Filipino Identity in Fiction, 1945-1972

Author(s): Mina Roces

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 279-315
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Modern Asian Studies 28, 2 (I994), pp. 279-315.

Printed in Great Britain.

Filipino Identityin Fiction, I945-1972

MINA ROCES
Universityof Central Queensland,Rockhampton

I. Introduction
The Philippines in the immediate post-war years may be described
as a nation in search of an identity. This preoccupation with what
one journalist has dubbed 'the question of identity' spurred a sudden
interest in the research and discussion of things Filipino: Filipino
dance, theater, literature, language, music, art and cultural traditions. After four hundred and fifty years of colonial rule the Filipino
intelligentsia began to wonder if indeed the western legacy of colonial
rule was the annihilation of the very essence of Filipino culture. Under
the aegis of American rule Filipinos were adamant about proving to
their colonizers that they had been good pupils in western democratic
ideals and were fit to govern themselves. From the I920S to the early
1940s, the Filipino had become a sajonista (pro-American).' The
Japanese colonizers who replaced the Americans in the second world
war were appalled not only at the pro-Americanism of the Filipino
but at the magnitude of American influence absorbed by Filipino
culture. In fact it was the Japanese who promoted the use of Tagalog
and the 'revival' and appreciation of Filipino cultural traditions as
part of the policy of 'Asia for the Asians'. Once independence was
achieved at last in I946, the focus shifted. The nagging question
was no longer 'Are we western enough to govern ourselves?' but its
we become too westernized to the point of losing
opposite-'Have
ourselves?'.
It became important to discover whether in the enthusiastic acceptance of western culture, the Filipino identity was lost forever.2 To a
Nick Joaquin, 'Pop Culture: The American Years, The Filipino as Sajonista

in Alfredo Roces (ed.), Filipino Heritage (hereafter FH), vol. Io

(I900s-194os)',
(Manila, 1978), pp. 2733-44.

2 This was not the first time the

question of identity became an issue. In the late
nineteenth century the early nationalists of the propaganda period were the first to
identify themselves as Filipinos. For a discussion of the early propagandists and

oo26-749X/94/$5.oo+.oo

(?

994 Cambridge University Press

279

280

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significant degree the Philippines was riding the tide of the times, for
the newly independent countries of the third world also began to
emphasize their national identities immediately after they acquired
their independence. In Southeast Asia, India and Africa the Europeans had made their exit: the Dutch were pushed out of Indonesia,
the British left Burma and India, and the French left Vietnam in
I954. The Philippine paradox was that the Americans left but
retained a powerful influence in politics and business, so that for
many post-war nationalists Philippine sovereignty still had to be
won.3 This presence became a major threat to Filipino self-identity
and nationhood. The result was a self-conscious probing into the then
puzzling problem of who is the Filipino?
This paper will focus on this preoccupation with the Filipino identity by examining this theme in the fiction writing of the period. It
argues that the quest for identity was in reality the Filipino's attempt
to come to terms with his colonial past. The intellectuals had come
to perceive the Filipino as a 'lost soul'. He was lost because of the
historical circumstances of a long colonial rule. There was a consensus
that colonial rule had negative effects on Filipino identity formation.
Since the loss of identity was perceived to be an offshoot of the colonial
heritage, the solution to the identity crisis seemed to emerge from
two options-to reject the colonial past as totally harmful to Filipino
identity formation and begin anew, or to accept the colonial past as
their approach to the Filipino identity an excellent study is John Schumacher, The
Propaganda Movement, 188o--1895 (Manila, 1973). In fact, the intelligentsia of the early
post-war years looked back at the activities of these early propagandists for inspiration. A bookshop and art gallery (owned by one of the fiction writers discussed in
this paper-Francisco
Sionil Jose) was called Solidaridad, and his quarterly journal
named Solidarity (first published in I966), because it intended to perpetuate the
tradition of the newspaper La Solidaridad. See Jose's comments in 'The Writer who
Stayed Behind' in Alfredo T. Morales (ed.), From Cabugaw to Rosales: A Filipino's
Journey to Justice and Nationhood, F. Sionil Jose and His Fiction (Quezon City, i989),
pp. i 19-20. La Solidaridad was the journal used by the nineteenth century ilustrado
proto-nationalists in Spain to voice their criticisms of the Spanish colonials and to
demand reforms in the colonial political and religious policies. Indios Bravos was a
cafe opened in Mabini St, Manila, by a group of artists and writers in the g96os and
early i970s. These intellectuals liked to meet regularly at the cafe to discuss issues.
Indios Bravos was the name given by Jose Rizal to the group of ilustrado propagandists
in Spain. These were the same people who published La Solidaridad. The name 'Indios
Bravos' itself advertised their identity-they
were 'Indios'. See Schumacher, The
Propaganda, pp. 213-I6.
3
The Americans still retained their grip through the presence of military bases,
and in the privileges of the parity amendment to the Philippine constitution which
allowed Americans equal rights with Filipino citizens in the exploitation of Philippine
natural resources.

FILIPINO

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part and parcel of the Filipino identity. Those who saw the colonial
past as oppressive to Filipino identity formation sought to purify Filipino culture from this influence by rejection of such a past, while those
who saw it as an inescapable part of the Filipino identity pleaded for
the appreciation of the colonial past because in it lay the roots of the
Filipino nation.
The next inevitable question asked was: Who is the true Filipino
and where could he be found? Those who exhorted the repudiation
of the colonial past believed that the Filipino identity resided with
the peasants, the masses or the tribal Filipinos who were the least
influenced by the colonial culture. Those who recommended that the
Filipino accept his colonial past as part of his 'Filipino-ness' found
the true Filipino among those who valued and appreciated his
nation's colonial history.
Evidence for these arguments was gleaned from the fiction writing
of the period I945-I972. Four authors whose works confronted this
issue in their fiction writing were chosen because they had dealt with
this issue as a primary theme in their fiction works. Of these authors,
three wrote in English (Francisco Sionil Jose, Nick Joaquin, N. V.
M. Gonzalez), and one wrote in the vernacular-Tagalog
(Amado
Hernandez). The sources used included novels, poems, short stories,
and one play.
All four authors agreed that the Filipino was a lost soul owing to
Philippine colonial history, (although Hernandez points out that the
colonial relationship persists in the form of neo-colonialism). Two of
the authors (Hernandez and Jose) argued for the rejection of the
colonial past and declared that the true Filipino was to be found
Filipino masses. These
among the workers and the peasants-the
authors were also anti-elite, and in the case of Jose anti-ilustrado as
well (the ilustrados were the educated mestizo elite of the nineteenth
century). The elite were perceived to be evil, greedy and corruptthe descendants of the former colonials. The literary imagery used to
describe them was 'birds of prey', 'dinosaurs' or the 'balete tree' (a
parasite). In their opinion the true Filipino was nationalist, socialist
and anti-imperialist. On the other hand, author Nick Joaquin, who
recommended that the Filipino accept the colonial past as part of
his 'Filipino-ness' proposed acceptance of the Spanish heritage as an
essential part of his nature and therefore an element that must be
preserved.
The debate over the question of identity has not been thoroughly
explored in the scholarly literature. This is true not only in the area

MINA ROCES

282

of fiction but also in the other areas-non-fiction

(particularly
journalism), dance, art, politics, and music. In fiction, although many
articles and theses have been written on all the authors discussed in
this paper, no one has yet examined in depth the collective works of
the authors in the light of their contribution to the debate on Filipino
identity,
period.4

an issue they had addressed

consistently

in the I945-1972

Historian Renato Constantino, however, has written extensively on

the issue of Filipino identity, actively endorsing one option in his zeal
to reinterpret Philippine history. To many readers he articulated the
nationalist viewpoint5 that espoused the repudiation of the colonial
past. Almost all of his books addressed the topic of Filipino identity
and national consciousness since the concept of the Filipino identity
was inextricably linked to the larger issue of nationalism.6 He
observed

that the Filipino

still possessed

a 'colonial

consciousness'

brought about largely by what he labelled 'the miseducation of the

Filipino'. Americanization was responsible for quenching the newly
born Filipino 'counter-consciousness' that appeared in the revolution
4

There is a very brief (3 short pages) discussion on the search for identity as an
important theme in Philippine fiction of the years 1945-1972 by Joseph A. Galdon,
written as part of his review of the prevailing themes in the critical essays on Philippine literature published in PhilippineStudies.See Joseph A. Galdon, 'Introduction',
in Joseph A. Galdon (ed.), PhilippineFiction: EssaysFromPhilippineStudies1953-1972
(Quezon City, 1972), pp. xi-xiv. For another essay summarizing the themes in the
Philippine novel in English see Joseph A. Galdon, 'Romance and Realism: The
Philippine Novel in English', in Joseph A. Galdon (ed.), Essayson thePhilippineNovel
in English (Quezon City, i979), pp. I-i5.

5 Renato Constantino's works are

required readings for Philippine history courses
in universities and colleges in the Philippines. His book, The Philippines,A Past
Revisited,is a textbook used at the University of the Philippines (UP). His interpretation of history was challenged by American historian Glenn May who lamented the
fact that this 'distorted' view of history was propagated at the UP and his works
cited as gospel truth by the students. This challenge provoked a retort from some
UP history professors. It must be pointed out, however, that Glenn May did not
separate the view of Constantino the historian, and Constantino, the nationalist.
Although Constantino's interpretations may be faulted, his reputation among many
Filipinos is still that of a nationalist. For an insight into the debate see Glenn May,
'A Past Revisited: A Past Distorted', DilimanReview,31, 2 (March-April 1983). This
article was reprinted in his book A Past Recovered
(Quezon City, 1987), pp. 3-24. For
replies to May's article see, Silverino V. Epistola, 'The Empire Strikes Back', Diliman
Review31, 4 (July-August, I983), and Alex Magno, 'Historical Fact and Historical
Meaning', Diliman Review,31, 3 (May-June, i983).
6 See Renato Constantino, NeocolonialIdentityand Counter-Consciousness
(New York,
Past (Quezon City, 1979),
1978), Renato Constantino, ThePhilippines:The Continuing
Renato Constantino, Dissent and Counter-Consciousness
(Quezon City, I970), Renato
Constantino, TheNationalistAlternative(Quezon City, 1979), and Renato Constantino,
TheMakingof a Filipino (Quezon City, I969).

FILIPINO

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against Spain. Miseducation was caused by an American educational

policy that utilized English as the medium of instruction, and which
deliberately distorted the history of the American occupation with
Americans presented not as conquerors, but as friends who took up
the white man's burden of educating the Filipinos.
Education became miseducation because it began to deFilipinize the
youth, taught them to regard American culture as superior to any other,
and American society as the model par excellence for Philippine society ...
. . the question of identity became more blurred as colonizer and colonized were pictured as being welded in a common undertaking-that of preparing the nation so that it would be deserving of independence.7
Invoking Marxist dialectics he argued that a conflict existed
and
between 'colonial consciousness' and 'counter-consciousness'
over
'colonial
conwhen
'counter-consciousness'
triumphed
only
sciousness' (Constantino vaguely defined 'counter-consciousness' as
the force that would liberate Filipino 'colonial consciousness') would
the true Filipino identity emerge. For Constantino the colonial period
had not ended, instead it reincarnated into a neo-colonial present,
remaining a palpable threat to Filipino identity and nationhood. For
this reason it was absolutely critical to repudiate this influence. The
true Filipino in Constantino's view was a staunch anti-imperialist,
anti-colonialist, intensely nationalistic and preferably Marxist.
In politics, the view that the colonial past/neo-colonial present was
detrimental to Filipino identity formation was voiced by senators
Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Taiada, and Jose P. Laurel. With the
exception of Lorenzo Tafiada, the politicians involved were antiAmerican initially for political reasons -they were Japanese collaborators and this fact denied them American endorsement at the polls.
Recto became the mentor of the first post-war anti-American nationalists. His primary concern (like Constantino) was to point out the
Filipino's misperception of the Philippine-American relationship. He
criticized the Filipino's blatant pro-Americanism which made him
oblivious to the reality of his continuous dependency on America.
In an essay aptly entitled 'Our Lingering Colonial Complex' Recto
summarized the current Philippine-American relationship:
But an intensive and pervasive cultural colonization no less than an
enlightened policy of gradually increasing autonomy, dissolved whatever
hatreds and resentments were distilled in the Filipino-American war, and,
7

Constantino,

Neocolonial Identity, pp. 66 and 69.

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by the time of the enactment of the Jones Law, promising independence

upon the establishment of a stable government, an era of goodwill was firmly
opened, one which even the cabinet crisis under Governor General Wood
could only momentarily disturb. A system of temporary trade preferences,
under which our principal industries were developed, cemented the relationship with the hard necessities of economic survival, for it was belatedly
realized that the same system of so-called free trade had made us completely
dependent on the American market. The vicissitudes and triumphs of the
common struggle against the Japanese Empire completed the extraordinary
structure, and it was not at all strange or unexpected that, when our independence was finally proclaimed, it was not so much an act of separation,
as one of 'more perfect union.'8
Recto believed that this 'more perfect union' with America was
stifling Filipino attempts at exercising true independence. To protect
his own national interest and affirm his nation's sovereignty, the Filipino must sever the colonial/dependent relationship with America. In
the context of the debate on Filipino identity, Recto's position would
be for the rejection of the American influences of the past and the
present, a perspective that brought Recto in the camp of those intellectuals who opted for the repudiation of the colonial past. Apart
from this, no other insights can be gleaned on the issue of Filipino
identity in the writings of these early post-war nationalists, since the
issue of Filipino identity was tangential to their over-all crusade
against neo-colonialism.
As evidenced by the link between the identity issue and the nationalist politicians, the debate on identity was not merely confined to
the esoteric level. In the field of politics and economics there were
distinct material gains to be made by linking the identity issue with
nationalist aspirations. In the term of President Carlos Garcia (1959)
the 'Filipino First' policy was launched. The slogan 'Filipino First'
in its essence meant a policy to ensure that Filipinos were given
control of their own trade, capital and business resources over
foreigners.9 For the elite business group, Filipinization implied the
turnover of once foreign-owned industries into the hands of Filipinos.
At the managerial level it opened the doors for Filipinos to acquire the
top positions in the management of huge international and national
8
Claro M. Recto, 'Our Lingering Colonial Complex', in Renato Constantino
(ed.), Recto Reader, Excerptsfrom the Speechesof Claro M. Recto (Manila, I965), p. 9. For
more information on Recto's thoughts see this volume. For a glimpse of the thoughts
of Recto's protege and successor Iorcenzo Tafiada, see Lorenzo Tafiada, Nationalism.
A Summons to Greatness (Quz(on C(ity, i()i9).
' Fernando Castro, Nationalism Iilipiino First (Manila, I959), p. 9.

FILIPINO

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corporations (non-family owned corporations); positions which

hitherto had been reserved only for American or foreign expatriates.
The call for Filipinization also permeated media and the church hierarchy. The American editors and newspaper/magazine owners made
their graceful exit in late 1950s leaving Filippino publishers and
editors to take their places, while on September I4, 1957 six Filipino
members of the religious orders sent Pope Pius XII a petition pointing
out the grievance that management of the religious institutions
(Catholic universities, seminaries and Catholic schools) were monopolized by non-Filipinos.'0
In Philippine art, artists grappled with the question: 'What is Philippine art?' and 'What is a Filipino painting?'l In the I950S particularly, artists pondered these questions in response to the works of the
grand master Fernando Amorsolo who was famous for his paintings
of rural Philippines. The vexing issue of whether it was the medium
or the content that determined the 'Filipino-ness' of the art work was
constantly discussed. In his interviews with the Filipino artists of the
time, art critic Cid Reyes consistently posed these two questions to
all his interviewees.12
Although these intellectuals were disturbed about the identity issue
enough to write about it, no one had produced a synthesis of the
various aspects of the debate. In retrospect, these propositions advocated by the above intellectuals, Constantino included, represent individual attempts to find solutions to the identity crisis. They may all
be considered primary sources for a deeper study on the identity issue
in Philippine culture, history and politics. The arguments advanced
10
Although there is some literature on the Filipino First policy there is practically
nothing on how Filipino entrepreneurs, publishers and religious took over the top
positions previously filled by foreigners. These data were taken from a chapter of a
biography of one Filipino business manager who had made it to a top position in
this period and succeeded in becoming a top technocrat in the martial law period.

See NickJoaquin,Jaime OngpintheEnigma.A Profileof theFilipinoas Manager(Manila,

I990),

ch. 11, pp. 130-42.

on PhilippineArt (Manila, I989). This book is a

" See Cid Reyes, Conversations

collection of interviews with artists conducted by art critic Cid Reyes. The interviews
were largely carried out in the 1970s although a couple were done right before the
publication date. See also Emmanuel Torres, 'Nationalism in Filipino Art '"Hot"
and "Cool"', in Alice M. L. Coseteng (ed.), Philippine Modern Art and its Critics
(Manila, 1972). The article was originally published in Esso Silangan XIV, 4 (June
1969). For a pictorial essay which argues that the Filipino identity is an issue in art
from the post-war years to the I96os see Rodrigo D. Perez III, 'Identity Motifs in
Philippine Painting', The FilipinasJournal of Science and Culture, vol. I (Manila, r98I),
pp. 103-I I.
12

on PhilippineArt.
See Reyes, Conversations

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by this paper present a coherent synthesis of the individual viewpoints. By using the works of different fiction writers embracing all
facets of the identity debate, it encapsulates succinctly the theses
brought forward by the intelligentsia in their quixotic endeavours to
find the Filipino soul. Finally, the paper interprets the search for
identity as the Filipino's attempt to deal with his colonial past; a
perspective that emerges from a close study of the fiction writing of
the post-war republican era. Such a viewpoint may be used as a
starting point from which to analyze the debate on the Filipino identity in the wider cultural and political milieu of the times. In this
sense this paper hopes to provoke similar studies in the other fields
outside the parameters of literature.

II. Four Fiction Writers and the Question of Identity

In literature the pre-war writers were more troubled by the question
'Is my English good enough?' than the problem of whether their
writing was 'Filipino enough'. This anxiety was a reflection of the
pre-war drive to show the Americans that the Filipinos had become
westernized and ready for independence along western democratic
lines. Interviews with the first generation of Filipino writers in English
revealed that they were obsessed with mastering the English language
using American literary models. These apprentices were nonetheless
encouraged and practically all their short stories were published in
the various magazines that mushroomed in the decades before the
second world war.'3 After the war the second generation of Filipino
writers in English had already mastered the language, and were now
preoccupied with the question of Filipino identity. Eventually (in the
later period beyond the scope of this paper), they would begin to
13 For a
compilation of interviews with the first generation of Filipino writers in
English see Doreen G. Fernandez, and Edilberto N. Alegre (eds), The Writer and his
Milieu. An Oral History of First Generation Writers in English (Manila, 1984). A second
volume compiles the interviews with the second generation of writers in English; that
is, the generation discussed in this paper. See Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N.
Alegre (eds), Writers and their Milieu, An Oral History of Second Generation Writers in
English (Manila, I987). Unfortunately while the first volume captures successfully
the life and times of the writers, the second volume is disappointing. The interviews
are separate pieces and the 'milieu' never materializes. (In the first volume the
authors speak of both their lives and of their contemporaries.) At the same time key
authors are not included in the volume and replaced by journalists. Established
authors such as Francisco Sionil Jose, Alejandro Roces and Gilda Cordero-Fernando
are conspicuously absent.

FILIPINO

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question whether the English language could express the particular

nuances peculiar to the Filipino culture-and
whether the Tagalog
a
would
be
better
vehicle
for
language
writing Philippine literature.
To illustrate the various viewpoints in the debate on identity, four
authors and their explicit writings on Filipino identity are presented
and analyzed. In all cases brief biographical data are given of the
author followed by a summary of his work interspersed with a discourse on his view on Filipino identity. One of the authors, Amado
and I have translated
V. Herandez wrote in the vernacular-Tagalog,
the appropriate quotations into English.

Amado V. Hernandez
Amado Vera Hernandez was born in Tondo, Manila, on September
I3, 1903. He received a very modest education-a
high school diploma with some training in typing and stenography at the Gregg
Business School. He also started but did not complete a correspondence course called 'Practical English and Mental Efficiency'. He
became a reporter for the morning daily Watawat (Flag) eventually
becoming a columnist for Pagkakaisa (Unity), and finally rising to
editor of Mabuhay. All were Tagalog newspapers. Prior to the outbreak
of the second world war he had already published some poems and
short stories in two Tagalog anthologies: Clodualdo del Mundo's
Parolang Ginto (Golden Lantern) and Alejandro Abadilla's Talaang
Bughaw (Blue Star). He was also vice-president of one of the first
Filipino writers' societies called Aklatang Bayan (Library of the
Country). He won the Commonwealth Award for Literature in I93840. In 1932 he married Atang de la Rama, the 'queen of Tagalog
song' and the famous star of the zarzuela.'4
In 1945 Hernandez entered politics and although he continued to
write fiction, his political career took him center stage. He became
president of the Philippine Newspaper Guild in I945 and was
appointed Councilor of Manila. This was followed by election to
Councilor of Tondo (I947) and president of the Congress of Labor
Organizations (CLO) also in I947. The CLO was under guidance of
the Communist Party of the Philippines which Hernandez joined after
his election to the presidency of the CLO. In May I948 he left for
14
Ninotchka Rosca, 'Ka Amado: Labor's Guiding Light', in Alfredo Roces (ed.),
FH, vol. o1, p. 255I.

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the United States and Europe to gather material on the international

working class movement.
When in 1950 the entire political bureau of the Communist Party
of the Philippines was taken by the military, Hernandez was among
those imprisoned. It was in prison where he resumed his literary
projects. In the six years he was in prison he wrote Bayang Malaya
(Free Country), Isang Dipang Langit (An Armful of Sky, which was a
collection of poems), short stories, and portions of the novel Mga
Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey). On June 20, 1956 he was given
temporary freedom under bail and was finally acquitted on May i,
I964. He wrote a column in the Tagalog daily Taliba and became
editor of Makabansa and Ang Masa. He also taught at the Ateneo de
Manila and the University of the Philippines. His popularity among
the masses was such that a radio station planned a soap opera series
entitled Isang Dipang Langit.'5 Although he died of a heart attack in
I970, he was posthumously declared a National Artist for Literature
on June

12, 1973.16

Amado Hernandez' two most famous works, Isang Dipang Langit

and Mga Ibong Mandaragit, both addressed the issue of Filipino
national consciousness since in his view the Filipino identity is inextricably tied to nationalist sentiment. His work reflected his Marxist
orientation. His general image of Philippine society was one that
needed liberation and social reform. The elite were oppressors and
exploiters of the masses who were sincere, hardworking, loyal and
devoid of corruption. Thus from this perspective, it was not surprising
that Hernandez singled out the poor as the only possible source for
heroes dedicated to the political and social reform of Philippine
society.
Isang Dipang Langit is a collection of poems written while he was in
prison. Most of the poems describe the frustrations of prison life but
a number of them glorify the peasants and the laborers. One of Hernandez' poems entitled Ang Panday (The Blacksmith) describes a
blacksmith at work making tools. But once a revolt flares up he makes
a sword that would carry out vengeance for the oppression of a people.
The blacksmith here is a man who can make both a plough and a
sword. The plough is instrumental in feeding the people, and the
sword in liberating the country. Therefore the humble blacksmith
15

Ibid., p. 2552.
Cirilo F. Bautista, 'Two Poets, Two Rebels: Villa and Hernandez', in The Filipinas Journal of Science and Culture, vol. 4 (Manila, 1982), p. 66.
16

FILIPINO

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holds in his work-stained hands life, liberation and his nation's

selfhood.17
Hernandez' most famous novel Mga Ibong Mandaragit develops this
theme comprehensively. The characters of the novel are divided into
two camps: those that fall under the category of mga ibong mandaragit
workers and peasants.18 The
(birds of prey), and their victims-the
novel is preoccupied with describing both sets of characters who
remain separate in the real world.
The title Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey) was taken from a
well-known editorial published in the El Renacimientoon October 30,
I908. The editorial entitled Aves de Rapina (Birds of Prey) denounced
the practices of American government officials and businessmen, calling them birds of prey; that is, exploiters of both the Philippine natural resources and the Filipino people. Hernandez reproduced this
entire essay (in Tagalog) in the novel under the auspices of Kampilan
(cutlass), the newspaper published by the leading characters of the
story. Magat, the editor of Kampilan annotated the I908 editorial with
his own comments. It is here, right in the middle of the novel where
Hernandez divulged the meaning of the title Mga Ibong Mandaragit:
Gone are the wicked creatures who used the disguise of the Eagle, the
Vulture, the Owl and the Bat, but their descendants remain, and their
descendants are their agents and business partners. They may be found not
only in the mountains, but in the plains, forests, lakes, seas, towns, cities,
in the huge buildings, in the highest of offices in the important occupations,
and their sharp beaks, teeth and nails are being used as before to lap lives
and suck the blood of their victims.'9
colonial power.
The original birds of prey were the Americans-the
The colonizers had already departed in 1945. But they left behind
their descendants, the Filipino elite 'in the highest of offices in the
important occupations'. These birds of prey exploited their victims,
the rest of the Filipino people. The rich, because they were the descendants of the American colonizers, could not possibly possess the
true Filipino identity. On the other hand, the poor who had the
substance of this identity must free themselves from elite oppression.
How were they to triumph over the birds of prey?
17

Amado V. Hernandez, Isang Dipang Langit (Manila, I96I), p. 30, or E. San

Poems
Juan's translationof the poems publishedunderthe title RiceGrains:Selected
(New York, I966), p. 39. See also Ninotchka Rosca, 'Ka Amado', pp. 255I-2.
18 Soledad S.
Reyes, NobelangTagalog 90o5-1975,Tradisyonat Modernismo(Quezon

City, 1982), p. 127.

19 Amado V. Hernandez, Mga IbongMandaragit(Quezon City, I969), pp. I80-I.

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This question is the essence of this Hernandez novel. It begins in

the middle of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The lead
character Mando is a guerrilla who just narrowly escaped in a clash
with Japanese soldiers. He and his two friends seek refuge in the hut
of Tata Matyas, Mando's surrogate father, a peasant. Tata Matyas
then tells Mando that if he was a young man he would seek the
jewels of Simoun, the main character of Jose Rizal's second novel El
Filibusterismo.20Here Hernandez makes a link between Jose Rizal's
novel and his own. In a sense both novels deal with the similar theme
of revolution against a colonial society that is unjust and oppressive.
Both novels apply the same techniques to impart their message: the
dialogues between Mando and Tata Matyas, a university professor,
the senator, the archbishop, the rich Chinese businessman, and the
landlord, become the vehicles through which Hernandez brings out
the intellectual and philosophical issues at stake. At the same time,
by forging a link between the present time period of the novel with
the Spanish past, Hernandez connects his novel with the whole of
Philippine colonial history. This link also establishes the connection
between the Spanish colonizers and the American 'birds of prey', and
the Filipino elite who are their post-independence counterparts. It
then purports to continue the history of the Philippines from the
Japanese occupation to the I950s.
Tata Matyas believed that the jewels existed in real life and were
not merely a figment of Rizal's imagination. These jewels, worth millions, were hidden in a casket and thrown into the sea by Padre
Florentino. The El Filibusterismoended with Padre Florentino's prayer
that the jewels remain hidden until they could be of use for a noble
cause. Tata Matyas hoped that the jewels could be used to improve
the lot of the peasants and the workers.
Mando finds the jewels. He uses the money he obtained to publish
a newspaper Kampilan (cutlass) whose aim is to become the voice of
the oppressed. The paper would be the means through which the
plight of the masses would be exposed. Through Kampilan, the tenants
and laborers are inspired to organize politically through rallies and
assemblies. Once Kampilan is established, Mando leaves Manila for
Europe and America to study and observe working class movements
20

Jose Rizal, the Philippine national hero wrote two novels (The Social Cancer, and
El Filibusterismo) exposing the evils of Philippine society under Spanish rule. Both
books are classics in Philippine literature and history and are required
reading in
all Philippine schools.

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abroad. He appoints his former guerrilla commander Magat to the

editorship of Kampilan.
In Paris, Mando meets Dolly Montero, the daughter of the rich
landlord Don Segundo Montero. Before he became a guerrilla,
Mando was a houseboy for the Montero family under the name of
Andoy. Don Segundo and his family represent the elite landlord class
of social snobs who have no sympathy for their own tenants and
house help. Mando recalls how Dolly would not hesitate to shout at
him and slap him whenever he erred. The Monteros for example
make unreasonable demands on their tenants. During the war they
lose control over the tenants who succeeded in determining the rightful percentage of rice crop due the landlords. The Monteros in Manila
have no choice but to comply with these terms. Don Segundo vows
that the tenants would pay for this 'ungrateful act', and after the war
resorts to the force of law to exact his demands from his tenants. Don
Segundo abhors the Kampilanand is staunchly against the rights of
tenants to stage rallies and meetings to request reforms in the tenancy
system.
The Monteros are also portrayed as complete villains without an
ounce of good in them. They have absolutely no principles, their
actions governed only by the desire to do whatever is necessary to
maintain their position and increase their wealth. Don Segundo, for
example, collaborates with the Japanese during the war and then
with the Americans upon their return to 'liberate' the Philippines
from the Japanese occupation. Dolly sleeps with Colonel Moto and
a GI named Whitey. When Whitey returns to America leaving a
pregnant Dolly behind, Dolly goes to Hongkong to have an abortion
and then proceeds to Paris to study interior design.
It is in Paris where Mando and Dolly become romantically
involved. Both return to the Philippines eventually where Mando
resumes his task of organizing the tenants to agitate for reforms. But
once the Kampilanpublishes an article unfavorable to Don Segundo,
Dolly seeks Mando to ask for an explanation. Mando decides to reveal
his identity at this point, a revelation which is repugnant to Dolly's
sensibilities.
The novel ends with a group of tenants staging a rally in the hacienda of Don Segundo about to be besieged by the Military Police.
Twenty seven peasants are killed. Undaunted, Mando pledges to
carry on the struggle to free the Philippines so that the Filipino citizens would be the true masters of their land.

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Viewed from a literary perspective, this novel lacks sophistication.

The characters are not real people. The peasants are romanticized,
and faultless. The elite are all evil, exploitative, heartless creatures.
But the separation of characters is essential to Hernandez' perspective
of the true Filipino.
Hernandez' main thesis is that Filipino society is divided into two
classes: the rich 'birds of prey' and the exploited masses. The rich
are tainted with the colonizers' attributes (being their descendants)
and therefore cannot possibly have the Filipino identity. In Hernandez' view, the masses must first struggle against the exploitation of
the rich, here depicted as the sons of America, before the nation could
be free, and before Filipino identity can emerge unshackled. Thus,
in his novel the peasants are defiant, sincere and courageous, bravely
willing to sacrifice their lives in the struggle against an oppressive
and militant state.
The very label 'birds of prey' to refer to the colonizers encapsulates
Hernandez' attitude about the colonial past/neo-colonial present. For
Hernandez, the colonial past is only a negative influence on the Filipino and therefore must be purged from his consciousness. Similar to
historian Renato Constantino's thesis, Hernandez blames the colonials for the Filipino's loss of identity. The effect of the colonial experience is that the Filipinos forgot their own cultural traditions and
replaced them with Spanish/American culture. This result is that the
Filipino became 'a foreigner in his own country'.21 Dr Sabio tells
Mando:
Because of the long century of slaves, the nation that once was free and
held her forehead high, is stripped of her identity or individuality and she
became a humble and insignificant person. The Filipinos forgot their own
old legends, including their own language, songs, poems, laws and regulations, and memorized the doctrines, prayers, invocations and beliefs that
originated from afar and which they did not understand . . . They greatly
lowered themselves and became despicable in their own perceptions until
they became ashamed of and repudiated every native custom while worshipping and adopting those of the foreigners.22
In his novel Hernandez calls attention to the fact that the colonial
experience is not merely confined to the past. The fact that the current
Filipino elite are descendants of the colonizers is evidence that colonialism still exists in a new form. More importantly, Hernandez argues
the Philippines is still under American colonial rule, that the Americans continue to oppress Filipinos. He points out that the Filipinos
21'Hernandez, Mga Ibong, p. I I6.

22

Ibid., p. 113.

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were blackmailed into accepting parity rights and the Military Bases
Agreement. Finally, he even goes to the extent of claiming that 'the
government [of the Philippines] became insignificant to the orders of
the rich czars of Wall Street and the Pentagon'.23 Here Hernandez
echoes the stance of the nationalists of the period (Constantino, Recto,
Taniada, Laurel) who spoke out against neo-colonialism. Filipinos
permit such oppression largely because they are ignorant of their
neo-colonial predicament. In the words of Dr Sabio, a professor at
Freedom University: 'I repeat; the first serious sickness of our country
is ignorance .. . The country believes that the whites who returned
were her liberators when they now oppress and exploit her'.24
Hernandez represented the Marxist viewpoint in the debate on
Filipino identity. The Filipino must reject his past (because it was a
colonial past responsible for 'stripping' him of his identity), and build
anew by looking into a future free from neo-colonialism and elite
exploitation. In this endeavour it was the Filipino peasants and
masses who were least tainted with the colonial culworkers-the
ture-who were the true Filipinos. Their mission was to fight the elite
and the Americans in order to unleash a true Filipino identity and
instigate social reform. In this respect Hernandez was anti-elite. The
elite were completely baseless, 'un-Filipino', and the task of the poor
was to fight them. Hernandez' blind faith in the masses emerged in
his portrayal of this class as hardworking, honest, sincere, patriotic,
brave, courageous and dedicated to the fight for social justice.

Francisco Sionil Jose

F. Sionil Jose was born in 1924 and is a short story writer and novelist.
He used to own an art gallery in the I96os (Solidaridad Gallery), he
still owns a small bookshop (Solidaridad Bookshop), and is today the
editor of Solidarity, a journal of Philippine literature and history. He
is the founder of the Philippine Center of International PEN in I958
and in I980 received the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation award for
journalism, literature and creative communication arts. He is a prolific fiction writer, especially since he is able to concentrate on writing
full time.
Two novels (Tree and The Pretenders)and one short story ('The God
Stealer') will be discussed here. The novels are part of a quintet of
23

Ibid., p. 248.

24

Ibid., p. II3.

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novels known collectively as the Rosales novels. The classification

comes from the fact that the novels all involve the author's hometown
of Rosales, Pangasinan and there are genealogical links between the
characters in the different novels. Furthermore the five novels cover
the time span from the late nineteenth century to the I970S. But
although the established opinion is that the novels taken as a whole
comprise a 'modern national epic' suggesting a unity of the work25 it
would be more appropriate to treat them all as separate entities. The
only link between the novels are the scenes from Rosales and the fact
that some of the characters are linked genealogically. Otherwise there
is no unifying thread which links the novels making them all necessary
parts to the unfolding of an elaborate and grandiose theme. The fact
that the novels are not written chronologically is evidence for this.
The first novel written, Tree (I956),26 is number two in the chronology, The Pretenders(1962), written second, is number four in the chronology and the last novel written, Poon (I984), is actually the first
novel in the chronology. Although the themes of the struggle for social
justice and the choice between material wealth and integrity are a
common theme of all five novels, Tree and The Pretendersspecifically
address the issue of identity.27
The Pretendersis F. Sionil Jose's most well known novel and it has
been translated into Russian, Latvian, Ukranian, Dutch, Indonesian
and one Philippine dialect-Ilocano.28 The leading characters of this
novel (Tony Samson) and Tree (the narrator) are depicted as 'lost
souls', looking for their roots and searching for their past. In Jose's
view, the Filipino is in a state of confusion about himself and his
identity. In The PretendersTony has repudiated his father who languishes in jail for having murdered an oppressive landlord. Nevertheless, Tony still has an aching desire to find his roots. Although born
poor, the son of a tenant, he succeeds in obtaining a scholarship to
study in the United States. He completes a Ph.D. in history with a
dissertation on the ilustrados. Upon his return to Manila and despite
25

See Morales (ed.), From Cabugaw. Like most anthologies, the essays in the collection are not equally successful. Some are extremely laudatory of F. Sionil Jose, some
overinterpret his works, and some provide good insights on the novels.
26
Although Tree was published in 1978 it was serialized as The Balete Tree in 1956.
27
The titles of the five novels in their chronological order (as opposed to the order
in which they were written) are, Poon (published in I984), Tree (published in 1978),
My Brother, My Executioner (published in 1979), The Pretenders (published in I962),
and Mass (published in I983).
28 SionilJose, The Pretenders(Manila, I962). See 'The Writer who
Stayed Behind',
in Morales (ed.), From Cabugaw, p. ii8.

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the fact that he is forced to give up his academic career and become
a businessman, he constantly yearns to do research on the place of
his origins (Ilocos province), and to write a history of the Ilocanos.
He is obsessed with the project of discovering some record of his
grandfather but his wife ridicules him, and embarrassed, he abandons
his quest.
Tony meets Carmen Villa, his wife, while in Washington. She is
from a prominent and wealthy family who lived in the richest suburb
of Manila, Forbes Park. When Tony returns to Manila, they marry
at once because Carmen discovers she is pregnant. Tony is offered
a teaching job at the University. But his powerful father-in-law asks
his friend, an equally powerful senator, to request a promotion for
Tony at the university. Incensed, the Dean calls Tony in for a private
meeting and the quarrel between them (which ended with Tony's
exposition of the Dean as a plagiarist), seals Tony's chances for a
university career. Now unemployed, Tony is invited to work for his
father-in-law and both husband and wife live in the Villa's mansion
in Forbes Park. This change is significant for henceforth Tony abandons his literary research and his search for his roots, but is increasingly troubled by the fact that he has abandoned this pursuit. He
succeeds in dragging his reluctant wife to Ilocos province to find the
papers of his grandfather, but her ridicule prevents him from pursuing
the research.
Unknown to Tony, he is the father of an illegitimate boy conceived
prior to his leaving for the United States. Emy, the mother of the
child, is a poorer cousin of Tony's who works as a seamstress in the
province. Emy never reveals her secret to anyone but somehow her
sister finds out and imparts this knowledge to Tony. Tony dashes to
the province in the hope of seeing his only son (Carmen just had an
abortion without Tony's permission). Emy however, notes the change
in him and disappointed, tells the boy 'he is not your father'. Tony,
shattered by Emy's revelation about his change in person returns to
Manila only to discover that Carmen has been having an affair with
a former boyfriend. He confronts his wife who confesses her guilt,
and then decides to leave her. Broken and confused, he visits his
sister in Antipolo and takes a night stroll by the railway station to
compose his thoughts. As he hears the train approach, he decides
that suicide would be the only honorable thing to do. Carmen in the
end blames herself for her husband's death and the shock leaves her
dumb. Remorseful, she gathers together Tony's research notes and
publishes them.

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Like Hernandez, Jose believes that the true Filipino is to be found

among the lower classes. The hero, Tony is born a poor man with
noble literary ambitions. He becomes a different person once he marries Carmen. The poor are presented as pure, hardworking, selfsacrificing, humble and courageous. The true Filipino identity lies
with these people; in Tony's father, for example, and in Emy. The
elite are called dinosaurs and therefore could not possibly be true
Filipinos. The dinosaurs are not very different from Hernandez' birds
of prey. The dinosaurs are described as creatures full of greed-senators, businessmen (including Chinese, Japanese and American
businessmen) and the female socialites who do nothing but attend
parties and have love affairs. Carmen Villa, the daughter of Don
Manual Villa, introduces Tony to this world of dinosaurs and lures
him away from his original pursuits. Tony himself admits that
although life with the Villas was like life in a prison, it was a very
comfortable prison.
But I cannot argue with G, however, that I have already lost a bit of
myself, I don't know where-maybe, in the United States, maybe right here
in this city of dinosaurs . . . we give legitimacy to a crime and are, in turn,

the worst of criminals for this act. But prisons can be wonderful if they are
air-conditioned, if they are mansions in the Park!29
Tony's change is obvious to his friend Godo who accused him of
becoming one of the dinosaurs: 'You have deserted us, Tony. You
are a traitor to your class and to your past. You have become one of
them'30
Since in Jose's opinion it is the lower classes who are the repositories of the true Filipino identity, Tony's metamorphosis into a brethren
of the elite made him a traitor to his class. Godo, Tony's friend the
journalist, declares that it is the masses who are the heroes and not
the ilustrados.3'Jose may be called anti-ilustrado because he subscribes
to the school of thought that accused the ilustradosof being opportunists and not patriots.32 The beginning of the novel is a quote from
Tony Samson's dissertation on the ilustrados revealing at the start of
the novel Jose's perception of the nineteenth-century educated elite:
They were bright young men who knew what money meant. But though
they were rich and were educated in the best schools of Europe, their hori29

30

31 Ibid., p. 47.
Ibid., p. I84.
Jose, ThePretenders,p. 12I.
A similar observation is made by historian Miguel A. Bernad in 'The Problem
of Integrity', in Morales (ed.), From Cabugaw,pp. io-I I. Bernad is critical of this
interpretation which classifies all ilustradosas opportunists since this simplistic viewpoint does not apply to some ilustradoslike Jose Rizal and Gregorio del Pilar.
32

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zons were limited and they could never belong to the alien aristocracy which
determined the future of the Filipinos. They cried for reforms, for wider
opportunities for equality. Did they plead for freedom, too? And dignity for
all Indios-and not only for themselves, who owed their fortunes and their
status to the whims of the aristocracy? Could it be that they wanted not
freedom or dignity but the key to the restricted enclaves of the rulers?33
But Tony is confused; he still has to find his roots, he still has to cope
with his refusal to acknowledge his father's existence. Jose is clear
that the hope is to be found in the common man's search for his
roots.
They held on to these beliefs that were bigger than they: once it was the
Common Man, pervasive and purposeful because the Common Man was
salvation. Then it was the Barrios and now Nationalism, because they had
finally gone down to essentials and were groping for identities they had
lost.34 ['They' refers vaguely to the politicians, perhaps the elite Filipinos in
general.]
Jose also points out that a man who does not know himself must
search for his roots, in an effort to understand one's race. Tony feels
the need to find himself only when he arrives in America:
And so it happened in that wide and tumultous land, it happened to him
who was lonely-this one honest moment of self-scrutiny and self-seeking
... A person is part of a clan, a race. And knowing this, you wonder where
you came from and who preceded you; you wonder if you are strong as you
know those who lived before you were strong and then you realize that there
is a durable thread which ties you to a past you did not create but which
created you. Then you know that you have to be sure about who you are
and if you aren't sure of or if you don't know, you have to go back, trace
those who hold the secret to your past. The search may not be fruitful; from
this moment of awareness, there is nothing more frustrating than the belief
that you have really been meaningless. A man who knows himself can live
with his imperfections; he knows instinctively that he is a part of a wave
that started from great, unnavigable expanses.33
Those who do not know themselves are pretenders. Almost every
character in the novel is a pretender except for Tony's father and
Emy. Emy does not tell Tony of her pregnancy because she did not
want to jeopardize Tony's chances for a good career. Courage and
self-sacrifice are the qualities Jose admires most. One who loses his
identity and is untrue to himself is a pretender-a confused mortal.
In this confused state Tony decides suicide is the only way he could
show courage. At the end of the novel Jose tells us that the Villas,
the rich, are not representative of the race; Tony Samson is. But
33 ThePretenders,
openingpage.

34 Ibid.,p. 46.

35

Ibid., p. 40.

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Tony is destroyed because he was bribed, 'and because they were

destroyed the country and the beneficient change that could come
over it was lost, lost .. ..36
The colonial period has been singled out as the most important
cause for the Filipino's confusion about his self-identity. In Jose's
view the Filipino must 'exorcise' or 'expel' the colonial past which
has contaminated his nature. The Dean of the university asked Tony:
'Am I not right, Dr Samson ... when I say that we are debased in
spirit because we have not yet properly exorcised our colonial past?'37
The choice of the word 'exorcise' was significant because it connotes
an evil spirit-the colonial past is seen as an evil spirit that must be
purged from the Filipino psyche. According to Russian scholar Igor
Podberezsky, Jose's prerequisite for the discovery of the Filipino
'essence' lost through centuries of colonization, was first 'to kill the
western father, to kill everything which was not born here'.38
This image of the Filipino as confused and disoriented is even more
obvious in Tree. The main character who is the narrator begins his
story by declaring that the narration is a journey to the past; a past
which he consciously tried to forget. He has been seeing a psychiatrist
who tells him he is experiencing 'alienation' and 'guilt feelings',39 but
his conscience compels him to recount the past, a pilgrimage essential
to his survival for 'I hie back to this past wherefrom I can draw
sustenance and the ability to see clearer how it was and why it is.'40
My doctor says it is good that I should remember for in memory is my
salvation. I should say, my curse. This then is a recollection as well, of
sounds and smells and if telling is at times sketchy, it is because there are
things I do not want to dwell upon-things that rile and disturb because
they lash at me and crucify me with my weakness, with my knowledge of
what was. So it was-as Father had said again and again-that the boy
became a man.4'
The narrator's story is a recollection of his childhood in Rosales,
Pangasinan as the son of a landlord's overseer. The novel is replete
with the sufferings and frustrations of tenants. The narrator sees these
sufferings but is afraid to face them. Instead he takes refuge in his
comfortable house where he conveniently forgets these events and
continues on with life, puzzled and yet not brave enough to confront
36
38

Ibid., p. 218.

37 Ibid., p. 38.

Igor Podberezsky, 'The Creative Work of F. Sionil Jose-A

Morales (ed.), From Cabugaw, p. 47.

39
F. SionilJose, Tree (Manila, 1978), p. i.
40
Ibid., p. 2.

41

Ibid., p. i.

Russian View', in

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the tormenting reality. Even at seventeen, when his father is brutally

murdered by the Huks, he still does not feel the urge to confront the
injustices he witnessed in his childhood. Finally, a middle-aged man,
he feels compelled to undergo a journey into that almost forgotten
past, and to remember these painful incidents because only by
remembering would he cease to be confused, only then will he find
himself, only then will he find courage and truth. What bothers him
the most is the fact that he did not do anything to alleviate these
sufferings. 'But like my father, I have not done anything. I could not
because I am me, because I died long ago.'42
The stories of the trials of peasant life have one constant theme:
change. The harsh life causes one to lose his parents, become a Huk,
serve as a househelp in the city, try the Mindanao frontier, or commit
suicide; only one thing never changes and that is the balete (banyan)
tree. The author ends the novel with this symbol of the balete tree as
immortal:
Who then lives? Who then triumphs when all others have succumbed? The
balete-it is there for always, tall and leafy and majestic. In the beginning, it
sprang from the earth as vines coiled around a sapling. The vines strangled
the young tree they had embraced. They multiplied, fattened and grew,
became the sturdy trunk, the branches spread out to catch the sun. And
beneath this tree, nothing grows!43
The balete tree is a parasite. It lives by choking another tree with
its branches and takes its nourishment from its victim. The tree therefore is almost synonymous with the dinosaur image in The Pretenders.
The tree represents the elite who exploit the tenants, and destroy
them. The strength of this tree remains unchanged.
Jose's most well-known short story 'The God Stealer' also concentrates on the debilitating effect of colonial rule in Filipino identity
formation. The story begins with two office mates, Philip Latak, an
Ifugao from the mountain province now working in Manila, and Sam
Christie, an American, on the bus to Baguio. Philip (who changed
his name from the Ifugao Ip-pig) now lives in Manila against the
wishes of his immediate family, particularly his grandfather who
intended to bequeath to Philip his share of the famous rice terraces.
They are on their way to Baguio for one purpose: Sam wants to buy
a genuine Ifugao god as a souvenir and Philip was to help him find
an authentic one through his local connections.
Philip is a Christian who no longer has any respect or affection for
42

Ibid., p. 133

43

Ibid.

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the Ifugao customs and religion. He considers himself a city boy and
has no inclination to return to mountain life. Despite this attitude,
his grandfather is pleased to see him and decides to throw a big party
in his honor. On the day of the party Sam and Philip discover that
no Ifugao is willing to sell his god. As a last resort, Philip offers to steal
a god because he feels it would be his way of showing his gratitude to
Sam for giving him a rise at work.
That night Philip steals his grandfather's god. The consequences
of his act are severe. The next day his grandfather dies in his arms.
Philip's brother Sadek tells Sam that his grandfather died because he
discovered that his god was stolen. He also informs Sam that Philip
will not be going back to Manila. Curious, Sam searches for Philip
and finds him working in his grandfather's hut. Philip poignantly
explains his reasons for remaining in the mountains:
I could forgive myself for having stolen it. But the old man-he had
always been wise, Sam. He knew it was I who did it from the very start.
He wanted so much to believe that it wasn't I. But he couldn't pretendand neither can I. I killed him, Sam. I killed him because I wanted to be
free from these . . . these cursed terraces. Because I wanted to be grateful.
I killed him who loved me most .. .' a faltering and a stifled sob.44

In the dark hut Sam noticed that Philip is now attired in the G-string,
the traditional costume of the Ifugao. Furthermore Philip is busy
carving another idol, a new god to replace the old one which Sam
will take to America as a souvenir.
Philip's repudiation of his Ifugao heritage may be extrapolated to
mean the Filipino's rejection of his own roots and its replacement
with colonial values. The name Philip is a symbol of the Philippines,
and the name Sam is the symbol of America. It is significant that
Philip steals the god for Sam out of gratitude. Thus the Filipino gave
his most precious symbol of his past traditions to the American as an
expression of gratitude. And by giving this symbol away, the Filipino
murders his own roots. Again we see Jose's thesis-the colonial culture has been a negative force in Philippine history and hence the
true Filipino is the tribal Filipino, or the poor Filipino least touched
by colonial culture.
Jose presents the Filipino as confused, emotionally disturbed and
helpless, plagued by the fact that he repudiated his past (Tony), or
haunted by the fact that he could not do anything to help the suffering
44

F. SionilJose, 'The God Stealer' in Asuncion David-Maramba

(ed.), Philippine

ContemporaryLiterature (Manila,

i965), p. I15.

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masses (Tree). Jose looks at the present state of the Filipino and his
society, but refrains from positing concrete solutions to the social
problems. In both The Pretendersand Tree, the main character is confused and disoriented but at the same time paralysed and immobile,
unable to affect change. While Hernandez' main characters are confident of the methods with which to change their lives and face their
adversaries with defiance, Jose's main characters remain insecure,
suicidal and ineffective. However, as a footnote in the novel Mass,
which is the sequel to The Pretenders,the lead character who is the
son of Tony Samson, kills a corrupt elite politician and takes to the
hills to join the communist revolutionaries. By this time (1982), Jose's
thoughts had evolved to the point wherein he advocated revolution
against the elite as the solution to the problems of social justice in
post-war Philippines.

Nick Joaquin
NickJoaquin was born in 1917 and is considered the foremost Filipino
fiction writer in English, reflected by the fact that he was conferred
the title National Artist for Literature. He has written one play, several novels, poetry and journalist pieces under the pseudonym Quijano de Manila. He has won several short story awards and has
received grants to Spain, the United States and Mexico.
Two of Nick Joaquin's fiction pieces written during the period
I945-1972 address the problem of Filipino identity. The first one is
a novel entitled The Woman who had Two Navels (first published in
I96I). Ninotchka Rosca, writing on Philippine literature in English,
sums up the theme of the book rather well:
The core of The Woman who had Two Navels is a love affair-but a love
affair that is also a confrontation with history, a probing of the Filipino
psyche as it trembles in confusion between two inherited cultures, a revelation of the Filipino psychology-the schizophrenia swinging between the
fragmented stages of the country's history-and, more importantly, an
attempt to find a synthesis, a resolution to the historical contradictions in
order to create a mode of conduct for the modern Filipino.45
The leading character, Connie claims she has two navels: the two
navels symbolize two mother cultures, Spain and America. The novel
45

Ninotchka Rosca, 'Our Anglo-Saxon Legacy', in Alfredo Roces (ed.), FH, vol.

io, p. 2718.

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takes place entirely in Hongkong, the cast of characters are all Filipino exiles except Connie, her mother and her husband who are visiting Hongkong. The life of the Filipino exiles, once meaningless but
peaceful, is disturbed by the presence of Connie and her mother.
Connie is in Hongkong because she is running away from both her
mother and her husband. She is shattered by the discovery of old
love letters written by her mother to her husband when they were
lovers. She seeks revenge on her mother by attempting to steal her
mother's latest boyfriend who is a Filipino band leader in Hongkong.
The plot itself is not very important to the theme. Joaquin's message
comes through very subtly in the individual experiences of some of
the eccentric characters.
Connie, for example, represents the confused Filipino who is insecure and emotionally unbalanced. She takes refuge in her world of
illusions, where she has two navels and a Chinese god whom she
appeases with dolls. An important figure is the older Doctor Monson
whose upbringing recalled the Spanish regime. He was a soldier
fighting against America in the Filipino-American war and decides
to go into voluntary exile in Hongkong once the Americans consolidate their hold on the Philippines. His sons know of the Philippines
only through his nostalgic reminiscences of the old house in Manila.
Dr Monson travels to Manila that year only to return broken-hearted.
He spends the rest of his days imprisoned in his room, wearing his
old revolutionary uniform and refusing to face the world. We are not
told explicitly the reason for Dr Monson's despair. But in the last
chapter of the novel, Connie confronts Dr Monson, who represents
the Philippine's Spanish past. Joaquin presents us with the reason
for the old man's grief and Connie's flightiness:
Recognition had flashed in her eyes too-here, at last, was the ghost from
her childhood; the hero they had all betrayed-and
a weight lifted from her
breast as she walked towards him, dropped to her knees at his feet and said:
Bless me Father, for I have sinned.

Two generations that had lost each other here met in exile.46
Joaquin here speaks of the generation gap experienced by Filipinos;
it is a cultural gap, a separation between the Spanish-influenced older
generation and the Americanized youth. Joaquin notes that the new
46

Nick Joaquin, The Woman who had Two Navels (Manila, 1972 edition), p. 204.
This novel was first published in i96I by Regal
Printing Press and in I972 by
Solidaridad Publishing House.

FILIPINO

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generation has forgotten the Spanish past (that is why Connie asks
for forgiveness for her sins) and that is the reason for their insecurity.
All over the country in those days young men were tending newspapers,
writing poems, going into politics, looking for gold mines. The ferment of
the Revolution had bred a climate in which poets and artists had political
effects; now came the inheritors, the Esteban Borromeos-young men who,
in the I89os, had been students plotting in the cafes of Madrid and Barcelona, or starving in Parisian garrets, and who would be gathered, at the
outbreak of the Revolution in the Philippines, into the military jails of Spanish Morocco, but would come trooping home in time to join in the fight
against the Americans, and to rock the I9oos with their insurgence. In two
swift decades they would find themselves obsolete-discarded and displaced
persons gathering in each other's parlors to revile the present and regret the
past ... A people that had got as far as Baudelaire in one language was
being returned to the ABCs of another language, and the young men writing
in the I9OOSwould find that their sons could not read them. The fathers
spoke European, the sons would speak American.47
How do the Filipinos deal with this generation gap? The characters
in the novel seek some form of escape from reality. Dr Monson
retreats to his room and dons his old revolutionary uniform, his son
Tony enters the seminary to escape the real world, Connie Vidal
pretends she has two navels, and her mother Concha Vidal has affairs
with younger men. The Filipino is afraid to confront the problem of
the generation gap. This theme-of the Filipino having two navels
a
representing the Spanish and American colonial heritage-though
is
very clever means of encapsulating the Filipino cultural dilemma,
inadequately developed in the novel. For the most part references to
the theme remain vague and obscure.
A much more in depth and successful treatment of the dual themes
of Filipino identity and the generation gap emerged in his most
famous work-his play The Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (first published in I952). The play was very successful and popular on stage.
In 1956, the Barangay Theatre Guild's production ran 45 performances.48 Since then it has been translated into Tagalog and performed
on stage and the movie screen under the title Larawan (Portrait).
The play is set in old Manila (Intramuros), two months before
the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The major characters are two
spinsters, Candida and Paula, who live in the old Marisigan house
in Intramuros where all the scenes take place. The sisters, though
Ibid., p. 115.
Edilberto de Jesus Jr., 'Vision and Revision in Nick Joaquin's Portraitof the
Artistas Filipino'in ThePast Revisited.ThreeStudiesofNickJoaquin'sPortraitof theArtist
as Filipino (Manila, i966), p. 26.
47
48

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from a once wealthy family, are in financial difficulties. Since both

sisters are not qualified to work, they have resorted to sub-letting a
room in their house to a young man named Tony Javier.
The action revolves around one item, the painting entitled 'Retrato
del Artista Como Filipino' (The Portrait of the Artist as Filipino).
The artist is Don Lorenzo Marasigan who painted it for the two
sisters just before he went into seclusion, refusing henceforth to leave
his bedroom. The subject of the painting is Aeneas carrying his father
Anchises on his back fleeing the burning city of Troy. But the face
of Aeneas and Anchises is that of one man: Don Lorenzo both as a
young man and as an old man.
In the Aeneid, Aeneas epitomizes the ideal Roman because he
possesses the Roman virtue of pietas-duty. His duty is to respect his
ancestors and his gods, and to put loyalty to his country above all
else. He fulfills this ideal when he carries his father and the household
gods on his back to establish a new city-Rome.
Translating this
into
the
the
situation,
image
Philippine
painting implies that the Filimust
his
more
carry
pino
past,
specifically the Spanish past, in order
to rebuild the future Philippines. The burning city of Troy is old
Manila; Intramuros, which will soon suffer the bombs of the second
world war.
Tony Javier is a boarder in the Marasigan house for one purpose:
to convince the sisters to sell the painting to an American who is
willing to pay $Io,ooo for it plus a lucrative commission for Tony.
Both sisters at first refuse to sell it. But because their married sister
and brother are reluctant to support them financially, and because
they recently suffered the embarrassment of having their lights cut
off for not paying their electric bill, Candida decides to sell. Paula
however, is still hesitant to part with the painting. Tony, willing to
do whatever it takes to make his commission, seduces Paula and
convinces her to sell the painting. The final scene is the most dramatic
point of the play. Paula tells Candida that she has destroyed the
painting. She announces this with joy for the act has set her free. By
burning it, Paula says, she and Candida are now united at last with
their father.
Meanwhile, Candida and Paula's siblings Manolo and Pepang
want to sell the old Marasigan house and put their father in a sick
home. The sisters refuse to leave and the house is saved only because
several friends of Don Lorenzo's generation stop Manolo from physically dragging his sisters out of the house. Both sisters accuse Manolo
and Pepang of wanting to destroy the house because it is their con-

FILIPINO

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science. The old house, like the painting, is the symbol of the Spanish
past which Pepang and Manolo reject. The play ends with Paula,
Candida and their small crowd of family friends, with Don Lorenzo
about to join them, viewing the procession of the Virgin (La Naval de
Manila) from the balcony of the old house.
Joaquin's message more thoroughly developed here than in the
novel is that the Filipino must not reject his Spanish past; he must
carry that past with him because it is his colonial past which makes
him Filipino. The heroes of the play are those who respect the past
and carry it with them like Paula, Candida and Bitoy Camacho, the
narrator. The villains are those who reject that past like Manolo,
Pepang, Tony Javier, and the politician Don Perico who wants the
sisters to donate the painting to the Philippine government in return
for a pension. Tony is the villain because he is willing to do anything
to sell the painting so that he can get a commission. Manolo and
Pepang want to sell the old house and put their father in a home.
Don Perico is guilty too because he turned his back on his poetry to
become a senator.
The heroines, Candida and Paula, have refused to sell the painting
to the American, they refuse to leave the old house, and they refuse
to leave their father. The narrator, Bitoy Camacho, confesses in scene
II that when he was fifteen he had stopped going to the Marasigan
house, he had rejected his past.
I had said goodbye to that house, goodbye to that world-the world of
Don Lorenzo, the world of my father. I was bitter against it; it had deceived
me. I told myself that Don Lorenzo and my father taught me nothing but
lies. My childhood was a lie; the nineteen-twenties were a lie; beauty and
faith and courtesy and honor and innocence were all just lies.49
But once Bitoy re-enters the house, now as a grown man, and sees
the painting, he changes his mind.
I had rejected the past and I believed in no future-only the present tense
was practical. That was the way I thought-until that October afternoonthat afternoon I first went back to the Marasigan house, the afternoon I
first saw that strange painting. I had gone there seeking nothing, remembering nothing, deaf to everything except the current catchword and slogans.
But when I left that house, the world outside seemed to be muffled-seemed
to have receded far away enough for me to see it as a whole. I was no longer
imprisoned with it; I had been released; I stood outside-and there was
someone standing beside me. After all the years of bitter separation, I had
found my father again.50
49 Nick Joaquin, A Portraitof the Artist as Filipino (Manila, 1966 edition), p. 53.
(The play was first published in

1952).

50

Ibid., p. 54.

MINA

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Bitoy also realizes that it is important to carry within you the

heritage of the Spanish past. In the very beginning of the play Bitoy's
first words are about Intramuros and its charm. But Intramuros is
dying with the exception of the Marasigan house which refused to
become a slum, refused to change (only the second world war would
destroy it). In the end of the play Bitoy laments that the house is
gone and that Paula, Candida and Don Lorenzo have died in the
war. But he promises the three heroes that the old Manila would not
die as long as he lives. He pledges to carry that past with him forever:
Oh Paula, Candida-listen to me! By your dust, and by the dust of all
the generations, I promise to continue, I promise to preserve! The jungle
may advance, the bombs may fall again-but while I live, you live-and
this dear city of our affections shall rise again-if only in my song! To
remember and to sing: that is my vocation ...51
Bitoy therefore symbolizes the Filipino who has found his identity
because he carries the Spanish past with him. Bitoy's decision is
significant because he is the only character in the play of the new
generation (the generation after Paula and Candida) who realizes the
importance of the past. Everyone else is caught up in the present new
American culture. Tony's girlfriends come to rehearse their show
number, a song entitled 'A-tisket, a-tasket, a brown and yellow
basket', complete with the appropriate choreography which Joaquin
describes as 'wiggling'.52 Don Perico himself speaks of the 'generation
gap' and his decision to abandon the values of his generation in order
to be successful in life. He regrets the new culture that has made his
own generation obsolete:
They were written in a dying tongue; our sons spoke another language.
Oh, they say that no two succeeding generations ever speak the same language-but it was literallytrue of my time and of the present. My generation
spoke European, the present generation speaks American. Who among the

younger writers now can read my poems? ... They are not our sons; they
are foreign to us, and we do not even exist for them. ... I had to choose

between Europe and America; and I chose-No, I did not choose at all. I
simply went along with the current.... Look at your father up there (the
portrait.... He, too, finds himself stranded in a foreign land. He, too, must
carry himself to his own grave because there is no succeeding generation to
carry him forward.53
The play is a message to the youth of that new Americanized culture who have discarded the Spanish past. Lourdes Busuego Pablo
notes in Joaquin's prose writings his emphasis on 'the necessity of
51 Ibid., p. i22.

52 Ibid., p. 40.

53

Ibid., p. 68.

FILIPINO

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restoring a national awareness of our Catholic Spanish heritage.' The

need arises because Joaquin feels that 'the Spanish cultural heritage
has been obscured, and therefore [Joaquin contends] must be rightly
interpreted and portrayed in its true colors if historical truth and
cultural balance are to be restored.'54
Joaquin asks the young Filipinos to preserve the Spanish past, to
carry with them the Spanish heritage symbolized by old Manila,
because this past is an essential part of the Filipino identity. Unlike
Jose and Hernandez, Joaquin does not opt for a renunciation of the
colonial past. Instead he advocates its opposite-the
Filipino must
within
him
because
it
his
colonial
represents his roots. He
carry
past
even goes as far as to write that 'Spain gave birth to us as a nation':
Spain gave birth to us as a nation, as an historical people. Between the
Filipino tribes, known only for their totems and taboos, and today's Filipino
nation there is such a distance, as between primordial protoplasm and the
human being. Spain gave us the basic forms, defined our character and
physiognomy.55
And unlike Jose and Hernandez. Joaquin is not anti-elite or antiilustrado. On the contrary, Joaquin is pro-ilustrado and pro-mestizo
since these individuals represent the blending of Filipino culture with
the Spanish heritage.

N. V. M. Gonzalez
N. V. M. Gonzalez was born in Romblon, Romblon, in 19I5, the son
of a schoolteacher who later became a farmer. He worked as a writer
for a Manila magazine, and later decided to take up law at the Manila
Law College. He changed his mind eventually and decided to major
in journalism at the University of the Philippines. He has taught at
the University of the Philippines and done some postgraduate work
in the United States.56 He is now emeritus professor, having retired
from a professorship at the California State University at Hayward.57
N. V. M. Gonzalez' most well known book, Bamboo Dancers, makes
two conclusions concerning the Filipino identity. One is that the Filip54 LourdesBusuegoPablo, 'The SpanishTraditionin NickJoaquin',in Galdon
Fiction,p. 6I.
(ed.), Philippine
'The CreativeWorkof F. SionilJose',
55 Nick Joaquin, quoted in Podberezsky,
p. 46.
56 Resil B. Mojares,Origins
andRiseof theFilipinoNovelA Generic
Studyof theNovel

until 1940 (Quezon City, I983), p. 345.

and theirMilieu, p. 151.
57 Fernandez and Alegre, Writers

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ino is a bamboo dancer. He frequently conjures the image of the

bamboo dance, the Tinikling, where the agile dancer has to hop in
between two clashing bamboo poles. One pole represents the culture
of the East, and the other pole represents the culture of the West.
The Filipino is neither east nor west, he is forever vacillating between
the two cultures. The second point is that the Filipino is alienated
from the world. Ninotchka Rosca sums up Gonzalez' theme
succinctly:
Neither Asian or Western, the Filipino is a virtual straw man, isolated
from the mainstream of human concern-from the depths of feeling with
which the Asian views his compatriots-from the world of the atom bomb
which Western man must confront daily-for he belongs to no culture and
has committed himself to no one.58
The main character, Ernie Rama, is on a fellowship tour of the
United States. He is a sculptor and has received a grant to tour the
United States and Japan. He meets an old friend Helen Reyes in
America. She plans to marry an American, who like her is a journalist. (She is in America attending a conference on journalism.) Helen
and Ernie meet again in Tokyo and then again in New York where
they have a brief affair. Helen reunites with her fiance in Taiwan and
Ernie follows her. The novel ends on an obscure note. The American
is shot and Helen goes back to Manila, pregnant with his child. Ernie
himself returns to Manila and then to southern Philippines to visit
his father.
None of the characters in the novel are likeable and none of them
elicit any sympathy from the reader. All the Filipino characters are
superficial and flighty creatures, untouched and unaffected by the
world around them. Ernie is always portrayed as detached from the
American world. When he goes to Hiroshima and listens to the stories
of the victims of the A-bomb, he does not appear to be touched by
their sufferings. He remains aloof and dissociated from these experiences. Ernie's character does not have much depth either. He is presented as a drifter with no real aim or purpose in life and who does
not even have self-respect.
Compared to the other authors Gonzalez has the most pessimistic
view of the Filipino. He offers no solutions or remedies to what he
perceives to be the problem of Filipino alienation from the world,
nor does he end on a hopeful note. Although it is hinted (from the
title and the theme) that the Filipino is alienated because he has to
58 Ninotchka Rosca, 'Our Anglo-Saxon

Legacy', p. 2718.

FILIPINO

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dance between the two cultures (the east and the west), this theme
is not developed in the novel. No other reference is made concerning
this very clever observation apart from the title and its description of
the bamboo dance in one page of the novel. He merely acknowledges
the negative effects of colonial rule on the Filipino identity but does
not advance any theories on how the Filipino should come to terms
with such a colonial past and the feelings of alienation that it
engendered.
III. Conclusion
The underlying consensus in the literature on Filipino identity is
the perception of the Filipino as a confused 'lost soul'. The Filipino
characters in the stories of these four authors are all 'lost souls'. Some
are unaware that they are 'lost' (Gonzalez), some discover that they
have turned their backs on the past (Joaquin and Jose), and some
are still searching and working towards their goal of true Philippine
independence (Hernandez).
All were lost, moreover, for similar historical reasons-the legacy
of a long experience of western colonial rule. For Hernandez colonial
rule was not merely confined to the past; it remained an overriding
force in the immediate present. Furthermore the colonizers had left
behind their descendants-an avaricious species, the 'birds of prey'
(like the colonizers) that continued to exploit the Filipino masses. In
his view the colonial rule had only resulted in exploitation, tyranny
and oppression. The fact that such conditions continued to persist
(and were in fact propagated by the Filipino version of the 'birds of
prey') stifled the efforts of the Filipino workers and peasants who still
had to struggle against them to promote social justice, and herald
the advent of true Philippine sovereignty. And the only way to put
an end to this oppression was to reject the colonial past--to drive it
out physically and culturally from the Filipino consciousness.
In Jose's view the colonial experience bred a race of confused
people who had lost their roots. Such confusion had forced them to
undergo a journey to the past to find themselves. In 'The God Stealer'
Jose announced unequivocally that the Filipino had given his identity
to the American colonizers out of gratitude for his economic advancement. Philip Latak's decision at the end of the story to return to his
life in the mountains among the Ifugaos and their religious beliefs
epitomized Jose's thesis that one must 'exorcise' the colonial heritage

3Io

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from his psyche. For both Hernandez and Jose the negative effects of
the colonial experience meant that the colonial past must be rejected
completely if the Filipino identity is to emerge pristine.
Joaquin, though also anxious to point out the negative effects of
the colonial experience as responsible for the loss of identity, does
not advocate rejection of the Spanish past. Although the colonial
experience has bred schizophrenia (The Woman who had Two Navels)
and a generation gap between those who grew up in the late Spanish
period and the Americanized youth, the need to have roots necessitates preservation of the colonial past (Spanish period). The underlying message is that such a past, despite its negative effects, is already
part of the Filipino identity.
Finally, Gonzalez argues that the colonial experience has caused
the Filipino to be alienated from the rest of the world. Not only is
the Filipino presented as a lost soul, he is also presented as an apathetic creature oblivious to his surroundings. He lives an empty, purposeless life, devoid of fulfilment and happiness. Unlike the other
authors, Gonzalez does not propose either acceptance or rejection of
the colonial past responsible for molding the Filipino into such a
pathetic figure. He merely draws a picture of the Filipino as an aimless wanderer.
In some of the fiction pieces, the lost soul who represents the Filipino, finds himself (Bitoy Camacho, Paula and Candida in Portrait of
theArtist as Filipino, Mando and his followers in Mga Ibong Mandaragit),
in others he remains lost (Ernie Rama in Bamboo Dancers, Tony
Samson in The Pretenders,the narrator in Tree, and Connie Escobar
in The Womanwho had Two Navels). In one particular author, Francisco
Sionil Jose, one can trace the evolution of his thoughts from his quintet of Rosales novels. In the earlier novels, both leading characters
are confused and inert individuals immobilized from pursuing their
ideals (The Pretenders, My Brother, My Executioner, Tree). In The Pretenders, Tony opts for suicide-an
image of defeat and helplessness,
while in Tree and My Brother, My Executioner, the leading character
merely rides the tide of events, indecisive and detached. In Mass,
however, the leading character, Pepe Samson (linked to The Pretenders
if only because he is Tony Samson's illegitimate son) decides to join
the communist guerrillas in the mountains in the fight against elite
oppression; a stance not unlike that of Hernandez in Mga Ibong Mandragit. The hero in Jose's novel metamorphosizes from a brooding inept
intellectual to a mature, decisive man capable of action and assuming
responsibility for those actions. Mass, however, is published in 1982;

FILIPINO

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by this time the intellectuals have ceased to perceive the Filipino as

a 'lost soul'.
These four fiction writers who have wrestled with the issue of the
Filipino identity have arrived at their own different conclusions about
the true Filipino. Hernandez says the true Filipino is nationalist,
socialist and anti-imperialist. Two authors (Hernandez and Jose) suggest that truth, vitality, and naturalness reside in the peasants or
working classes. They argue that it is these people that embody the
true Filipino character. A caveat must be made regarding this interpretation. These two authors assume that the peasants are free from
'colonized consciousness', that somehow they were spared the negative effects of colonial influence with which the elite, the birds of prey
or the dinosaurs are saturated. Filipina scholar Josefina G. Nepomuceno points out that 'colonized consciousness' permeated all levels of
Filipino society.59 Nevertheless, both Hernandez and Jose tend to
have a romanticized view of the peasant as one free from 'colonized
consciousness'. While the elite are portrayed as corrupt villains without redeeming qualities, the poor are painted as pure, sincere, brave,
truthful and completely incorruptible; a simplistic assignation of traits
that does not conform to reality.
While Gonzalez abstains from positing theories on the true Filipino,
Joaquin asserts that the true Filipino is one who carries his past
with him. Since Joaquin sees the present generation caught up in the
emulation of American culture, he specifically asks for a preservation
of the Spanish past. Those that carry the past with them as part of
their identity (Bitoy Camacho, Paula and Candida Marasigan) are
the true Filipinos.
***

The debate on the question of identity began to die down in the early
I970s. While at first insecure and ashamed of his culture and racial

attributes at the start of the republican period (I945), by the time

martial law was declared in I972, the Filipino had acquired selfconfidence. The debate on the Filipino identity peaked in the I96os
with the escalation of nationalism and student activism culminating
in the First Quarter Storm in I970.60 This is not to say that after
59 Josefina G.
Nepomuceno, 'A Theory of Development of Filipino Colonized Consciousness', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 198I.
60
The First Quarter Storm refers to the period between January and March
I970 when the students marched in rallies and demonstrations against the Marcos

31 2

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1972 the question of the Filipino identity ceased to be important, but

rather, by 1972 there had developed a confidence in 'being Filipino'
and the 'quest for identity' lost its self-conscious urgency. There were
three plausible reasons for this decline in interest. The first was that
by 1972 the Filipino had become more confident and assured about
his self-identity to the point that culturally the Filipino identity no
longer felt threatened by Western influences. The second was that
the once urgent problem of identity was eclipsed by the more pressing
issues of nationalism, the reality of the dictatorship launched by President Ferdinand Marcos, the problems of social justice and growing
poverty in the Philippines, and the anti-Americanism that erupted
and demanded a re-examination of the 'special relationship with
America'. Finally, the third reason was that the issue of identity in
its more mundane manifestation in the area of Filipinization had
already achieved its desired aims, resulting in substantial financial
and professional gains for the Filipino intellectuals, businessmen and
politicians.
In the I96os the Filipino clergy, the Filipino editor/publisher and
the Filipino businessman heralded the advent of the revolution of
the Filipino as manager. The 'Filipino first' policy saw the former
American-owned large companies sell-out to Filipino entrepreneurs.
For example, Manila Electric Company went to the Lopez family
(as well as Pampanga Sugar Mill partially owned by an American
company). The 'managerial revolution' within the church took twelve
years to fulfill, beginning with the appointment of the first Filipino
rector at the Ateneo de Manila University and culminating in the
seating of Monseigneur Leonardo Legaspi as the first Filipino Rector
Magnificus of the University of Santo Tomas in 1971. While Teodoro
M. Locsin took over as the first Filipino editor of the Philippines Free
were given
Press, a whole generation of businessmen/entrepreneurs
the top managerial positions in foreign companies and multinational
corporations, presaging the rise of the technocrats that would later
legitimize the post-1972 martial law regime.61 Since these people had
achieved their goals through the endorsement of Filipinization policies, their interest in the abstract definition of the Filipino identity
diminished.
government and the US embassy. For a good account of the First Quarter Storm by
a journalist who covered the events see Jose F. Lacaba, Days of Disquiet,Nights of
Rage. TheFirst QuarterStormand RelatedEvents(Manila, 1982).
61 For the only discussion of the rise of the
Filipino manager in the church, in the
foreign companies and multinational corporations see Nick Joaquin, Jaime Ongpin,

ch. II.

FILIPINO

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313

As anxiety over the identity issue subsides, the authors stop writing
on this theme and move on to other concerns. The Rosales novels of
F. Sionil Jose are a good example. The novels he wrote in the I970s
no longer portray the confused Filipino searching for his roots; instead
they speak of the problems of social injustice and class struggle. Nick
Joaquin concentrates on writing non-fiction; observations on history
and culture as well as articles of contemporary events, personalities
and biographies (most of them commissioned works).62 Amado Hernandez died of a heart attack in 1970 and N. V. M. Gonzalez is now
writing a novel called 'Dragons Deferred' which explores the question
of 'what made him a writer'.63
The decline in the interest over the question of identity does not
imply that the issue has died. It still appears once in a while in certain
contexts and in individual writings or art works. The language aspect
of the debate, for example (a manifestation of the issue not discussed
in this paper), continues up to the present. In the context of the
language debate, the use of Tagalog is synonymous with nationalism.
Although Taglish (Tagalog-English) is now acceptable in journalism,
writers continue to ponder on the validity of the argument that a true
Filipino must necessarily write in Pilipino.64 Hence in schools and
universities, Pilipino is now the medium of instruction for the majority
of subjects. The subject of 'What makes a Filipino a Filipino?' is the
topic of a newspaper column in 1989, again evidence that the issue
still flickered in the minds of the Filipino intelligentsia.65 Artist
Roberto Feleo creates works that exude his reinterpretation of the
Philippine colonial past, consciously producing what he believes is
'Filipino art'.66
That the Filipino identity had asserted itself became increasingly
obvious in both political policies and cultural developments. In the
late 1950s Congress and Senate, after much debate, passed a law
making the novels of Jose Rizal compulsory reading in the schools.
This was followed by proposals requiring Philippine folk dance to be
62

Among Nick Joaquin's biographies include that of the Aquinos, Vice-President

Salvador Laurel and technocrat Jaime Ongpin.
63 Fernandez and
Alegre, Writersand Their Milieu, p. 151.
64
result of the drive to create a national
Pilipino is the national language-a
language based on Tagalog.
65 Teodoro Benigno, 'What Makes a Filipino a Filipino?', in Teodoro Benigno,
Here's the Score (Manila, I990), pp. 285-7. This book is a one-year compilation of the
columns Benigno wrote for The Philippine Star commencing 26 June I989.
66 Ma. Socorro G. Naguit, 'A Hunter of the Race', Philippines Your Fiesta Island
Magazine, vol. V, i Q, 1990, p. 62. This is a pictorial essay on the works of artist
Roberto Feleo.

3I4

MINA

ROCES

taught in the lower grades.67 In the early 96os legislation was passed
transferring the date of independence day from July 4 (when America
granted independence) to June I2 when the first Philippine Republic
proclaimed independence from Spain. By 1976-77 it became compulsory to teach courses on Jose Rizal and Philippine history in Tagalog. In the business sphere, the Filipino Firsters discussed above had
already succeeded in implementing Filipinization in the schools,
media, and business corporations.
Among the artists, art critics, and art historians, the once vexing
problem of 'What is Philippine art?' or 'What is a Filipino painting?'
became a moot point as a consensus emerged 'that a Filipino artist
will inevitably produce a Filipino painting, it cannot be otherwise.'68
In a book composed of a series of interviews of artists, art critics and
art historians, all conducted from 1972 to 1989 (most of the interviews
took place in the I970s), art critic and interviewer Cid Reyes consistently posed the crucial question of 'What is Philippine art?' Practically all the artists responded that there was no such animal. In the
words of Vicente Manansala 'Meron bang nationality ang art?' (Does
art have a nationality?)69 The artists were therefore more confident
of their identity and were primarily concerned with creating 'good
art' as opposed to consciously producing 'Filipino art'.
By the time the last interview was held in I989, the interviewer
himself became resigned to the futility of such a perspective:
In the interviews conducted in the early 7os, I fear I exhausted our critics
and artists with my incessant question on 'What is Philippine art?' In retrospect, it seems to me now such an academic, irrelevant, and cloying subject.
At worst it showed one's tremendous insecurities.70
The response of the artists articulated the sentiments of the Filipino
intelligentsia at the time martial law was declared in 1972. They were
more self-confident and proud of their identity. Instead of declaring
blatantly the superiority of Western culture, they agreed that the
colonial experience was devastating. The perception of the Filipino
67 Salvador P. Lopez, 'Return to the Primitive',
in Asuncion David-Maramba
(ed.), Philippine ContemporaryLiterature (Manila, I962), p. 266.
68
Artist Ben Cabrera, interview by Cid Reyes, in Reyes, Conversationson Philippine
Art, p. i66. See also Fernando Zobel, interview by Cid Reyes, p. 54, and Lee Aguinaldo, interview by Cid Reyes, p. 122, Raymundo Albano quotes Arturo Luz saying
'A Filipino artist creates Filipino art', interview by Cid Reyes, p. I66, Alfredo Roces,
interview by Cid Reyes, pp. 102-3, and David Cortez Medalla, interview by Cid
Reyes, p. 146, in the same volume.
69
Vicente Manansala, interview by Cid Reyes, in ibid., p. 22.
70
Cid Reyes, in ibid., p. 192.

FILIPINO

IDENTITY

IN

FICTION,

1945-72

315

as a 'lost soul' faded and, one could speculate, the view that the
Filipino identity resided in the masses gained popularity. Further
research may corroborate the later conjecture with some examples
stemming from the emerging belief (especially among the students at
the University of the Philippines) that the culture of the masses is
synonymous with the nationalist tradition, coupled with the present
self-conscious stress on the use of Tagalog.
The confidence and pride in 'being Filipino' blossomed in the martial law period and in many ways coincided with the official nationalism endorsed by President Ferdinand Marcos. In music, for example,
some of the pop songs in the i97os exalted the racial traits of Filipinos-flat
noses, slanted eyes, brown skin. Another hit song was
in the I98os).
entitled: 'Ako ay Pilipino' (I am Filipino--popular
Whereas once the standards of beauty made fair skin essential, these
standards were broadened to include also brown skinned beauties.
Perhaps a more fitting example to illustrate the growing national
pride was the February 'revolution' in 1986 which toppled the Marcos
regime. Here the pride in being Filipino reached its maximum peak
as Filipinos believed that they could serve as examples to the world
on how to lead a peaceful, bloodless revolution using 'people power'
and prayers. The well-known 'pop' boast was 'Handog ng Pilipino
sa mundo, mapayapang paraang pagbabago.' (The Filipino contribution to the world, is a bloodless method of revolution.)