UN General Assembly
1960

111. Above all, it was Spain that gave the peoples of our seven thousand islands, speaking a multitude of languages, a sense of national identity. Philippine nationality was thus forged in the very fire of the fervid colonizing spirit of the Spanish "conquistadores", and, when that fire began to die down at last, it was the turn of Philippine nationalism to arise full-blown and victorious. 112. The story of American rule in the Philippines is well known to all. The Prime Minister of Cuba referred to it in his statement before this Assembly [872nd meeting]. Indeed, it is true that there are significant resemblances between the history of Cuba and that of the Philippines in their relations, first, with Spain and, later, with the United States. But, without denying fixe expansionist impulse that brought the United States to Cuba and the Philippines at the turn of the century, we Filipinos are more readily able to view our experience in sober and balanced perspective.