Blog- Week 3

Ideas, as correlated to the readings, continue to be presented all around us and witnessing these matters firsthand is staggering. Everyday I am learning that education through immersion holds more value than learning from any standardized book. 

On July 8th, Dr. Shaw presented her experimental piece “Nailed.” Lucy R. is believed to be a healer sent from God to protect the people of her community. To fulfill her role entirely, Lucy is crucified yearly. Her hands and feet are physically nailed to a cross and she is left nailed for nearly 30 minutes. The act of her crucification is a example of how one Catholic community identifies a healer. Medicine, as proposed by Arthur Kleiman, is “a set of competing beliefs and practices.” (Kleiman, 1980, pg. 22) The performance of sickness and the need for medicine are both socially and historically constructed. Being sick creates the obligation to seek help or medicine. In the case of Lucy’s community, the answer to many health issues isn’t formed by going to see a doctor. The people of her community rely on the practice and wisdom of generations before them - as a result of Spain and US colonization. As a class, we discussed the commitment that Filipinos have to their Catholic religion. It is one that upholds high value, which turns into a control factor on how to live life. We witness this dedication as statues of religious beings are greatly displayed in almost every city we’ve been. “Nailed” is a controversial film created to show reverence, redemption, and salvation. In doing so, Dr. Shaw has challenged her viewers to reevaluate why a community, such as Lucy’s, allows various levels of spiritual healing and religion to exist.

One of the readings we did this week was To Change the World: The use of American Indian Education in the Philippines written by Anne Paulet. In her piece she states, “This goal 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, pg. 194) Similar to Filipinos, Native Americans have been stripped of their identity which makes it hard to remember exactly where it is their ancestors have come from. Literature and language are two things that allow people to create a sense of self-definition. Writers use language to share the stories of relationships that some may forget. In regards to Filipinos and Native American culture, keeping language alive is an ongoing challenge. Upcoming generations have been influenced to overlook its historical importance and forced to speak English. This is seen in the classroom and as social hierarchies are created. This colonization of not only the people, but the mind and self-definition itself, leads us to recognize the fight that Filipinos and Native Americans continue to face.

In Renato Constantino’s The Miseducation of the Filipino, he says that “the most effective means of subjugating people is to capture their minds.” (Constantino, 1982, pg. 178) Historically as well as currently, the educational system in the US and in the Philippines has been built on the basis of hiding Filipino and Native American history. As a studeny in the US, I can say that neither Filipino or Native American history is taught thoroughly or with multiple perspectives. And according to some of the Filipino students that we’ve met and talked to on the way here, Filipino history is also deprived. A reforming of educational values must take place in order to appropriately educate the people of truthful histories.

The result of Spain and US colonization leaves many Filipinos with uncertainties of pride and their identity. Similarly, it's because of white settlers that Native Americans were attacked and forced to move, while losing their culture and history in the process In The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale Construction and Psychological Implications by E. J. R David and Sumie Okazaki, the authors state that “Filipinos youths have one of the highest rates of suicide ideations and attempts in the US (president’s advisory commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, 2001)” (CMS for Filipino Americans, 2006, pg. 241) Various levels of colonial mentality lead to characterizations of cultural inferiority. For Filipinos and Americans, the perception of white supremacy is daunting and can further lead to internalized oppression. This oppression is enough to make a Filipino question their existence, which increases suicide rates and pushes Filipinos to the top of suicide rates. With the dismissal of suicide thoughts, some of the students in our class have expressed such uncertainties. It’s life changing to learn a new perspective of history that can make you reevaluate your entire life.

Art, like Native American literature, is complex and hardly ever literal. Pieces are written and created true to an author's own intimate experience. On July 9th, Kawayan Tahimik lectured on the interpretations of art. He said that art is ”not orchestrated but it is an orchestra.” (Tahimik, Lecture, July 7th) Like literature, art can be individualistic but it’s also always representative of much more. The language behind a piece is most overlapping among all other concepts of identities because self-identification and pride starts with language and interpretation, literal or not. The interpretation of any author is enough to challenge stereotypes, especially when considering the history of Filipinos and Native Americans. So when the freedom to express one’s culture becomes tainted and limited to the colonization and favor of the US, hurdles of identities arise. Both Filipinos and Native Americans were taught to appreciate the values of the US by suppressing their own culture’s. Currently, the language behind Native American literature and Filipino art, as presented by the PWU students and staff, is resisting such colonization. The students at PWU use art as a form of communication to showcase their perspectives, in a way similar to Native American writers.

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.

Kleinman, A. (1980). Patients and healers in the context of culture: an exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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

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

Shaw, A. (Director) (2014, July 8). Nailed. Lecture conducted from , Manila, Philippines.

Tahimik, K. (Director) (2014, July 9). Art. Lecture conducted from , Manila, Philippines.