NATIONAL ARTIST for Literature Resil Mojares reexamined the nationalist critique of Spanish colonial education in the Philippines, arguing that despite its constraints, institutions such as UST helped create an educated class whose ideas and actions ultimately exceeded what colonial authorities could control.
In “Brains of the Nation,” his landmark work on the Filipino intelligentsia, Mojares described Santo Tomas as the “only real university” in 19th-century Southeast Asia, noting that no other country in the region had as many Western-educated native students as the Philippines.
Mojares, the eminent Cebuano historian who died on Sept. 5 at 83, argued that colonial education produced contradictions that helped undermine the very system it was meant to serve.
“In spite of the nationalist attack on colonial education, the educational system was remarkable,” Mojares wrote. “Santo Tomas was the only real university in nineteenth-century Southeast Asia.”
“No country in the region at the time had such a large number of Western-educated native students as the Philippines,” he added.
Mojares wrote that Cristianismo and Ilustracion bound Spanish colonial authorities to humanistic ideals that also created contradictions within their rule.
“Colonial education constrained but had effects the colonialists could neither fully predict nor contain. Curricula and textbooks did not account for what students made out of the books they read and their experience in school,” he wrote.
Mojares’s death on Sept. 5, a day after his 83rd birthday, prompted tributes recalling his contributions to Philippine history and literature.
His daughter, Leigh Go Mojares, confirmed his death in a Facebook post on Sept. 6.
“Papa Resil was a pillar of our family, and although we will miss him dearly every day, we find comfort in knowing that he is now reunited with our dear mother, Sally, who left us in 2022,” she wrote.
Mojares was born on Sept. 4, 1943, in Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in literature from the University of San Carlos and later obtained his doctorate in literature from the University of the Philippines.
Acclaimed as the “Visayan Titan of Letters,” Mojares was named National Artist for Literature in 2018 and received the National Book Award six times.
Among his major works were “Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Study of the Novel Until 1940” and “Brains of the Nation,” which examined the lives and intellectual formation of Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera and Isabelo de los Reyes.
Mojares began teaching at San Carlos in 1964 and later became professor emeritus. In 1975, he founded the Cebuano Studies Center, which pioneered regional cultural research in Cebu.
San Carlos paid tribute to Mojares on Sept. 6.
“His work not only shaped the landscape of Philippine letters, but also deeply touched generations of students, educators, and scholars who had the privilege of learning from his wisdom,” the university wrote on Facebook.
Mojares served as editor and business manager of San Carlos Publications until 1996.
In 1971, he earned recognition at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for his short story “Beast in the Fields.” Elizabeth Joy C. Castro
