Today, a festive atmosphere permeates the whole Cebu City and its vicinity. What is marked is of significance beyond Cebu. What is celebrated is the beginning of Christianity in the country.
It appears from the letters of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to King Philip II that when he reached the shores of Cebu in 1565, he was not certain whether to stay or to move somewhere else. But one of his soldiers discovered the image of the Santo Niño and Legazpi interpreted this as a miraculous sign that God has waited for them in these islands. This narrative was used to give justification to the brutal conquest of the island and later, many others employed this narrative to legitimize the more than three centuries of Spanish colonization.
It is assumed, (a reasonable assumption, I may add) that the image that a soldier discovered was the same image Magellan gave to “Queen” Juana, upon her request, in 1521. This was how Spanish officials viewed the image. It was seen as a sign from the heavens that what was begun by Magellan should be continued by Legazpi.
But Christina H. Lee, a Princeton University professor, in her book Saints of Resistance, would question this prevailing assumption. Legazpi himself may not have been aware of any story of an image of the Holy Child brought by Magellan. It is contended that we are unduly “connecting the dots”— Pigafetta’s account of the queen’s reception of the image and Legazpi’s narration of the discovery of the image — in concluding that it is one and the same. There could be other foreign sources, like the Portuguese in their attack of Bohol around 1563.
But here’s the catch: The natives themselves claimed ownership of the image. In Fray Gaspar de San Agustin’s Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, the Augustinian friar writes that the natives of Cebu claimed that the Santo Niño had been with them since time immemorial.
Thus, there was a contestation on the ownership and origin of the image of the Santo Niño. In the account of Legazpi, there was an incident wherein “King” Tupas and his men wanted to see Legazpi but instead saw and admired how the Spaniards honoured the child-God. They did not honor the Santo Niño as another diwata, as the Spaniards accused the Cebuanos of doing. But is it not possible that the Spaniards grossly misinterpreted the Cebuanos’ own way of showing devotion to the Holy Child?
The negative judgment of the Spaniards could have come from their own conquerors’ perspective and the Eurocentric bias that their way of worshipping was the only correct way to honor the Divine Child. In contrast, the Cebuanos may have been showing that their way of honoring the Divine Child was also authentic.
If the original batch of Spanish missionaries were here today witnessing shouts of “Pit Señor kang Lola kini!” while dancing the sinulog, would they not also cry out in protest, “Que barbaridad! What have they done to the Santo Niño?”
Indeed, our acceptance of Christianity was not passive. We choose which parts to accept and how to accept it. Christianization was not a matter of transplanting the faith from Spain to the Philippines. In other words, it was more than the acceptance of a Hispanic Christianity. We also indiginized Christianity.
From the same book Saints of Resistance, more examples can be given: The devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary, La Naval de Manila was not popular among the natives in the early Spanish rule. It was seen to be Hispanic. After all, the conquistadores attributed their arrival to our shores to the guidance of Our Lady of the Rosary. So, why should the natives pray before the Virgin who brought these colonizers to our islands? In contrast, the natives were easily endeared to Our Lady of Antipolo whom they transformed from her Spanish origin to a local advocate.
Making our own version of Christianity continues to our day. We hear stories of communities making their own devotions which were of Spanish origin. There are explanations that the Birhen sa Regla is of dark skin because she would often take a leave from the altar to swim in the beaches of Mactan. Meanwhile, Our Lady of Guadalupe is of fairer skin because her complexion is protected by the mango trees of Guadalupe.
The Spaniards Christianized the natives. Our ancestors in the past and we ourselves today also nativize Christianity. This is to be expected. After all, what the Spaniards gave to us was also a Europeanized Christian faith. What we believe in is universality, not uniformity.