DEVELOPING

FILIPINO IDENTITY

Claire Antoinette A. Magalona

 Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students
should be able to:

1. Identify the historical background about

the Filipino as a people.
2. Describe the different races that the
present day Filipino came from.
3. Recognize the different factors that
influenced the Filipino identity.
 Rooting myself: An artist’s
personal inventory
1. Who am I?
2. What is the Philippines to me?
3. What is my relationship to my community/ country?
4. What are the art forms in my community?
5. As an artist, what can I contribute to my
community/country?
 IDENTITY
Erik Erikson defined identity … as a
persistent sameness with oneself and
a persistent sharing of some kind of
essential character with others.
THE FILIPINO IDENTITY
THE FILIPINO IDENTITY
THE FILIPINO IDENTITY
Filipino Malays
Maharlika
Hispanic Filipino
 FILIPINO SPANISH BLOOD

FILIPINO SPANISH NAMES

 PURE FILIPINO

FILIPINO
ONE’S SELF
Create an Essay of what you want
to be in the next 10 years and
how does that dream helps our
community or country.
 Personhood,
the Community
and the Arts
Pangarap Kong Maging
Rodelio “Toti” Cerda
What do we want to be?
What do we want for our
country and community?
FR. ALBERT E. ALEJO
Filipino Jesuit Priest theorizes on interiority
or loob as a way to engage with issues
on Filipino identity. His research Tao po!
Tuloy! Isang Landas ng Pag-unawa sa
Loob ng Tao is an attempt to seek
answers to questions on personhood. For
Alejo, the loob subsumes all properties of
consciousness such as thinking and
feeling.
FR. LEONARDO N. MERCADO
Wrote a philosophical text that explains social
interactions based on Filipino worldviews
(1994). In The Filipino Mind (Mercado, 1994),
his analysis of identity and commonalities
among Filipinos is based on phrases used in
everyday interactions. An example is the
aesthetic notion of beauty, elucidated through
the usage of the word "ganda." Mercado's
essay proposes that identity is inseparable
from the arts.
JAIME VENERACION
Filipino identity is not necessarily lost or non-
existent. There is no need to suffer an identity crisis.
Historian Jaime Veneracion asserts that even
before the arrival of Spanish colonizers vis-à-vis
the Christianization of several archipelagic
inhabitants, links between interior and coastal
communities were already established (1997). For
Veneracion, the formation of the sambayanan
(not necessarily equivalent to a nation-state) is a
long historical process.
FLORO C. QUIBUYEN
For the hero Jose Rizal, there is a need for a kind of ethics that
transcends the imperatives of the state. For Rizal scholar Floro
C. Quibuyen, Rizal envisions a nation constituted by a
proactive civil society, not one burdened by the monstrosity of
a nation-state that dominates people at the expense of the
underserved (1999). The desired civil society is one guided by
the moral and intellectual leadership of the enlightened
sector. For Quibuyen, the idea of an internationally educated,
Hispanic Rizal that desired assimilation was only something
manufactured under the American colonial project. However,
it must be noted that based on the exchanges between
Marcelo del Pilar and Rizal, the latter desired not assimilation
but total independence.
 "Culture is not only beneficial to
cities; in a deeper sense, it’s what
cities are for. A city without poets,
painters and photographers is
sterile."
-Rebecca Solnit
 PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

Arts-based Placemaking is an
integrative approach to urban
planning and community building that
stimulates local economies and leads
to increased innovation, cultural
diversity, and civic engagement.
 PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

A place-based approach to art engages

the viewer’s affective dimension. The
possibilities include the activation of public
spaces as places of interaction, revitalized
museum attendance and patronage, and a
renewed advocacy for natural and built
heritage.
 PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

Some examples include

installation art in parks, and open
spaces, artistic projects in heritage
sites, and a range of exhibitions in
museums and galleries.
 PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

A Napoleon Abueva masterpiece outside the Commission on Audit in Quezon City. Photo by JOHN PAUL OLIVARES
 PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

“Homage to Noguchi” by Arturo Luz at the Ayala Center in Makati City. Photo by JOHN PAUL OLIVARES
EXAMPLE OF PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS

Ilocos is home to
artists who continue
to imbibe the pulse
of their locale in their
art practice.
 FIDEL GO
Fidel Go of Vigan, Ilocos Sur continues the
tradition of burnayan.
Its name, Pagburnayan,
comes from the root word
burnay. It refers to the
hand-crafted earthenware
pots made from Vigan.
Bantog clays, these are
called. They’re dug from
the western barangays of
the city.
 FIDEL GO
In 1998, he was one of the 100 Filipino artist given
the Centennial Award, a once-in-a-lifetime
recognition for local arists. The National
Commission for Culture and Arts declared him as a
National Folk Artist.

Go’s Ruby Pottery is one of the two pottery

factories producing burnay in Pagburnayan, Vigan
City. His works find themselves displayed in several
of the country’s plush hotels reaching as far as
Palawan and Davao in the south.
PRUDENCIO LAMARROZA
Prudencio Lamarroza is an Ilocano who painted the
Amburayan Queen in multiple renditions. In 1975, a 35-
year old Filipino artist, presented a solo exhibition
already his sixth - of his latest works bearing the
unfamiliar title "Amburayan." To most viewers, the term
was a cipher, a puzzle, a mystery. What intrigued the
art audience, and the media was the very title of the
show. "Amburayan" had an exotic ring, the sound of
syllables foreign at least to a Manila audience, a
strangeness, thus alien to Tagalog ears.
ESTEBAN VILLARUZ
Esteban Villaruz created the Basi Revolt Series in 1821
during the Spanish colonial period (Flores, 1998). It is
one of the earliest Southeast Asian paintings that
structure history in fourteen panels. Basi, apart from
being known as a native wine from sugarcane, was
more than just a drink regulated by the Spanish
colonial government. It was part of a ritual, social
gatherings, and everyday life. A resistance was stirred
in Ilocos Norte in 1807 that culminated in the execution
of the rebels.
ROBERTO FELEO
Roberto Feleo created a massive tableau of
contemporary sculptures that interpreted the
Basi Revolt called "Tao-taong Aklasang Basi-Ang
Hanay ng Ñ." It was created out of sawdust and
eggshell mix over paper on aluminum
expander, painted with acrylic, and glazed with
lacquer. The forms are surreal and auspicious,
retaining the mood and feel of the Villaruz
painting.
ROBERTO FELEO
The life-size sculptures that are part of Feleo’s
“Tao-Taong Aklasang Basi-Ang Hanay ng Ñ” are
lined up like cosmic soldiers near the gate,
within the ranks are sculptures of crocs and
plants with fangs. It took Bob seven months to
finish each figure.
EXAMPLE OF PLACE-BASED ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS
Baguio City's artistic
culture ranges from
crafts and folk art
expressions to
woodcarving, silver
craft, weaving and
tattooing.
SANTIAGO BOSE
Santiago Bose (July 25, 1949 –
December 3, 2002, Baguio City,
Philippines) was a mixed-media
artist from the Philippines. Bose co-
founded the Baguio Arts Guild, and
was also an educator, community
organiser and art theorist.
SANTIAGO BOSE
Bose often used indigenous media in his
work, ranging from bamboo and volcanic
ash, to the cast-offs and debris (found
objects, bottles, "trash"). His assemblages
communicated a strong sense of folk
consciousness and religiosity, and the
strength of traditional cultures in a culture
drowned with foreign cultural influences.
KAWAYAN DE GUIA
Kawayan de Guia is a Baguio City-based
artist and curator whose practice spans
painting, installation and sculpture. His
artworks use indigenous and colonial
artifacts, playfully transforming them into
extravagant and often ironic critiques of
consumerism, global trade and the impact
of the American occupation of the
Philippines.
KAWAYAN DE GUIA

De Guia draws upon a wide

array of Pinoy material culture
including Jeepneys, Dangwa
buses, jukeboxes, torpedoes
and Ifugao rice gods.
Ramon Orlina
Ramon Orlina is a licensed Architect, having
graduated with a Bachelor of Science in
Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas
College of Architecture & Fine Arts in 1965. He
worked for C.D. Arguelles and Associates for
four years and after that he formed Ramon
Orlina and Associates doing architectural works
and administration of projects. He is also a
Member of the College of Fellows of the
Philippine Institute of Architects.
Ramon Orlina
Orlina’s name is synonymous with glass
sculpture in the Philippines and to his credit, he
successfully opened in December 2013 a
private art museum that includes a sculpture
garden/amphitheater called Museo Orlina in
Tagaytay City, Cavite. Now five years on, the
museum has expanded to double its size with
larger gallery spaces and a space for a
museum cafe.
BENEDICTO CABRERA
Benedicto Cabrera, better known as
BenCab, is a figurative painter from
the Philippines. He is recognized as a
pioneer of Philippine art. BenCab's
paintings often depict figures wrapped
in flowing fabrics in muted tones and
earthy color palettes.
Crisis in Humanity SABEL Portrait of Caroline
A. B. C.
A. B. C.
A. B. C.
A. B. C.