Fil-Am Frustration
I have been trying to get Kim to blog almost as long as I have been doing it myself. She is a wealth of knowledge about a broad range of topics and, I, being a believer in the power of the internet and of the free distribution of information, think her thoughts could be enlightening to others. Her response is usually the same: something like “I don’t read for anyone else but myself.” Which I completely understand, but the internet being what it is and there is enough on the web of homeless people fighting or drunk teenagers “ghost riding the whip” or fat gay men slagging on their favorite celebrities’ unfortunate paparazzi photos. I think the world can always benefit from intellectuals (or even pseudo intellectuals) with unique perspectives. Kim and her cousins have their own myspace group where they talk trash about each other and goof around. Occasionally they get into some interesting discussions but most often it is used as an info board for them to keep tabs on each other. I am encouraging one her cousins to open a wordpress.com account (and maybe later an actual stand-alone install) and start a, legitimate, “Kabute Blog” for the KabKids to converge on a more technologically mature and featured platform where they can distribute media and photos and make anything that gets posted as public or private as necessary. Until then, I really feel like I need to share the following post with the internet. Kim sometimes gets mad when I tell people “our business,” but I think this is something that needs to be said, something that I strongly agree with but am not qualified to say myself. She has been long frustrated with the status quo among Filipino-American cultural groups (specifically those found in colleges and high schools) and has expressed her frustration to me on numerous occasions. The follow are Kim’s words:
If you haven’t yet read it, you should read Noli Me Tangere. I’m looking at it right now on my desk. I don’t think it was [Jose] Rizal’s intention to be a martyr. To be honest, his death made more of an impact than his life…let me rephrase, his death made people go back and examine his life and his work. Most of his work was done in Castilian Spanish and not Tagalog. Tagalog was just sprinkled in here and there. He pretty much led the charmed life of an intellectual with good schools going back between Asia and Europe to get the best of both worlds…it was his quest for an education free from the strict Catholic friars that led him to become somewhat of a revolutionary. It’s a little funny to know that seeing as how he was initially educated at Universidad de Santo Thomas (the oldest university in Asia and the same place my mom got her degrees). The Spanish friars must have done something right…at least, at first. At any rate, he wasn’t the only one. There are people who did more than just write novels to try and spur a revolution. Try reading about Bonificacio sometime. Not to downplay Rizal in any way, but Bonificacio may be the true father of the Philippine revolution. Writing about injustices is one thing, but trying to act on it is quite another.
On another note, Returning a Borrowed Tongue is worth some time. [...] There’s a whole world of Filipino poetry that isn’t rapping and doesn’t require ass shaking.
[Since] high school I’ve been trying to find my way through all the oversimplified and watered down versions of culture that the supposed culture events tried to produce. I’ve seen enough tinikling and the girls who think they can sing and play piano to last my whole life. I’d like to say I’m not knocking anything those groups did, but in a way I am. I can’t even tell you how many times I had to sit and listen to some high-voiced girl talk about how her dad was in the navy and brought her mom to the states and then follow it up with a hip hop dance in booty shorts. It’s all well and good, but that’s MY story. That’s almost everyone’s story. Tell me something different. Tell me what obstacles YOU faced. What struggles do YOU have as a first generation American? What are your feelings when you hear stories like this and what will it lead you to do differently with you life? In what ways will you educate yourself about history and what do you want your own kids to know about a country from which they are 2, 3, or 4 generations removed.
Yes, food is a part of our culture.
Yes, dance is a part of our culture.
Yes, in this area navy is a part of our culture. But what will you tell your kids about comfort women? Will you tell them about your grandmother smoking cigarettes with the ashes in her mouth? Will you encourage them to read Nick Joaquin along with their Vonnegut or Capote? Will you explain to them why our food tastes the way it does and why we use the ingredients we use? There are answers to all of these questions that aren’t being presented in a way that’s original or thought provoking. These are things I’d love to see. I’ve eaten pancit and adobo, danced all the line dances, and heard that the navy stories. There is always something more that people aren’t saying. Things that they are too lazy to research or think about for themselves. Søren Kierkegaard once said that “no is is an ought” and he was right. This is the way it is right now, but it ought not be that way. We can be more informed and enlightened. Jose Rizal always taught that “ignorance is slavery.” I for one don’t want to live in ignorance of my culture. One thing I do know for sure about my culture is that it starts with my family. I would have no culture were it not for my family. This presses me to read and learn all I can about my history, so I can finally realize why my family acts as it does. I can’t simply say it’s the Pinoy way. There are cultural events that lead to ideologies, superstitions, taboos, foods, music…everything. I want to know what they are and they surely don’t stop with my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on. All of these things take root in a time that I cannot even fathom. I want to embrace my culture, but before that can really be done we have to find out why it is what it is. You can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you’ve been…it’s cliche, but it’s the truth. Filipino culture doesn’t start with any of us now breathing. It’s way deeper than that.
I personally empathize with Kim’s frustration in my own different way as an American who is eagerly trying to learn more about his girlfriend’s culture and her parents’ culture– which, as Kim points out, really are not the same even though they are separated by only a generation. There is a Philippine Cultural Center blocks from where I work and they offer nothing to the outside community to promote their culture. They offer a lot of what Kim talks about in her post: line-dancing, karaoke, parties– really its more like a Shriner’s Club or a Knights of Columbus. As Kim says, there’s nothing wrong with this, but the name is a misnomer. It doesn’t centralize the promotion of a culture so much as it isolates those not of the same ethnic background. I would love to take a beginner Tagalog course, or watch a traditional performance or educational cooking course. We live in one of the largest concentrations of Filipinos on the east coast and most of the non-Filipino locals don’t even know where the Philippines is on the map. Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group and my white friends, who grew up in the same neighborhoods and went to the same schools as me, seem just as ignorant to this culture that has literally been surrounding us and looking us right in the face for much of our lives. They get confused when I tell them I am trying to learn Tagalog. “What’s that?” they say. My friends didn’t know that the yo-yo was invented in the Philippines as a weapon, that the expression “Lives in the boondocks” comes from the Tagalog word for mountains (bundok), that the Green Hornet’s assistant was originally a Filipino on the old radio shows (look I love Bruce Lee and all but how many Chinese people do you know named Kato?). They don’t realize the culture has already permeated their own and it really isn’t their fault. Culture is dying in the country– in this world! If you have one, people need to know about it.
Kim’s words were a great read, thanks for posting that. She definitely has a way with words and an intellect that is intellectual.
I think that culture needs to be thought about even if it’s not foreign culture (foreign to America). Southern culture comes to mind, Native American culture comes to mind (what’s left of it) – even Hampton Roads culture comes to mind.
You have a way with words that is redundantly redundant.
I agree completely with your ideas about culture.
In all the time I’ve expended here tonight, me thinks this was the most interesting read due, in no small part, I’m sure, to Kim’s excellent writing and the fact that it struck a mighty contrarian chord with me. I smell…all over it…sugar-coated self-importance… deep-fried supposition…the chocolate coating of passionate, obstinate, utterly futile attachment to preserving ephemera…it’s like there’s this formidable intellect full of insufficiently challenged ideas and positions…like…like a well-trained ninja who’s never killed anyone…and I just want to fight it! And…I just love the quite real possibility that I’d be way over my head and might even learn something or (GASP!) be surprised…that would be SO…refreshing…
I only ever met Kim briefly over that coffee we’d had YEARS ago…this short section of writing makes me love/hate her!
BRAVA! I had no idea she wasn’t dumb! I’d agree with you that she should blog, but I think I’d much prefer to engage in spirited debate for hours with the both of you over coffee.
I don’t want to go full-blown here, but I think I have a near-polar-opposite view of culture. It’s preservation and enshrinement is, to me, a near-sin. Such self-indulgent attachments are divisive and inhibit adaptation in the modern world. It has, in my view, no proper place whatever. It’s adoption for identity’s sake is cheap…easy…unoriginal…fake…hallow — like the cultural centers you both look down on. You can know why certain ingredients were used in a food…but what does this trivia net you? Fuck all, beyond a smug sense of self-ascribed superiority and, perhaps, some deluded sense of belonging. You can’t really KNOW what it was like to walk in our ancestors shoes…you just can’t. You can and should acknowledge those who came before, but the world is moving away from the past faster every day…I very much feel for the better. Those who hold on too tight will find themselves left behind or their arms ripped off — disaffected, unsatisfied — whining about the good old days, living in regret for the marginalization of their half-imagined, over-idealized, sepia-tinted nostalgia fetish like wiccans or the SCA.
Not long ago, I’d have agreed with the position that cultural homogenization was an abomination…but it’s spurred the development of such a rich variety of subcultures…disaffection with the mainstream in a free society has allowed divergent views of an extremity that would never have been possible in the conservative societies that dominated our forefather’s ways of thinking…viewpoints are, perhaps surprisingly, so very different now…and that is so much more valuable to me than anything or anyone’s legacy. And I’d argue…so much more valuable to humanity as a whole as well — and in some very quantifiable ways.
I digress…this is the stuff of very long essays and books. Dude, I so want to lovingly, respectfully tear you both new intellectual assholes!
A quick addendum:
Try and forgive the ‘Will tone.’ By now I hope we’ve reacquainted ourselves sufficiently for you to recall my tendency towards provocatively challenging language when criticizing established lines of thinking and that this is not a product of spite or personal insecurities but an enthusiastic embrace of objectivist, rationalist and scientific principles. For anything to have merit, especially an idea, it must be challenged. Refinement of theory…learning…honing of the mind, expansion of horizons…separating wheat from chaff; I could romanticize argument as the most noble and glorious form of warfare yet devised by man because the only casualties are half-baked idiocy and undeserved confidence and pride — both of which we’re better-off without. When people disagree with me, I want them to ‘bring it.’ For real-for real…as it were.
I oft get carried away and eh…push buttons. I miss arguing with my coked-up Mexican writer roommate from San Francisco right now. 
Fuckin’ hippy…
Anyway, I would love it if you two would do me the honor of a sit down one of these days over video-Skype, coffee and low-carb pie for a mutual verbal thrashin’
I will destroy you!
Or you could get your own blog.
Honestly this post is so old I don’t even care to engage you.
Actually.. the expansion of horizons is one thing. Replacing what little culture your ancestors were able to salvage from various regimes of conquer and tyranny with booty-shorts and “rap-dancing” isn’t the same thing as expansion of horizons and breaking new ground. You are smart, Will Butterfield, but you don’t know what she’s referring to.
My Ex-wife is Portugese; parents immigrated when she was little. I’ve seen my share of foil-laden tables and the different ways, generationally and otherwise the Fremont Portugese community dealt with issues surrounding their culture. So…I’m not a total neophyte when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Specifically, historically…no the relevance of her Philo-centric references did not resonate with me…what I went off on was this prevalent notion…the defacto, taken-for-granted-ness that there is value in what you refer to as “salvage.” Looking back and outward for identity…this neotribalistic absurdity with an insufficiently questioned claim to legitimacy…the ugly side of what’s called “multiculturalism.”
The booty-shorts and “rap-dancing” like all emergent cultural phenomena are best judged (subjective ‘good’ or ‘bad’ measured) in a ‘context of totality’ the (subjective) tragedy of the cultural elements emergent phenomena supplant is at most a foot-note-worthy element of that totality, almost assuredly of tertiary significance to anyone not afflicted by rose-colored-glasses-for-the-past-syndrome. I attack the knee-jerk defense of tradition that we can never truly know or understand well enough to warrant the passions they engender because it is irrational and counterproductive. I know that sounds like a specious claim at first, but it’s the kind of thing I think I can argue pretty well.
Yes…I know…start my own blog…well, yeah…I downloaded wordpress last week actually…need to pick a domain name and host.
That aside…what’s wrong with hanging out and tele-IHOP-ing a discussion of the topic…help! I’m bored!
Dude…I misspelled Portuguese twice…no wonder she left me.
Well take into consideration that there’s about 90 million Filipinos living on the island, but 11 million living elsewhere in the world. The Fil-Am culture is one unto it’s own. Filipino-Americans do not live the same way as the Filipinos in the Philippines. Even Kim’s dad will say time and time again that he’s “too American” to eat certain foods that he would eat all of the time as a boy. The broadening of horizons happens whether intentional or not, but the homogenization of a country’s identity due to a Western capitalist influence (not a natural evolution of a culture, but a “hey you’re extremely poor, we’ll give you money if you let us put a billboard on your house kind of influence).
Nevertheless, the activities that these college-aged kids participate in with FACS and similar organizations operate under the pretense of a cultural organization and the activities therein have more to do with dumb ass kids in college. This would be all well and good if the pretense were ceremonial (you know, like a Fraternity) but these kids really think they’re getting in touch with their culture. They feel “more Filipino” because they can now name a few historical figures (with a scattershot understanding of these figures’ role in Filipino history).
Not having any personal stake in this, what infuriates me most is the sense of feigned intellect that exudes from these kinds of organizations. If it was a Chess club and all they did was watch “Me & Bobby Fischer” and play checkers it would infuriate me just as much.
The word “culture” might imply something to you that is not intended. It’s really about an understanding of history. I know Kim has a reverence for the history of her parents’ and grandparents’ culture, that doesn’t mean she lives the same way. It’s got more to do with respect.
While I think I agree with the over-all premise…I think you’re right for the wrong reasons… first, answer this: what is the “natural evolution of a culture?” You’re really bending the word “natural” when you talk about something so defined by artifice as a culture. Let’s drag evolution into it too with this simple scenario…new predator moves into an area previously dominated by another and they compete for the same food. Memes operate very much in this fashion.
What’s the relevance of Western influence being transmitted via capitalism? Does capitalism carry a negative connotation for you? Why?
Here’s a fun thought experiment…once you define what ‘natural’ means to you…is it superior to whatever ‘not-natural’ is? Why?
As for the college kids; a poseur by any other name… A problem I see that makes such groups ‘worse’ is the air of legitimacy they’re given by the greater society. On campus, the whole ‘roots’ thing is seen as intrinsically noble. It’s not. There is an incongruity you run into when you have “pride in your heritage.” The ‘pride’ comes in this queer form — sort of a quasi-non-confrontational, unspoken, vague assertion of superiority…racially…culturally…it doesn’t matter…it’s bullshit. It’s divisive. It’s a pattern of thought that is allowed by and encouraging of irrationality. It makes scapegoating other groups so much easier because ‘they’re not like us’ or ‘their culture is inferior.’
An understanding of history is great. It’s essential for context. It’s when people go forging their identities based on fragments of these failed cultures, often half-reconstructed or partially adopted but never really understood, that I develop a problem with shutting the hell up.
It’s just such a cop out…to define yourself heavily by what OTHERS have done…by belonging based on something as malleable and fleetingly relevant (in the modern world) as culture. I mean…take Tim Burton as an partially metaphorical example of the ill-effects of getting bound to goth culture. You start off with Edward Scissorhands and Beatlejuice…fucking unique and awesome flicks. But that well runs dry quick and you, convinced of the purity of your vision as partly defined by your culture, think you can remake Planet Of The Apes…
Now…there was a point there somewhere, but I’m dead tired and need sleep…so…you think about that…or don’t…might cause ‘blown-mind syndrome’ which is a like like Videodrome…in which James Woods was amaaaaazing. Night.
I think you’d understand what I am saying if you watched 3 hours of the Filipino Channel. Also, you’re arguing just to argue now and that’s annoying.