BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol I, No. 12
Nov 24, 2004
DRIVE-THRU (Letters)
ARCHIVE
#1276
Comment to Love
in the Time of Racism, Part 2
I'm very fixated on faces. When I travel, I always find myself staring at
the native's faces. I think faces present maps, cultural, geographical and
for the most part, they tell stories about that person, his clan and his
world.
My mother is a Chavacana from Zamboanga. She has the looks of the Filipino
mestizaje. A few months ago, when I was in jersey, she told me that the
people at the fish store thought she was Chinese. I found that amusing.
My
mom and I were laughing hysterically. It was interesting that my mother,
as she gets older, is now becoming "Chinese."
I think I have that face too, just like hers. Many people don't know where
I'm from. When asked, where are you from? I interject immediately with,
you have three guesses. I say that because the answers are an indicator of
someone's cultural geographical acumen. When I was in Acapulco, Mexico
many years ago, I was walking in front of a row of restaurants, looking
for lunch. There was this Asian family (Korean, I think) walking ahead of
me. At the entrance of each restaurant was a waiter trying to lure
customers in. As soon as the family walked by them, all the waiters
started making karate chop-chop postures-hai-yaaah -hai-yaaah and doing
ching-chong-ching-chong. the family ignored them, and why shouldn't they?
When it was my turn to walk by, nothing happened. Nothing. It was very
odd, but it was nothing new in fact. I have been "protected"
from anti-Chinese sentiments because of the way I look.
Ah, I thought, the politics of the human face.
During
the second world war in the U.U., the U.S. government released a map of
two faces: Chinese and Japanese, so that people would be able to tell the
Chinese face from the country's enemy, the Japanese. The Japanese in the
U.S. of course ended up in internment camps. In this country to this
day, people cant tell Asians apart.
Pagdanganan's comment is all about the politics of the human face.
He uses "slit eyes" not so much to present an example of
nationalistic prowess, but truly, as a self-empowerment tool against the
empire that is the Chinese in the Philippines. By making fun of their
"little eyes," he thinks that he is upgrading his status in the
cultural totem pole. I smile at the thought of Filipinos vs. the Chinese
empire, because I know that the love-hate-mostly-hate relationship between
Filipinos and Chinese has been there long before one became an empire.
Here in the U.S., where Filipinos and Chinese are placed in the same
cultural pot by non-Asians, it is not surprising to hear comments by
Filipinos against the Chinese, and vice versa. Filipinos' comments always,
always manifest in the critique of Chinese eyes.
Ah, the politics of the human face.
There is another empire in the Philippines that seems to be missing in
this discourse. I often wonder why the "Spanish" empire is
always left off the hook. How come there are no "jokes" about
the Spanish face? How come Filipinos don't make fun of the Spanish
mestizaje? Do you think Filipinos will ever make fun of the very
people they consider "magaganda?" and therefore, superior?
Do you think that Fernando Poe Jr. was almost elected president of the
Philippines because he was one great politician. Or shall we credit his
looks (and Erap's) for his rise to stardom and almost, political power.
My cousin once told me that another cousin married a European because she
wanted "racial upgrade." Disturbing, but true.
Jojo, I could have responded to (your essay) on a discourse on ideology
and economics and history. But I kept on springing back to the bare
essentials of this issue: "the Chinese eyes." I don't disagree
with you at all on the economic power of the Chinese elite in the
Philippines. And that Filipinos once again have found themselves dealing
with another empire, this time, HOMEGROWN. So potent is the poison of
anti-empire slogans, that Pagdanganan would bring it all the way to
California, where people have a completely different perspective of
Filipino-Chinese relations.
Yes, I understand the need for the oppressed (Filipinos) to liberate
themselves . . .
But I also know, stripped bare of economics, Filipinos have always looked
down on the Chinese (and perhaps vice versa).
(Here in the United States), many people continue to think that Asia is in
the eyes. They look at a biracial baby and say, she has the eyes of her
Chinese mom, even if the baby's eyes are blue.
Tsk. Tsk.
We have to be careful. Different tactics, different places. Pagdanganan
needs to understand why it is dangerous for him to bring Filipino bigotry
into the U.S. Filipino-Chinese dynamics in this country is different, as I
believe we both agree on.
But is it a source of empowerment for Filipinos to make fun of the Chinese
as a reaction against the Chinese empire?
I think Filipinos would have made fun of the Chinese regardless.
Let's agree on one point (though we probably agree on many): what
Filipinos find "funny" in the islands is not funny anywhere else
in the world.
Bino
(New York City, NY)
Posted
11/16/04. Send your comment to
[email protected]
*Our
letter-writer,
New York-based Fil-Am novelist and poet Bino (Realuyo) is the author of
the highly-acclaimed novel The Umbrella Country. Click here
to visit his website.