Are We Losing Our Culture?

Cultural Presentation #1
Presentation Date: Friday, January 30th, 2009
Inspired by: R. Pascual & A. Delosreyes
And thanks to the opinions of: A. Cruz, E. Bungay, Erika & brother, Cyp. Villaflores, J. Valdez, B. Fig

OPENING SKIT
Actors: Jeff Gacutan, Allen Acenas, Erika Kelsey

Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a kid who wanted to learn about his Filipino culture [Allen walks in and looks around curiously] when suddenly, someone came to burst their bubble.

Jeff: What are you doing here? [Intimidating]

Allen: I came to learn more about the Philippines, sir.

Jeff: What? Forget the Philippines, what do you expect to learn about it?

Allen: Um… my culture. I always wanted to learn about where I came from. I heard that if you learn your roots, you can grow new fruits [holds up a tangerine]

Jeff: Forget that [slaps the orange out of the hand]! Our culture is diminishing. Haven’t you noticed, you might as well call the Philippines a mini me of America.

[Allen fetches the tangerine]

Erika: Hey why are you yelling, he just wants to learn. Anyway I differ. There’s still so much left of our culture. In fact, I don’t believe any of it has gone away.

[Allen stands next to Erika and listens while cleaning their tangerine]

Jeff: What, are you blind? Everyone is going America. The Philippines has joined the bandwagon. And because of this the Filipino culture is dying. Even if the culture is there, it’s not like any one wants to preserve it.

Erika: That’s not true! I know plenty of people trying to preserve the Filipino culture.

[Allen is trying to figure out how to open their tangerine]

Jeff: Yeah? Name one.

Erika: Me! And him [grabs Allen]

[Allen in shock drops the tangerine. Everyone looks at the tangerine and then Jeff continues]

Jeff: [laughs] you’re wasting your time. People don’t join the bandwagon for nothing. You’ll see, the more you learn, the more you’ll realize that people don’t care – especially Filipinos. [Walks away]

Erika: [annoyed] Geez, what’s his deal?

Allen: [picks up the tangerine] Tangerine?

END SKIT

PRESENTATION

Filipino Americans.

How to define us? Some of us are white washed. Some of us are family oriented, others rebellious. Our native tongue? “Oh! I can understand it, but I can’t speak it…” Yeah, we go to church… sometimes. But even then it’s not like we pay attention. One big thing I noticed is that we tend know more pop culture than even our own culture.

Cultural coordinators in the past have attempted to teach you the culture through presentations in hopes you’d care. But even if you cared what do we have to look forward to?

I’ve been told that college is the time I learn about who I am, not just as a person, but as a Filipina. But I am discouraged.

When I visited Manila, Philippines over the summer, I felt like I was in the metropolitan areas of America. Wherever I went, practically everything was written in English. Whitening soap, like Papaya or Silka is sold everywhere. Now I’m home in America, watching TFC shows and the majority of them I can guess which American show they copied.

Pinoy Fear Factor is of course - Fear Factor
Pinoy Big Brother is of course - Big Brother
You Can Dance! is of course - So you think you can dance?
Star In A Million is of course - American Idol

I feel like the only original thing on there are game shows like Wowowee.

Was he right? Is the Philippines becoming more westernized? Is our culture fading?

A good friend of mine even told me that knowing our Filipino culture isn’t so important. That eventually, all the cultures will mesh together to become one big culture. So what’s the point?

Speaking of meshing together, wouldn’t you agree that there are more interracial dating than ever now? Are you dating someone that’s not the same ethnicity? Are you more than just one ethnicity? You gotta admit, the mixed ones are beautiful.

Even if our culture is still around, I feel like less and less people have intentions of preserving it. Many Filipino Americans don’t know about their culture but are doing just fine. So with more than half of us uninterested and Filipino natives becoming more westernized, I just have to ask…

“Are we losing our Filipino culture?”

Keep that question in mind and you will get your answers in future presentations.

Brace yourselves for a whole new set of topics, a whole new set of presentations and hopefully... a whole new feeling of enlightenment. These presentations will arouse your curiosity, question our motives as presenters, but most of all urge you all to learn more about your identity. However you may react, you won't truly know until you yourself have decided to embark on this whole new adventure of rediscovering our roots in hopes of building a more enriched future.

Be attentive, be open-minded and together we may come to a whole new understanding of ourselves that we many value for the rest of our lives.

Thank you very much.