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Mestizo
Indio was the Spanish colonial term used to refer to Indigenous Filipinos without European or Chinese ancestry. Originally derived from “Indian,” the same term was used for Indigenous people of South America and the Caribbean, as well.
Indio Quotes in El Filibusterismo
The El Filibusterismo quotes below are all either spoken by Indio or refer to Indio. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. On Deck
Quotes
If you are still not convinced of the metaphor of the ship of state, look at the mix of passengers. Brown faces and black heads congregate below decks, indios, Chinese, and mestizos crammed among parcels and trunks. While up there above decks, under a canopy that protects them from the sun and seated in comfortable armchairs, are several passengers dressed European-style, friars and bureaucrats smoking fat cigars and contemplating the countryside, taking no notice, it seems, of the captain and crew’s efforts to navigate the river’s shoals.
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Cabesang Tales
Quotes
But the justices of the peace and those in the capital refused to side with him. They were afraid of losing their own positions. […] They were not bad men. They were conscientious, moral, good citizens, excellent fathers, good sons; too good, perhaps. They knew Tales’s situation perhaps better than he did himself. Many of them knew the property’s legal and historical background. They knew that because of their own statutes the friars could not have owned the property. They knew all that and more. They also knew that coming from afar, from across the sea with a hard-earned position, trying their best to carry it out with the best of intentions, to lose it because an indio took it into his head that justice was supposed to be the same on earth as it is in heaven, well, what a crazy idea!
25. Laughter and Weeping
Quotes
“Get rid of them and the indio will cease to exist. The friar is the father, the indio is the word! The friar is the sculptor, the indio the statue, because everything we are, everything we think, and everything we do we owe to the friars, to their patience, to their work, to their three centuries of modification of what Nature afforded us. And in a Philippines without friars or indios, what will happen to the poor government, in the hands of the Chinese?”
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Indio Term Timeline in El Filibusterismo
The timeline below shows where the term Indio appears in El Filibusterismo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. On Deck
...passengers are divided up like Filipino society, with Europeans comfortably situated above deck while mestizo, indio, and Chinese travelers stay below with the luggage. The Europeans, sitting near the captain, include...
(full context)
3. Legends
Father Florentino joins the group above deck, who are complaining about their indios’ resistance to higher tithes. The priests, Simoun, and Ben Zayb then trade legends about the...
(full context)
5. A Coachman’s Christmas Eve
...The coachman complains to Basilio, finding hope for freedom in both the Catholic festivities and indio legends. Basilio finds San Diego sadder than before, the weight of oppression more palpable. Moreover,...
(full context)
11. Los Baños
...Sibyla and Camorra are strongly opposed, arguing that the academy will inspire resistance from the indios and hurt the prestige of the religious schools. Simoun joins Sibyla’s side. Father Fernández argues...
(full context)
16. The Tribulations of a Chinaman
...Chinese merchants and the colonial government in order to suppress native elites. The rivalry between indios and mestizos leaves both groups weaker than the Chinese, who use their wealth to influence...
(full context)
Back in the main room, Don Custodio and his friends are discussing the rights of indio soldiers—or lack thereof. Ben Zayb and Father Camorra, meanwhile, viciously argue about a new attraction...
(full context)
20. The Arbitrator
...the Philippines at the first opportunity. Custodio has a fond but deeply paternalistic attitude toward indios, wrongly attributing any native cultural achievement to external influences. He is also deeply religious, supporting...
(full context)
