Filipino was first to circumnavigate the world

[islander]

In 1993, National Artist F. Sionil Jose published a novel, “Viajero.” The book deals with Filipino wanderlust and includes the fascinating story of Enrique, the slave of Ferdinand Magellan. Enrique completed the circumnavigation of the world, returning to Spain, after his master was killed in Mactan, in 1521. It is rather amusing that schoolchildren are still taught that Magellan “discovered” the Philippines when there were people here ahead of him. Filipino children should be taught that Magellan did not know where he was, that he arrived or landed in what-was-yet-to-become the Philippines, in 1521.

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/61501/pinoys-and-world-domination#ixzz2fRZXiYqM

[islander]

If we are to understand our history from a Filipino viewpoint, then we go back to Carlos Quirino, National Artist for Historical Literature, who declared that the first man to circumnavigate the world was not the Portuguese-born Magellan or the Spanish Elcano but a Filipino, Magellan’s slave, whose name has come down to us in Antonio Pigafetta’s eyewitness account as “Enrique” or “Henry.” He is also referred to as “Enrique el negro” or “Black Henry” for either of two reasons: His dark skin, or his alleged involvement in the massacre of Magellan’s men in Cebu, in the Battle of Mactan.

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/61501/pinoys-and-world-domination#ixzz2fRZ1i0DM

[Lorenzo]