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“(excerpt from a paper critique:)
ricca wrote this review Tuesday, November 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
…In recalling my reading of the author’s vignettes, it appears that he has dearth of representative informants—the bulk of his life histories were culled from bakla who have come from urbanized centers of the Philippines, living relatively well-to-do lives. As such, motivations among them for going abroad may be attributed to a longing for a change in lifestyle or social scene, or to assuage an emotional/romantic void. I suppose what I am trying to put across is not hard to guess—is the primary motivation of wanting to a earn higher salary for one’s self and one’s family, which is the driving force among other diasporic Filipinos, not a priority for some of the Filipino bakla? I am aware that my query is very leading, but it is difficult for me not to think about that, since more and more Filipinos nowadays do indeed prefer to go abroad in order to find better jobs (read as higher paying jobs). The possibility of living a chic lifestyle seems to be a reality attainable only after one has had months of earning that high salary (the primary goal).
But, really, among the Filipino bakla, what are the immediate as well as deep-seated motivations? Is it just to escape the chokehold of family? Is it to forge a blazing path of biyuti abroad? Or is it a growing disillusionment of what their Inang Bayan is turning out to be?
Or perhaps I am simply going too far, and there is really just that one obvious motivation that is universal to all Filipino immigrants: money.
If this is so, then there is a marked disjointedness in the author’s narrative; his Global Divas came to New York and, except for a chosen few singled out as the breadwinners of the family back home, these Filipino bakla were portrayed as sometimes single-minded in the pursuit of that white, masculine male lover in the midst of contesting identities with other foreign gays.
Furthermore, the heavy focus on the middle-class bakla, signifying a neglect of the ‘inner screaming queens’ from other sectors of Philippine society, makes for a narrative with a somewhat hollow ring to it, as if a vital part has gone missing from deep within the recesses. Understandable, of course, as ethnographies are always value-laden and biased for a certain ‘gaze,’ no matter what the well-meaning agenda might be. But an explicit statement beforehand concerning the demography of one’s unit of analysis could certainly help matters.
Just as interesting of note is how Manalansan somehow depreciates notions of race as an issue in the Philippines (56). Though not as prevalent nowadays, other nationalities (and even other ‘native’ ethnolinguistic groups) in the country used to be sources of amusement, if not outright ridicule, among Filipinos: from Indians, Chinese, to Koreans.
My point is that racism is not a discourse benignly brushed aside in the Philippines, and saying otherwise precludes providing an adequate explanation for the predilection of Filipino bakla in NY to cater to only certain foreign ‘masculine males.’ Manalansan’s book is rich in giving snippets of racism not just from the white gays but also from among the Filipino bakla. However, the reason for this behavior takes on an ‘out-of-thin-air’ aspect coming from the author’s threadbare mention of any sort of racism rising from the homeland.”
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