Reclaiming Pinay

"I've been able to talk about being Asian, and I've been able to talk about being a woman. But I've never been able to talk about being Filipino. I never realized how significant my culture has been in shaping who I am today." This blog is dedicated to reclaiming what it means to be Pinay. This is a safe space for Filipinx people to learn and share about our culture and selves and ultimately combat the hypersexualization and dehumanization of our people. [Cover Photo Art from a Gabriela Silang Series by Mel Verzosa]

[reclaimingpinay]

this is more of a personal post but I’m wondering where any FilAms who follow this blog hail from

I’m in Chicago and I’m leaning towards moving to L.A. after school to find more work opportunities in Sound. I’m trying to consider what will help with my mental health, and the fact that it’s sunny over there, the entertainment industry is big over there, CA being a more liberal state etc makes it a possibility but I started thinking about how the only things keeping me in Chicago are my family and how I don’t feel home here anymore (besides my fam) and I wish I could be more connected with other Filipinx folks From some accounts I follow on IG, Seattle seems to have a nice Filipinx community, of course I’ve heard of the Bay as well. I know FL has a lot of Filipinx folks and I have some family there but I’m not sure it’d be the best choice for me. Do any of you like where you live and know if there is a strong Filipinx community?

[reclaimingpinay]

Learning Tagalog #1: Greetings

Maganda -> “beautiful”

When greeting someone in Tagalog you can use “magandang” to describe the time of day

For example...

Magandang umaga -> “Good morning” Magandang gabi -> “Goodnight”

...hapon -> “afternoon” ...tanghali -> “noon” ...araw -> “day” Adding “po” to the phrase adds a sense of respect when speaking to elders, etc. For example: Magandang umaga po

Kumusta? or Kumusta po kayo? -> “How are you?” Oo or Opo -> “Yes” Hindi or Hindi po -> “No” Salamat or Salamat po -> “Thank you”

[reclaimingpinay]

Tfw u like kundiman for the nostalgic overly romantic pinoy vibes but #colonialism

[reclaimingpinay]

Tita (in the PI): How are you doing? Me (FilAm, not fluent in Tagalog): Heto buhay pa. Trying to practice my Tagalog a little. Not so great with grammar yet d: Kumusta po kayo, Tita? Tita: wow thats great! live and love your roots. okay naman po, hope to see you again.

“Live and love your roots”

I'm so used to being ostracized by other Filipinx folks for not knowing Tagalog or not being “Filipinx enough” because I was born in the states and here my Tita is, validating my “Filipinx-ness” making me feel loved and supported while she’s on the other side of the world, thousands of miles away ~

Mini Tagalog Lesson:

Heto buhay pa = Here, alive Kumusta po kayo = How are you? (with po, signifies sense of respect)

[philippinespics]

Moro dancer, Mindanao, Philippines

[reclaimingpinay]

Kulintang: One of my favorite Filipinx Instruments!

"Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of the larger gong-chime culture of Southeast Asia, kulintang music ensembles have been playing for many centuries in regions of the Eastern Malay Archipelago—the Southern Philippines, Eastern Indonesia, Eastern Malaysia, Brunei and Timor,[6] although this article has a focus on the Philippine Kulintang traditions of the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples in particular. Kulintang evolved from a simple native signaling tradition, and developed into its present form with the incorporation of knobbed gongs from Sunda.[5]Its importance stems from its association with the indigenous cultures that inhabited these islands prior to the influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity or the West, making Kulintang the most developed tradition of Southeast Asian archaic gong-chime ensembles.”

“The kulintang is traditionally considered a women’s instrument by many groups: the Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausūg/Suluk, Samal, Badjao/Sama, Iranun, Kadazan, Murut, Bidayuh and Iban.[26] Traditionally, the playing of the kulintang was associated with graceful, slow, frail and relaxed movements that showed elegance and decorum common among females.[27] Nowadays, the traditional view of kulintang as strictly for women has waned as both women and men play all five instruments, with some of the more renowned kulintang players being men.[28]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulintang#Feminine_instrument

[reclaimingpinay]

So the last time I was active on tumblr I wasn’t able to block people from this blog, only my personal blog....... but now it’s come to my attention that I can block people from this blog as well?! Bless. I’ve just spent the past 20 minutes sifting thru porn blogs and all of your blogs. Can you imagine the emotional roller coaster I’m on being disgusted one second and filled with glee the next? It’s nice to re-acquaint myself with all the cool people that follow this blog though <3

[reclaimingpinay]

Learning Tagalog: Intro

I’ll be sharing small lessons I’m using to learn Tagalog, but here is a brief history I have found on the language

Tagalog is considered an Austronesian language. It is a quarter of the Philippines population’s first language, and a second language to the majority. Tagalog comes from the Southern Luzon regions and has been historically spoken in and around Manila.

“Tagalog” originally referred to “river dwellers,” coming from the words taga, meaning “from,” and ilog, meaning “river.”

Before the Spanish came, nearly all Tagalog speakers were able to read and write Tagalog in the baybayin script (a system of writing with influence from Sanskrit). In the late 16th century, the Spanish colonization changed this. With influence from baybayin and the Latin alphabet, Spanish friars Romanized the Tagalog writing system with the first book publication in the Philippines, Doctrina Cristiana (1593). Since then, the Latin alphabet became more prominent while baybayin steadily fell into obsolescence.

Today, about 40% of Tagalog terms are influenced or borrowed from Spanish due to well over three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. English has made its way into the language as well, with more than one century of formal and informal American colonization.

[reclaimingpinay]

Learning Tagalog

Would anyone be interested in me sharing mini Tagalog lessons? Not that I am fluent, but if anyone wants to learn with me I can basically show y’all what I’m looking at (: Also if anyone who is conversationally fluent in Tagalog wants to be pen pals and would help me practice speaking and writing that would be cool too

[hellapinay]

💪 . Repost @hatawto Artwork by @jesie_castro

[reclaimingpinay]

I forgot how these messages used to make me feel so good about what I was doing. I fell off with this blog because of mental health and the stress load of trying to manage it alone. I've turned in my schoolwork early and I've been reading up on Tagalog grammar this morning. It's been solidifying some basic points in Tagalog that I would speak passively from known phrases. It feels good to begin understanding the basic mechanics of sentences. I've been thinking about colonization and how I feel so isolated from my own culture. It's hard to find woke Filipinx people in Chicago. It feels hard to find Filipinx to befriend in general for me. Especially since I don't go to a huge university. But I don't want to let fatigue White wash me. America is great because of our diversity and ability to learn from one another. How can I exist and grow if I do not learn to know myself?

I’ve been MIA from tumblr for close to a year now, but I want to start posting more frequently again. If you have any positive posts you’d like to share with me about being Filipinx or any posts regarding awareness please feel free to submit (: I’d like to rebuild my relationship with you all.

[reclaimingpinay]

Since I've been gone I forgot that posting anything about being Pinay on tumblr is translated to "welcome please insert your opinion here, old gross (typically White) men"

[reclaimingpinay]

Omg I sent them this extended response and then I went to their page and realized I'm wasting my time smfh Ofc u have "friends" in "Manilla" and "lived" there for a while.

[wlnghya]

The Philippine culture is a uniquely indigenous culture that has been neglected for aeons because the colonization of these people distorted their culture enough to that it is almost unrecognizable in the modern world. What the Philippines is missing is a sense of legacy and pride in their uniqueness. Instead, the people have fallen under the spell of the Western world, and their priorities and goals are a hollow echo of the old, outmoded values of Western civilization. The Filipino people are starved for an identity that goes beyond Spain and America. They don’t want to be some other stepchild. They deserve to claim their inheritance… Having been colonized for so long, we have to rediscover ourselves. European culture is the legacy of kings and the commerce of merchant bankers. Our own culture has been suppressed by centuries of colonial subjugation, and that cannot be achieved without restoring to our people the pride of identity.

Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions (via wlnghya)

[ofanotherfashion]

It’s 1956 in San Francisco and this is my grandmother, Encar Villanueva. She’s standing next my grandfather’s cadillac. Today, my grandmother or lola (in Tagalog) lives in a nursing home in San Francisco in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. But when this photo was taken, her personality was very strong. Because she was the eldest of her sisters and a stay-at-home mother raising two boys, she definitely was the disciplinarian in the home. (My grandpa was often overseas working as a cook for the US Navy).  Although Lola was opinionated and religious, she always knew how to have a good time and throw a great party. She often had her friends over for food, dancing, and praying the rosary - like any good Filipino Catholic.

Her style was always on-trend. In all her pictures with her girlfriends, church friends, relatives, grandma Encar always stood out. She was never scared of wearing bright colors and accessorizing her outfits with jewelry, bright purses or shoes. As a child I remember going through closets (seven closets to be exact) of her clothes, jewelry, shoes, coats and purses. I still have a number of things of hers to this day. She had impeccable style.

In 2011, I wrote a play about my grandmother and have performed it several times as a one woman show called Forgetting the Details.

Submitted by Nicole Maxali (San Francisco, CA)

[thebeatrockers]

Rocky Rivera - Heart

Quite possibly my favorite song from Rocky Rivera.  Rocky Rivera takes on the persona of three powerful international womyn of color - Gabriela Silang, Angela Davis, and Dolores Huerta - and gives us a herstory lesson of their struggles for justice.

Let me break it down for you…

  Gabriela Silang is a Filipina heroine and is best known for being the first Filipina woman to lead a revolt against the Spanish during Spanish colonization in the Philippines.  She was an active member of her husband, Diego Silang’s, insurgent force, and took control of the group after his death, rallying more than 2,000 people to fight for liberation and independence from Spain.

Angela Davis is Black political activist, scholar, and author who is best known for being a leader of the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party USA and her work on critical theory, the prison-industrial complex, African American studies, and feminism.  She played a crucial role in the fight for civil rights.

Dolores Huerta is a Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist.  She is best known for being a co-founder of the United Farm Workers, which helped advocate for fairer working conditions and wages for farm workers.  Dolores Huerta helped lead UFW’s national boycott during the Delano grape strike.

Rocky Rivera talks about these three militant womyn leaders and shows their paralleled struggles of fighting for justice for their people.  This song is especially significant because we always learn about men in history and people need to learn that womyn are at the head of the struggle as well, especially international womyn of color.  I believe this song is not only empowering for womyn, but also is a call upon society to recognize the everyday sheroes that are constantly fighting against patriarchy, sexism, and racism.  Moreover, by acknowledging the parallel struggles of these womyn of color, Rocky Rivera opens the door to possible coalition-building and cross-community organizing among other womyn of color and marginalized communities.

-Arman

[pag-asaharibon]

Clemencia Lopez, Independista

She was 26 when she met the U.S. President, which would be an accomplishment even today. But in 1902, when Clemencia Lopez became the first Filipina ever to set foot in the White House, she made history. She went to meet President Theodore Roosevelt to plead with him to let her brothers come home from banishment on an island in the Philippines at a time when the United States forcibly instituted a policy of “benevolent assimilation” towards a people they regarded as savages, or if they were feeling kindly, as their “little brown brothers.” 

Clemencia Lopez was from the landed gentry of Batangas province whose wealth derived from sugar, rice and shipping. Her family had supported the Philippine Revolution against Spain. Her brother Sixto Lopez was a close friend of Jose Rizal’s and was entrusted to surreptitiously distribute the earliest copies of the national hero’s second novel, El Filibusterismo, during the waning days of Spanish rule.  

When the United States bought the Philippines from Spain in the Treaty of Paris in 1898, thwarting the Philippine Revolution, Sixto Lopez continued to campaign for Philippine independence and refused to pledge allegiance to the Americans. The American military government in the Philippines waged a brutal scorched earth policy to force the Filipinos to surrender. 

SCORCHED EARTH 

In Batangas, where troops under Gen. J. Franklin Bell perpetuated untold atrocities, the Lopez family’s properties were confiscated, their workers subjected to water torture and the Lopezes were dislodged from their home by U.S. military officials.  Clemencia, whose plan to pursue studies in Paris was impeded by the reversal of the family’s fortunes, went to Hong Kong in 1901 to try and persuade her older brother, Sixto, to soften his stance against the Americans. The family and their workers in Batangas needed to gain some relief from the harsh treatment meted out by American authorities.  On December 15, 1901 their younger brothers Cipriano, Lorenzo and Manuel were arrested and imprisoned on trumped up charges and banished to TalimIsland.  Clemencia decided to set sail for America to plead for her exiled brothers and her country.

AMONG ANTI-IMPERIALISTS 

In 1902 she landed in Boston and met with Fiske Warren, who was active in the Anti-Imperialist movement along with Mark Twain and other outspoken critics of American colonial policies in the Philippines, Guam, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Fiske Warren was a friend of Sixto’s and belonged to a prominent Boston family. Their sponsorship of Clemencia opened doors in Boston society, and she completely charmed them as can be gleaned from a Boston newspaper account headlined, “Pretty Filipino Woman’s Plea for her People’s Freedom.”   

Clemencia enrolled in WellesleyCollege to learn English and later remembered spending some of her happiest times there. In March 1902 she testified in WashingtonD.C. before the U.S. Senate Investigating Committee of the Philippines and had the historic meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt. She spoke before the New England Women’s Suffragette Association on May 29, 1902 and said: 

“I believe that we are both striving for much the same object–you for the right to take part in national life; we for the right to have a national life to take part in. Mentally, socially, and in almost all the relations of life, our women are regarded as the equals of our men. This equality of women in the Philippines is not a new thing. It was not introduced from Europe. In the name of the Philippine women, I pray the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association do what it can to remedy all this misery and misfortune in my unhappy country. You can do much to bring about the cessation of these horrors and cruelties, which are today taking place in the Philippines, and to insist upon a more human course. You ought to understand that we are only contending for the liberty of our country, just as you once fought for the same liberty for yours.”  

VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN 

Clemencia returned to the Philippines in 1904, and in 1905 she became one of the founding members of the Philippine Feminist Association, which was dedicated to the promotion of social welfare and the encouragement of the participation of women in public affairs.

Why is Clemencia Lopez so little known in the Philippines?  Her family surmises that it was because she lived during dangerous times (nearly a quarter of the Philippines’ population was killed during the American period of “pacification”); it was also a period when Filipino historians were discouraged from writing about individuals whose actions were construed as anti-American. 

Manuel Quezon III, in a lecture about Clemencia at the NationalMuseum in 2011, said, “Her speech before the New England Women’s Suffragette Association was very conciliatory, very dignified, very patriotic, but also in one respect, a radical speech…. Women ended up playing a major role in our independence movement not just during the Revolution or the Philippine-American war but thereafter.”  

The Lopez Family of Balayan Foundation is working to help bring Clemencia’s story to light.  On February 8, 2013 they hosted the unveiling of a marker from The National Historical Commission of the Philippines, honoring Clemencia Lopez. 

The event also marked the opening of an exhibit entitled “War and Dissent: The Philippines and the U.S. 1898-1915,” which features letters from the Lopez siblings, detailing their experiences under American rule. The exhibit is on loan from The Presidio in San Francisco and can be viewed by visitors to Casa Grande, the old Lopez home in Balayan, Batangas, only a two-hour drive from Metro Manila.   

Clemencia Lopez died in 1963 a virtual unknown in Philippine history. To her family (including this writer, whose mother was a niece of Clemencia), she was the elegant “”Tita Memeng” who, unfortunately, never spoke about her achievements. A movie project based on her life is in the works so that her story can find its rightful place in our collective memory.  

Lyca Benitez-Brown spends her retirement shuttling between projects in the U.S., the Philippines and Europe. Her latest documentary was Bessie Badilla’s “Dance of My Life” which was shown at Cinemalaya in 2012 and at several film festivals in NYC, Chicago, Honolulu, Thessaloniki (Greece) and Singapore.

A great article on what will hopefully shed more light on Miss Lopez’s actions.