mother tongue

Why do we call the first language we learn as babies our mother tongue? Our first language, native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period - that ideal time window in our brain development.

"There is a spirit or an originating genius belonging to each word." ~ Louise Erdrich. 

clouds over Negros Island

There is power in words - the older these words, the more energy they contain. No wonder we are enriched by our ancestral tongue - the mother's milk of our native language. 

island independence

November 5 marks the 123rd anniversary of the Negros Revolution - Al Cinco de Noviembre or Negros Day.

memorial marker in Silay City

This was the 1898 political movement which created an independent government in Negros Island in the Philippines.

Local sugar planters and traders along with their farm workers and grassroots groups led by political and religious heads like Dios Buhawi and Papa Isio instigated open rebellion.

Spanish-era depiction of the Cathedral and the Plaza Publica

Ending Spanish control of the island and resulting in a government run by the island natives on the western side [Negros Occidental].

The newly established Negros Republic would last a mere three months. American forces landed on the island unopposed on February 2, 1899 which brought the island's independence to an end.

pre-war photo of the Plaza Publica & historic bandstand, 1930s

Negros Island experienced three peace time years many old timers still refer to as their golden years, until the Japanese invasion of World War II.

Many islanders take pride in their revolt against the authorities and today there still is a dedicated core who promote secession and federalism.

1950's photo of plaza & bandstand with checkerboard tiles

That folks is the mixed bag of pride and prejudice for the sake of local independence.

current aerial view of plaza & bandstand

the Columbian exchange

We are still prickly from the recent divisive celebration of Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples Day here at wonder | wander | world. It is stunning how much we still need to decolonize ourselves to annihilate the level of ignorance and passive compliance we tend too easily towards. 

So enough about Christopher Columbus - the symbolic figurehead of evil empire erroneous eradication. An on to the Columbian Exchange - the history of disease and food, ideas and ideals between what we have come to commonly refer to as the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by that same Christopher Columbus in 1492.

a seaport at the height of mercantilism - Claude Lorrain, Wikimedia Commons

The crossing of the Atlantic by plants like cacao and tobacco illustrates the ways in which the discovery of the New World changed the habits and behaviors of Europeans. Europeans changed the New World in turn, not least by bringing Old World animals to the Americas.