Rice Cultivation in Batad, Community Pride and Identity Formation

After my visit to Batad, a village in the Cordillera Administrative Region on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, I was struck by the great pride they took in the locally produced rice. To me this was a pride in the product created, the means in which it was created, and how these two aspects reflected positively upon the community. In our reading for the course it was discussed that the change to the production of rice from an earlier traditional crop of taro was a result of the local peoples’ contact with the Spanish via pericolonialism (Acabado, 2016).

     At first glance it could seem that being forced to change an agricultural means of production due to contact with a colonizing force could produce a level of justifiable anger, resentment, and possible shame at the loss of identity. But that was not the case. My argument here is that because the people of Ifugao, the region Batad is located in, changed their method of production voluntarily, and one could say as a form of resistance to the Spaniards, that this change became a source of pride and community identity. The people of Ifugao more generally, and Batad specifically, were able to mount both a military and cultural resistance but were never the less effected by colonialism. So they were affected by pericolonialism through their proximity to colonizing influences yet not truly “colonized”. I am using the word in quotes because pericolonialism is specifically asking us to break free of the false dichotomy and dualism of the “colonized” and “uncolonized” (Acabado, 2016).

     On to my personal reflection on my experiences. I had a wonderful visit to the village of Batad. I walked the rice terraces to a stunting waterfall and swam in the cold water. The hike was extremely difficult for me due to elevation and the heat and humidity. And once we got down to the falls there was still the trek back up. We returned to a guest lodge and proceeded to make dinner. While dinner was being prepared I got a chance to speak to a few of the local folks staying at the inn. One of the people I met was Elmer. He said, “…but my English name is DiCaprio.” When I told him my name was Enoch but he could call me Brad Pitt we had made a connection through humor. We proceeded to talk about both of our lives and what had brought us to Batad this time.

      He was very eager to tell me his story while hearing about mine. He told me how rice production was a very tenuous source of income. He was from there, had left, gone to school, and then had returned to work as the manager of a construction project which was an extension of the inn. He was waiting on the carpenters and so was killing time. As we continued to talk he discussed how the area we were in had managed to mount a resistance to the Spanish. We got to the terms “Tactics” and “Guerilla techniques” through our language barrier. Well let’s be honest here, my language barrier. He proceeded to start to explain to me the details about the rice itself. I asked him if I could stop him, grab my phone, and record him.

     What struck me was the pride he took in the rice and the way they farmed it even though he had moved on to a different sort of work. This rice was who they were. This rice was a reflection of his people’s resistance to and independence from imperial colonizers. His oral history jibbed with what I had read in Acabado’s paper. For me this was a great moment of a synergy between of the types of knowing Banks refers to as “Personal” and “Transformative Academic” (Banks, 1993).

     I was really trying my best to interact with Elmer one on one, listen to his story, and see the village or Batad for what it was. I believe I was successful in avoiding what Dr. Rafael refers to as “private consumption and sentimental regard” (Rafael, 2000, p. 52). It was important for me to hear Elmer’s story as a reflection of his personal identity and not see him as data or a depersonalized element in my experience of Batad. He has my Facebook information and hope we make contact in the future.


References:

Acabado, S. (2016). The Archaeology of Pericolonialism: Responses of the “Unconquered” to Spanish Conquest and Colonialism in Ifugao, Philippines. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1-26.

Banks, James A. (1993). The Canon Debate, Knowledge Construction, and Multicultural Education. Educational Researcher, 22(5), 4-14.

Rafael, V. (2000). White love: And other events in Filipino history (American encounters/global interactions). Durham: Duke University Press.