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Kapampangan: A Problem of Identity, Language and Culture
Michael Raymon M. Pangilinan(齋部神威)
www.siuala.com
Abstract:
For most outsiders, the Philippine archipelago is inhabited by a homogenous group of people
known as Filipinos who speak a common language called Filipino. Hardly anyone has ever heard of
the name Kapampangan. Numbering only two million in a population of 98 million, they are
deemed hardly worth writing about in any of the Philippines’ official travel guides, ads andbrochures. Though appearing insignificant in numbers, the Kapampangan ethnolinguistic group has
so far produced the most number of presidents in the Philippine Republic, namely, Diosdado
Macapagal, Corazon Cojuanco Aquino, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the current president Benigno
Aquino III. Four Kapampangans have appeared in Philippine official banknotes, namely Jose Abad
Santos, Diosdado Macapagal, Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Corazon Cojuanco Aquino. Throughout themore than 300 years of Spanish occupation, colonial administrators, chroniclers and Europeanadventurers who visited these shores wrote volumes about the Kapampangan people and theirsignificant contributions. These documents are available in the major libraries and archives in Spainand the Philippines. Kapampangans have been recorded to dominate the civil, religious and militaryadministration of the islands throughout the Spanish colonial period. They were treated likehonorary Spaniards and were granted favours and special privileges usually reserved for the Spanish
colonial masters. The 20th century saw the Kapampangan people become a thorn to the Philippine
Republic for many decades. The Kapampangan homeland became the cradle of Communist leaders
and a hotbed of the Communist rebellion. From the 1930s to the 1980s, the Kapampangan people
were painted by the Philippine media as the enemies of the republic. Historian John A. Larkin (1972)
has noted how the Kapampangan people, despite their small numbers, managed to influence andalter the course of Philippine politics throughout the ages and chose them as the subject of his
dissertation on Philippine history. Philippine historians however continue to belittle theKapampangan people as an insignificant ethnic group because of their small population. In fact, theDepartment of Education has for a long time neglected to include the Kapampangan people andtheir contributions in any of the official Philippine history textbooks, except for a passing mention
that they fought on the side of the Spaniards, and later the Americans, in the struggle for Philippine
independence. This is further compounded by the fact that the Kapampangan language was for
decades suppressed in schools within the Kapampangan homeland. Kapampangan children arepenalized every time they spoke their language in the classrooms. As a result, the Philippines hascreated generations of demoralized Kapampangans who are ignorant of their history, unmindful of
their heritage and ashamed of their identity. Many Kapampangan speakers have switched tospeaking Filipino. Kapampangan parents have for twenty years now been raising their kids to speak
Filipino instead of their native Kapampangan language.
Reference:Larkin, John A. 1972. The Pampangans: Colonial Society in a Philippine Province. 1993 Philippine Edition.
Quezon City: New Day Publishers.