Extracting from the Unconscious

Who am I? What has happened to me? It is when these two questions begin to prod us into self-assessments and appraisements that we might claim we have a real measure of value. After considering and taking a pensive mood on these two questions, we might probably ask ourselves, “What is my identity as a Filipino? Do I have an identity, in the first place?” The issue on Filipino identity remains controversial and still uncertain because many have insisted that we really have no true and real identity after being colonized for centuries by various countries. It is then difficult to identify what is pure when something is already hybrid. However, cultural identities cannot be ascribed to pre-given, irreducible, scripted, ahistorical cultural traits that define the conventions of ethnicity. According to Homi K. Bhabha, a leading figure in post-colonialism, the negotiation of cultural identity involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural performances that in turn produce a mutual and mutable recognition (or representation) of cultural difference. It is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation. Thus, Filipinoness or Filipinohood is hybrid. Sounds depressing, I know. However, in this essay, I would seem to go away from those two opposing theories. Here, I will extract characteristics from the characters in the three selected short stories that can be used as a proof of Filipinoness or Filipinohood (not as a hybrid). These three short stories are “The Laughter of My Father” by Carlos Bulosan, “They Died…Because of a Song” by Enrique G. Centenera, and “The Prisoners” by Bienvenido N. Santos.
The Laughter of My Father is a story that on a wedding feast, a father chided his son in worry for being shy around the girls, and stated that maybe it was this particular son that he did not “touch” at childbirth. This revived one of his old boast that he touched his five sons at each of their childbirths, wherein he was able to pass his anting-anting, which made the women fall in love with them. At this point, the main character, dazed by wine, mustered up the courage to the other side of the river, where the bride said she left something. Afterwards, their return to the feast caused a commotion because the bride, accompanied by the main character, already wore an ordinary dress, where the bride explained that she changed clothes because she had wet her wedding garments after slipping on the footbridge as they made their way back from her house, and had it not been for the main character, she would’ve fallen into the river. Later, the dance and festivities were put to a halt as the main character’s father, laughing and crying with joy, and drunk with too much wine, teased the people who were energetically proclaiming that the bride has fallen in love with his son. The wedding was ruined, and the marriage was put off, the three guests (the main character, his father, and his cousin Nonoy) made their quick escape. Days later, the bride and her family went to the village of the main character’s father and powerfully imposed on the father that his son must be married to the girl. His proud father, who – after stalling the proposed marriage – proudly confided in his son that he had indeed touched him at childbirth then, immediately, sent the main character to America. A very distinct Filipino identity in this story is the belief on some kind of anting-anting that to touch one’s son is to pass on a charisma for women to chase after. This is one of the superstitious beliefs of Filipinos, especially from the barrios or from the provinces. Another thing here is the “happy-go-lucky” and “funny” character of the father. Filipinos are always in high spirits even in the midst of chaos or trouble. Now, because the father seems to believe he was not able to touch his son at birth, he drunk himself for that problem. This is very rampant among Filipino men to drink when there are problems that are difficult to solve. In addition, it is very obvious here in the Philippines that whenever there are celebrations, the one who is invited to come would invite another group or groups of people to come with him or her to that celebration. This one is presented even at the start of the story. Finally, for this story, Filipinos are very sensitive on reputation and dignity. This is proven when the family of the bride forced the boy to marry her because the original groom had left her, thinking that she has lost her reputation as a timid woman because she is “in-love” with other man. The groom is sensitive on this part and so is the bride that is why they want him to marry her to, in a way, pay and compensate on the lost of status and dignity. Therefore, in this story, Filipinoness is defined as something in the beliefs and the actions of Filipinos. It has been shown that Filipinos believes in superstitions, finds grace amidst chaos, (men) are drinkers when it comes to thorns and thistles in life, “company goer” and very sensitive when it comes to dignity.
They Died Because of a Song is a tribute to a band of guerillas who were hiding in a portion of the forest when their Sergeant, Millar, unexpectedly, sang a melodic love song aloud with his guitar. As he quieted down and regained his senses, he reminisced about the life and wife he left behind. Mascardo, the captain of the band, went over to his side and gave him an insulting and accusing words and slap on the cheek, being so exasperated that he had given away their hiding spot to Japanese soldiers who were raiding close tot their area. Captain Mascardo whipped out his revolver and as he was about to kill Millar, enemy gunfire suddenly exploded all around them. The rebels dropped to the ground and returned fire, while Captain Mascardo cursed a lot when he discovered that his revolver was empty. Sergeant Millar gave his handgun to Mascardo and courageously recommended the Captain and the rest of the men to escape, while he would stay and hold off the enemy. Mascardo’s hatred for Millar immediately disappeared; he asked for forgiveness from this courageous man, and he said that they would not retreat and that if they were to die, they would die together. Hence, they did die together. Obviously, what is shown here is that Filipinos tend to be “homesick” or “lovesick” causing them to be emotional. This was the very reason why Millar unexpectedly sang in the middle of the forest. Today, we can see and hear stories from OFWs who frequently call their families because they do miss and love them. Most importantly, the sense of oneness or unity (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) is depicted here as the band died together. Filipinos really have one accord and the most popular example of this is “bayanihan”. Another example is the EDSA Revolution where all Filipino people were unified for one purpose (even if they would die) to oust Marcos from his position or throne. In this story, it is to live and to die together as one. Thus, Filipinos have a sense of “togetherness” and “oneness” even until death. Therefore, in this story, Filipnoness is defined as something of the character. It has been presented that Filipinos, more often than not, become homesick and lovesick whenever he/she is away from his/her family or beloved and do have something unique and distinct characters – oneness, unity and togetherness (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) even until death just to defend ones’ country and fight back until the last drop of blood – compared to other countries.
The Prisoner is a story of a respected man who temporarily stayed in a college campus in Kansas because of a snowstorm, who was temporarily detained in the United States because of the war. It was Christmas Eve. As he lay down comfortably on his bed, he remembers his family in the Philippines and he missed them a lot. The next Christmas morning, he met and chatted with the German prisoners of war that were lodged in the same building. He took an interest to one prisoner, who spent quite a long time breaking the ice at the fountain to save the trapped fishes inside. Some of the Germans remarked that he, too, was a prisoner, for he couldn’t go back to his home in the Philippines due to the war. The other German, meanwhile, had placed the stiff fish on a tumbler and muttered to himself that the fish would still live, and that there was still hope. Later in the evening, the main character packed his bags and prepared to leave when he learned that the railway station was now open and the snowstorm was over. As he departed, he waved goodbye at the dark window of the German prisoner’s dormitory, for he thought that they might be looking out through the windows. This story proves that Filipinos are hopeful. The major character in the story, even if he is in America, still hopes to come back to the Philippines. In line with this, Filipinos tend to miss ones family so they would struggle if they cannot come back immediately or be depressed as what the character experienced. In addition, we can see here that Filipinos would believe that there really is no place like home and this is proven when he reminisced the happenings that he had in his motherland. Finally, what is intriguing here is defining Filipinos as “prisoners”. The ones who defined this are the Germans. In this case, I would like to use the term “foreign” because foreigners see us or define us differently. When it comes to their definition, I believe, it is not credible because, in the first place, they only know a bit of us. The ones who have the right to define our identity is no other than us because we are Filipinos. We have all the right to define our national and cultural identity, our Filipinoness or FIlipinohood. We should not believe everything they say to us. The thing that I can immediately associate to this is our history. Our history in the Philippines is not observed and written from the viewpoint or perspective of a Filipino but of the Western Authors. It may be good but it really is something different when it comes from the worldview of a Filipino because we do think differently from them. For these reasons, I think, in some ways, we are caged because we are still neocolonized by the Western culture, language, belief and language. Perhaps, this is an interesting definition that we are “prisoners” and because we are prisoners, we have the difficulty of defining who we are. We have to get out of the cell first and then try to examine who we are. Until then, we could define our identity as Filipinos. Filipinohood, therefore, in this story, is defined as something of character, thinking and to the extent of identity. This part exposes that, again, Filipinos are homesick and lovesick whenever away (as proven in the reminiscing part) and that we are somehow “prisoners” (and because we are such, we suffer and struggle even until now to be free and to identify oneself).
I am therefore that we, as Filipinos, do have identity and it is up to us to dig and define it. We are just unconscious about these that is why we seem to find none. However, if we, with all effort, time and energy, scrutinize and extract, we really can find not only one, not only two but also numerous just like what I just did and found out.