Traveling abroad to the Philippines for six weeks has enlightened me on a multitude of levels. Academically. Personally. Spiritually. Within these three spheres I feel more knowledgeable, more confident to speak on these subjects, and more empowered to carry out the lessons I have learned from these experiences throughout the rest of my life. Due to the this trip abroad my mindset has shifted to a much more holistic one. I am now looking at the picture and how I fit into the whole scheme of things. I plan to help out in my own community. I am compelled to learn even more about my heritage. I feel the need to speak out against the issues and help enlighten others that were once in my position of unconsciousness and struggling to find themselves and feeling lost every bit of the way. Going to the Philippines this summer was a great experience. One that I will remember throughout my entire life.
I was brought face to face with the residual effects of the motherland’s colonization by both Spain and America as well as the brief three year Japanese occupation during World War II. It was heartbreaking to learn in vivid detail how the last four hundred years of Philippine history developed under colonial captivity (Ileto, The Philippine American War, Friendship and Forgetting). To have a person foreign to your way of life, complete with different customs and beliefs, come to your home and without apprehension take, steal, and kill whatever he so desired and then claimed you were a savage that needed to be civilized and the reason he was here was to save you from eternal damnation is absolutely preposterous! What is more discouraging is to see how despite this twisted and warped logic that was far from the truth and hid the more selfish motives under a mask of altruistic intentions the colonizer was able to effectively shift the Filipino’s perspective into one that was focused on being inferior and ashamed of who they were. This colonial mentality got passed down from one generation to the next (David and Okazaki, The Colonial Mentality Scale for Filipino Americans). Eventually this one lie snowballed into a belief that influenced the actions, the thoughts, and the life of the Filipino. By deduction we can arrive at the consensus that this mindset has produced negative results for the motherland today. The Philippines is a third world country troubled with corruption of government, poverty of the masses, and dependency upon foreign economies that exploit the people for their resources. This was a sad truth difficult to ingest.
I learned in more detail the genesis of the Commonwealth Government established by America after the Philippine-American War. The Jones Law to the Fair Field Bill to the Tydings McDuffie Act, all presented the Filipino with hope that perhaps someday in the not too distant future they could attain the right of autonomy. However America’s promise to allow the Filipinos sovereignty and the opportunity for self-governance had stipulations attached all over it. Specifically the U.S. president still had power over how the Philippine constitution would be drafted, how the foreign policy was conducted, and would continue to carefully watched over the massive amount of debt the Filipinos incurred. This gave the term sovereignty a more ostensible appearance. Only on the surface could the Filipinos feel free because deep down they were still kept in captivity all that changed was the loosening of the chains (lecture notes).
Perhaps the most poignant thing that I learned was about the Philippine education system. Education was withheld from the majority of the country during Spanish colonization; it was only reserved for the wealthy elite. This all changed once America took the helm and began it’s own period of colonization. Under American rule Filipinos were finally able to attend school, however the U.S. agenda for education was more of a military strategy to help pacify the people rather than to cultivate their intellect (Lumbera, From Colonizer to Liberator: How U.S. colonialism succeeded in reinventing itself). Over time with this being the foundation for education, the Filipino was misled, misinformed, and miseducated. As a result they formed a skewed perception of America being the land of milk and honey, where the streets are made of gold and everyone was wealthy beyond imagination. Instead of learning in detail about their own country’s heroes such as Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and General Emilio Aguinaldo, students were required to study George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Over time this diluted a feeling of nationalism (Constantino, Miseducation of the Filipino). For many Filipinos, pride in one’s country was neutralized. The education system with it’s goal of teaching the “little brown brothers” to become good colonials helped exacerbate the colonial mentality plaguing many brown people to this day. Also as the education system evolved and the economy changed for the Philippines the focused was shifted to educating the Filipino into being an overseas worker and nothing beyond that. Overseas workers were and continue to be the biggest export of the Philippines which helps the economy. This is where the emphasis for schooling went. What was actually occurring was that by altering the focus of the education, the ones that benefitted the most from it was obviously not the stifled students but rather the capitalists making profits off of these overseas workers (Viola, Hip-hop and Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy: Blue Scholarship to Challenge “The Miseducation of the Filipino”).
My thinking has changed tremendously from going on this trip. I believe my awareness has expanded in all facets of my life. I know myself better now after learning about our heritage, history, and culture. Being engulfed in the Filipino culture has helped me resolve identity issues within myself. Up until two years ago, I knew I was Filipino but yet I did not necessarily feel Filipino deep down in my bones. Meeting my family, living in the country, and picking up on the subtle nuances of the culture brought it all home for me. Sitting in on Dr. Jose’s lectures in concert with the articles opened my eyes to the issues of the Philippines. I now have an understanding as to why the conditions are they way they are. I feel as if my thinking has changed dramatically because to read about subjects such as the Philippine-American War and then to go out in the city and see the actual consequences of that war all around me really cemented the topic within my mind. The two hit combo of conceptual and experiential helped out a lot.
I meshed well with the group I went a long with to the Philippines. Everyone got along. I benefited from being around them because they were all open minded people ready and willing to fully experience the motherland. Everyone brought something unique to the table that allowed for a pleasant and enjoyable time. Amongst the students there was no conflict whatsoever. We were all courteous and mindful of each other. If anyone needed money, someone was there to spot them. We shared clothes. We shared sandals. We shared food. We shared everything. The only conflict that arose during the trip was between the staff and the students. The staff felt as if the students were being disrespectful to the Arnis instructors by playing around with our Arnis sticks during a 5 minute break and being slow to come to attention when they were speaking. Albeit the students had no clue they were being disrespectful. They way it was resolved was everyone sitting down and talking about it. Once we were able to get everything out in the open we were able to correct the issue and nothing came up again. It’s remarkable to think that 13 people can live in close quarters with each other for over six weeks and get along beautifully. It’s rare and I’m just thankful I was able to be apart of it.
The decisions were made based off of consensus. Basically if people wanted to do something they would present the idea to everyone else and see if they wanted to participate. Usually at least one or two people would be willing to come along.
The group members contributed in various ways to the overall experience. We discussed the articles we read in detail allowing us to get a deeper understanding of them. We shared our blogs with one another, helping guide each other with the writing process. And really just spending time with each other talking about our lives helped everyone learn more about themselves.
Being in the motherland felt like a dream. It was almost too good to be true. Everything that we learned. The amount of fun we had. The experiences that we would take with us forever all seemed surreal. I can recall many instances when I would have to stopped everything I was doing and just look around. I wanted to soak in everything that was around me. I would have to remind myself that this is real and this is indeed is happening to me. I am that lucky. Seeing the entire group’s smiling faces, laughing happily in whatever we were doing brought me to a place of humbleness and gratitude. Just to be able to be apart of something such as this, where people are truly enjoying themselves in the moment all the while learning more about themselves and the world around them was truly a blessing.
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