A few weeks ago, I read a chapter or a bit of the essay or book of Florentino H. Hornedo Pagmamahal at Pagmumura, It's a very good piece and I think that it's a really concise way of explaining his worry about the evolution or progress of Filipino Art and Literature. I also recently watched a documentary about Philippine Mythology The Aswang Phenomenon (available in Youtube) and like the former it was concise.
Reading/ Watching these made me realize how much of the Filipino identity is lost or under-developed. It felt as though I was foreign in the country I grew up in. In Pagmamahal at Pagmumura, It talked about how Filipino Art and Literature evolved and the different themes involved in each era. Basically the artists or writers thrived in creating or writing about the oppression the Filipinos experienced and in each era it just had a different style as the Filipinos adapted to their colonizers. In the end, the writer talked about his hopes, how what if Philippines had a better economy or in the future wherein Philippines has a better economy, the writers and artists will grow out of that phase.
Now, the aswang phenomenon talked about the specific types of aswang, where did the word aswang come from and why is it mostly women. What struck me here is that the film-maker, a foreigner, had to go to different islands and talk to different people just find out about the history and various information about the aswang. It also took the director some time to gather all the information. and I guess it's a normal reaction to feel like the Filipino Identity is scattered?
However, when I attended a conference in Ateneo de Manila, a few days ago, my mind was opened to another point of view. I commend Ateneo for the wonderful lecture and my spanish teacher, Sr. Chinor, for requiring us to attend the conference.
I was only able to attend the Wednesday conference and it focused on the Hispanic influences. Note that they used the word Hispanic and not the word Spanish as we've all been accustomed to (or is it just me?). Hispanic is a broad term for the different culture that affected Spain.
I guess the talk was just basically about how Spain affected our growth and what or how they influenced us but it was more than that for me. I realized that we also affected Spain in a small way, that we can really grow out of that phase wherein our art and literature focuses on oppression, I realized that by being colonized we have formed a unique identity and we never really tried to own it and only picked which race suited our taste or preference, that we've only thought of being colonized as being brainwashed and that we've left our being Filipino in it's purest sense.
During the lunch break, I was able to personally talk to Fr. Rene B. Javellena and told him how I liked his lecture "Hispanic influences on Architecture/ Visual Arts". His lecture was very detailed and he tried to explain to us every little detail so we can really understand the Hispanic influences brought to the Philippines but he was also able to show us what Philippines was already rich of, what the Filipinos already had and was brought to Spain. I told Fr. Rene about how his talk gave me a different perspective and that the Filipinos does own something despite it, whatever IT may be, being influenced by another culture. I also told him about the stagnant theme of Filipino Arts and Literature and what he told me made sense, I can't really clearly remember but he said that it was merely a phase wherein Filipinos will grow out of, much like how a child rebelling from it's mother. The rebellion is the phase wherein the Filipinos are fixated on oppression and how they're miserable and after that the Filipinos might see past the oppression. Or find another Point of view aside oppression.
I was unable to talk to the other speakers after that and I was much too shy to just thank them as what they lectured were new to me = I had no questions....
So my point is. Whatever hate or hopelessness you feel right now about the Philippines, I'm telling you that you might just need another point of view or new friends to talk to. We are rich in culture because we not only talk about the native Filipinos but also of our colonizers. We are a part, a mixture, of almost every culture and we should rejoice in that fact because that's what makes us unique. That is our identity, that we are a country of diversity and of unity << idealism right here.
P.S. I spend most of my time trying to find cute things on the internet and though I am interested in this kind of topics I don't find it fun unless it's being discussed or debated. So this post might have been common knowledge to you, but it's new to me :)
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