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, “beauty pageant-it is” and “award-itis.” On virtually any weekend, a Filipino community somewhere in America is honoring, for example, the most outstanding Filipino-American water filter salesman of the year or Mr. Door-to-Door Cargo.
I have attended an event where folks gave each other awards. These people basically took turns standing up and presenting each other with a plaque until everyone had one. I did not know whether to laugh or to cry about the absurdity of the 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 say that they’re a mixture of Spanish (or to be more vague, “European”), 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? Most are performers — actors, actresses and singers — who want to appeal to as broad a market or audience as possible. Or they like to be ambiguous in their race identity so they will not be pigeonholed into Filipino or Asian roles only.
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
One needs not go as far as the US to witness this embarrassing tendency by Filipinos 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 associations (there’s plenty in Thailand each one trying to outdo - or outPinoy - each 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 association president also graced the inside cover, and the next pages showing her in different Imeldific costumes shaking hands of every ambassador! I would personally have preferred to see the Philippines’ numerous beautiful sceneries which might have enticed our ASEAN neighbors to visit our country.
Guests were then treated to an ASEAN fashion show: while other countries provided four to eight models, the Philippines, coming out last (for effect, what else?) 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 wedding 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…
April 21st, 2007 at 10:42 am
Haha…Witnessed such a case of award-itis too. Everyone who joined was given an 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. But 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 up for an award or not, you have to give 101% of yourself every time.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
[...] Blog Addicts: Nepales on neverending awards, closet Filipinos [...]