Why Filipinos Are Special

 

Why Filipinos Are Special
by Ed Lapiz

From the Special issue of Light Touch Magazine, vol. 8 number 3,
Copyright 2004, Glad Tidings Publication

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's lap), etc.

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 'sexist.' While many "conscious"
and "enlightened" people of today are just by now striving to
be "politically correct" with their language and, in the process,
bend to absurd depths in coining "gender 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), etc. 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 groupists. 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 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 "tribe," in our "family"-and we like to be included in other
people's families, too.

Therefore we call our friend's mother nanay or mommy; we call a
friend's sister ate (eldest sister), and so on. We even call
strangers tia (aunt) or tio (uncle), tatang (grandfather), etc.

So extensive is our social openness and interrelations that we have
specific title for extended relations like hipag (sister-in-law's
spouse), balae (child-in-law's parents), inaanak (godchild),
ninong/ninang (godparents) kinakapatid (godparent's child), etc.

In addition, we have the profound 'ka' institution, loosely
translated as "equal to the same kind" as in kasama (of the same
company), kaisa (of the same cause), kapanalig (of the same belief),
etc. In our social fiber, we treat other people as co-equals.

Filipinos, because of their social "weaving" 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
reduccion (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's largest population of overseas
workers, populating and sometimes "threshing" major capitals, minor
towns and even remote villages around the world. Filipino
adventurism has made us today's citizens of the world, bringing the
bagoong (salty shrimp paste), pansit (sautéed 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's 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 nor 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.

Filipino s 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's tardiness and extended stays can really be
annoying, but this peculiarity is the same charm of Filipinos 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 "spaceless" in many ways. The
interior of the bahay-kubo (hut) can easily become receiving room,
sleeping room, kitchen, dining room, chapel, wake parlor, etc.
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 's 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!

"Spacelessness," 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's context, which may mean unstoppable urbanization, Filipino
spacelessness may even be the answer and counter balance to
humanity's greed, selfishness and isolation.

So what makes the Filipino special? We are brown, spiritual,
timeless, spaceless, linguists, groupists, 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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