Pasyon and Revolution

I first became familiar with Reynaldo Ileto's Pasyon and Revolution as a freshman UP student taking up Kasaysayan I under Atoy Navarro, a brilliant young professor who smoked in front of class, spewed provocative thoughts with every puff, and was apparently denied tenure because his view of history was outside the mainstream. Ileto's book, as with many other readings in that class, gave me a much richer understanding of history, one that went beyond the stories of the elite, powerful, ilustrados of Manila.

Ileto succeeds brilliantly in his attempt to write a "history from below." Hermanong Pule hardly merits a paragraph in conventional history books, but Ileto makes him a central figure in Philippine history, demonstrating how his mastery of the Pasyon form allowed him to speak the language of the masses and lead them in a struggle that was both religious and political since no such artifical distinction existed in their minds. The Confradia de San Jose was only the first of a succession of movements that allowed the masses to shape Philippine history, the Katipunan being one of them. I used to think of Banahaw and Cristobal as the sanctuary of cults; I now realize they are holy places of Philippine history, consecrated by the prayers and the blood of heroes.