Sandra Diola  |  Filipino - American

Bökh - Ken Hermann

You know how there’s that whole debate about whether Filipinos are Asians or Pacific Islanders? I just wanted to share my stance:

Both “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” are Western/European classifications and are somewhat meaningless and very misleading. “Geographical Asia is a cultural artefact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the Ancient Greeks, being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means” (from Wikipedia). “Asian” encompasses such a huge diverse group of people and cultures. It puts Filipinos in the same category as Israelis, Persians, Kazakhs, Siberian Natives… and thousands of other unrelated groups. All these cultures are so different from one another, yet are all equally Asian. I don’t like the term for this reason. So really I don’t think the debate makes any sense at all, why are Filipinos fighting over which Colonialist/Western classification to go under?

I think this debate may have arisen because Filipinos don’t like to be lumped together with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean people in some homogenous “Asian” race. Filipinos are very distinct from East Asians and even other Southeast Asians like Thais and Vietnamese. The only other group to associate with would be Pacific Islanders.

If you want to know what other group of people Filipinos are closest to, this is my answer:

Filipinos (which means the 200+ different ethnic groups that reside in the Philippine islands) are ethnically and linguistically most closely related to the ethnic groups of Malaysia and Indonesia (such as Javanese, Balinese, Malay, Dayak etc.), as well as Taiwanese aborigines. Filipinos are more closely related to Polynesians and Micronesians than they are to Chinese or Japanese people, and even mainland Southeast Asians. We are Austronesian, which is the most widespread group of people in the world, composed of Pacific Islanders, island Southeast Asians, Malagasy and Taiwanese aborigines.

As a millennial who has no debt, a 401(k) and an IRA, and who is having a house built, I just want to say something to counter all the negative messages bombarding my generation about how lazy and entitled we all are.  Do you know what’s the difference between me and those statistics?

Sheer dumb luck.

That’s it.  I didn’t do anything differently than anyone else.  I didn’t make better choices or go into the right major or any of that nonsense.  I was just lucky enough to be born into a family with parents who could put enough into my savings that, when combined with scholarships, allowed me to graduate from college without any debts.  I had pretty much no savings by the time I got my degree, but starting from nothing is still easier than starting with a negative balance.

I got hired within two months of graduation, and I’ve been with that company for going on six years.  Again, nothing but dumb luck.  My major, creative writing (one of the stereotypical ‘useless degrees’) has nothing to do with my career.  They just needed employees and I happened to interview at the right time.  And I was lucky enough that the job was in an area where I could live at home, rent-free, developing the savings that put me in a position to sign a contract on a house.

I was privileged and lucky.  That’s it.

Sure, I worked hard in school.  I gave it my all in my job interview.  I’ve put in effort to get where I am.

But people without the head starts I had have worked much harder.  I didn’t have to claw my way out of debt and poverty to get where I am.  If I had to do that, I wouldn’t be here.  I’d be another statistic for the boomers to dismiss.

You’re not doing anything wrong.  You aren’t the ones who broke the economy.  I haven’t figured out some correct, adult way of doing things that you haven’t.  I just happened to start the game with some of the cheat codes.

Please ask yourself what kind of Filipino exactly.

There are at least 175 ethnolinguistic groups (or ethnolinguistic nations, if you prefer the term) in the Philippines — quite an impressive number for such a small archipelago, yes? — with their own distinct languages, cultures and traditions, yet I keep seeing the same vaguely Catholic, Filipino-speaking flavorlessly pan-Filipino characters running around. Why?

Filipino is more of a national allegiance than an ethnic identity. Filipinoness is not a monolith. There is no such thing as just a Filipino. Filipinos are regionalistic and intensely clannish, and might even be antagonistic towards each other. For example: Tagalogs and Cebuanos are going to be different from each other and they will gladly tell you so, and these are both lowland-coastal Catholic ethnic groups.

To put things into perspective:

As was previously said, there are over 175 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines, only twelve of which number over one million members. Namely and in order from most to least populous: Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Central Bicolano, Waray, Kapampangan, Albay Bicolano, Pangasinense, Maranao, Maguindanao and Tausug. The first nine are predominantly Catholic and the last three are predominantly Muslim. Each group speaks a different language and adheres to its own set of traditions.

The majority of Filipinos are from lowland-coastal Catholic (or some other Christian denomination) ethnic groups that have been subject to Spanish colonization, but there is also a sizeable and growing Muslim minority that had never been under Spanish control with cultures quite distinct from their Catholic brethren; might I add that the arrival of Islam predated the arrival of Catholicism in the Philippines? There are also the indigenous peoples that comprise over 100 ethnic groups but only an estimated 3% of the population. The term is a misnomer — the vast majority of Filipinos are indigenous — and what they mean to say is non-Hispanicized, non-Christianized, non-Islamicized, mostly upland/highland or hinterland-dwelling ethnic groups. There are exceptions, though, and some groups that are otherwise classified as indigenous peoples have largely converted to Christianity (i.e. Ibanag) or Islam (i.e. Sama-Bajau). The lines can be arbitrary. There can be any number of mixtures and overlaps between these three major groups.

Then, there are immigrant and mixed populations, such as the Spanish mestizos (who, contrary to popular belief, are a small minority of the population), Filipinos of American descent, Chinese-Filipinos, Japanese-Filipinos, Indian-Filipinos, Koreans and Indonesians. Of course, they will have their own culture and traditions. Some of these groups have been here for centuries and, as such, have adopted a syncretized culture that combines the foreign culture with Philippine culture, leading to even more diversity.

The Chinese-Filipino community alone is already very diverse in itself. It is very old, with contact between the people of what would become China and the Philippines being established since the 9th Century BCE and immigration taking place as early as then. Roughly 2% of the population of the Philippines is Chinese-Filipino and up to 27% is of Chinese descent. Within this group, you can have different combinations of place of origin, ethnicity and social status in China, wave of immigration, method of and reason for immigrating to the Philippines, number of generations from the mainland, and where they settled in the Philippines and level of insularity vs. integration, and each configuration is going to be different, wildly or mildly, from the others. Some are going to be very similar to the surrounding community while some would be practicing and preserving traditions which are long gone and forgotten even in its native China.

tl;dr: The Philippines is ridiculously diverse for such a small collection of rocks by the Pacific. Disabuse yourself of the notion that you can simply say a character is Filipino and be done with it. Choose one and research.

1. Add “’di ba?” (right?/innit?) to the end of your sentences. 2. Replace “really”/”very” with “talagang” or the question “Really?” with “talaga.” 3. Sprinkle a dash of “kasi” (because, or the “that’s why” that you add to the end of a sentence instead of saying “because.”) You didn’t ask for directions, that’s why kasi.

The Ultramar Leones Troop | West Philippine Sea Defense Force

The Great Apo Whang-Od Oggay of Buscalan

At the age of 100, Apo Whang-Od continues to help her community by attracting tourists to their town who wishes to be tattooed by her. I didn’t get a tattoo, but being able to witness her strength and passion for the craft was an amazing experience already.

“why is your hair so short! it’s ugly!” “but it’s so hot in Manila, Nana!”