Philippine E-Journals

The Reflection in Local History

Christian Paul G. Ramos

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

If we have the luxury of time of scanning the recent literatures of Philippine history, one might notice immediately that the trend of writing centers now in the local history of different regions, cities, and other places in the Philippines. Almost every province now can at least be proud that its own children who choose the arduous path of Clio write down the histories of their provinces/cities/localities. Even more heartwarming is that some scholars who are not even from the respective provinces study and jolt down the significant facts of history.5 In other words, writing local history is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the discourse of Philippine historiography.6 Is it better for the Filipino to know more about your city beyond the popular image of your church that it is now promoted as one of the last sites of Spanish strongholds in the late 1890‘s? Is it more fruitful for you to talk about the other facets of life in your city aside from its political history? History is more than meets the eye. It is encompassing virtually all aspects of life, particularly the continuing interaction between the past and the present times. Then again, why local history?