Filipino fashion during Spanish colonial period: Part 4

I was just thinking that probably a Filipino's preference or rejection of the Spanish language or culture of the Philippines often has to do with an individual Filipino's upbringing. For example, if they had a positive experience with the Spanish language growing up and they were encultured into it; their family occasionally spoke to them in Spanish or spoke to each other in Spanish, sang Spanish songs, and had you know, a proper upbringing where delicadeza reigns supreme in everything you do and say, then they wouldn't be so strongly against it. But if a Filipino perhaps grew up in an entirely different perspective where Spanish wasn't spoken at all, and perhaps they were part of the servidumbre class working for those Filipinos who spoke Spanish or had stronger Spanish-influenced traditions, or grew up overseas where the influences are instead American or Australian or British, or just perhaps they had nothing in their immediate lives growing up that would endear them to the culture, then of course it wouldn't have such a positive effect on them today in their lives, and they have no emotional connection to it like other Filipinos, so they don't feel a strong need to incorporate it as part of their lives, and don't feel it's part of their identity, especially since it had very little to do with their own upbringing. But I don't think it's right to say that just because a Filipino speaks Spanish or wants to learn to speak Spanish, they're automatically suffering from an identity crisis or is not being authentic to Filipino culture, because what exactly is authentic Filipino culture? It's not just one thing, and it's not the same thing for everybody. A culture is the amalgamation of all the things that happened to it, there is no one single influence to any culture in the world, and the same thing can certainly be said about the Filipino culture. This is something that needs to be taught to Filipinos so they don't feel like their culture is not authentic or bastardized since it has Spanish influences, Chinese influences, Indian influences, etc. like many do.

It's like a lot of different worlds in the Philippines (and among Filipinos overseas) exist side by side with each other, and they cross paths, but they're not always from the same place, I guess what is right for one Filipino is not necessarily right for another, because not everybody always has the same upbringing or views on things in life even those among the same culture. So it's like there really isn't just one Filipino identity, it's probably good to let people choose what they want to do in their life and let them carve their own identity and what language to speak, but it's not up to me to decide what the national language is, so it doesn't really matter, the government is gonna do what they want regardless of what the masses say or vote for (eeek!), and hopefully they do something positive for the country, that's all.


New York University
Sheer Realities