History and Politics
A culture of avoidance
From: Alfredo Roces <alfredo.roces@gmail.com>
Sent: Tue, June 21, 2011 4:28:04 AM
Subject: Fwd: Sagot ng Pinoy
SAGOT NG PINOY
Ang Pinoy hindi tumama-tama ang sagot kahit maayos ang tanong… đ
Q: Kumain ka na ba?
A: Busog pa ako.
Q: Saan kayo galing?
A: Lumabas lang kami sandali.
Q: Paano mo ginawa ‘yan?
A: Madali lang.
Q: Bakit wala ka kahapon?
A: Absent ako.
Q: Anong oras na?
A: […]
Re-editing the teaching of Philippine History and Society
After teaching this course since 2007 in various colleges and more recently in 2013 at City College SF, the instructional administrator requested that courses taught after six years are mandated to be revised otherwise, they will be delisted from the catalog. I believe this to be a requirement by some arcane school district statute. Nevertheless […]
Luna’s Railroad
El Ferrocaril Manila a Dagupan
Watching the movie Heneral Luna, in the film of the same title, recalled my labors at the Philippine National Railroad archives in Tutuban, Manila. Before it became a shopping mall, the old station in the 70âs was still the train depot for the North (Dagupan) and South (Bikol) lines. Sectioned off […]
What’s In A Name? P.I. (Philippine Islands.) is Politically Incorrect
I teach Phillippine history in a American community college and I flinch everytime a bright-eyed student would refer about his/her or recent trip to P.I. with their parents. Â P.I., of course means Philippine Islands and to most Filipinos familiar with U.S. colonialism of the Philippines, it is a politically incorrect term. That much I learned […]
Influential books, Part I
 There are a few books about the Philippine colonial experienc that I consider influential in changing how I view Filipino history for that period. For a historian, these books are a milestone because they cause a shift in one’s thinking, if not a paradigm shift at how a history is to be interpreted. Of course […]
Memorial Day forgetting
Celebrations of US military exploits and valor cover the whole gamut of soldiering and foreign policy. WWI , WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq/Aghan War, and the memorials that celebrate and remember them, mute testimonies of warrior sacrifice that speak moral imperatives, of America saving the world from evil.
In 1899, the US went to war […]
Why Obama was re-elected…
Granted that the Democrat campaign strategy was more sophisticated and targeted even though underfunded compared the Romney super PAC financing, Obama’s victory goes beyond the mechanics and business of presidential campaigns into the politics of representation.  Obama won because he and his campaign supporters  consistently projected fundamental American and humanist values: compassion and support for […]
Review: Amigo (Starring: Garret Dillahunt, Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Dane DeHaan Directed by: John Sayles, Written by: John Sayles)
Much hype accompanied this movie release, after all it was a John Sayles film, known for titles such as Matewan, Lone Star and some 17 films he wrote and directed, a few of them, politically aware themes. Amigo would best fall under the latter category. He also recently published A Moment in the Sun (2011), a novel about […]
Waiting for Rizal (on his 150th birthday)
On June 19, Filipinos around the world will celebrate the 150th birthday of Jose Rizal, the martyred hero from the town of Calamba, Laguna who was executed by the Spanish authorities in colonial Manila, the eastern capital of the Spanish empire from 1565-1899. Accused of fomenting a revolution that his contemporaries Andres Bonifacio […]
Stuff you’d like to know but were afraid to ask…
Under the ebullient and easy cultural jokes of Kevin Nadal, a sad and grim story about the Filipino American psyche emerges. Dr. Nadal, an Assistant Professor of psychology at City University of New York College of Criminal Justice, grew up and went to school in the East Bay. He is therefore familiar and accustomed to […]
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