Blog 4 Tory J

Our last week in the Philippines came much more abruptly than I expected; after the hustle and bustle of traveling to Cebu and Bohol, we were given time to reflect on what we’ve learned during our time here. As the program is coming to a close and our group is getting smaller and smaller, I’m left to venture on back into the states with the memories and stories through which I can reminisce upon this amazing trip. We’ve learned so much about the history and state of the Philippines, and I feel like this place will never leave my thoughts and prayers. I can only eagerly await the time when I can come back and learn even more about the people here and what they have to deal with given the history of United States colonialism.

Our readings this week focused on two separate aspects of early American colonialism; Rene Ontal highlights the experiences of African American soldiers during the Philippine-American War using the life of David Fagen, an American soldier that defected, and Patricio Anibales discusses the political state of Southern Mindanao during the colonial period. The readings do not include as many connections to each other as the previous ones for this program, but each are important for understanding both the state of soldiers of color during a very racist and imperialist time period and how the colonization of the Philippines did not extend only to Manila.

Ontal’s account of Fagen’s life brought forth many points in the state of soldiers of color during the early colonial period of the Philippines. African American soldiers were forced into a life where they fought for the same country that enslaved them, assimilated them, and discriminated against them in implicit and explicit ways. This made certain African American soldiers question what they were actually fighting for and created sympathies for those in the Philippines who not only suffered from similar imperialist and racist policies and militarism, but looked like them. David Fagen ended up defecting and becoming a guerilla general and propagandist for the Filipino cause.

It is interesting to me that the history of African American and Filipino relationships during the early colonial period was one that included such solidarity when today Filipinos are worried about getting their skin whitened. Reading about the solidarity between Black soldiers and Filipinos given everything we experienced during this trip made me saddened by the current state of the Philippines. Colonization has had such a huge impact on this place and it is very prevalent. This trip has continually made me think about the history of America and how bloody and dark it is. I have a background in Indigenous studies but seeing the effects of colonization hit a place so far away from the United States is hear-breaking. I feel like if I was a soldier in those times I would also defect to the cause, but for what? I realize that this sounds very negative and it cannot be true that there are ways in which Filipinos are trying to reinvent their identities and bring light to the actual histories of this place, but colonialism is so deeply ingrained within this society; almost so much that it would make people complacent to the issues regarding race relations, decolonization, education reform, independence, etc.