Filipino history has been largely
lost after the Spanish colonists tried to eradicate the local
culture. This is especially true for Eskrima since a significant
amount of its history is anecdotal and oral. Being a martial art for
the common folk, some of its practitioners lacked the scholarly
education to create a written history. This confusion is further
complicated by the fact that there are actually many different
fighting systems with different histories that are called Eskrima
(or Arnis de Mano). One explanation for the origin of Eskrima
systems is that they were originally the fighting systems possessed
by every tribe in the Philippines and used by them to fight and
defend against each other. Archeological evidence as well as oral
legends say that many influences were brought to the Philippines by
people who travelled from Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo
It is historically recorded, though, that when the Spanish
conquistadors arrived, some tribes fought them, using native weapons
and techniques. Magellan, portuguese, was killed in the battle of
Mactan in 1521 by forces of the Mactan tribal chief Lapu-Lapu when
Magellan landed in Cebu - From this point sources differ on the
history of Eskrima. Certainly by the time the Spanish reached the
Philippines, they were extremely challenged by how the natives had
fought, when the natives of the Philippines only had simple weapons
such as swords, spears and bows to protect themselves. The
experienced conquistadors were able to invade Maharlika (now
Philippines). The degree to which this affected the practice of the
native fighting arts is a matter of debate, but it seems likely that
the Filipinos kept what worked and discarded what didn't. Eskrima
had to be hidden from the Spaniards -- they practiced it in their
dancing, and pretended they were practicing the Spanish style of
fencing to avoid being caught. For this reason, certain styles of
Eskrima have some strong Spanish influences.
Most historians believe that Philippine fighting systems have strong
historical roots from Indonesian martial arts that are Chinese
influenced like Kuntao. Kun Tao (literally the way of the fist) of
course finds its roots from Ch'uan Fa (which is a generic word for
what westerners would call kung fu, it also literally means way of
the fist). Other systems that have similar movements to many
Filipino systems also find their roots from Ch'uan Fa. There are
even counts of lost Ch'uan and Tai Chi double stick forms that many
of the fleeing renegade monks would have trained for in that period.
These Chinese-based influences to the martial arts are not as
powerful as the direct links to the cultural and political ties
found in the Philippines even today. Many even believe the systems
are totally intact in the way profound Chinese arts once were before
events like the Cultural Revolution. There are also those who
propose that eskrima was influenced by Indian martial arts but most
agree that the similarities are due to Indianized Silat forms being
brought to the Philippines.
Others believe that since FMA is weapons-based, this suggests its
roots and development are independent and autonomous of most foreign
"fist" systems. In fact, it can be said that the inevitable
similarities are due to the weaponry components of both Filipino,
Indonesian and Chinese martial arts. Any exercises or similar hand
movements to that of the Indonesian and Chinese arts were introduced
only in recent years to augment the newer Eskrima groups - something
which is less apparent in the more traditional and established
authentic systems. Filipinos had their own empty hand systems, such
as: sikaran (kicking art), Dumog (submission), and all the fist
strikes come from weapon fighting techniques, because the Guro's
(instructors) believe the hand can strike the same manner with or
without a weapon.
Although the turbulent and conflict-wrought history and environment
of the Philippines enabled the FMA to develop into an efficient,
albeit violent art, this changed recently in the sense that some
systematization allowed easier and quicker teaching of the basics.
Except for a few older and established systems, before this change
it was more common to pass the art from generation to generation in
an informal approach. Regardless of teaching methodology, these arts
are considered so effective and easy to learn with sufficient
practice that the U.S. military teaches it to some varying degree in
all of its branches, particularly U.S. groups like the Navy SEALs,
Army Special Forces and Delta Force. Many special operations groups
were stationed in the Philippines for some period of time during
WWII - the period when these arts first became apparent to the
America mainstream.
For the last century, the most important practice of Eskrima has
been in dueling without any form of protection, which was common in
the Philippines and among Filipinos elsewhere (Hawaii
pre-annexation). The founders of most of the currently popular
Eskrima systems were famous duelists; legends circulate about how
many people so-and-so has killed. Certainly duels did happen and
deaths did result. However, to reduce legal problems that arose from
injury or death, most duels would later often be fought with
hardwood sticks instead of blades. Public dueling has been all but
eliminated from the Filipino society and is deemed illegal in the
Philippines today. However, one can still find regular gathering of
masters in major parks in the Philippines where at a drop of a hat
one will not hesitate to prove his point through an unprotected
"friendly match". Local folk in the Philippines are much more likely
to carry knives than guns, and much more likely to use them when
tempers rise, than people in North America or Europe. As a result,
knife-fighting (and to a lesser extent, fighting with machetes) is
still very much a living skill in the Philippines, particularly in
rural areas and especially in areas where insurgents are based.
For a more precise history, one must distinguish between the
different systems of Eskrima
Attempts to trace the lineage of a practitioner is often difficult.
For example, Antonio Illustrisimo (duelist and grandmaster) seemed
to have learned to fight while traveling around the Philippines (and
the rest of the Pacific) as a sailor, while his nephew and student
Floro Villabrille claimed to have been taught by a blind princess in
the mountains - a claim later refuted by the older Illustrisimo.
Both have since died.
Secrecy was also a large part of this art and the teaching of it
outside of the Filipino community was considered taboo until the
1960s when Eskrima was first taught to the public in the U.S. by
Filipinos living in Stockton, California, including Leo M. Giron and
Angel Cabales. Still instructors of stick fighting classes in the
1960s and 1970s were reprimanded by Filipino elders for publicly
teaching what had been traditionally kept secret, a practice which
preserved a language and a culture, preventing watering down of the
art.
