Be good ancestors

(Commencement speech at Pangasinan State University, Dagupan/ June 24, 2019)

May I ask the graduates, do you know how your parents met? Where and how they fell in love? How they decided to live where you grew up? If you don’t, ask them today when you have lunch or dinner together.

How about your grandparents, what do you know about them? Did they migrate from another town or province? Why?

And the place where you grew up, when and how was it founded? Did any heroes come from your place? Were any battles in any war fought there?

Your family, and your place – how did these affect how you grew up?

What are your values and how did you acquire them?

You’re graduating today because you’ve accumulated the required amount of knowledge about your field of study.

But may I ask, as you should of yourself – how much knowledge do you have about yourself, and the people and places that shaped you and made you what you are today?

Are you here today because you had good ancestors?

In your gratitude, will you also be good ancestors?

I’m here to prod you, as Socrates once did all of humankind: Know thyself. You know about what you learned in the classroom, you know fads and memes that you discover online. Now it’s time to know yourself and the circumstances of your life better.

Know your history which includes the circumstances of your birth, but also the heroics and disappointments in your community and province.

Our identities are tied up with our history. Even the name of your province, Pangasinan, reminds you every day of your history as a place known for producing salt, one of the necessities of life. Such a place could also have people who are, quoting the Bible, the “salt of the earth,” people of great worth and reliability.

We know of Rizal, Bonifacio, and Aguinaldo because they are in our textbooks. But they lived far from you in distant provinces. How many of us here know about the local Katipunan general Francisco Makabulos who led the movement to liberate Pangasinan from the Spaniards in 1898? And other Pangasinan heroes like Daniel Maramba of Santa Barbara, Vicente Prado of San Jacinto and Juan Quezada of Dagupan? They were good ancestors because they set an example of patriotism and devotion to something larger than themselves.

History is not just a subject in school full of facts that need to be memorized. That’s a narrow view of history.

History is an essential part of all things and all people. It lives in us even if we’re not conscious of it. Everyone and everything has a history, and if we don’t know it, we cannot understand ourselves today, and we may make wrong decisions about our future.

History begins with our own personal biographies, knowing our own lives. It’s a process of knowing composed of concentric circles, from the smallest circle of ourselves, our birthplace and our parents; then the circle of our community and its origins, until we see the largest circles of country and even the world, as the Philippines has always occupied a strategic location for navigation from the time of Magellan to today’s China that wants to rule our seas. To know the dangers and opportunities facing our country, we need to know our history.

I do documentaries for a living. One of the things I love about it is going to new places and learning about them.

I just came from the mountain town of Lubuagan in Kalinga province to produce a documentary. Their history lives in their weaving, an ancient craft they inherited from their ancestors that tells the story of their land and what their tribe has prized through the ages. They are reminded of their ancestors every time they weave and wear what they weave. And when they dance while wearing their weaves, it is not to follow the latest fad. It is to connect to their traditions and to their ancestors. 

So in their culture and lifestyle, there is a direct connection between the current and past generations. Their history is not only in textbooks or statues, but in their everyday life.

Knowing your history will also remind you of what’s truly important, which is the essence of your core values.

In this confusing time, it’s no longer easy to discern core values. Truthfulness used to be a core value, until many people began to share fake news even if they knew it was fake.

Knowing the truth about your past, learning its best lessons and then passing them on are among the best ways of becoming a good ancestor.

Allow me to share from my own life.

My parents taught me so much and were good ancestors to me and the next generations of my family. Their values live through me. But sometimes I still feel a deep emptiness.

Last May, I saw a Santacruzan parade where I saw a young Constantino. I used to be that little boy terrified by the crowd looking at me while wearing an itchy outfit. I wanted to know more about that day when I was four years old, but I cannot, because the one person who would know, my mother, has been gone for five years.

Then last April, I stopped having conversations with my father because he too passed away. When I told my young son that I’m now technically an orphan, he consoled me by saying that I’m a lucky orphan because I at least had my parents for a long time.

That’s true. But you can never have your parents long enough. There will always be a time when you wish you could have just one more conversation, to ask them one more question about your childhood and the history of the family, and for advice about the future.

So even as you start a new chapter in your lives, do not think you have all the time in the world. Each day counts.

You can use it to have meaningful conversations with your parents and your grandparents, to fill in gaps in the knowledge about yourself. To know your history is to know thyself.

But just as important, knowing more about yourself through your parents will make you closer to them, and will always remind you that your life is only the latest chapter of their lives.

Live out their values, and pass them on. One day they’ll also be remembered as good ancestors. And so will you.

Thank you.

(The original speech was delivered in Filipino, which will also be published here.)