publications of all kinds attesting to this fact. Check as a sample ¿QUÉ QUEDA DE ESPAÑA EN FILIPINAS? by Antonio Molina.
 
• Spanish is not a major or quantitatively important language in the Philippines today.

The socio-politico-historical analyses of what led to this state of affairs are hotly debated. The debates are worth noting but should not distract from the main purpose of the exercise: what to do specifically about the Spanish in the Philippines. Which brings me to the next consideration:

It would not be serious to set as goals the recognition of Spanish as the official language of the state or the political banishment of those perceived to be responsible for the situation of the Spanish language in the Philippines. This would be, to use the neobarbarous Tagalog expression, ‘suntok sa buwan’ (roughly, boxing the moon).

It would be much more in consonance with the two basic facts enumerated above to list as objectives:

• The promotion Spanish in schools (1) as a cultural tool to deepen the understanding and appreciation of the national identity through the discovery of a very rich heritage and (2) as an economic tool to participate in the “global economy” in a very congenial niche: out there is a market of 500 million of Spanish speaking folks, Spain is the eleventh major world economy and the eighth leading investor abroad.
• The promotion of the active participation of the Philippine state in the various international fora of Iberian peoples (including Portugal and Brazil). These fora can be used as amplifiers of the Philippine voice in the world and participation in them can lead not only to a strengthening of the international position of the Philippines in the world but also to the consolidation of the Philippine identity as a Hispanic country.
• The defense, preservation and promotion of Chabacano as a unique asian-hispanic dialect.

A broad debate on the objectives could be the most productive way to reach a consensus. The list above does not pretend to be exhaustive, it is but a sample of achievable objectives. Similar objectives, when achieved, would doubtless contribute to create the environment in which a Hispanic conscience could set roots again in the Philippine people and institutions.

These plans must be set for different areas (political, financial, economic, cultural and public relations, etc.) and they have to be well coordinated and sharply focussed on the objectives. This is tantamount to preparing a serious project study of a much wider scope than this correspondence by a team of good people with different exposures. I’ll have to leave it at that.