Searching for the Real Me and We. A Filipino-American Experience - Essay Example

Searching for the Real Me and We A Filipino-American Experience Introduction The migrationof Filipinos to the US was basically determined in the past and at present by the desire of the US for cheap and efficient labor, a desire in keeping with capitalism’s exploitative character and racist framework. My contention is: many Filipino-Americans have absorbed the dominant US culture, which prevents them from understanding the realities behind their own migration experience, decolonizing their thinking, and developing their unity with all poor people of color. Many Filipino-Americans will argue that American society and structures do not exploit, repress and discriminate against poor people of color. They will point to many individual success stories, to the Filipino and other Asian families who fled from poverty and repression, and are now living the “good life” because of their solid values, family unity, and hard work. Unfortunately, most Filipinos have little or no access to the authentic history and fresh information on US aggression, exploitation and racism in the Philippines. I am one of the fortunate few who live and interact with a large community of Filipinos and progressive Filipino-American organizations, and have started to study the Philippines without the veil of the culture of the oppressor. The following section of this paper will review the US invasion and occupation of the Philippines and the resulting waves of migration of Filipino workers and professionals to this country. It will explore, not only the socio-economic results, but also the cultural impact of US direct and indirect rule on the Filipino people’s collective memories and consciousness. The Philippine Experience Just before the end of the 19th century, America declared war on Spain. This was its first armed bid to make its presence felt in the Asia-Pacific Region. In reality the Spanish-American war was not so much a war as the scripted transfer of the Philippines and Cuba to the US, without loss of American or Spanish lives. The “war” ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, in which the Philippines was sold by Spain to the US for the grand total of $20 million, or $2 per head for 10 million Filipinos. Although some groups such as the Anti-Imperialist League objected to the annexation, the winners of the debate were the pro-annexation groups that wanted cheap Filipino sugar, copra (dried coconut) and other raw materials, cheap farm labor for pineapple and sugar plantations in Hawaii and farms in the US, plus a jumping point to the potentially enormously profitable Chinese market (Magdoff and Foster). After defeating the Spanish colonial government, Filipinos were forced to wage another war, this time against the US invading forces. This time it was not the “moro-moro” or mock fight of the Spanish-American war. This time it was a vicious racist war that resulted in the death of “at least 1.4 million Filipinos” from the actual fighting and from war-related starvation and disease (San Juan). Fourteen percent of the total Filipino population died in just three years (1899-1902). Although the Filipino-American War was considered over by 1902, Filipino resistance continued up to 1907 and even longer in some areas. The remaining resistance groups and their leaders such as Macario Sakay were branded and hanged as ladrones (thieves) and criminals. Under US rule, Filipino heroes became criminals while collaborators became heroes. If you visit the Philippines, you will see, as I did, streets and bridges named after American presidents and generals such as Taft and Wilson and after states such as Florida and New York, but not one named after Sakay, the forgotten hero who wrote these words (quoted in Pepe’s Blog) before he was executed: "Death comes to all of us sooner or later, so I will face the Lord Almighty calmly. But I want to tell you that we were not bandits and robbers, as the Americans have accused us, but members of the revolutionary force that defended our mother country!… Long live the republic and may our independence be born in the future!..Long live Filipinas! The Philippines has been called the first Vietnam. The Filipino-American War has also been compared to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. US policy makers and troops considered Filipinos as uncivilized black savages, which justified such practices as strategic hamlets, the water cure and other forms of torture, and the massacre of men and male children 12 years old and above in Balanginga, Samar to revenge the ambush and killing of American troops. In essence, and based on present United Nations Conventions, the Filipino-American War amounted to 20th century genocide (San Juan). The ignorance of even “educated” Filipinos regarding that part of our history must be recognized and understood. The US colonial government deliberately took steps to erase Filipino memories and replace Filipino anti-imperialist and nationalist sentiments with a desire to achieve the promised American Dream. The 1901 Sedition Act made it illegal to advocate Philippine independence whether by nonviolent or violent means. The display of the Philippine flag and nationalist plays, poems and songs were banned totally. In those days Filipinos could face a sentence of life imprisonment or be put to death for violating these laws (Fernandez). Pacification (through force and “education”) was the main US agenda for the Filipino people. Pacification via “education” became the main agenda of the first batches of American schoolteachers -- the Thomasites – sent to the Philippines, and ultimately the agenda of the Filipino scholars sent to the US who came back and helped organize the public school system in the Philippines (Constantino). The Filipino historian, Renato Constantino, called it the miseducation of Filipinos and wrote that: "The Filipinos became avid consumers of American products and the Philippines, a fertile ground for American investment….English became the wedge that separated the Filipinos from their past…(and) separated educated Filipinos from the masses." The US also shaped the Philippine economy, relegating the country to the production of raw materials, blocking policies of import substitution and nationalist industrialization, tying the peso to the dollar, and forcing the Philippines to grant parity rights to US citizens when the country lay in ruins after WWII. The 1935 Philippine Constitution and other political structures and practices were also patterned after the American model. One important thing that was not changed was the feudal system in the Philippine countryside that kept Filipino peasants both poor and powerless. Many of these peasants ended up as agricultural workers in the US. Waves of Migration The first wave of Filipino migration to the US consisted of two groups. The first was composed of government scholars or pensionados who came back to the Philippines and were used by the colonial government in miseducating Filipinos. The second group was composed of poor peasant Filipinos destined for pineapple plantations in Hawaii, fruit and vegetable farms in California, and Alaska’s fish canneries and processing plants. By the 1920s, Filipino farm workers arrived in large numbers in California for seasonal farm work such as harvesting fruit and rice, hoeing and the like. Growers used them as scabs during strikes and to minimize and counter any threats from other groups of workers. These Filipino workers only wanted to earn enough money to be able to go home and live off their savings. They had no desire to settle in the US (Filipino Migration). From the end of WWII to the early 60s, most of the Filipino migrants were Filipinos in the US armed forces and their families. Professionals came during the rest of the 60s and the 70s; many were nurses, doctors, teachers and the like. The last wave of migration consisted of the families of the earlier migrants headed for reunification. There are now 1.2 million Filipino Americans in the US. US colonial rule and continuing domination and control over the Philippines created and perpetuate the conditions that push many Filipinos toward a quest for a better life in other countries, primarily the United States. From 1972 to 1986, the US supported the Marcos dictatorship until it became the problem and not an effective US tool to put an end to the rising nationalist movement in the Philippines. The US-dominated IMF-WB has imposed structural adjustment programs on the Philippines, further marginalizing Filipino peasants, destroying Philippine agriculture, and reducing Filipino workers into contractual labor with no prospects of job security and living wages. Efforts by Filipino nationalists to work for and obtain real reforms have been blocked by the Philippine state, with the direct and indirect participation and support of the US. Self-liberation I am a Filipino-American. I admire my father and mother for working hard to be able to send me to college. Many Filipinos will point to me and my family as an example of the achievement of the American dream. However I cannot forget the poverty that I saw and smelled and felt in many poor neighborhoods in the Philippines. I cannot overlook the fact that even in the US some people are homeless and go to bed hungry. I have started to realize that the American dream is for the “me” and not for the “we.” It dangles the opportunity of success through the “liberation” of the individual but shuts the door on the liberation of peoples, nations, and countries. The noted Filipino historian Renato Constantino said: “The true Filipino is a decolonized Filipino.” “Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men” (Fanon, 457). I have to struggle against the dominant culture that my parents and their parents and I have imbibed. When one believes white is beautiful, and has believed it for decades, it is hard to feel secure with brown skin, black hair and small, flat noses. Studying history is a important step, and I have started to fully appreciate my Filipino heritage. Understanding myself and the Filipino-American experience, I am starting to understand the reality of the Black experience, the Latino experience, the experience of all the excluded in American society. I know I have to take the next step, going beyond the me and transforming myself into the we of humanity. Like Carlos Bulosan I want to be able to say: Remember, remember, We shall no longer wear rags, eat stale bread, live in darkness; We shall no longer kneel on our knees to your false gods; We shall no longer beg you for a share of life… We are the creators of a flowering race! Cited References Constantino, Renato (1970). The Miseducation of the Filipinos, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 1, No. 1. Viewed 15 May at: http://thefilipinomind.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html Fernandez, Doreen (2003). Seditious and Subversive: Theater of War. Viewed 15 May at: http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultarts/articles.php?artcl_Id=70 Filipino Migration to the US, the Philippine History Site. Viewed May 16 at: http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=Filipino+Migration+to+the+US%2C+the+Philippine+History+Site.&btnG=Google+Search Magdoff, Harry and Foster, John B. (2003). Kipling, the ‘White Man’s Burden,’ and U.S. Imperialism, Monthly Review, vol. 55, No. 6. Viewed 16 May at: http://www.monthlyreview.org/1103editors.htm Pepe’s Blog. Macario Sakay and the Struggle for Kalayaan, Continuity in the Katipunan guerilla movement, 1892-1907. Viewed 15 May at: http://128.32.250.47:8080/pepesblog/stories/storyReader$30 San Juan, Epifanio (2005). Stop US Genocide in the Philippines, Socialist Viewpoint, March, Vol. 5, No.3. Viewed 16 May at: http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/mar_05/mar_05_17.html Sison, Ramon (1996). War for Independence, The View from a Small Town, Philippine History Group of Los Angeles (PHGLA). Viewed 15 May at: http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/mar_05/mar_05_17.html Read More