I'm not saying we discount the individual histories or ignore them to make the whole, I’m saying that all is inclusive in what we consider "Philippine History." I think you're considering history as just after colonization, I'm curious about all of it. All of our history from the first people inhabiting any and all of the islands currently called the Philippines.

>It would be nice to be able to accept it as a whole and have a cookie cutter take on Philippine history, but I don't think that it can be oversimplified as just a matter of geography.

I don't consider including ALL of that history as "cookie cutter," it seems more complete than considering the history of just individual tribes or what not. It's like a whole pizza sliced up, we see how all the pieces make the whole. Cookie cutter implies it being a piece; I don't think a whole could ever be a piece. American history is considered as a whole, so is Japanese, African, French etc etc but it's not like they lose their individual island/state/provinces etc identities. I don't see how geography is an oversimplification. As a matter of fact it seems more difficult to include all the individual separate histories as a whole than just considering your own history and not the others.


>If we don't separate ourselves by provinces and tribes then we'll lose that history as well. No?

We can still celebrate our individual provinces and tribes while celebrating that we as a people are whole. It is after all called Filipino History month, not Luzon history month, Mindanao history month etc. Does it really seem beneficial to separate each and every Filipino in America by the direct province/tribe they originate from and have them celebrate their history separately from the rest of the "Filipinos?" Where's the Unity in that?

And to not consider any part of our history relevant seems to defeat the purpose of the month, especially considering how little we already know. We are a diverse people with roots in many different countries and races, that’s what makes us so unique and special. We cannot figure out who we are as a whole without including the individual pieces that made us up, but we also can’t deny that we ARE a whole people, a people united by struggle, geography or just by a simple name.

Peace