Being a Filipino
The colors of the Philippine flag
(image made using Silk app; www.weavesilk.com)
"I'm Filipino;" there was a time when thinking, believing, and saying that were simple things to do. I wish I could tell you authoritatively what that means, but the truth is I'm still struggling with its definition (I have been, ever since my family and I moved to the United States).
Though if you ask sixteen year-old me he would confidently define it for you. Being a Filipino meant that no matter what color your skin is, or whether your nose is flat, round, pointed, swollen or crooked, or whether your hair is black, brown, or blonde - you have a place where you belong. a place where the person next to you can be called a brother or sister who upholds the same values as you and strives to preserve the most important unit of society: the family.
Filipinos have a very diverse genealogy mostly due to three different periods of occupation (by Spain, North America, and Japan) so we identify ourselves not by physical traits but by our culture, traditions, and values. We esteem ourselves for our hospitality - and I'll bet that you don't know the meaning of that word unless you've been inside a traditional Filipino household.
Being a small island country, the Philippines usually extends its hospitality to foreign trends and ideas as well; this can either be seen as a positive or a negative, but my opinion leans towards the negative. I'm afraid that my countrymen have become too eager to get pieces of the "outside world" and espouse foreign notions of how our society should be and the narrowed category of beauty, at the same time neglecting the abstract values that got our people this far.
In the Philippines nowadays there is a pervasive sense that anything American or European is better, and by binary opposition this sense robs anything Filipino of its dignity. The majority of people in the public eye have been replaced by "imported" people (whose first and last names are so remote from conventional Filipino names) just to sell the whole "foreign" package. The category of beauty has been narrowed so much that it only has space for "white-skinned" and "blonde" hair wearing sweaters and hoodies in 80-degree weather. It breaks my heart that after all the great endeavors (the People Power Revolution/EDSA I) to achieve peace and harmony, we Filipinos end up with our flags inverted in our hearts filled with discord - with the red of WAR above the sky-blue of peace; we are a people at war against ourselves.
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My religious affiliation is, in paper, "Roman Catholic" but I call myself a "casual Catholic." I don't always go to Sunday mass. I don't consider myself religious, but I have faith. I used to get excited when the "-ber months" came (September, October, so on) because that meant that Christmas is getting closer and that soon, in a joyful yet solemn evening all the neighborhood houses will be open to everyone and feasts will be held in each household for each person in the community to enjoy.
I stress the importance family as did the generations before me. I uphold the values and duties that were handed down to me. I still say "po" and "opo" when I speak to the elders. I keep my motherland in my heart and thoughts at all times.
All of these things I know to be true, but I don't know if it makes me a Filipino or just a remnant of an age past.
