Conflictos discursivos en la construcción de la leyenda del Santo Niño de Cebú durante la temprana colonización española de Filipinas

Abstract

The dominant discourse of the establishment of the first Spanish colony in the Philippines generally incorporates the legend of the discovery of the image of Santo Niño as providential evidence that the Philippines had been predestined for Christianization. In this article, I delineate and analyze the documentary genealogy of this discourse, as well as the indigenous counter-discourse, which develops in parallel starting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The texts I examine were written from the point of view of the colonizer and with European readers in mind. Nonetheless, I read these texts “against the grain,” to reveal the indigenous voices of resistance that are inscribed in the cult of Santo Niño.