PHILIPPINE Daily Inquirer entertainment columnist Ruben Nepales is now
also blogging for INQUIRER.net, with the launch of The Nepales Report.
Nepales, who is our man in Hollywood, offers interesting glimpses into the life
of Filipinos in the US, as these entries on "award-itis" and "closet Filipinos" show.
Here's what Nepales wrote in his "award-itis" entry:
We are guilty of these maladies, âbeauty pageant-it isâ and âaward- itis.â On virtually any weekend, a Filipino community somewhere in America is h onoring, for example, the most outstanding Filipino-American water filter sales man of the year or Mr. Door-to-Door Cargo. I have attended an event where folks gave each other awards. These people basic ally took turns standing up and presenting each other with a plaque until every one had one. I did not know whether to laugh or to cry about the absurdity of t he situation.And here's an excerpt from his post on closet Filipinos:
In my years of wandering as a promdi in Hollywood, I have come across some folks who hide their Filipino heritage. These personalities sa y that theyâre a mixture of Spanish (or to be more vague, âEuropeanâ), Chinese and Malay, the standard racial make-up of most Filipinos. Some even claim that they are of Polynesian heritage. Basta anything but Filipino. Why do these Filipinos or hyphenated Filipinos conceal their Pinoy identity? Mo st are performers â actors, actresses and singers â who want to appeal to as br oad a market or audience as possible. Or they like to be ambiguous in their rac e identity so they will not be pigeonholed into Filipino or Asian roles only.
Haha...Witnessed such a case of award-itis too. Everyone who joined was given a
n award so that they wouldn't feel bad. I think the one who received the grand
award must have felt bad when he realized his award wasn't so special after all
.
I think it's nice to receive awards especially when they're prestigious ones. B
ut at the end of the day, they're just pieces of wood/metal/glass. Just titles
that proved you were good once before.
Someone once told me you're only as good as your last work, so whether you're u
p for an award or not, you have to give 101% of yourself every time.
One needs not go as far as the US to witness this embarrassing tendency by Fili
pinos to glorify themselves in public, whether b(u)y awarding themselves or by
hugging the limelight when organizing events that are meant to honor others. I
was once invited to an ASEAN evening organized by one of the larger Pinoy assoc
iations (there's plenty in Thailand each one trying to outdo - or outPinoy - ea
ch other) to honor ASEAN countries, and to showcase each country's culture. The
cover of the souvenir programme featured the 10 ASEAN ambassadors (to Thailand
) and, horror of horrors, the lady President of the said association (photoshop
did a wonderful cut and paste job). As if not enough, photos of that lady asso
ciation president also graced the inside cover, and the next pages showing her
in different Imeldific costumes shaking hands of every ambassador! I would pers
onally have preferred to see the Philippines' numerous beautiful sceneries whic
h might have enticed our ASEAN neighbors to visit our country.
Guests were then treated to an ASEAN fashion show: while other countries provid
ed four to eight models, the Philippines, coming out last (for effect, what els
e?) featured around 50 models - obviously chosen depending on the "contribution
" to make that evening a resounding success. The bridal gown was modeled by the
wife of a Filipino expat, who was old enough to be celebrating her 25th weddin
g anniversary. The endless programme also featured a "rigodon de honor" which I
thought was to celebrate the coming of age of young demoiselles, but which was
performed by attention-hungry 40 year-old ladies with their young escorts...
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