LANDSCAPE
By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA
Gemma Cruz Araneta00
Maximillanus Transylvanus, a Belgian born in 1490, wrote and published an account of the first circumnavigation after interviewing the survivors of Magellan’s epic voyage. He gave the Portuguese navigator the credit, without even mentioning Enrique de Malacca. There is a copy of this incunabula at the Lopez Museum and Library. According to this source, Magellan became sort of lenient with his crew when they sighted some islands after more than two years at sea. The barrels of wine, water, and dry food were totally depleted; many had died of scurvy, high fevers, desperation. So fresh food offered by friendly natives was manna from heaven.
It was the Lenten season. They touched earth on Easter Sunday. Magellan told his men to put on their formal wear in the tradition of knighthood. I wonder if they had energy enough to polish their armour, which must been rusty by then. Magellan sent chaplain Pedro de Balderrama ashore to prepare for Holy Mass. They were in Limasawa. (To this day, tie Butuanons insist that the first Mass was said in Butuan).
As the ships’ cannons roared (in violation of Charles V’s dictum), a make-shift chapel was put together with sails and branches, a large wooden cross was erected for everyone to see. The consecration during Holy Mass was punctuated with cannonades, it must have looked like an impressive ritual though incomprehensible to the natives who were probably impressed with the theatrics. Their rulers mimicked the kissing of the Cross.
However, historian Danilo Madrid Gerona argues:
“No amount of linguistic gymnastics could have made possible for Enrique, the translator, to effectively convey the cultural symbolisms of these religious icons of Castillian Christianity. The chieftains could not have understood how the cross was used for execution of criminals since no such penal strategy existed in their culture. More incomprehensible for them to understand that the most Supreme Being for Christianity died on the cross.” (Well, to this day, Pres. R. Duterte does not understand that, or pretends not to).
The Quincentennial must clarify the phenomenon of “instant conversions”once and for all, because generations of Filipinos (especially those of us who studied in Catholic schools) were made to believe that upon initial contact with Magellan and his crew, the natives of these islands understood why they were being baptized and became instant believers. Although the friar-missionaries were genuinely interested in harvesting souls for God’s glory, Christianization was a political tool by which natives became subjects of the king to whom they had to pay tribute. .
According to Pigafetta, Magellan told the natives that the cross “stood as a palpable sign of their friendship with the Spaniards and thus spared them from any belligerent action…Magellan boasted that if the cross was to be found on the highest mountain of their locality, neither thunder, lightning, nor the tempest could do them hurt.” He did not tell them it was a mark of conquest.
As we learned in school, only Humabon and Sula allied themselves with Magellan. Other chieftains, Lapu Lapu among them, refused to obey. According to Fray Aganduru Moriz, a 16thcentury historian, Lapu lapu not only ridiculed Magellan’s messenger but declared that he was the lord of the island like his forefathers who were vassals of no one. Magellan ordered Lapu Lapu to kiss Humabon’s hand and subject himself to the latter, but the chieftain of Mactan refused and defiantly taunted Magellan that they could defend themselves. Piqued by the haughty Indio, Magellan ordered the burning of villages.
We all know that Humabon and Lapu Lapu were enemies and that Magellan mindlessly entwined himself in their hegemonic disputes. He boasted that he could defeat Lapu Lapu while Humabon and his men watched from a distance. Juan Serrano, one of Magellan’s trusted men, tried to dissuade him from a “ risky, imprudent, and frightening “ enterprise, but the captain-general called him a coward. At low tide and with only 60 well-armed men, Magellan waded full tilt to shore where Lapu Lapu and thousands of warriors were waiting for the Spaniards. We are familiar with the “battle of Mactan” where firepower and armor were no match for the poisoned spears and arrows which the natives aimed at the bare legs of the Spaniards.
Historian Diego Barros Arana of Chile blamed Magellan’s explosive temper and his “repressed belligerent impulse.” He was, after all, an old soldier of the Indies, a daring adventurer committed to the sea who hardly ever encountered any challenge with the use of arms. Pardon my reductive view, but I believe that in Mactan, hubris got the better of him. Poor Magellan!
(ggc1898@gmail.com)