Americanization of the Filipino

Education is core to the soul and the proliferation of its virtues. We are what we study and our education often becomes an essential part of our identity. For the Filipinos, identity is a mixed bag. Ask a Filipino who or what they are and they'll give you a mixed bag of answers. Some will say they are descendants of Spanish, some will say they are descendants of Chinese or Austronesian or both, or will boast their adoption of the American identity as being morally superior. Most - declare themselves as "true" Filipinos even though that term carries no legal or universal merit. There is no universal metric for the "true Filipino" because, arguably, the "true Filipino" vanished at Spanish contact. 

The Hispanization of the Filipino.

In 1517, at Spanish contact, the indigenous of the Philippines were an advanced mixed-race of Austronesian animists ruled by Hindu-Buddhist monarchies. Around the 13th century Islam was also taking hold over many of the polities, providing strict governance over religion and administration. On arrival, the Spanish were Catholic conquerors bent on expanding the their empire based on the religious conformity principles of the Spanish Inquisition. Their aim was to create colonies in the "Indies" to safeguard their position in the lucrative "Eastern Spice Trade" and bring Catholicism as the religious and cultural unifier of their "conquered" lands.

Image: Spanish contact with early Filipino tribes

For the Spanish, governance over the "indios" (indigenous) did not stop at administration or labor. Unlike their Dutch or British contemporaries, the Spanish upheld religious fervor and their monarchs had to ensure religious uniformity within the Spanish Empire, so governance also meant enforcing Catholic conversion. Friars and various missionaries were sent to the Philippines to teach the Bible to the "pagans" of the islands. While we can credit some of these missionaries to document and archive pre-colonial indigenous history, most were responsible for the systematic erasure of it.

Although the indigenous Filipino were educated and literate in their own native Malay-Sanskirt dialect, the Spanish asserted re-education by teaching them Latin based Spanish and suppressing the use of their native language. "Catholic missionaries made sure that the use of the indigenous script among the Christianized population was never propagated, calling the practice pagan ... uncivilized (Arch Sci 2006)."

To ensure total subjugation, literature was destroyed "... consequently, many nationalist historians speculate that the country’s pre-Hispanic writings were almost entirely obliterated" (Hernandez 1999). Whatever records or scriptures the ancient Filipinos had of their indigenous history were burned out of existence.

Further, institutions, such as shrines or temples, that housed and elevated "pagan" ideas, were also systematically destroyed. "The early conquerors and missionaries were little interested in the questions of modern ethnology and social science, and were scarcely fitted to answer them. Remembering how the early missionaries to Mexico labored to destroy, as works of the devil, the picture writing, the temples and other monuments of Aztec civilization, we should expect even less tolerations from their brethren in the Philippines" (Political Science Quarterly 1903). Sacred shrines dedicated to indigenous beliefs were desecrated and replaced with Catholic cathedrals and churches.

Image: Spanish destruction of indigenous idols

For the peace of the empire and its colonies, the Spanish monarchy had to ensure all of its subjects adopted the Spanish way of life, which included their religious zeal for Catholicism. Filipino indigenous beliefs and practices were brutally oppressed. Natives were forced to convert or die. Temples destroyed. The transformation took 400 years to complete and is evident centuries later. Even today, Filipinos carry Hispanic family names, adopt Spanish words in the Filipino language, fuse Spanish performing arts into indigenous dances, and proudly designate themselves as a predominantly Catholic nation.

America's Benevolent Assimilation.

At the end of the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Americans had a lot of work to do. In addition to Guam and Puerto Rico, the Americans acquired the Philippines from Spain and had to figure out how to administer their newly conquered territory. American scholars and politicians were presented with many challenges. Most believed that the Spanish were not adept at record keeping so there were gaps in understanding and contextualizing Filipino culture to create and adopt regional policies. Most agreed that native Filipinos were not fully literate due to Spanish segregation and oppression.

Perhaps due to ignorance, or misunderstandings, colonial era Americans were never fully able to grasp Filipino culture so they took the whitewashed approach and labeled them as mere "illiterate savages" incapable of governing themselves. In response to America's imperialistic efforts, Rudyard Kipling wrote "The White Man's Burden" poem to describe the "anguish" the white man faced in bringing civilization to inferior, non-white "devil" races through colonization.

"Take up the White Man's burden—/ Send forth the best ye breed—/ Go bind your sons to exile/ To serve your captives' need;..."

"To wait in heavy harness/ On fluttered folk and wild—/ Your new-caught, sullen peoples, / Half devil and half child." 

Image: Artist's rendition of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden"

Based on this ideology, President McKinley proclaimed the "Benevolent Assimilation" policy over the Philippine Islands. In his policy, he promised to "proclaim in the most public manner that we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights. All persons who, either by active aid or by honest submission, co-operate with the Government of the United States to give effect to these beneficent purposes will receive the reward of its support and protection" (McKinley 1898). Through the proclamation, McKinley cunningly promised to uplift the Filipinos from their "illiterate" native roots through Americanization. What followed was decades worth of cultural transformation in favor of American colonial power.

Image: The Benevolent Assimilation - propaganda poster

The Americanization of the Filipino.

In his landmark essay, "The Miseducation of the Filipino", Professor Renato Constantino of University of the Philippines criticized the American shaping of the Filipino mind. Constantino describes the weaponization of education ... "the molding of men's minds is the best means of conquest. Education, therefore, serves as a weapon in wars of colonial conquest (Constantino 1959)." American control over Filipino education meant pacifying the people any thought of rebellion. 

America had to ensure that by bestowing the Filipinos with [Western] literacy they also were made to believe the American colonial rule was morally superior, thereby diluting any form of Filipino nationalism. "The most effective means of subjugating a people is to capture their minds. Military victory does not necessarily signify conquest. As long as feelings of resistance remain in the hearts of the vanquished, no conqueror is secure". 

Further, Filipinos had to be trained to become a part of the American capitalist economy. "Given the economic and political purposes of American occupation, education had to be consistent with these broad purposes of American colonial policy. The Filipinos had to be trained as citizens of an American colony". The Filipinos had to forget who they were and choose to become American. "With American education, the Filipinos were not only learning a new language; they were not only forgetting their own language; they were starting to become a new type of American."

Image: Re-education of the Filipinos. Propaganda poster 

The legacy of  American colonial era education continues to this day. A large majority of Filipinos continue to look at the US favorably over its Asian neighbors.

The American education of the Filipino is a thought experiment gone horribly right. Renato describes this phenomenon as an illusion made reality .. "the emphasis in our study of history has been on the great gifts that our conquerors have bestowed upon us. A mask of benevolence was used to hide the cruelties and deceit of early American occupation."

Filipinos of today are Americanized; they speak fluent English, enjoy burgers and fries, watch and emulate American TV, listen and dance to American music, and consume American literature. The Filipino diaspora in America (and in Canada) often disregard their native roots in favor of their western upbringing (myself included). Filipinos are often ignorant or intentionally blinded from their pre-colonial past so they often regard colonial transformation as a gift rather than a curse. 

Truth and Reconciliation from a Diasporic Filipino.

Canada's "Truth and Reconciliation Act" opened up a world of possibilities for the Indigenous of Canada. Through this act, the miseducation and abuses of the Indigenous faced through residential schools are acknowledged, indigenous values are respected and amplified. The act also affected me directly, as it encouraged me to look at my own native heritage. Although I am Canadian in soul, my blood remains stubbornly Filipino.

The purpose of this essay (and all of my essays in this series) was to re-examine the true history of my roots and reconcile it with my present Canadian identity. Reading about the cultural erasure Filipinos faced under the Spanish, and the exploitative miseducation under the Americans has been really difficult - to say the least. No one likes reading about ugly history. But, I can say it has profoundly transformed the way I see the world. 

I no longer feel shame for my native Filipino roots but rather sympathize for the Filipinos of today.  We are descendants of the colonized, carrying a misshapen identity from four centuries worth of colonial oppression. However, I also don't view descendants of colonial powers as "the bad guys". Empires of the past and present all have (had) agendas and the political might to execute those agendas. Some agendas failed, some succeeded.

No culture exists in isolation. Even if the Philippines had not been colonized by Western powers, they would have been influenced[sic] by external Eastern powers (Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, etc.). The vast intercultural exchange between nations past and present continues to drive global progress through transformation. It is part of the universal human condition to teach, learn, and adopt customs from each other. Our identity is shaped by what we learn, and how we learn is most certainly, always, our choice.