For generations, Tagalog historians have used this photo from the 1590 Boxer Codex to teach Filipino students how the early Tagalogs looked like. But comparing the two pictures together, one can clearly see that the other one has been tampered with. “Tagalos” scribbled next to the word “Naturales” (Native) is a recent insertion. Someone has been trying too hard to connect the NATURALES de LUZON (Natives of Luzon; 呂宋國人) to the Tagalogs, when a lot of evidences points out that the Luçoes (Luzones) may have been Kapampangans rather than Tagalogs.
The teaching of Philippine History remains Manila-centric and Philippine History textbooks are still written in the point of view of Tagalog historians.
Bibliography:
Boxer, Charles Ralph. (1950). A late sixteenth-century Manila MS (Boxer Codex). In Royal Asiatic Society Journal: 1950 April, 37-49.
© Copyright 2013 Siuálâ Ding Meángûbié