by Leonard

I know, I know… even though America’s Best Dance Crew is now in Season 2 and people are STILL about the JaBBaWocKeeZ,  you gotta admit that this next season has sort of turned into “Filipino Dance Crew”.  Not that it’s all about Filipinos on that show, but there are enough flips on there that you know SOMEONE is bringing the adobo for baon.  (I think it’s the Boogie Bots.)

It’s no secret to anyone that Filipinos have moves… and being part of a dance crew or performing some sort of choreographed routine is a distinct part of the Filipino “growing up” experience (who remembers learning the routine from New Edition’s “If It Isn’t Love” *raises hand alone*, oh shit I’m old.)   

Both here and in the motherland, Filipinos of all ages love learning moves and performing them together.  Prison Inmates in the Cebu Jail.  Our parents doing line dances to ‘Candida’ at a debut or a wedding, followed by you and your friends doing the Electric Slide to ‘Follow Me’.  Look at Wowowee for G’s sakes.  There’s a routine every freekin’ day.

It should be no surprise that as Filipinos rise to the top of the world’s current love affair with street dance that our parents start to feel a little hot under the collar.

For every young Filipino that wants to pursue a career in dance, that’s one less Filipino doctor in the world, even worse, one less Filipino doctor in the immediate family.  ACK!  SoReal Cru member Ailyn Isidro talks about this almost every week in the produced segments of the show.

“I wish my parents supported me” “What will my parents think if I dance suggestively” Oh no Oh no Oh no!  Every week!  

That girl on the Pussycat Dolls show said the exact same thing all the time.  She even cried about it.

Now that there are more young flips ascending to higher heights and actually being on TV talking about it, I wonder how Filipino parents feel?  Will they see the light and support their kids?  My guess is that they’ll react with the very old-school Filipino trait of losing face because their kid talked about their family issues on national television.  Walang hiya!

How about you?  Have you ever experienced this sort of conflict with your parents?  Did they always support you with what you wanted to pursue in life?  What’s your story?  Do they support you now?

Following up on some earlier posts of mine “Should Canada Deport Juana Tejada?” and “Dying Caregiver Gets Some Good News,” her lawyer announced this morning that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has given in to public pressure and allowed her and her husband the right to apply for landed immigrant status.

Juana had completed all the requirements to the live-in caregiver program only to discover during her original application for status that she had terminal cancer. This discovery let the government to reject her application due to the financial burden it would place on the healthcare system.

Her lawyer received a letter (yes a letter, not a call of apology) from the CIC yesterday and the public announcement occured during a press conference this morning.

“My husband and I are very grateful to Canada. It was been our wish to have an opportunity to start a better future here. This decision has a big impact on my health, in a positive way. It makes me more powerful in fighting the illness I have,” said Tejada.

by alex

I like to look at archival photos every once in awhile. There’s something about seeing images from the past that grips me. The long dead faces, and old–almost foreign–landscapes tell stories.

I was interested in this photo from 1909 instantly, two Filipino indigenous men, captives of colonized Filipino soldiers working for the Americans. One of the bound men had a look that seemed to me fearful, while the other seemed proud and defiant. The caption under the photo only told me that they were the killers of Dr. William Jones.

Who was this Dr. Jones? What was he a doctor of? What was he doing in the Phils and, presumably indigenous territory? And, of course, why was he killed?

I found more photos:

Note that they are already in chains. I presume they are posed by one of their homes. The caption under the photo read “Igorot warriors responsible for taking Dr. William Jones’ head.”

[*these sepia images courtesy of the University of Wisconsin]

The guy to the right (with the shorter hair) really draws me in. He looks so proud and strong–despite the injuries he seems to have sustained to his arm and ankle.

If you’ll endulge me, I discovered an interesting story when I followed the trail left by these photos.

I googled Jones and found a description of him on the Minnesota State University site (http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/jones_william.html).

Apparently he was the first Native American to get a PhD in anthropology in the States. Jones was an Oklahoman Fox native. Pretty amazing, I thought.

“Jones was said to be a student of the Indian and Filipino races, and a friend to all indigenous peoples despite the conditions surrounding his premature death.”

According to this site he died because of “a dispute over transportation… Jones was [apparently promised a number of boats], but despite his efforts, the balsas came in late and in insufficient numbers, which wore his patients thin. An angry Jones yelled and screamed at the Ilongots for not going through with their agreement. One day William exploded with rage and he did the unthinkable. He grabbed the arm of Takadan, the respected elder, and threatened to detain him until the promised balsas arrived. Soon after he was visited by 3 native men, Palidat, Magueng, and Gacad who approached him in a friendly matter about the balsas. Without warning Palidat struck Jones over his left eye with a bolo, Magueng pierced his right arm with a spear, and Gacad speared him in the abdomen. Romano, Jones’ assistant, fended off one of Palidat’s bolo blows, and Jones pulled out his revolver and fired some shots, scaring off the assassins. Jones was thankful and as a token of his appreciation he gave Romano his wristwatch and gave instructions for the preservation of his notes and specimens. Jones took medicine for his wounds and he even bandaged the hand of Romano. Despite the effort, he died four hours later.”

WTF?!?

First of all that’s really shitty writing. Minnesota State University. Wow.

Something about that article didn’t ring true to me. Why would a “friend” to indigenous people be killed over a transport dispute? The tone of the piece is also insanely one sided and makes Jones seem like a saint. But despite the problems, the little info really started to help flesh out those individuals in the photos.

So I googled some more and found: http://www.okara.com/html/headhunting.html

“Born of mixed parentage, ‘more white than Indian’ as Jones was heard to say while a student at Hampton University.” With a good bit of self hate he earned his PhD. Soon afterward however he discovered that “more White than Indian” still made one an ‘Indian’ in American society. He failed to find work in his field in the US and was forced to work in the Philippines.

The following is a journal entry written about Dr. Jones about the Filipino natives he studied,

“Since the foul weather set in (October 10, 1908), this house has
been a general gathering place for the greater part of Tamsi.
The people come out of their shelters and lounge about in here
until after the morning meal. When their bellies are filled they
depart. Their aspect is most repelling. Hands, faces, and their
bodies are smeared with blotches of various kinds of dirt; and
their stiff hair is disheveled. As they sit and scratch their lousy
(a reference to lice) selves they seem more like beasts than
human beings. (Jones 1908, VII: 52 )”

This page concludes that,

“In terms of biography, while William Jones’s stellar success in educational achievement was touted as an affirmation of the U.S.’s Federal Indian educational policy, his failure to distinguish between his highly judgmental moral views of his Ilongot hosts and that of purely scientific observation as an ethnologist reveal character flaws in the scientist that eventually cost him his life.”

An interesting character this Dr. Jones eh? A Native that made good, but was still rejected, so he in turn goes and becomes a coloniser in mind and action in another land. All this results in his death from other natives who just couldn’t tolerate his disrespect of their culture.

It says alot about what self-hate, and denial of cultural realities, can do to a man.

* * *

Now what became of the captured men you might be asking? Well… they escaped. The Americans, of course, hunted after them.

“It was the uneasiness of the colonial administration about Jones’ death that goes to the heart of American-tribal relations. It came down to an uneasy equation of how to balance the apparent insult to American national pride in the slaying of Jones against American policy objectives of retaining the loyalty of Non-Christian groups. News of Jones’s death was widely reported in the American press and consequently resulted in a swift retribution by the Constabulary. In a reign of terror characterized by pillaging and burning numerous Ilongot villages and their granaries, the Constabulary not only reinforced its pacification agenda (which included the cessation of headhunting) but also forced the eventual recapture of the escaped Jones’ assailants by pitting one village against another.”

As far as the story reads they were originally sentenced to death, only to be commuted to a lifetime of hard labour because their being “savages” did not give them enough moral competency to judge right from wrong.

* * * * *

For more archieval images during the American colonial period, check out my earlier blog entry: Post Independence Day.

* * * * *

Interested in learning more Philippine history?

Kapisanan will be starting up a series of Critical History Workshops (with a curriculum by Erik Tigalee) soon. Send us an email for more info: info@kapisanancentre.com and/or join our facebook group for updates on KPC events and workshops: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2337642503

by alex

The show has ended, and it’s kinda sad to not have to come in 6x a week for warm-up, dance practice, line runs, equipment check, and put on a performance—(?!)

Looks like we did good though folks, check out NOW magazine’s Fringe Wrap-up: The Baggage cast is named one of the Outstanding Ensembles!

This is the first set of pics from that last afternoon show Sunday 13 July showing warm ups and run throughs. Part. 2 is coming soon…

The following clip is from a recent doc called ‘Meeting David Wilson’ where a young black American traces his families roots and goes to meet the decendants of the slaveowners that enslaved his family. One of the repeating lines in the clip is the question “What’s wrong with black people?”

As a Filipino maybe you can relate to this. I know that I’ve muttered ‘what’s wrong with Filipinos?’ to myself.

Myk Miranda is leading a discussion with youth Thursday night (17 July), 6pm, at the centre to talk about our own cultural issues. If you’re interested in coming out (it’s free) or are curious about the event send us an email: info@kapisanancentre.com

Myk writes in the invite:

This is just a reminder that we’re holding our important roundtable discussion TOMORROW at 6pm at KPC.

Its gonna be the first time we’re doing this and we really hope to see you there. Its gonna be a really informal dialogue where we hope to simply and openly discuss issues that have to do with us. That includes any and everything involving being a Filipino in Toronto, and everyone can relate to that.

What are some the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a Filipino-Canadian living in Canada? (i.e. racism, poverty, under-representation, immigration, self-identity, health and human rights, security, etc).

Don’t worry, we don’t expect everyone to be super vocal, opinionated and/or to know-it-all, we just want your 2 cents.

by alex

I was reminded of the Jesus selling cigs pic at kpc while talking with some of our volunteers last week so I thought I’d upload it here with other religion inspired images. Religion is everywhere in the Phils, here are a few from my travels…

***UPDATED with new pics on 15 July***

We’ve had a really amazing run with audiences and critics alike enjoying our show. Thank you all for your support and thank you especially to those of you who were able to come out to see the show!

CLICK HERE to see the original set of backstage images.

Christine.

Reese and Liz.

———–

BAGGAGE

www.baggagetheplay.com

Tickets $10.00
www.fringetoronto.com | 416-966-1062 | or at 1:30pm at the door

KAPISANAN PHILIPPINE CENTRE FOR ARTS + CULTURE
167 Augusta Avenue (north of Dundas, west of Spadina)

Jessica.

Bea and Reese.

Andrea and Vince.

Andrea, Vince, Christine, and Darrel.

Andrea, Vince, and Darrel.

Christine’s foot on Darrel.

Reese and Liz.

Aura, Karyl, and Bea.

The company being led by Rose in warm-ups.

Detailing Day 9 of his Fringe Journey. Good things to say about Baggage. Also reminding us just how hot in can get at the K.

http://nowtoronto.com/blog/index.cfm?thisMonth=7&thisYear=2008&thisDay=10

That was so nice, I think he should be an honorary Tito.

Don’t forget to check out Baggage! 4 more shows to go!

by alex

Here are some images from backstage at “Baggage,” our Fringe Festival play running at the KPC until Sunday!!! For more info check us out on Facebook or the Pulang Maleta website!

Every show we’ve gotten more and more people to see this great ensemble cast perform pieces by five Filipino playwrights. Last night we filled every seat plus some–and had to turn people away at the door!

We’ve gotten some great reviews from Eye (4/5 stars!), NOW (3N’s!), and made Derrick Chua’s top 5 festival picks. Our run ends on Sunday 13 July, come check it out !!!

It was hella hot.

The house was packed like an MRT at rush hour.

And it was awesome!

Check out Jon Kaplan’s review of Baggage in Now magazine.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/fringe/play_details.cfm?play_id=1398

Thank you to the Fringe Audience! Congratulations to the Cast and Crew of Baggage! Mabuhay Filipino-Canadian Theatre, Playwrights, Actors, Artists and Arts-Enablers!

If you haven’t seen Baggage yet, you’re SOOOOOO missing out. Big Big Love to everyone who’s come out! And to those who haven’t yet… well, just come and watch. There’s not box set launch date yet.