Sold on Freedom and I Didn’t Know: a Generational Product of Fair Trade

Sold on Freedom and I Didn’t Know: a Generational Product of Fair Trade

Ariel Delos Santos

University of Washington

Study Abroad Philippines 2016 CHID 476B

Figure 1. Uncle Sam playing with little Aguinaldo

I am an American. This proclamation had always been a comfortable sense of pride. I’m aware of other countries’ disdain towards us coupled with negative connotations but we have a lot of beautiful open land, reliable paved streets, abundant diverse foods, a sewage system, clean running water, a competitive education system and freedom. The freedom to practice religion, to marry, to express identity, and to chase after dreams is available for anyone who wants to live as an American; that is our privilege. This is what I was fed to believe since birth but during week 2 of this program my pride as an American took a turn. In learning more about what it means to be a Filipino I’ve come across an awful past between the Philippines and the U.S. during the liberation of the Philippines from Spain in the late 1800’s. This is my first time as a Filipino-American to explore the dark truth about what the U.S. government has done to the country that I now deeply identify with and why was it hidden away from me.  

On June 12, 1898, I was taught in high school that the U.S. liberated Philippines from Spanish rule. Little did I know that this supposed fact was actually a staged victory devised between Dewey and Spanish General Fermin Jaudenes in order to hand over their reign of the Philippines to the U.S. instead (Zinn 2008 & Twain 2002). Hiding this from their “little brown brother” (see image above) McKinley issued his Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation by the end of 1898 under their “tutelage” so as to not recognize the independence of the Philippines (Zinn 2008 & Ileto 1998). Instead of peacefully building themselves up as a liberated nation under the guidance of the U.S. as I had previously believed, the Filipinos instead raged war to resist the new colonizing country, their “friend” (Ileto 1998).

            The Filipino-American War was belittled in history. Colonial schools in the Philippines portrayed the war as an “insurrection” or “banditry” by “bad Filipinos” (Ileto 1998). It will always be the white man (not women or Filipinos) in history that made our country to be what it is today (McIntosh 1988). According to Colonel Gardener, tens of thousands of brave Filipinos who fought for independence under Spanish rule will never be recognized in history thus portraying Filipinos as a stupid weak race who needed saving (Ileto 1998). How could the U.S. be so cruel as to hold us by the throats with a knife if we didn’t become “friends”.

            Little history was passed down to me. I’m not aware of any songs or stories, none of the women that I’ve encountered openly shared that history like other cultural practices. I noticed that the only time women were mentioned during all of this was on accounts of rape, like it usually is, or recognized through the merits of other men as in the Jose Rizal Museum in Ft. Santiago. Speaking as a Filipina I see no representation no idea of how women were resilient and I recognize that as a Hetero White Man Privilege that history is written by and favored for as McIntosh (1988) spells out in her paper, “White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies”.

Growing up in the States and attending public schools I never had even an incline of these major historic events that has shaped the who we are today. What I had only known of Filipino history was that we were conquered by other countries then helped along by the U.S. Had I not decided to study abroad in the Philippines I possibly wouldn’t learn about my history at all if not years later in my life. One day I hope to be able to grow and learn from this but as a Fil-Am I feel so torn and betrayed. I will never forget and my future kids will never forget.

Upon reflecting these are my questions for this week: (1) What is the penalty to men if they do not equitably treat women in the work place, school and other social gatherings? (2)Why is history not orally passed down to the next generation amongst assimilating Filipinos? Is there no ethnical pride?

References

Ileto, R.C. (1998). The Philippine-American War, Friendship and Forgetting. In Shaw, A.V.           &  Francia, L.H.Vestiges of war. (pp. 3-21). New York: New York Press.

McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming     to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. In K. Tupper, Introduction to women’s studies: Women 200 (2nd ed.) (pp. 62-71). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

Twain, M. (2002). To the person sitting in darkness. In Shaw, A.V. & Francia, L.H. Vestiges of war. (pp. 57-68). New York: New York Press.

Zinn, H. (2008). Invasion of the Philippines. In A people’s history of American empire. (pp.53-72) NY: Metropolitan Books