The Shades and Shadows of a Filipino

Having been blessed with the opportunity of living in different continents, I cannot help but recall the many times I met Filipinos who valued their regional origin (e.g. Ilocano, Bicolano, Tagalog, Bisaya, et.al) more than their national identity. Born, raised and bred in Manila, with parents from different sub-ethnic groups and different linguistic backgrounds, I tend to find myself somewhat alienated from those whose parents share the same dialect and bred from the same region. Amongst us, we have developed typical jingoistic stereotypes such as calling the “Ilocanos kuripot”, the “Manilenos mayabang”, the “Batanguenos matapang”, among others. There goes the first division.
In a Yahoo e-group, there are networks like “Hispano-Filipinos” and “Circulo Progresivo” who nostalgically promote themselves as defendants of the Hispanic culture in the Philippines, dreaming that our race is primarily Hispanic than Asian. Many of them reside in Spain with Spanish last names (just like many of us do), although some of them bear more semblance to the “Igorots”, the “Taosugs”, the “Aetas” and other aboriginal tribes native to the Malayo-Polynesian stock. Here is another partition.
More than a year ago, in one of those Filipino fundraisings held in a Banquet Hall somewhere in Des Plaines, our lively music attracted some adolescents from another group to crash and sway to some of the Latin Ballroom dances we never miss in our functions. Since they all talked in Chinese, I assumed they were all Chinese. To my surprise, among them were pure bred Filipinos who speak Tagalog fluently but with 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese ancestry in their veins. Their parents never associated with Filipino groups despite the fact that they were born in the Philippines. Their affiliations, pride, and association is with their Chinese ethnicity.
My pet peeve – When I try hard to use our own language conversing with a “kababayan” and get a response in an apparently decoded English fraught with a heavy accent, mixed phonetic vocals, inappropriate grammar, and an overdose of American clichés like “you know?” and “aha” and all sorts of annoying word fillers typical of a person who cannot express himself well. Fine. I can probably be a bit more understanding. But I cannot comprehend the insistence on using colloquialisms to sustain the penchant of appearing glib.
You probably have heard that typical conversation among Pinoys ardently tracing back their ancestral genealogy to the nth degree of being Spanish, Chinese, German and what not even if their height, their nose, and their skin color betray their claims. It is hard to discern whether they are in denial or they simply admire being what they are not, thinking that any race is better than Filipino.
When I was a kid, I frequently heard terms like “imported, blue seal, made in the U.S.” as brands automatically accepted superior to those with labels “made in R.P.” Having a grandfather who was a U.S. war veteran and a father employed by a U.S. Fortune 500 Corporation, going to American own clubs and hanging out in the U.S. Embassy was nothing extraordinary. My innocence was broken when neighbors sought favors to bring them canned food manufactured in America when I know that the same item is available in the “Sari-Sari” store by the street corner.
“E Pluribus Unum” is an adage that describes “Unity amidst Plurality”. It is an outstanding American cultural value that does everything despite shortfalls to protect, preserve and tolerate each and every sub-national and sub-ethnic character and pride. It is through this attitude that harmony and order is established. Filipinos, on the other hand, consistently bash out the accepted innate existence of corruption with a sense of hopeless surrender. To maintain sanity, it is then logical to unconsciously deny, refute, and eschew any trace of pride in a country that seems doomed to perdition. The sense of inferiority is camouflaged by accepting anything foreign as better, superior and desirable.
“ Filipinos always complain about the corruption in the Philippines. Do you really think the corruption is the problem of the Philippines? I do not think so. I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines..”
(A fragment of an essay circulated on-line by Jaeyoun Kim, a Korean student in the Philippines.)
“A friend once remarked to me, laconically: All Filipinos want to be something else. The poor ones want to be American, and the rich ones all want to be Spaniards. Nobody wants to be Filipino.”
( An on-line caption written by Barth Suretsky, an American who opted to migrate to the Philippines.)
These keen observations about our own people, remarks by foreign nationals prompted me to expound on an excruciating puzzle to decipher the paramount cause of our divisive nature. I tend to agree with what they think. Nonetheless, there is no sense nor fruition in emphasizing the obvious. Somewhere, somehow, there are groups out there with sparks of evolution lurking in their young inception. Last month, “Something to Talk About” inspired responses and e-mails. I would like to thank these faithful readers for their very enlightening responses. At this juncture, to those who responded, I request to please spread the word around. Better yet, spread the article around. Let those who do not know know, and those who do not care have something to care for.
Come up with your solutions. Are you a Filipino? Are you proud of being one? Will you defend the Filipino people against negative stereotypes? Are we willing to emerge from lip service to community action? Or are we happy letting things be and take a fatalistic disposition? These are so many questions to think about, so many thoughts to reflect on, and so many shades of our race that we probably have not brought out in the open.
In the end, we come up with the same fundamental question: who is really a Filipino and what does it mean to be truly Filipino?
By instinct, we will almost always begin with lines like: “my great great grandfather from my mother’s side came from….” Will it always be like this?