The Other Ateneo: A discussion beyond Imelda

I cannot speak for the Ateneo. Not even at my angriest, or in my capacity as an educator, or for the sake of some ideal that I feel should be embraced by more if not all. But I actually like the idea that I can’t; and that no one else can either.

I like that the school is best represented by its faculty, its students and alumni who constantly learn from each other, and remember well the lessons that they teach each other.

But I also know that there are many Ateneos.

As a matter of fact, I know two Ateneos.

There is the Ateneo that I love. The one Rizal glanced at on his way to be shot for a people only beginning to struggle. The same one that speaks proudly of names like De La Costa, Ferriols, Nebres, Bernas; Del Pilar, Colayco, Jopson, Lacaba and many, many others. It is an Ateneo that insists on teaching humanities because it believes in forming people instead of just producing professionals.

I know we like to think that we teach our students not just about the important ideas but also how to be critical of them. And that we teach them well to always choose the greater and then why they must choose it. That we fill ourselves to the brim so that we have more to give when we empty ourselves out for others.

And then there is the Ateneo that many people are more familiar with.

An Ateneo that is the product of feeble minds, and superficial ideas, and two-dimensional thinking.

It is the Ateneo that is more obsessed with its brand than it is with its ideals. The Ateneo that people choose because its name has commercial equity. The Ateneo that thinks of privilege, and elitism, and exclusivity as proud aspects of its tradition.

It’s the Ateneo that makes winning more important than competition. The same one that shouts insults at our opponents and jeers during UAAP games. I think it’s the same one that makes it possible to think of burning the names of our “enemies” in a bonfire. The same one that makes an Atenean leave the coliseum before alma mater hymns are sung by both sides. It’s the Ateneo that equates school pride with hating the other side.

This is the Ateneo that makes the prideful think that they are better than others. The Ateneo that defines "Atenean" as a person who paid tuition.

So when I read all these posts about how shameful it was for the former First Lady Imelda Marcos to have even been allowed in our campus I understand well why there is so much anger over the matter.

How do we now teach our students about history, its distortion, and the dangers of aggressive and politically-motivated historical revisionism when we seem to have no qualms about shaking hands and posing for pictures with a woman who is responsible for the suffering of so many?

How can we talk of inclusive development, economics, and the specter of impoverishment when the one responsible for so much of our poverty is welcomed like a guest of honor?

How can we face our countrymen who are still denied justice, who have lost family, and friends, and loved ones while we rationalize our association with the criminals responsible for their grief?

These questions I think with clenched fists, and gritted teeth, with sorrow and anger in my heart.

But then I think that our problems are bigger than Imelda.

Why does it take an Imelda and a bunch of photos to make us realize that in so many places, and in so many venues and fora and means and ways, “Ateneans” are doing terrible and unspeakable things that should shame us.

Ateneans are out there thinking that money is more important than service. Ateneans are out there thinking that their education was the entrance fee of being elite; rather than the privilege of learning how to be a person for others.

Inviting Imelda was a mistake that we need to talk about but it may also be a good place to start talking about the other names out there who claim the name ‘Atenista’ but act contrary to what we’re taught. Now we know that there are those among us who have to be reminded about what it means to be Atenean.

I am angry that Imelda was invited to our school. But my reaction will not be one of disownment.

I am Atenean and I come from the Ateneo that opposes Marcos and all things related to his legacy of injustice, corruption and suffering.

I come from an ideal that is far bigger than Imelda can ever hope to corrupt, or twist, or use for her ends because at the end of the day Imelda can only step on a campus, and sit in a room, and pose for photos.

Tomorrow I will wake up and I will be content in the knowing that the Ateneo I love exists in places where no murderer, no thief, no liar, and no Marcos can ever hope to assail it.

It exists in the provinces where Ateneans have gone to serve their countrymen with the light of their knowledge, their kindness, their commitment, and their humility. It exists in those places where ‘Atenista’ means the smallest, and the kindest, and the least privileged. It exists where faculty, students, and alumni work and study hard for the opportunity to do well for others.

It exists in the lectures we teach in our history classes where propaganda has no place; and where the memory and pain of a nation that suffered for two decades under a despicable tyrant will hopefully be passed on to a generation that has never known martial law so that they, too, can say ‘Never again.’

On Tuesday I will teach my students what I know of that Ateneo. And they will probably teach me a little about what they know of it too.

Brian Paul Giron teaches at the Department of History at Ateneo de Manila University. This piece, originally published on the author's blog on Medium.com, is republished with his permission.