Hippie Colors

I watched the launch of Pinoy Big Brother last weekend and was amused to find that 2 out of the 6 contestants were Fil-something. One was a Filipino raised in Australia and another one is a Filipino based in Switzerland who speaks German. And of course, who can forget Sam Milby from the first season?

A cursory look at the Philippine National team (basketball of course. also shows the same phenomenon. Caguioa, Helterbrand, Menk, Taulava, etc. etc. Fil- representing the Philippines.

Now we are feeling the effects of out-migration. All these offspring of migrants are coming back and making a name for themselves in the land of their parents.

I wonder where it all started, I mean the projection of these Fil- Filipinos in local media? Of course there are the Filipino-Chinese but they’ve been around for some time. The earliest I can recall is the Fil- in the PBA. Of course that was for economic reasons (Sometimes I wonder why bother with a Reinforced Conference with imports?) But then again, the Fil- phenomenon in showbiz including Pinoy Big Brother is no less for economic reasons. Ay talaga nga naman, popular culture can be so contrived.

All this of course raises questions of identity. Who is the Filipino?, especially when the Philippine National Team is composed of Fil-. It also raises the spectre of new hierarchies, which no matter the innocent protestations to the contrary, will inevitably be created.

The presence of the Fil- in Pinoy Big Brother makes the song of Orange and Lemons even more relevant Just imagine the Fil-Australian and the Fil-Swiss singing along with the homegrown Pinoys, "Pinoy Ako, Pinoy Tayo". 

I’ve been reading old issues of The Guidon and ran across an entire series of articles on the Filipinization movement which seemed to be accelerated by the publication of "Down From the Hill" (Aside: funny how the Filipinization movement was accelerated by an article written in English). Filipinization, of course, meant many things. Teaching courses in Filipino, teaching Filipino, teaching about the Philippines and things relevant to the Philippines, a school run by Filipinos and not Americans, among other things.

I ended up thinking to myself that it is more difficult to think about Filipinization in this day and age of cultural globalization. When I go home every night I look forward to watching shows churned out by Hollywood. Amazing Race on Mondays, Desperate Housewives on Tuesdays, American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy on Wednesdays, Grey’s Anatomy again on Thursdays. During the day, I track the score of the Utah Jazz when they are playing and read up on articles about them on the Salt Lake Tribune.

I remember when I was in grade school, before the internet and cable tv, I’d watch the noontime shows (Student Canteen and Eat Bulaga) and it was only on Saturday mornings when I’d get to watch Saturday fun machine with foreign cartoons and during the evenings when there were Hollywood tv shows. I remember having nothing else to watch in the middle of the day except old movies from Sampaguita pictures (whose themes kept repeating themselves) and in the early afternoon Flordeluna and Annaliza.

There’s an old saying that we are what we eat and I guess it applies to what we watch. I won’t be a hypocrite and say I’ll stop watching what Hollywood churns out and only watch what the Philippines produces (I couldn’t imagine myself doing that anymore). They’ve got my hooked since I could remember the shows I watched like CHIPS, Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible, and that old soldier show with Vic Morrow. I guess, nowadays, now more than ever, our tastes are decidely cosmopolitan, i.e. American. Don’t they also say that Hollywood is currently the sole solid basis of American hegemony?

I wonder how Montemayor (one of the authors of the "Down from the Hill" article who is still around) feels about how things are today. I wonder if he or his children and grandchildren watch the shows I watch and if their tastes are like my tastes.