The Pre-Spanish Period

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Ailene F.

Quinto

BSMA-lll

Even before the Spaniards and other races have set foot in our land, our ancestors
already have their literature that are engraved in our history. Mostly, Filipino ancient literature
shows the beliefs, traditions and everyday life of our forefathers. Our ancestors also have their
own alphabet which was different from those brought by the Spaniards. Our forefathers may
have been curious on why things were present and in order to define their own world, to
account the realities on it, and to explain their feelings, emotions, beliefs and customs, they
have made stories to record all of those experiences. The pre-Spanish period existed before the
year 1564, and the literary works during that time was characterized as: legends, epic, folktales,
folk songs, riddles, chants (bulong), proverbs, epigrams (salawikain) and sayings (kasabihan).
Mostly the remaining record of the works of our ancestor was burned down by the Spaniards
because they believe that it was a work of an evil and also since they were written in materials
like dried leaves, bark of trees, and bamboos they would tend to be easily destroyed no matter
how hard they would try to preserve them. However, there are still some ancient Filipino
literary pieces that have survived from that time, and it only shows the true existence of our
own native culture. Mostly, these ancient literatures were passed on by word of mouth up until
they have reached the ears of publishers who then prints the manuscripts of the ancient
stories, and in this way the old stories have been preserved. In addition, wealthy families,
especially those from Mindanao, were able to keep transcribed copies of these ancient works
especially epics as their family heirloom, one example of this is an epic about the Maranaos
entitled DARANGEN. Moreover, up until now these ancient literary works are still present and
are known by many Filipinos because they are actually taught in schools, which was one of the
helpful ways in preserving these ancient works. Philippine literature was beautiful on its own
even without the influences of the other nations, that's why it is really important to preserved
and remember it, so we can trace the rich heritage of ideas, stories, and experiences handed
down by our ancestors. And in this way, we can better understand ourselves and we are able to
take pride in being a Filipino.

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