History of Pila

     
In 1681, most probably in commemoration of the centenary of the foundation of the parish of Pila as well as the 450th anniversary of St. Anthony, a new bell was cast for the church. It bears the following inscription: San Antonio de Pila Año de 1681, above which is the figure of a cross on top of a pedestal with three steps on each side. This venerable bell has survived to the present as the third oldest church bell in the Philippines. The oldest, 1596, is the Calamaniogan, Cagayán, though it had belonged to Binalatongan, Pangasinán, and the second, 1642, in Longos (now Kalayaan), Laguna (Jose n.d.). (17)

That Pileños are great lovers of music, there has never been any doubt. According to a Franciscan writer, Fray Juán de Jesús (Sanchez 1988):

“We cannot deny that music is something that appeals to them. We can see that even without mentors, the Indios are capable musicians. I witnessed this in Pila in (June) 1686 when I participated in the vigil of Corpus Christi. During the rites, five choirs sang and not one of them stumbled on a single note. We can also see that {Filipinos} make musical instruments and they play them exquisitely.” (18)

The prestige and ambience of Pila drew some prominent Spanish families of Manila to settle in the Noble Villa in the second half of the 17th century. These included the Thenorios, Caviedeses, Robleses, Sarmientos, de Silvas and del Rios. They intermarried with the landed gentry and gave rise to a class of Spanish mestizos who like that gentry served as the town executives. The Thenorios, in particular, intermarried with the descendants of the datus of Pila and thus, became co-owners of the pre-hispanic estate cited by Plasencia in 1589. Because it had been formed by the native leaders, the estate was not officially considered an hacienda by the colonial government. Nevertheless, the Pileños referred to it as an hacienda because of its huge dimensions. (19a + Rivera wills). Due to their strict vow of poverty, the Franciscans were the only religious order, which renounced the ownership of haciendas. Many of the landed estates in the provinces they administered, like Laguna, were maintained or acquired by families of mixed Spanish-Filipino blood (19b + Rivera wills).

In contrast to the Spanish mestizos, only a few Chinese mestizos were able to gain a foothold in the local society. Hence, Pila never had a separate Gremio de Mestizos de Sangley.