Spanish in Modern Philippines

The present volume is an attempt to start a new narrative for the Philippines, a Spanish-speaking-nation-to-be that was aborted along the 20th century. The first Republic of the Philippines was imagined, built and shaped in Spanish language. Ilustrados were poets, orators, thinkers and humanists that were forced to fight with the word against American military invasion and colonial cultural engineering. With thousands of teachers and a new pensionado generation, by imposing English the United States were able to divide Filipinos from their parents and from their past, jeopardizing their future in a diglossic postcolonial society. We study in this book clues to understand the process of de-Hispanization of the Asian archipelago. However, recent policies in linguistic planning, the strategic and diplomatic alliances of the fifth Republic of the Philippines and the international growth of Spanish as the second most spoken language of the world after Mandarin Chinese, make Spanish a remarkable tool for 21st century Filipinos. Spanish is not only an essential component of the Filipino self, but the classical language of the Philippines.