Filipinx Activism

An introduction. 

Hi! I’m Stephane Enriquez, a non-binary, Filipinx, lesbian in my fifth year of studying Criminology and Sociology at Marquette University. I chose to focus on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities because I know what it’s like to be marginalized and ostracized for having an identity that doesn’t conform to the eurocentric ideals of heterosexuality. I lived in the Philippines until I was 10. I am now 23 and living in Chicago with my parents - it’s a tradition. I digress.

In this blog, I draw on my experiences to talk briefly about the Filipinx experience. I draw on Andrea Smith, Kimberlé Crenshaw, West, and Zimmerman, Luis H. Francia, Renato Constantino, Gloria Anzaldua, and Karen B. Hanna’s work to support the project.

Sources

Anzaldúa, G. (2012). The Homeland, Aztlan, movimientos de rebeldia y las culturas que traicionan. In Borderlands: The new mestiza = la frontera (pp. 24-45). Aunt Lute Books.

Crenshaw, Kimberle (1989) "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989, Article 8.

Francia, L. H. (2014). A history of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos. Overlook Press.

Hanna, K. B. (2017). A call For healing: Transphobia, homophobia, and Historical trauma in Filipina/o/x American activist organizations. Hypatia, 32(3), 696-714. doi:10.1111/hypa.12342

Simbulan G. (2000). Renato Constantino: The CENTENNIAL Filipino Scholar, 1919–1999. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 30(3), 405-409. doi:10.1080/00472330080000301

Smith, A., & Hernández-Avila, I. (2005). Reading native american women: Critical/creative representations. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.

What Is It?

Who Started this Movement?

Filipinx-Americans in the diaspora started this movement– so the movement wasn’t born in the Philippines itself, but rather, from many immigrant Filipinos speaking out about oppression and colonization in and out of the diaspora. So, this movement seeks to not only liberate those born in the diaspora but also for folks living in the Philippines.

Who is it for?

It is a socio-cultural movement that creates space for and acknowledging genderqueer, nonbinary, trans members, of the Filipin* Diaspora in the white-centric binary places their parents move to and seeks to decolonize the word. It seeks to acknowledge the lives of Filipino-Americans that identify as cis-heterosexual individuals – and their allyship to people on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. The term also acknowledges the duality of the Fil-Am identity. Yes, they are American, but they are also Filipino. Filipinx allyship demands inclusion for identities in oppressive spaces. 

 The Social Class Implication?

Doing this project I think it is especially important to note that this movement stemmed from people who don’t live or have never lived in the Philippines, so those who do live there might have a different perspective on this movement and might even denounce it. Additionally, the Philippines is considered a developing nation; therefore, the audience must know that poverty, and the lack of sex and gender education exists. There exists a diasporic barrier.  Academia can sometimes be inaccessible to those in poverty and is one of the many reasons why there is a misunderstanding within communities.

Is this movement co-opting the Latinx movement?

 400 years of Spaniard and American Colonization has perpetually erased indigenous identities. 

Source: Andrea Smith’s Reading Native American Women

In Smith’s article, she defined colonization as the eradication of Indian identity and humanity through European imperialism and violence.

In the same fashion, the Spaniards brutalized the culture and identity of the Indios (the Austronesian migration of communities in the Philippines), this is how the Filipino came to be. It was Spanish rule that introduced the idea of gendered terms to Filipinos, but before that, they labeled themselves the Indios Bravos.

In addition to that, Indios Bravos people transcended binaries. It was evident in their spiritual practices. (Luis. H Francia, babaylans) BABAYLANS were intermediaries between the physical world and the soul world. They held a high position in barrios or communities and were trusted in the same regard as your neighborhood pastor – priests in the Philippines were historically female. Before the patriarch invaded the Philippines Islands, matriarchs ran the show and were accepting of the differences within the many ethnic groups that inhabited the islands.

Bonus Content

Source: Gloria Anzaldua’s La Frontera

Additional Source: Karen B. Hanna’s A Call for Healing: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Historical Trauma in Filipina/o/x American Activist Organizations https://philpapers.org/rec/HANACF-2

Anzaldua’s La Frontera describes the yearning for a more wholesome identity, and Anzaldua believes that this can be achieved by addressing inter-generational, personal/political and historical trauma. Geographical (Texas-Mexico) border wars mirror internal identity conflict.

How does this article relate to Filipinx Activism you might ask? 

Well, Filipinos everywhere have continuously internalized Western standards, and that has damaged respected native traditions and practices. Identity healing for Filipinos must also come from the same manner of historical analysis and introspection. Gender/non-gender identity inclusivity and acceptance comes from the resistance of colonial ideas. When I say healing, I mean that Filipinos should no longer have to buy skin-whitening products to feel like they fit in, OR if they are someone who identifies on the LGBTQ spectrum, they shouldn’t have to feel like they have to abide by heterosexuality, say, in a lesbian relationship or a gay relationship etcetera - because they think, or colonizers made them think, that being brown and nonnormative was NOT okay, and the only way for their identities to become accepted is to adopt gendered behavior in those non-heterosexual relationships.

Additionally, I also draw from Hanna’s work on decolonization – and she states, Those who migrate to other countries for economic survival and political asylum, historical trauma wounds across geographical space. Homogeneous discourses of Filipino nationalism simplify and erase transphobia, homophobia, and heterosexism, giving rise to intergenerational conflict and the passing-on of trauma among activists in the United States.

Here is a quote from Renato Constantino. A Filipino Historian who urges us to reexamine our colonial history, to rectify it, and to learn from that past. Constantino was also deeply committed to political education and social action that would overthrow the system of imperial domination. He is best known for his work on the U.S imposition of colonial mentality through Occupation, direct control of Filipino educational system, commercial relations, consumerist values, and mass cultural exports. The Philippines, by the way, operates in a crony-capitalist economy.  

Anyway, I know this quote is highly controversial. If you wish to share your thoughts with me regarding this post I am more than willing to open it up for discussion. You can click on the links on the top of the blog’s page to start sharing. Back to my point, I don’t think that colonial imprint is completely going away anytime soon. Make no mistake, I don’t think that all of the colonization has been bad. There have been some benefits like shared culture with other communities. However, we must remember that the bad has far outweighed the good in most cases of colonization.

Crony-Capitalism: Instead of genuine competition (which is what we believe to be a free-market) business and political classes use the states’ power to legislate regulate, grant hand-outs, permits government, licenses, special tax breaks, and other dispensations as favors to enrich each other, meanwhile corrupting society and enforcing monopolies.

West and Zimmerman’s article Doing Gender posits that gender is a product of social interaction. It is fundamentally about those interactions and relationships. Doing gender produces, reproduces, sustains and legitimizes the social meanings accorded to gender. Gender is not a role since it is a continuous action, whereas roles are fixed/situated, and insinuating that gender is a display implies something that is not fundamental to human interaction. In order to attain effective change, modification in cultural and institutional aspects of the sex category, as well as the interactional level is necessary. SO again, how does this relate? Without Filipinx Activism, there’s no framework from which to re-examine - as to why conformity to heterosexuality can be damaging, and on top of that identities are excluded. Without the framework to analyze generations of trauma, nonnormative identities will remain culturally unintelligible and therefore marginalized. It’s like an identity politics movement where Filipino communities acknowledge the existence of blended gender identities. 

Speaking of Frameworks, I want to draw on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s piece on intersectionality because, on top of being Fil-Am, I am a middle-class person of color, and a non-binary, lesbian – and as far as navigating the world goes, it is difficult because when facts don’t have a way of fitting into available frames (hint, heterosexuality), people have a difficult time incorporating those facts into their way of thinking about a problem. Crenshaw said that in her Ted Talk about intersectionality. Being one of the few, brown, nursing students at Marquette University, a few years back, was stressful because I didn’t have academic, or financial resources to help me succeed in that endeavor. I failed chemistry and biochemistry and was held back because I didn’t have the prestigious, high school experience a lot of students attending Marquette had. All the microaggressions and the overlapping discrimination is why Crenshaw’s piece is so crucial to this research especially, now, knowing that academia can be inaccessible. This isn’t about getting special treatment, it’s about acknowledging the lived experiences of students like me, of Filipinx identities. Crenshaw said that because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the way marginalized identities are subordinated. It’s a framing problem. The Filipinx Movement is a framework that addresses intersectionality in identities.

What Makes Decolonization SO Important?

Anthony Ocampo, Ph.D., is a scholar and writer who focuses on race, immigration, and LGBTQ issues. He is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cal Poly Pomona and a Ford Foundation Fellow. He is the author of The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race, recently featured on NPR Morning Edition. Dr. Ocampo is currently working on his second book, To Be Brown and Gay in LA, which chronicles the lives of gay men of color from immigrant families.