Why did the Filipinos throw away much of the Spanish elements of their culture?

Question

Wouldn't the Philippines be a much better country if there was still a huge Spanish influence there? It would be nice if the Filipinos were still speaking Spanish instead of English.

There is still many elements of Spanish culture in the Philippines, but not much as before, why is that? And why did the Filipinos discard it?

Answer 1

We didn't. We just don't speak Spanish now.

Answer 2

How would you like it if someone raped your mom, sister, and aunts, then forced their culture and religion onto you? Would you want to keep THEIR culture after they left?

I'm not Filipino, but I get it.

Answer 3

Filipino here. It's because the Americans helped liberate our country that's why anything American are really close to our hearts. English has been used because of Globalization since it is one of the most important languages used in business and trading.

Here's a snippet from a Newspaper here in the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines - Two decades since the obligatory learning of Spanish in the university level was abolished, we are now seeing the revival of Spanish, mainly through the high-profile efforts of the Instituto Cervantes and a number of universities that maintain a Department of European Languages. Two decades since the abolition of Spanish as an obligatory course in the university level, we have the welcome news that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will endorse Spanish (that has since been dropped as an official language of the Philippines) as a preferred language. The President is fluent in Spanish, and as an economist she knows the value of this language in our time.

Spanish is also good, and It's good to hear that we are once again getting back on learning this lost language.

Answer 4

300 years of spanish rule

a few years of american pop culture

equals Philippines now

Answer 5

our Filipino language is patterned from Spanish. the mere fact that we adopted Filipino shows the big influence the spaniards had on us.

English is our second language because it is accepted universally. not because we wanted to.  

Answer 6

Not all the influence of Spaniards to us are good. Some are bad.

I learned from my history class that before the Spaniards arrived, our ancestors were really hardworking, they didn't take rest while working unless they go to bed at night but after the spaniards arrived, they learned about "siesta" or having rest in the afternoon, then they started to become more and more lazy.

Spaniards were also the ones who introduced criticisms, our ancestors before didn't care about how you look, or who you are. But during the spanish era, people started to care about how they look, their status in life because that time their were people who call themselves elite and there were also slaves.

We didn't have good experienced from Spaniards, they used and abused us. They thought highly of themselves and even forced us to accept their religion. I used to be Catholic and used to go to church but when i reached the age of 20, i realized lots of stupid things that we followed just because it was spanish influence. Why would we fast for days? Why do we need to do what Jesus have done for us? Yes we can remember that but i think we don't need to it ourselves.

Anyway, Americans were the ones who gave us hope. They helped us moved on and recover after Spanish and Japanese invasion. They made it clear during their stay in our country that their not invading us but just helping us. American soldiers served as teachers for children. They taught English language and i think science and also math.

Well, that's the reason why we are accepting American culture with arms wide open.

Answer 7

maybe coz we have a much more american mentality since the Americans had invaded us..we have idolized and followed the american way from there culture to their stuff more than the spaniards..

Answer 8

Probably due to America taking over the world.

Answer 9

The Spanish influence is still there, but only the language is dead. Only some of our grandparents are the ones left speakng Spanish.

The Spaniards during their centuries of rule were quite selective and didn't freely offer classes for Filipinos. They were elitist and kept the fluency of the language only for those who they deemed worthy or holy or influential.

The language died once the Americans came and established schools here after the war. They made the language available for study to any Filipino. Plus decades of American pop culture and the idealism for the American dream still reign supreme; Making English the lingua franca.

You'll be surprise some Filipinos are much better in English or in their provincial dialects than in Tagalog which is the national language.

Answer 10

Didn't the Spanish invade their country. If that's true, why would they want to keep a culture that was forced upon them?

(I'm not positive about the invasion thing but I think that's what I was told.)