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HI166B

RememberingandForgettingAmerica

In the presentday,manyFilipinoswholookattheUnitedStates seebeauty,promise,and

greener pastures. When we look at Americans, we see friends and allies. Many Filipinos go

through lengths to get to the US, to marry an American, and have that American twang when

speaking English. We love their cars, their chocolates, their education, and even theirgenes.As

Patricia Evangelista describes, she and many children all over the Philippines wanted to be

blonde,blueeyed,andwhite.1ManyofuswanttobeAmericans.

One might argue that we want to be Americans becausewewere colonizedbythem.We

see them as a huge power. However, we were also colonized by the Spanish and the Japanese,

and we more or lessdonotwishtobecomethem(exceptforsomeweeaboosand someotaku).If

we look at it, we were colonized by the Spanish for a much longer periodcompare the measly

35 years of American occupation totheir333yearsofcolonialrule.However,despitemorethan

three centuries of Spanish occupation, we dont fluently speak their language, watch their

movies, or mimic their clothing. We did get, however, some of their culture through their

religion, food, and love for siesta, but we dont hold them in the same godlike status we hold

America. Why weseeAmericathiswayisnotsimplyamatterofthembeingourcolonizer. Why

we see Americans this way has alot todowithhowwe


rememberthemandhowtheymadesure

thattheirinfluenceonthePhilippinesandtheFilipinoswillremain.

1
Evangelista,Patricia.BlondeandBlueEyesretrievedfrom
http://www.patriciaevangelista.com/blondeandblueeyes/
PhilippineAmericanRelations

The way we see the Americans has evolved throughout time. As we discussed in class,

theyprogressedfrombeingourconquerorstobeingourcolonizerstobeingourliberators.

First, we saw them as conquerorsthose who vanquished the Filipino armies of

Aguinaldo. We see them as the personswho havestoppedtherevolutionandwhoareconquered

us liketheSpanishdid.Whoknowsiftheyareanybetter?Next,wesawthemascolonizers,they

assimilated us into their systems by giving us civilization and acting on their white mans

burden. They guided us and our state through giving us education, communication, and other

systems. Finally, they became ourliberator.Theygaveusourfreedomwhennootherimperialist

nation would. In the WWII, they freed us from the Japanese. Douglas McArthur uttered the

famous words, I shall return and was forever a hero to us. To this day, weseethemasheroes

andallies.Tothisday,weplacethemonapedestal.

SocialMemory

But even individual memory is not simply personal: the memories which
constitute our identity and provide the context for every action are not
only our own, but are learned, borrowed, inheritedin part, and part of, a
common stock, constructed, sustained, and transmitted by the families,
communities, and cultures to which we belong...history itself is both a
productandasourceofsocialmemory.
RIMoore2

Social memoryistheofficialmemorythatbecomesastandardstoryofthepastthrough

going to history books, theacknowledgement ofthepoliticalleaders,andtheendorsement ofthe

state.3 Social memory holds a lot of power because this is how we remember who we are and

what has happened to us. It begs to answer the question: which things are valuable enough for

2
Fentress,James&Wickham,Chris.SocialMemory
3
Bickford,Louis.MemoryandTruthTellinginLatinAmerica
them to be remembered? More importantly, it is how a community reaffirms its valueswhich

values must be upheld, which acts must be punished, and which accomplishments must be

rewarded. Inthisway,socialmemoryshapeswhatasocietyisanddictateswhatitwillbe.Social

memorycanmakeorbreakasociety.

In this way, it is truly interesting to try to see not only what we remember of our

relationship with the Americans, but also why


how we remembered them and we remember

them that way. Which things do most Filipinos forget and remember? What is our construal of

theUnitedStatesofAmerica?

RememberingtheUnitedStates

The greatest thing the Americans were able to control inthePhilippineswasntourseas,

mountains, and landit was the minds of the Filipino people. They used culture, education,and

ourfamiliesastheir ideologicalstateapparatus.4Theyshowedusthattheirvalues,traditions,and

beingarebetterthanwhatwehaveeverhad.

When you ask a pupil, Whats the greatest contribution of America as our colonizer?,

most likely the response you will get is, Education! This influence can still be seen today, as

we learn our subjects in English. We even get penalized in school for speaking in Filipino (1

PHP per Filipino word!) and ridicule fellow Filipinos whose grammar are lessthanperfect.The

influence does not stop only at language we are taught American values as well, and,

particularly during the American occupation, we are taught that the American way of life is

superior.5 We are taught things like working hard, equality, freedom of speech and punctuality

(but for the life of ustardinessmightbeaculturalnorm,henceFilipinotime).Education,orlack

4
Althusser,Louis.IdeologyandIdeologicalStateApparatuses
5
Racelis,Mary.BearingBenevolenceintheClassroomandCommunity
of it, candefinewhat someoneknowsandwhatsomeonewillremember.BecausetheAmericans

were able to inculcate their values to theFilipinosatanearlyage,thisiswhattheygrewupwith

andwillcontinueteachingtotheirchildren.

Education was not the only means of remembering they were able to influence. They

were able to influence


the way we built and remember ourselves. In this way, they wereableto

ensure that our selfidentity is forever tied with theirs. They guided us through the process of

defining ourselves and seeing nationalism. They helped us build our state through defining

national territory, commissioning history, building archives, andconductingcensuses.Theyalso

controlled communication through public works, transportation and mass media. These

institutions became means bywhichpublicmemoryandnationalidentitywerekept,shaped,

andshared.6

ForgettingtheUnitedStates

By controlling what we can remember, in turn, the Americans can also control what we

do not pay attention to and thus forget. By controlling the means by which we can remember,

theyalsodictatewhichnarrativesweignore.

We forget how they raped Filipinas, burned down villages, and tortured Filipinos. We

forget that the Filipinos who fought were not bandits, but Filipinos who hold the Philippines in

high regard. We forget about a war,becausetheycalleditsplendidandlittle.Weforgetthat

therewereFilipinoswhowantedandfoughtforindependence.

In dictating what we remember and what we value, the Americans can dictate what

exactly we have to discard. By promoting civilization and uniformity, we were made to discard

6
Mojares,Resil.TheFormationofFilipinoNationalityunderUSColonialRule.
our rich cultural identities as a people, our own traditions, andourownvalues.Thesehavebeen

replaced not exactly all for the better. Just as they discriminate black people, we in turn have

started to look at our own colored skinandseeugliness.Bysettingthemselvesasastandard,we

forget that we can also be good enough as weare.This,Ibelieve, iswhyalotofuswanttobea

caucasianAmerican.

Because we have allowedthemtoinfluencewhatweare,wealso gavethemthepowerto

influencewhatwearenot,andweloseouridentityintheprocess.

ReclaimingtheFilipinoIdentity

Right now, no one still knows what Filipino Identity is. We are faced with many

different issues and conflicting ideas and narratives. We are still in that crossroad where we

decide which things to remember and which things to forget. Which artworks to show in

museums, in galleries, in places. Whichnarrativestocreateamovieabout. Whichangletoshow

inthedifferentstoriesfromdifferenttimes.Whichthingstowriteinabook.

I still remember how my history teacher in grade school or high school told us that the

FilipinoAmerican War began because theyshotachildinabridge.Wewereevenmadetodraw

an illustration about it. The same class told us that the Americans took half of the collected

Philippinetaxesforthemselves.

Its not only important to see which things to remember and which ones to forget but to

also make sure that these things are real. Given this experience, I think its not only me who

somehow doubts sources, but when sources are dubious, its difficult to see which to believe

enough to remember. When we dont even believe in eachother,its morethandifficulttounite

andcreateonedefiningnarrativethatcanbindustogether.

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