A Hinterland of Islands (now edited for clarity)

The word hinterland has two definitions. The first: "the remote areas of a country away from the coast or the banks of major rivers / the area around or beyond a major town or port." The second definition is: "an area lying beyond what is visible or known". 

I'm traveling, in a way, to both, but it is the second hinterland that I am interested in. 

Next year in February of 2020, Dan and I will be meeting my mom in Manila, where she will have already been for a week prior to our arrival for a reunion, and from there we will be making rounds to visit my family. My family is spread out across the world but much of my family, aunts and uncles, cousins, still live in the Philippines in various areas, and I'm looking forward to visiting all of them. After this whirlwind of visitations - I've done this four times in my life already and there's no other way to describe it - my cousin Nadine, my cousin Mariz, Dan, me, and my mom will be taking a little plane over the Pacific to fly outside of the mainland to a cluster of four remote islands where an eco-friendly resort has been built. I chose the place, after looking various other attractions in the Philippines, and this place seems to be the closest to a hinterland that is feasible for a trip of this sort. That is to say, I think it's one of the most affordable and remote resorts in PI. We won't have much time there, a little more than a few days. And this visit, I think, may very well be the last of its kind for me, so I chose somewhere I thought plaintive, serene, and blissful too. 

My cousin Nadine wanted to check out the place before our trip (she's the kind of person that would do this, to make sure everything is safe in every conceivable manner and aspect). She went to visit this past week and has been posting pictures on Instagram. I've seen the resorts' social media pages and their marketing team tends to avoid pictures like the ones Nadine took. Hers capture the beautiful of the islands dressed in a sparkling grey (contrary to advertisements that show huge splashes of color). Both sides: the grey whiteness as well as those sharp blues and greens, are needed to really appreciate these islands. 

Islands, as we know from literature, can sometimes be ominous, places that hold a violent potential; a brutality, not just a pretty escape from the urban market (I'm thinking specifically now of Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies). This ominousness, however, need not be malevolent. It merely should be addressed...

I wanted to share these photos with you, and I wanted you to know that though our pilot will be scoping out this place from above, s/he does so only so that we can enter the landscape on the ground, onto the sands and through the rough rocks, the tangles of green... to peer out and into figures that have yet to be defined and named. 

- F

On Language and Other Concepts

I've started on the research into my Philippine heritage and ancestry, and it proves to be just as hard as any subject matter delved into seriously and with sensitivity. It has always been hard; as an undergraduate I wrote my thesis paper on a subject matter very close to this but with a completely different approach (my thesis paper was titled: On Emergent Technosubjectivities: Fragmented Identities in the Era of Globalization. It was a very abstract paper, and as I enter into a more structured study into this part of my life, this subject matter of nationhood and cultural identity, it is proving to require the same amount of research and thought as an academic essay, and I've realized that something like this has to be handled as more than a simple hobby. 

This morning, I attempted to post something for social media regarding the nature of language in the Philippines. After posting, I asked my aunt and my mother (both Filipinos, now Filipino-Americans as they have earned their citizenship here in the United States) what they thought of it. While my aunt thought my commentary was "very good" (which it might have well been!), my mom was more concerned about how I approach writing about this topic, with an emphasis on doing the necessary reading of scholarly literature before sounding off my own educated guesses on the matter. 

The post, which has since been deleted, included this photo, which I found unsourced on Pinterest (usually a place to get into trouble with anything that requires sufficient context):

Such a beautiful sounding word. I wanted to share it with everyone as a way to share this Filipino word with the world, so it could go on it's way to become something like "Mahalo!" (Hawaiian) or "Gutentag!" (German), or "Arigato" (Japanese), or "Bon Apetit" (French), or "Bellisimo!" (Italian), or "Tak" (Polish)... you get the picture. The famous one I do know from the Philippines is "Ma Buhay!" - but I'll write more about that later. 

What I got right: kalinaw is a word from one of the many dialects in the Philippines. It is a word that originated on the island of Cebu (there are 7,107 islands in the Philippines, FYI). The word is thus part of the Cebuano dialect, and indeed does mean serenity and tranquility, and is also, correctly a noun. 

When a word like this is simply put on a Pinterest board as one of the most beautiful words spoken in the Philippines, I am concerned about the lack of complexity given in its caption, particularly the need to provide the proper context. 

Cebuano is not the official language in the Philippines. The Philippines has two official languages: Filipino (commonly referred to as Tagalog) as well as English, which is what the Filipino government uses, mostly. In Tagalog, the word kalinaw is also used, but the meaning of it is almost completely changed. Usually, when someone uses the word kalinaw in Tagalog, it is used to say something like: clear, concise, precise, understandable. It is used more to say something like: that person spoke very clear to me. Or, what that person said was crystal clear; erudite, even. Direct. Whereas in Cebuano, kalinaw's meaning more about a state of being, of a place, or person. Though describing this to you in English might seem like this word is an adjective, in both Cebuano and Tagalog, it is a noun. 

My aunt was the one who informed me that kalinaw is *not* a Tagalog word, but a Cebuano word. My mom was the one who told me that kalinaw, though not normally associated with Tagalog, is still used in Tagalog speech. I'll need further research to say anything more.

Another concern my mother had was my use of the term The Philippine Islands. I love using that term for a few reasons. One, to denote that the country is a group of thousands of islands. Two, I think it sounds official. Three, I'm not too comfortable with the idea that the Philippines is actually only named the Philippines because of the old King of Spain: King Philip II. Actually Las Islas Filipinas (Spanish) was it's given Spanish name which almost exactly translates as The Philippine Islands... which I like.

However.

On the phone this morning, my mom said, "Felicia, no one uses the term The Philippine Islands anymore. Only the colonizers liked to use that term. The Philippines gained their independence already, and since then everyone just says the Philippines." OK. So I didn't know! But fair enough. I learn something new everyday (yes, even from you, Mom). I'm not sure what the reason is for this, but it seems to be some sign of unity. Just the Philippines. All together. As a whole. According to Wikipedia (I know, I'm only in the very initial stages of reading about all this), the official title is actually The Republic Of The Philippines which signifies - even more -  that the  nation is a whole comprised of multiple parts. 

Another question my mom asked was: "Why are you so interested in all of this?" As in, opposed to other concepts?

For me, culture can be pared down to these basic components  (I think this might be similar philosophy to Anthropology or Sociology): art, orally transmitted stories/folklore, traditional rituals, clothing, food, and language (basic communication). 

History and written literature come later - at least in my study of it. What I'm finding out at this point is there is common universality in the idea of an indigenous culture native to the Philippines. Who claims this as their own? And who claims the idea of the colonizer as part of Filipino identity? And is there any way to peacefully merge these two forms together as a way to develop Filipino heritage and culture? Are they already merged? Are they split? And thus I delve into the terrifying abyss of politics. 

- F 

Three Projects Of Differing Natures

There are three ideas which I have been concerning myself with because I feel a strong necessity to either write about them, in essay form, or manifest them cohesively in some other way, creatively or artistically. Where this feeling comes from, or for what desire or outcome, I know not. At least not yet. 

The first concerns mental illness; my own. I would like to write an essay about my own experience/s with mental illness, and how it developed over time. However, time and time again I've attempted to prepare my mind for the endeavor of writing about it, but I am realizing that I'd like to do some real research. Get statistics. History. Other opinions from people who have this mental illness. Needless to say, I feel that my writing would benefit. The subject - the illness - I am coping with is a form of psychosis designated as schizo-affective depressive type. I have a few books to start with at home, and as I'm reading those I'm going to take notes, and at any spark of an idea to tie my essay together I will have pen and paper at hand. I will also include thoughts and notes on a recent all-day course I took via my job at the library. This course was sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and I received my certificate in Mental Health First Aid, which I think should be a required course every three years, much like CPR courses.

The second idea that has been floating about is my concern for my ancestry and culture. That would be the Philippine Islands; i.e. the Philippines, and the state of Puerto Rico. Because I feel "closer" to the previous, I intend to look into what literature is available from contemporary Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if not one reading this knew that this month, October, is Filipino-American Heritage Month. How many Filipino-Americans write fiction each year? What is available? What are they writing about? As for biographies and memoirs, who is writing those? What is it about? What is the emotional geography of this immigrant group - my own - and how does it differ and compare to other immigrant groups today? What are its politics and sensitivities? Why I am so interested in this is because I am concerned about the lack of proper, or at least, understandable heritage here. It is not clear because these are lands with heavily colonized histories. What does the ethnic and cultural heritage look like - and how does this fit in to the United States and furthermore, the global world - today? What can be brought to the table in a way that isn't terribly politicized? 

The third idea is fairy-tales and folklore. I'm just going to dive in, swim in it, and see what comes up. 

I'll keep you posted.

Sincerely,

F