Light in a time of pestilence

I’ve been down with the flu. So this is what it feels like to be sick. The last time I had the flu was way before the pandemic. My family and I have been lucky. We have not been hit by the worst of Covid-19. We are getting back to normal and, in the course of the past two years trying to make sense of what the world was going through, we have managed to learn more about how disease spreads not only in modern times but also in the past.

Linda A. Newson’s book Conquest & Pestilence: In the Early Spanish Philippines delves into the demographic impacts of Spanish colonial rule on the Philippines. She wanted to find out why the islands did not suffer as much depopulation from disease from Spanish contact as did what is now called Latin America, particularly among the Mayan and Aztec civilizations, when the Spanish entered its shores. She concludes that “chronic infections like malaria, dengue, leprosy, yaws, and possibly schistosomiasis and tuberculosis” were already endemic in the Philippines before the Spanish arrival. The inhabitants had well established trading patterns with other major groups in Southeast Asia and China before the arrival of the Spanish, so “acute infections like smallpox and measles” would have probably been introduced through these contacts. There were major epidemics during colonial times, but these outbreaks were contained.

According to Newson, the separation by islands, the low population density, and the dispersed location of settlements across the archipelago helped prevent the spread of disease. She also concluded that the inhabitants never acquired immunity to diseases given the low-density rates of the population (thereby not enough to reach “herd immunity”) and attributed depopulation during colonial times to disease, low infertility, military conflict, and harsh labor policies. The latter two would make the greatest impact on the population.

She wanted to find out why the islands did not suffer as much depopulation from disease from Spanish contact as did what is now called Latin America, particularly among the Mayan and Aztec civilizations, when the Spanish entered its shores.

In early Spanish times, the islands were being overrun by Moro marauders by land and sea. Historian Francisco Mallari S.J. unearthed letters from Manila to Spain in the 1600s and 1700s, which painted a “grim” picture of the situation, each letter prodding Spain into immediate action.  Numerous attempts to quell the attacks of the Moro pirates failed. It didn’t help that the Spanish fleet had deteriorated to what Mallari described as “frail wooden boats” against the superiority of the Moro vessels.

The Hispano-Dutch War (1568-1648) arose. The Dutch, seeing Spain’s weakened defenses on the islands, set its sight on Manila. In 1600, the Dutch participated in its first major battle with Spain in the Philippines. Spanish authorities prepared for an attack by the Dutch, scrambling to outfit trading ships with weapons of war. One such ship was the San Diego, which was sunk by the Dutch ship Mauritius on Dec. 14, 1600 near Fortune Island in Batangas.

Nine years later, in 1609, another attempt by the Dutch to blockade Manila (which lasted five months) was made unsuccessfully. The Dutch wanted to gain control of the Spice trade from Spain by taking Manila, disrupting trade and communication with Mexico/Spain.

For some time, the Spanish administration in the Philippines was bombarded by both the Moro pirates, who disrupted vandalas (tributes) to the Spanish government, and the Dutch, who were driven by their desire to become a global trading force. Spain, being a shared enemy, allowed an informal alliance to form between the Dutch and the Moros. Documents show how the Dutch encouraged the Moros to “undertake raids to coincide with their offensives” against the Spanish.

Given the need to build better ships to ward off the Moros and the Dutch, the polo (forced labor) was enforced in full force. Realizing that the Philippines would not be a rich source of gold and other high valued materials (compared to the colonies in the Americas), Spain needed to be able to support its colony locally. They implemented the vandalas (tributes) and the polo. It is said that the “extraordinary burdens” imposed by the polo (low if not no wages at all and poor working conditions) and vandala (forced sale to the government usually disadvantageous to the seller or quota tributes often leading to debt and forced labor) during the Hispano-Dutch War was the major cause of decline in the population of the Philippines in the early to mid-1600s.

Maybe it’s age or a learned behavioral condition from two years of being preoccupied with the health of my loved ones and mine, staying well has become a priority. One of my first social activity was a visit to my friend Jetro Vin Rafael’s revamped Van Gogh is Bipolar oasis on Maginhawa Street in Quezon City. I met him at an art workshop tour in Bhutan before the pandemic. For a week, our group of nine enjoyed the sights and sounds of the major cities of Bhutan, experiencing culture and creating art. For every destination, we were provided front row seats (literally) to paint the monument before us. To make art come alive was so therapeutic.

“The Circus Artists,” as we now call ourselves, have kept the light during the dark times of the pandemic with messages of encouragement and tiny reminders of keeping positive and never forgetting to appreciate “the self,” lifting our collective spirit, and knowing it’s OK not to be okay.

Soon after joining the group, I realized that not only did people join to be mentored by award-winning artist and TV personality Robert Alejandro, but to learn from his partner Jetro as well. Jetro is a committed naturalist. Most of the participants wanted to learn more about his advocacy for healthy eating and see first-hand how food could be used as medicine for illnesses both physical and mental. I must admit I got so many things wrong about this tour. I thought art tour meant visiting cultural sights and handicraft centers and eating healthy meant finding myself hungry all the time. Was I wrong!

What I discovered was a new world where the right food, which turned out to be delicious, filling, and pretty to look at, could positively impact personal health. Jetro has been in charge of Robert’s diet since the latter was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. Robert was not given much time to live but eating healthy changed all that. The change has given them more time.

Watching Jetro in Bhutan create wonderful dishes from fresh produce procured that day from the market and partaking of them convinced me this was doable. It gave me the courage to go 100 percent vegetarian for a few months. I saw an improvement in the way I felt, thought, and performed. It does take a lot of discipline and although I have gone back to a more well-represented diet (well before the pandemic hit), I am still a firm believer in a mostly vegetable-based food regime.

If you want to know more about Jetro's healthy meals and recipes, check out FB pages The Natural Scientist and Kuya Robert’s Healing Journey.

For further reading on these topics, refer to these sources: Newson, Linda A… Conquest & Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines, Ateneo de Manila Press 2011, and Mallari S.J., Francisco… The Spanish Navy in the Philippine, 1589-1787, Philippine Studies 37 (1989):412-39.