Table Of ContentClash of Spirits
C
lash of
S
pirits
the history of power and
sugar planter hegemony
on a visayan island
Filomeno V. Aguilar, Jr.
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
© 1998 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
03 02 01 00 99 98 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aguilar, Filomeno V.
Clash of spirits : the history of power and sugar
planter hegemony on a Visayan island / Filomeno V.
Aguilar.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and
index.
isbn0–8248–1992–6 (cloth : alk. paper). —
isbn0–8248–2082–7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Negros Island (Philippines)—Civilization.
2. NegrosIsland—(Philippines)—Socialconditions.
3. Negros Island (Philippines)—Economic condi-
tions. 4. Sugar trade—Philippines—Negros
Island. 5. Plantations—Philippines—Negros
Island. I. Title.
ds688.n5a34 1998
959.9(cid:1)5—dc21 98–16629
cip
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-
free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Omega Clay
May kaibahan na
pagguirumdom asin pagmabalos
ki Papa na yaon na sa
Kagurangnan
Contents
Preface ix Introduction 1
part i (cid:1) Colonial Enchantments, Indigenous Contests
1 A Clash of Spirits: Friar Power and Masonic Capitalism 15
2 Cockfights andEngkantos: Gambling on Submission and
Resistance 32
3 Elusive Peasant, Weak State: Sharecropping and the Changing
Meaning of Debt 63
part ii (cid:1) The World of Negros Sugar after 1855
4 The Formation of a LandedHacendero Class in Negros 97
5 “Capitalists Begging for Laborers”:Hacienda Relations in
Spanish Colonial Negros 126
6 Toward Mestizo Power: Masonic Might and the Wagering of
Political Destinies 156
7 The American Colonial State: Pampering Sugar into an
Agricultural Revolution 189
Abbreviations 229 Notes 231
References 275 Index 305
Preface
With the deepening rapprochement between history and the so-
cial sciences, the past is no longer what it used to be. The past has
ceased to be viewed as merely another country: the past lives on as an
arenaofdebate and a flourishing field of interpretations. In the particu-
lar case of societies that were under the sway of imperial colonial powers,
local scholarsoftenwritehistorywiththeclearintentofmeetingtheemo-
tional demands of the nation. It must be a usable past, as Renato Con-
stantino has said.
Usually having received a Western-style education, the historian of
and from a former colony confronts a host of challenges. History is writ-
ten to edify the modern nation and speak to a culture whose traditional
forms and aims of retelling the past differ from those of the West, while
at the same time abiding by certain canons of Western historiography.
These aims may be difficult to reconcile, although Soedjatmako’s argu-
mentaboutthepolyinterpretabilityofhistorymaybecomforting.Inwrit-
ing this book, however, I found that history’s polyinterpretability can be
located not only in a range of authors who represent different perspec-
tives but even within myself as crafter of the historical narrative.
Inthecourseofmyresearchbutespeciallyduringtheperiodofactual
writing,Ifoundthatmomentsofuncertainty,speculation,andimagina-
tion were interspersed with moments of objectivity, empirical certainty,
andfactualrectitude.Momentsoftheoryandlogicweldedwithmoments
of sentiment and invention. Moments of ironical detachment joined
x Preface
moments when I felt the great need to thresh out misconceptions. Mo-
ments when I sprang to the defense of my natal land mingled with mo-
ments when I consciously fought the inordinate celebration of the in-
digenous. Moments when I wanted to glare back at the colonial gaze
intersected with moments when I sought to overcome the traps of colo-
nialist discourse. Moments when I was convinced that, despite the haz-
ards of translation, local and national histories must be understood on
theirowntermsratherthanthroughWesternlensescombinedwiththose
when I was also convinced such histories would be the poorer if they re-
mained parochial and insular. Moments when I believed the past to be
recoverable competed with those when I felt history is all fiction. These
various moments converge in the text which, in its entirety, is of course
meaningful to me. Despite its many failings, which are wholly my own,
and notwithstanding errors I did not detect, which should not be held
against the people whose names appear in the following paragraphs, I
hope that, if not in toto, various sections and aspects of the text will be
found meaningful by others as well.
Luang Wichit Watthakan suggested that the historian is more than
God because, with the might of a pen or a computer keyboard, he or she
can change the past. Despite my inadvertent mistakes and lapses, my
avowed goal could not be farther from the Thai intellectual’s suggestion
of playing God. Rather, as someone struggling for existential consistency
as a Christian, I find one biblical incident during the claiming of the
Promised Land (Josh. 5:13–14) highly instructive. After crossing the
Jordan and just before leading a bloody conquest, Joshua sees “a man
standing in front of him with a sword drawn in his hand.” During this vi-
sion, he inquires of the man, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”, to
which the response is “Neither.” In the case of this book’s narrative, the
standpoint I take is encapsulated in that response. Not that such matters
as identities and allegiances are unimportant, for they definitely are.
But, despite the incomprehensibilities of the past, it is my personal be-
lief that the purposes of the Lord of history, whose thoughts are higher
than my thoughts, are being accomplished in rather unfathomable ways.
This belief I find to be liberating because within its bounded limits, I
gratefully take the liberty of exploring and reinterpreting the past.
The making of this work, which was originally presented as a doctoral
thesis at Cornell University, has its own little history with a number of
unexpected twists and turns. My first three weeks of archival diggings,
which happened to be in London, had to be cut short by the death of my
beloved father in Naga, in the Philippines. After a period of mourning, I
returned to Europe and was surprised to receive the generosity of Rene
Salvania, who selflessly shared with me a handwritten catalog of Philip-
Description:This text illuminates the oral traditions of the Philippines and the convergence of capitalism and the indigenous spirit world. The author examines the social relations, cultural meanings and political struggles surrounding the rise of sugar haciendas on Negros during the late Spanish colonial perio
