PERALTA, Guia Jolina B.

2011-01522 Bontoc Eulogy Analysis

05 March 2014 MuL 9 Maam Lisa Decenteceo

Bontoc Eulogy is a faux documentary or mockumentary that follows the supposed journey of a Filipino-American who is trying to get in touch with his roots. He follows the path of his two grandfathers: Emiliano who fought against the Spanish and Markod, an Igorot chieftain. The documentary focused on the inhumane experiences the Filipinos experience in the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair while, recounting the narrators own struggles of consolidating his identity. The film opens with the subject/narrator in a dimly lit corner, sitting in front of a phonograph playing various Ifugao music. The man listens intently to the music pondering on its meaning. This signifies the unraveling of his personal history. The phonograph playing the Ifugao music is the opposite of the narrator: an American shell playing Filipino music vs. a Filipino shell containing American ideologies. This image accompanied by the succeeding images of his past in the Philippines and his children makes one think: What makes a Filipino? The identity of the Filipino people has always been debated and searched for by scholars. By means of ethnicity or race, the Filipinos are of the Malay race mixed with Spanish, Chinese and various other foreign blood brought about by colonization. Linguistically, we are Austronesian. Geographically, we are Southeast Asian. (Although, some argue that Filipinos are more Pacific Islander than Asiani.) The Philippine laws on citizenshipii are based on the principles of Jus Sanguinis, or citizenship by right of blood and Jus Soli, or citizenship by right of birth place which requires naturalization. But, these laws are just on paper. The bigger struggle mirrored in the mockumentary is the cultural identity of the Filipino. Tracing the Filipino cultural identity or our identity as a nation, one can examine the ups and downs of this country to reflect its culture, as the documentary does. The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. Arguably, its first inhabitants were migrants from all over the world including the Aetas, Indones and the Malays. Each group

brought their own traditions and beliefs to the island paradise. They settled in various areas of the country: the mountains, the flatlands and by the sea. The Filipino settlers in the flatlands and by the sea later on formed their own systems of government called the barangay and a more hierarchical system, adapted from their Bornean neighbors, sultanatos. Islam and animism were the pre-dominant religions in the country. The early Filipinos lived on fishing, hunting, gathering, and early forms of agriculture. They utilized the vast riches of their lands. They also traded with passing merchants like the Chinese. With each exchange of porcelain for gold and pearls, beliefs and learnings were also swapped. As the world entered the age of exploration, spices became a commodity. This prompted Ferdinand Magellans discovery of the Philippines which began their more than 300 years of domination of the country. In more than three centuries, the Spaniards tried to abolish existing pre-colonial Philippine culture because they deemed it uncivilized. They introduced Christianity and taught the Filipinos their way of life but, it wasnt all milk and honey. Indios, the Spaniards moniker for the Filipino natives, were also treated as slaves and seen as of lower class. Despite this, no one can deny that the Spanish imparted a lot of their culture. From the language to secular activities, the colonization of the Spaniards left a huge impact on the country. Perhaps, one of the stronger influences to our culture was brought about by Americans. Filipinos have been branded as little brown Americans or the little brown brothers iii. Americans have benevolently assimilated the Philippines. Filipino children are raised to aim for the American dream. We were positioned to believe and see the United States as saviors, heroes and big brothers that would pick us up from the mulch. American Imperialism was a strong point being pursued by the documentary. Imperialismiv, according to Oxford dictionaries, is a policy of extending a countrys power and influence through diplomacy or military force. The imperialist may use culture, economy or military force to influence a country. In this case, the Americans used all of the above. In the film, Markod and the other Filipinos were rounded-up and were placed in a specific area to live-in and perform. They were treated as savages and were made to look exotic and wild. The Filipinos in the St. Louis Worlds Fair were asked to wear the normal,

everyday clothes of the Americans. Perhaps, this was the Americans attempt to civilize the Filipino natives, still a manifestation of their superhero/big brother complex. Despite the colonizers, Filipinos strived to adapt aspects of their cultures and make it Filipino. The documentary was a testament to the incoherent nature of the Filipinos as a nation. The disparity of our experiences of our own history was mirrored in the foreign-ness that the Filipinos in the Worlds fair felt with one another. Sadly, we can still see this up until today. One can view the narrator as an allegory for the Filipino people in search of a unifying factor. Like him, we are all products of our history and a broken past leads to an uncertainty with regards to our present. We are trapped by our history and our learned set of values to change the status quo. Because of this, we still struggle to build our own brand of nationalism and identity. Up until today, attempts at defining or creating a Filipino brand are rejected by society and criticized rather than encouraged and help nourished. We have been drenched in foreign culture and ideologies for so long that almost every manifestation of Filipino culture is deigned unpure or borrowed and the culture of the ethnic tribes are more foreign to most of us than that of the West. We live in a country where being native and indigenous is frowned upon and being the anti-thesis is the mode. The dissonance between the perceived history and reality of the majority of the Filipinos and the ethnological mass is troubling. This the challenge posed by the mockumentary. At the moment, we, the Filipino mass, are almost the same the American spectators in the worlds fair. If our goal as a country is to create progress and unify, we must bridge this gap and ironic as it is, assimilate the ethnological history and culture with that of our known past and present to form a unified future for all. Despite the validity of issues posed by the film, there is also the possibility that we are victims of overdetermination and we see fictive objects and/or relationships in the visual textv.

i ii

http://www.chanrobles.com/article4.htm#.UxHLWPmSyud (accessed March 1, 2014). iii

Palatino, Mong. "Are Filipinos Asian?." The Diplomat. http://thediplomat.com/2010/12/are-filipinos-asian/ (accessed March 1, 2014). "1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines - chan robles virtual law library." 1987 constitution of the republic of the philippines - chan robles virtual law library.

United States. National Park Service. "The Philippine War." National Parks Service. http://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/the-philippinewar-suppressing-an-insurrection.htm (accessed March 2, 2014). iv "Definition of imperialism in English:." imperialism: definition of imperialism in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US). http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/imperialism (accessed March 2, 2014). v "Post-structuralism." Post-structuralism. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgabriel/post_structuralism.htm (accessed March 2, 2014).