Filipino through and through. And I’ll be posting a long response to this thread soon. But allow me to respond to this because it makes me chuckle.
Yes. For some, having a Spanish lineage is some kind of a disctinction but that attitude has been lessened somewhat. It really is a form of class distinction (“I’m not an Indio/ from the lower class”) or it could stem from the belief that “Maganda ang maputi” (white is beautiful).
To illustrate the pervasive “Maganda ang Maputi” meme, practically all the movie stars in the 50s are fair-skinned - the dark-skinned ones tend to act as comic foils. While this has lessened in modern times, some Filipinos still tend to think of fair skin as a status symbol: i.e. you don’t have a menial job that requires you to sit in the sun, you have airconditioning, you can afford to have your skin lightened by a dermatologist (this is quite popular), you have caucasian lineage which means it’s likely that you’re better off than your neighbors.
The attitude is changing, though and I’m glad that it is.
True this. You can see this with a lot Filipinos’ penchant for over-celebrating the accomplishments of anyone who has even a fraction of Filipino blood. Because of this, I have a running joke with my friends that involves calling out just about any foreigner who’s made something of himself/herself on television as half-Filipino. Yes, we’re a riot.
I’m not Filipino, but I’m currently posting from beautiful El Nido, Philippines. True, there aren’t a ton of famous buildings or whatever to see, and the food is pretty much the same hearty peasant food you’d find in any rice-based seaside culture, but that’s not really what makes a place great. I’ve been here a month and have had an amazing time getting to know this country and it’s people. And in this month, I’ve had more people invite me into their homes and their lives than I’ve ever experienced in all of my travels. It’s truly been an amazing trip. A few things to say…
The Philippines is a hybrid culture- that doesn’t make it somehow worse. Indeed, it probably makes it stronger. “Purity” is not some objective cultural virtue. To make the obvious metaphor, is Mexico somehow less because it has such strong Spanish influences? You couldn’t remove the Spanish and American influences without also losing something essentially Filipino. These things are not “polluting” a previously pure culture. They are adding to a modern, living and evolving culture. Is Mexico worse because Mariachi music is more popular than whatever music Aztecs were in to? Is it bad that the food Americans miss the most abroad is not apple pie, but tacos? Of course not! All cultures are to some degree hybrids. That’s not a bad thing!
Japan and China’s strong sense of cultural identity comes at a great price. Both are extremely xenophobic, have strong senses of racial superiority, and have strong internal controls that limit foreign influence. Now and then, this gets out of hand- like when China occasionally shuts itself off to the outside world or when Japan tried to take over the planet. Frankly, both cultures are often rather ignorant about and hostile towards cultures besides their own. Is having a “strong sense of cultural identity” really worth pretty much being jerks to everyone who isn’t you?
Pop culture sucks everywhere on the planet. Does she really think that Chinese teenagers are rocking out to the two-stringed lute? Cheesy movies, tacky variety shows and ear-grating boy bands are found everywhere in pretty much equal quantities. And cut-rate intellectuals have been complaining about the decline of pop culture since the beginning of time.
In my opinion, this is not a Filipino problem, but rather a Filipino-American problem. Filipinos by and large are not having huge identity problems- probably because the fact that they go to Filipino schools as children, eat Filipino foods at home, celebrate Filipino holidays with their Filipinos friends and neighbors leaves them with little doubt that they are indeed genuine Filipinos doing genuine Filipino stuff. But every single of the many Filipino-Americans I’ve known has gone through a Filipino identity crisis.
Why? One theory is that many Americans (and Filipino Americans) don’t have a clear idea of what exactly the Philippines entails. Filipino-American kids see their other Asian-American friends talking about their cultures and feel that they don’t really have a way to do the same. And some probably getting mistaken for being Chinese or whatever often enough that it gets annoying. But is this really unique to Filipinos? Don’t you think kids from Laos and Malaysia go through the same thing? Perhaps the big difference is that when these kids do decide to delve into Filipino culture, they find that it’s not as exotic as they’d thought it’d be, and feel a bit disappointed that they get all the "being different’ without the benefit of having a hugely exotic culture to feel a part of. Well, not much you can do about that, is there?
Finally, a “strong sense of cultural identity” and a quarter will buy you a gumball. What, exactly, is missing by not having one? If you say “well, I feel vaguely disconnected”, guess what? We all feel that way! That feeling is part of being an American (or, probably, part of any urbanized multi-cultural place.) Some of us go nuts and start wearing fake “clan tartans” or cooking lots of borscht because of our last names. But tying yourself to another culture doesn’t really solve the problem. If you love Filipino culture and want to do traditional dancing or whatever, go for it! Filipinos and non-Filipinos are free to enjoy Filipino culture as much as they like! But don’t think that it’s your blood that is connecting you to it.
Here in Israel, it’s “caregiver” - virtually every Israeli requiring assistance due to age or disability is looked after by a Filipino. There must be tens of thousands of them in the country. This includes Mario, the wonderful man who helps with my brother.
Here in Toronto, it is well-known that Filipinos and Jews get on very well together for some reason. Perhaps the very adaptability of being raised with multiple cultural backgrounds makes it easier.
My parents live in a very Jewish neighbourhood (upper Forest hill, for you Torontonians out there), and the sight of filipino nannies with strollers in that area is very, very common - in some places the majority of adults at the local playground will be filipino nannies.
This has in fact lead to immigration of a sizable filipino community, with stores and churches devoted to them.
I haven’t noticed as many caregivers for the elderly and disabled, maybe because (thankfully) members of my own family do not yet require such services and they are not as immediately identifiable.
In my neighbourhood, the nannies are more mixed in background; my wife is friends with a couple that has a live-in from Rwanda, an orphan with a heart-rendingly cruel history (her whole family was killed in front of her and she survived by a miracle).
The Philippines really support the concept of OFW - overseas Filipino workers. It certainly helps that much of the population speaks English at least at a middle school level. OFWs are an important source of capital for the Philippines. I’m sure you would see more Thai, Indonesians, Malaysians, etc. if their English was as strong as a Filipinos. Here in NY, the number of Filipinos in nursing positions is disproportially large, but I see far more hispanic nannies than Filipino.
That said, there is a crisis in the Philippines - education levels are falling.
It doesn’t help that the Philippines is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2009, it ranked 139 out of 180 countries, just below Uganda and Nigeria and tied with Pakistan!* And my wife wonders why I’m hesitant to commit to retirement in the Philippines, where the unofficial rule of law is often “fleece the Westerner” (well, also the food - good luck finding decent NY style pizza there). The corruption and falling education are not good signs for the long-term health of the nation.
I agree about 99% with what even sven says.
I think language again plays a part. Because most Filipino immigrants come to America speaking English, they integrate better, whereas other immigrant communities can become isolated by language barriers. I do agree that some may feel slighted by the lack of an ‘exotic’ background, but it isn’t like my father’s Sicilian background (his parents were peasant farmers from a village at the base of Mount Etna) is exotic either. Definitely a case of the grass is greener on the other side.
*For comparison, the US ranked 19th, right behind Japan and the UK.
Firstly, there are efforts to preserve pre-Spanish folk music, dances, art or literature. The obscurity by which this happens stem from the fact that we do not have a mass of audience that could support popularization. However, if you have a particular interest about certain portions of it, it would be hard to miss. Your SO may be happy to note that among the most beautiful and most difficult tribal choral pieces being sung are derived from chants, songs and ditties from the different tribes in the Philippines. The only reason I’m familiar with this is because I’m a choral enthusiast. Had I been a folk dance enthusiast, I would have been exposed to our dances (beyond the tinikling, I mean)
But more importantly, exactly why is it wrong to take ownership of what culture we have imbibed from the Spanish and American. Pre-colonial culture would be quite exotic but it’s a culture that’s based on smallness. We didn’t have a central government prior to the Spanish and American colonial rule. What organizational effectiveness remain in Philippine government is a legacy of the Spaniards and Americans. Our educational system (standards have fallen, I admit) is also another legacy of the Spanish and American colonial rule. More to the point, prior to the coming of the Spaniards, we were not great record keepers so much so that we were only able to preserve some of the oral traditions we had upon the coming of the Spaniards.
The same thing is true of every pop culture you can think of. Do you think that the cosmopolitan crowd in China and Japan are immune to this? Pop culture is pop culture wherever you find it and the brand whores among the Chinese and Japanese are equally as whorish compared to their Filipino counterparts.
There are a lot of things that are quite distinctly Filipino and you need only to find it. I think, however, the point is that your SO feels that a lot of the elements of the Filipino culture are not exotic and popular enough and some are downright “uncool”. Tough. Not everyone gets to have an exotic culture.
What can be preserved of our Malay heritage is already in our archives. I don’t know why your SO feels a compelling need to go back to it and why her cultural identity has to be based on it (and only it).
This is true to a considerable extent. Preservation and popularization of indigenous culture take resources. But again, it’s not as if you would not be able to find it if you want to.
If she can sing, ask her to join a Filipino choir. Ask her to listen to “Idem-dem Malida”, “Chua-ay”, “Dayo-dayo Kupita”, “Kaisa-isa Niyan”, “Pamugun”, “Mamayug Aken”, “Pokpok alimpako” in Youtube. If she’s a choral enthusiast, she’d love all of them. These are just a few of the most difficult chorale pieces out there that are derived from Philippine tribal chants.
Filipino culture is what it is – warts and all. It is a culture that is not as readily identifiable compared to cultures whose roots span millennia. The influence of our colonial rulers and trading partners have more or less eclipsed our pre-colonial culture. Our cuisine is not as developed as the Chinese or Japanese and some of our better known dishes are assumed to be Chinese (the definitive version of the fresh spring roll is Filipino, not Chinese). We have meager architectural and artistic heritage from the pre-colonial era. The best thing to do is simply accept that we are as much a product of the Spanish, American and Chinese culture as we are of the Malay.
Did you see the article in yesterday’s New York Times? It seems there have been a rash of murders of Kayokye singers as they belt out “My Way.” I asked the Pinoys at the next desk and they said it was an exaggeration.
I’ll fill you in so you get to know some curious facts about this.
First, you need to know that in the Philippines Karaoke singing is a sport. There are a lot of good singers here and a lot of terrible ones too. In a karaoke bar, both would want to sing. Secondly, people would tend to sing songs that require a narrow vocal range. After all, you wouldn’t want to suffer a heavy register break while you sing. This is called “piyok” (heavy register break) in Filipino and it is seen as the hallmark of an unskilled singer who is overreaching.
Given these, you are left with a situation where a number of songs are repeatedly sung simply because it doesn’t require a wide vocal range. “My Way” happens to be one of those songs. Now tie that in with the fact that most of those who would sing “My Way” are terrible singers and that they are already inebriated when they do so. Also, tie that in with the tendency of people to be competitive about singing. In a matter of time, a volatile situation would ensue mainly because a) people are tired of listening to the same song being butchered over and over again and b) several groups may be competing over who’s singing the song better. (never mind that both groups may be singing terribly the entire night).
As it happens, a spate of homicides in the 90s were done on account of someone singing “My Way” in a karaoke bar so much so that it’s considered a bad omen for anyone to sing it. In fact, karaoke comedians/masters will absolutely forbid anyone from singing “My Way” even to this day.
Every culture has “uncool” elements. Every culture that has contact with the outside world has people who are envious of some element of another culture. There are Americans who prefer Chinese food to “standard” American food, and there are Chinese who prefer American food to Chinese food. Humans just seem to think the grass is greener somewhere else.
No culture that is in contact with the rest of the world is living exactly as they did in the sixteenth century. That’s true whether they were colonized or not. Cultures and languages change over time.
But Filipino culture is not unique in that way. American culture is like that, too (other than the bit about the spring rolls). Our iconic dish, the hamburger, is named after a city in Germany.
Heh, the amusing thing is that the very things outsiders find “cool” about a culture are often those that cause teenagers, forced to endure growing up inside that culture, the greatest conniptions of shame.
Another thing: There are several different languages indigenous to the Philippines. So it’s not that there’s one culture that just got a Spanish overlay.
Wasn’t the Philippines a destination for those wishing to avail themselves of the services of “psychic surgeons” (appearing to remove cancerous tumours via slight of hand/hidden chicken guts) some years ago? … I had to do a term paper in high school on the Philippines and I got an A. Not that my paper was a thing of genius, but I included several colored sketches of the beautiful costume called the terno www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/costumes/terno.htm
