THIS is a reprint of the opening portion of my article with that title, which appeared in the Saint Louis University Research Journal in December 1984. That was 24 years ago.

View photos of anti-Charter change rally from around the country
For minute updates follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Preliminary Observations

In 1511, the Western world (represented by Portugal) stepped on Southeast Asian territory for the first time. Among the places that it subsequently covered with the veil of European influence were Java and Sumatra and up north, together with the rest of the Philippines, the province of Pampanga. Pampanga was invaded and conquered by Spain in 1571.

Before it was covered with the heavy curtain of Spanish culture, how did the Pampangan image look like? This question was answered by John A. Larkin in his well-acclaimed pioneering work, but he leaves ample space for a more thorough treatment of the topic.

One productive exercise not yet done to date, for example, is to compare pre-Spanish Pampangans with pre-Portuguese Javans and Sumatrans. This, precisely, is what the present essay will do as a modest contribution to the fast-growing trend of regional historiography in the country.

The following discussions, where one Filipino ethnic group is singled out for the spotlight, unfortunately carry the danger of arousing the divisive spirit to which we Filipinos not infrequently succumb. But, most certainly, it must not do so.

A deeper knowledge of any portion of the country should, on the contrary, cause a deeper love for the whole nation and, consequently, for the other constituent parts of the nation.

It is presumably in this spirit that several scholars belonging to other provinces or regions here have, in the recent past, published authoritative articles and books on their respective groups.

The comparative analysis done in this paper touches almost exclusively on linguistics and religion. And the treatment does not claim to be exhaustive. It is, rather, merely an exploratory step. The reason for this limitation is the scarcity of authoritative sources presently available to this writer.

It is hoped that the day will come very soon when the availability of such sources will bring the concepts contained herein from the “desert” of probability to the “promised land” of certitude.

Original territory identified

As late as the closing decade of the seventeenth century, the Kapampangan tribe inhabited a wide area whose boundaries included not only those of the above-mentioned province, but also parts of at least three present-day political provinces: Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and Bataan.

In Tarlac, the towns of Bamban, Capas, Concepcion, and Tarlac (the capital) belonged to the territory of Pampanga. One Tarlac town whose population is almost one hundred percent Ilocano has a name which is not an Ilocano word: Mayantoc.

This is a Pampanga adjective referring to a place where there is “plenty of rattan.” One wonders who the earlier settlers of that place were.

In Nueva Ecija, the city of Cabanatuan and the towns of Gapan, Carranglan, Pantabangan, Bongabon, and Cabiao, the majority of whose inhabitants do not belong to the group under study, were parts of Pampanga.

The last-mentioned town, which, parenthetically, touches the Pampangan boundary, owes its name to a Kapampangan word (kabio) meaning “to extract sugar from the cane by crushing it.” Also falling within the circumference of this extended province were the present Bataan towns of Dinalupihan, Hermosa, and Orion (at least these three, that is).

End notes

1. John A. Larkins, The Pampangans: Colonial Society in a Philippine Province (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972).

2. Regarding this trend, see Samuel K. Tan, “The Methodology of Regional History,” The Journal of History 22 (January-December 1977): 5-11; and Marcelino A. Foronda, Jr., “Bibliographic Sources and Regional History,” ibid, 12-18.

3. Gaspar de San Agustin, Conquistas de las islas Filipinas, 1565-1615, ed. by Manuel Merino, O.S.A. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1975), pp. 658-9. This work was first published in 1698. Gregorio Ochoa del Carmen, Historia general de la orden de agustinos recoletos (Zaragosa: Imprenta Editorial Gambon, 1929), vol. IX, pp. 56-9

4. The meanings of the words of the different Philippine languages referred to in this essay were supplied to this writer by native-born speakers, except Pampangan, which is his mother tongue.

5. Gaspar de San Agustin, ibid., p. 659; Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga, Status of the Philippines in 1800 (Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild, 1973), pp. 341 & 347. Original Title: Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas. First published in 1893, Madrid. English version by Vicente Carmen

6. Ibid., pp. 342 & 357.