Filipinos are Brown. Their color is in the center of human racial strains.
This point is not an attempt at racism, but just for many Filipinos to
realize that our color should not be a source of or reason for inferiority
complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, the white people are
religiously tanning themselves, whenever they could, under the sun or some
artificial light, just to approximate the Filipino complexion.
Filipinos are a touching people. We have lots of love and are not afraid to
show it. We almost inevitably create human chains with our perennial akbay
(putting an arm around another shoulder), hawak (hold), yakap (embrace), himas
(caressing stroke), kalabit (touch with the tip of the finger), kalong
(sitting on someone else£f lap)...
We are always reaching out, always seeking interconnection.
Filipinos are linguists. Put a Filipino in any city, any town around the
world. Give him a few months or even weeks and he will speak the local
language there. Filipinos are adept at learning and speaking languages.
In fact, it is not uncommon for Filipinos to speak at least three: his
dialect, Filipino, and English. Of course, a lot speak an added language, be
it Chinese,Spanish or, if he works abroad, the language of his host country.
In addition, Tagalog is not ¡–exist.?While many ¤”onscious?and
¤–nlightened?people of today are just by now striving to be ¤ôolitically
correct?with their language and, in the process, bend to absurd depths in
coining ¤˜ender sensitive?words, Tagalog has, since time immemorial, evolved
gender-neutral words like asawa (husband or wife), anak (son or daughter),
magulang (father or mother), kapatid (brother or sister), biyenan
(father-in-law or mother-in-law), manugang (son or daughter-in-law), bayani
(hero or heroine)...
Our languages and dialects are advanced and, indeed, sophisticated! It is no
small wonder that Jose Rizal, the quintessential Filipino, spoke some
twenty-two languages!
Filipinos are groupies. We love human interaction and company. We always
surround ourselves with people and we hover over them, too.
According to Dr. Patricia Licuanan, a psychologist from Ateneo and Miriam
College, an average Filipino would have and know at least 300 relatives.
At work, we live bayanihan (mutual help); at play, we want a kalaro
(playmate) more than a laruan (toy). At socials, our invitations are open
and it is more
common even for guests to invite and bring in other guests.
In transit, we do not want to be separated from our group. So what do we do
when there is no more space in a vehicle? Kalung-kalong! (Sit on one
another). No one would ever suggest splitting a group and waiting for
another vehicle with more space!
Filipinos are weavers. One look at our baskets, mats, clothes, and other
crafts will reveal the skill of the Filipino weaver and his inclination to
weaving.
This art is a metaphor of the Filipino trait. We are social weavers. We
weave theirs into ours that we all become parts of one another. We place a
lot of premium on pakikisama (getting along) and pakikipagkapwa (relating).
Two of the worst labels, walang pakikipagkapwa (inability to relate), will
be avoided by the Filipino at almost any cost.
We love to blend and harmonize with people, we like to include them in our
¤øribe,?in our ¤—amily?and we like to be included in other people£f families,
too.
Therefore we call our friend£f mother nanay or mommy; we call a friend£f
sister ate (eldest sister), and so on. We even call strangers tita (aunt) or
tito (uncle), tatang (grandfather)...
So extensive is our social openness and interrelations that we have specific
title for extended relations like hipag (sister-in-law), bayaw
(brother-in-law), bilas (spouse-in-law), balae (child-in-law£f parents),
inaanak (godchild), ninong/ ninang (godparents) kinakapatid (godparent£f
child)...
In addition, we have the profound ?EM>ka' institution, loosely translated as
¤–qual to the same kind?as in kasama (of the same company), kaisa (of the
same cause), kapanalig (of the same belief)... In our social fiber, we treat
other people as co-equals.
Filipinos, because of their social ¤ûeaving?traditions, make for excellent
team workers.
Filipinos are adventurers. We have a tradition of separation. Our myths and
legends speak of heroes and heroines who almost always get separated from
their families and loved ones and are taken by circumstances to far-away
lands where they find wealth or power.
Our Spanish colonial history is filled with separations caused by the
reduction (hamleting), and the forced migration to build towns, churches,
fortresses or galleons.
American occupation enlarged the space of Filipino wandering, including
America, and there are documented evidences of Filipino presence in America
as far back as 1587.
Now, Filipinos compose the world£f largest population of overseas workers,
populating and sometimes ¤øhreshing?major capitals, minor towns and even
remote villages around the world. Filipino adventurism has made us today£f
citizens of the world, bringing the bagoong (salty shrimp paste), pansit
(sautŽId noodles), siopao (meat-filled dough), kare-kare (peanut-flavored
dish), dinuguan (innards cooked in pork blood), balut (unhatched duck egg),
and adobo (meat vinaigrette), including the tabo (ladle) and tsinelas
(slippers) all over the world.
Filipinos are excellent at adjustments and improvisation, managing to
recreate their home, or to feel at home anywhere.
Filipinos have pakiramdam (deep feeling/ discernment). We know how to feel
what others feel, sometimes even anticipate what they will feel. Being
manhid (dense) is one of the worst labels anyone could get and will
therefore, avoid at all cost.
We know when a guest is hungry though the insistence on being full is
assured.
We can tell if people are lovers even if they are miles apart.
We know if a person is offended though he may purposely smile.
We know because we feel. In our pakikipagkapwa (relating), we get not only
to wear another man£f shoe but also his heart.
We have a superbly developed and honored gift of discernment, making us
excellent leaders, counselors, and go-betweens.
Filipinos are very spiritual. We are transcendent. We transcend the physical
world, see the unseen and hear the unheard. We have a deep sense of kaba
(premonition) and kutob (hunch). A Filipino wife will instinctively feel her
husband or child is going astray, whether or not telltale signs present
themselves.
Filipino spirituality makes him invoke divine presence or intervention at
nearly every bend of his journey.
Rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are almost always acknowledging, invoking or
driving away spirits into and from their lives. Seemingly trivial or even
incoherent events can take on spiritual significance and will be given such
space or consideration.
The Filipino has a sophisticated, developed pakiramdam. The Filipino, though
becoming more and more modern (hence, materialistic) is still very spiritual
in essence. This inherent and deep spirituality makes the Filipino, once
correctly
Christianized, a major exponent of the faith.
Filipinos are timeless. Despite the nearly half-a-millennium encroachment of
the western clock into our lives, Filipinos--unless on very formal or
official
functions--still measure time not with hours and minutes but with feeling.
This style is ingrained deep in our psyche. Our time is diffused, not
framed. Our appointments are defined by umaga (morning), tanghali (noon),
hapon (afternoon), or gabi (evening).
Our most exact time reference is probably katanghaliang-tapat (high noon),
which still allows many minutes of leeway. That is how Filipino trysts and
occasions are timed: there is really no definite time.
A Filipino event has no clear-cut beginning or ending. We have a fiesta, but
there is bisperas (eve), a day after the fiesta is still considered a good
time to visit.
The Filipino Christmas is not confined to December 25th; it somehow begins
months before December and extends up to the first days of January.
Filipinos say good-bye to guests first at the head of the stairs, then down
to the descamo (landing), to the entresuelo (mezzanine), to the pintuan
(doorway), to the tarangkahan (gate), and if the departing persons are to
take public transportation, up to the bus stop or bus station.
In a way, other people£f tardiness and extended stays can really be annoying,
but this peculiarity is the same charm of Flipinos who, being governed by
timelessness, can show how to find more time to be nice, kind and
accommodating than his prompt and exact brothers elsewhere.
Filipinos are Spaceless. As in the concept of time, the Filipino concept of
space is not numerical. We will not usually express expanse of space with
miles or kilometers but with feelings in how we say malayo (far) or malapit
(near).
Alongside with numberlessness, Filipino space is also boundless.
Indigenous culture did not divide land into private lots but kept it open
for all to partake of its abundance.
The Filipino has avidly remained ¤÷paceless?in many ways. The interior of the
bahay-kubo (hut) can easily become receiving room, sleeping room, kitchen,
dining room, chapel, wake parlor.... depending on the time of the day or the
needs of the moment. The same is true with the bahay na bato (stone house).
Space just flows into the next space that the divisions between the sala,
caida, comedor, or vilada may only be faintly suggested by overhead arches
of filigree.
In much the same way, Filipino concept of space can be so diffused that one£f
party may creep into and actually expropriate the street! A family business
like a sari-sari store or talyer may extend to the sidewalk and street.
Provincial folks dry palayan (rice grain) on the highways! Religious groups
of various persuasions habitually and matter-of-factly commandeer the
streets for processions and parades.
It is not uncommon to close a street to accommodate private functions.
Filipinos eat, sleep, chat, socialize, quarrel, even urinate, nearly
everywhere or just anywhere!
¤„pacelessness,?in the face of modern, especially urban life, can be unlawful
and may really be counter-productive. On the other hand, Filipino
spacelessness, when viewed from his context, is just another manifestation
of his spiritually and communal values. Adapted well to today£f context,
which may mean unstoppable urbanization, Filipino spacelessness may even be
the answer and counter balance to humanity£f greed, selfishness and
isolation.
So what makes the Filipino special? We are brown, spiritual, timeless,
spaceless, linguists, groupies, weavers, adventurers.
Seldom do all these profound qualities find personification in a people.
Filipinos should allow, and should be allowed to contribute their special
traits to the world-wide community of men- but first, we should know and
like ourselves.
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