Butuan's place in Philippine history

We all know that Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines in March 1521. Our history books told us that fact. In fact, our History teachers even made us memorize that = )

But how could they land and celebrate mass in Cebu when this is supposed to be first time a foreigner stepped on our shores? And how would our ancestor understand the significance of a mass or even of the legendary Sto. Nino when it was given as a gift? I mean, could the Spaniards speak Cebuano? Or could our Cebuano ancestors speak Spanish?

Think about that for a minute = )

What gives?

As far as I know, the Philippines as we know it is a European idea. And the reason they can talked to our ancestors is because some of our Malayan ancestors riding their balangays has reached the shores of Mother Spain. In fact, it was this very Malayan ancestors of ours that told Magellan how to get to La Islas de Filipinas = )

There must be a Malayan ancestor that acted as a sort of interpreter but do we have that fact in our historical books? Serious.

And here's the other thing, if one would visit the Ayala Museum, they have an exhibit called "The Gold of Our Ancestors". There, and this is proven by archeological digs, our ancestors have been doing trade with our fellow Asians, the Chinese, somewhere in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur, Butuan to be exact.

The fact is this, our Chinese brothers have been engaged in barter with our Butuan brothers as early as the 11th century. A mere 400 years before Magellan. Spain may not even be Spain at that time. Our Chinese brothers brought with their pottery and silk and our Butuan brothers bartered with their gold. Yes, GOLD!

You see, even before the conquistadores told us that we are indios, our ancestors had the sophistication to appreciate the value of GOLD! Our so-called indio ancestors had the skill even to harness this metal and transform them in beautiful works of arts. (Please visit the Ayala Museum and you will see what I mean.)

And the reason this skill is native to us is because we have GOLD in abundance in the Philippines at that time.

Now, as to when, why and how we started to believe that we are indios and not this sophisticate is another matter = )

Our "indio" race has produced a Jose Rizal. Let's not forget that.

"... why think like mere men?"