Public Education during the Spanish era- The Philippines revisited

You heard it all before... Spain didn't teach Filipinos the Spanish language, Spain kept Filipinos ignorant, Spanish was never spoken in the Philippines except by the elites etc. How much of that is accepted as common wisdom rather than as a myth fostered by the Leyenda Negra? Did you know that at the time of Mexican independence in 1820, only 20% of the people in Mexico City spoke Spanish? How did the Philippines actually compare versus the leading countries when the public school system was introduced in 1863? Dr. Fernando Zialcita gives a talk about the Philippines of the past unrecognizable to modern Filipinos, such that the past looks like a different country, thus the name of the talk. #losfilipinos #filipinohistory