Blog Week 3

Last week I questioned what it meant for a Pilipino person to be Pilipino. This week I have been seeking out the answer to this question in my conversations, observations, and experiences. I have come to learn that the reason I probably had this question to begin with is because the answer is complicated and full of layers. According to my conversations with locals, some people see Pilipino culture deeply connected to Catholicism and some see it as a great mix of cultures from other countries, unsure of what that really means for themselves. My question was, what did it mean to be Pilipino before colonial influence and the answer to that has been lost in the wreckage and dismantling of a countries cultural identity through miseducation and internalized colonial mentality. The easiest way for me to conceptualize the identity make up of Pilipino people is relate it to the experience, knowledge, and identity I have as a Native American person, living in a country that has also been colonized by “Americans.”

One of our readings this week, by Anne Paulet (2007), was comparing the Indian boarding schools that were implemented in the United States to “civilize” and assimilate Native children and the education system implemented in the Philippines. “The goals of Americanization was accomplished by constructing education in the archipelago along the lines of Indian education – as a lesson in morals and cultural values as much, if not more, than a lesson in reading, writing, and arithmetic” (Paulet, 2007, pp. 194). Both systems, the Pilipino education and “Indian” Education, were set up in a way that covered up and mutilated the truth about their colonial histories. Both systems were structured in a way that forced assimilation upon children at a young age and taught them to move away from their indigenous cultures and imitate an “American” way of life or persona. “Young minds had to be shaped to conform to American ideas, Indigenous Filipino ideals were slowly eroded in order to remove the last vestige of resistance” (Constantino, 1982, pp. 179). When this happened in the United States to the Native Americans, this education was portrayed as “a good thing.” It would help the “savages.” The change would elevate and benefit their way of life. The same was true for Filipino’s. “Filipino culture, like Indian culture, was backward and limiting, and the Filipinos could only advance and benefit from American efforts if they progressed culturally and materially” (Paulet, 2007, pp. 192). In my opinion, Indian child boarding schools did nothing else besides force religion upon a function spiritual system, introduce a series of traumatic events that would be passed down through generations, and brain wash a population into a colonized mentality of defeat and self hatred. These are symptoms I see present amongst Pilipino people as well.

According to one of our readings from this week, research shows that “colonized mentality negatively affects the mental health of modern day Filipino Americans” (David and Okazaki, 2006, pp. 251). Colonized mentality was described in this article as:

“A form of internalized oppression, characterized by a perception of ethnic or cultural inferiority that is believed to be a specific consequence of centuries of colonization under Spain and the United States. It involves an automatic and uncritical rejection of anything Filipino and an automatic and uncritical preference for anything American” (David and Okazaki, 2006, pp. 241).

The belief that American colonization was inherently positive for the Pilipino people is a colonized mentality. Many of the discussions with Pilipino people that I have had in the last week have highlighted that this is stilled believed today. For example, in the student discussion at Ateneo University, one of the students said, “American colonial administration had good intentions.” This frustrates me because I feel as if they are blinded to what colonization has done to their people and that, because of the strong psychological affect colonization has had on the Pilipino population, they are unable to see clearly, the reality of the negative affects it has had on them. “The most effective means of subjugating a people is to capture their minds” (Constantino, 1982, pp. 178). Many Pilipino people still embrace the idea of American colonization and believe it was an over all positive part of their history. The truth is, is that they have been conditioned to think this through the education system. The education system in the Philippines, implemented by the United States has continued to perpetuate themselves as the “good guy”, well after the independence of the Philippines from the U.S. This process leads to a colonized mentality and a negative mental reaction that include the rejecting of ones Pilipino identity.

The education system not only taught Pilipino’s that what colonizers were doing was positive, but it also converted them, first to Catholicism by the Spanish, and then Christianity by the Americans. As we saw when we were visiting the Ayala museum, prior to colonization, Pilipino people’s belief in the super natural was a combination of Hindu-Buddhist, acquired through movement of peoples and goods through the South East Asia trade network. In 1565, a few decades after the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, intensive Christianization of the islands began. After this, religion was used as a tool of justification for the colonization of the Philippines, similar to the United States with the Native American’s. Religion, as an institution, is a powerful colonization tool. The widely spread embrace and dedication to Catholicism demonstrates the great presence of colonized culture that still exists in the Philippines.

Overall, the awareness about the presence of a colonized culture goes fairly unnoticed by Pilipino people. It has left them believing that aspects of modern day Pilipino culture, such as Catholicism, is part of what it means to be Pilipino. This may be true but it cannot go unnoticed that this religion was a result of forced assimilation and required the suffering of many Pilipino people to be implemented. There is a lack of awareness about the true histories of the Philippines that keeps people in a “colonized” state of mind, unable to identify the enemy, and to sort out what it meant to be Pilipino, pre colonization. In part, I do not feel knowledgeable enough to speak about these topics and about a culture I do not identify with, but I would like to see Pilipino people able to reject what has been forced upon them by colonization and to re embrace ideologies and traditions practiced and believed before colonization. Perhaps in this, Pilipino people will be able to construct a new, authentic identity for themselves. There is a very evident struggle among Pilipino people to reclaim and realize their identity. When there is a struggle, there is a fight, and where there is a fight, there is hope.

Discussion question: In what ways can Pilipino people resist a colonial mentality or colonized state of mind?

Do you see this happening or likely to happen?

Citations 

Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of war.

(pp. 177-­‐192). New York: New York Press.

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans:

Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation.

Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16.

Paulet, A. (2007). To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the

Philippines. History of Educational Quarterly, 47 (2), 173-202.