Filipino Roots

This video clip by YouTube comedian Mikey Bustos offers an amusing way to learn the 81 provinces of the Philippines.

"Saranggola ni Pepe" (English: Pepe's kite) is a famous children's song in the Philippines sung by Celeste Legaspi. What, at least for me, remained unclear for a long time - considering my Tagalog skills being in need of improvement - is that this song was made to comment on the political situation in the Philippines in the 1970s, when President Ferdinand Marcos imposed Martial Law in order to purge the nation from civil disobedience.  Here, Legaspi speaks of the creation of the song, which many believe to be merely for children, but in fact it is a cryptic song full of metaphores. Watch the video and listen to this great live performance with its significant ukulele tune: This is a brief summary of the Philippines during Marcos's Martial Law by philippine-history.org : "Proclamation of Martial Law: On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand E. Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law. The declaration issued under Proclamation 1081 suspe

When most people think of the Philippines, they usually don't know much about the country (at least that's my personal experience). Even less does anyone associate the Philippines with their indigenous people - the Aeta. The Aeta are known to be probably the first inhabitants of the Philippine islands, even before the Austronesian peoples populated the land.  I want to share these stunning performances with the world to spread the wonderful culture of the indigenous Filipino people and let them see and hear their beauty.  Tribal dance: And here another one, same song as the first, at the Caragan Festival:

The Aeta people are the indigenous people of the Philippines and belong to the Negritos of Southeast Asia. Anthropologists assume that the Aeta were the first inhabitants of the Philippine islands prior to Austronesian immigration. Today, they are predominantly resident in the Northern regions of Luzon. Aeta people suffer from racial discrimination in the Philippines. As the video below reveals, employment is barely offered to people of color and curled hair (in Tagalog, the term kulot is used for people of curled hair, which also literally means the latter). Therefore, it is especially Aeta women who use alleged skin whiteners, such as papaya soap, with hopes to achieve a brighter skin color, but also due to random offensive remarks by non-Aeta citizens who believe darker people to be "dirty" and "malodorous." The reason for this discrimination against Aeta people is rooted in the colonial era. Due to Spanish and American colonization, white imperialist

Austronesian people is the indication of those who speak an Austronesian language. They are predominantly inhabitants of the Pacific islands like Polynesia and extend until Madagascar. Among the Austronesian countries are the Philippine islands. Since I have always felt something not 100% accurate with the term "Asian", I finally realized the precision of the adjective "Austronesian", or "Malay," even though the Filipinos are a mixed people with various tribes disseminated on over 7,000 islands. People mostly think of Chinese or Japanese, maybe even Thai or Vietnamese when they see Asians. That is the common thing. However, Filipino is rarely a name that comes to their mind. Source: Wikipedia During World War II, the Japanese sought to invade the Philippines, and when they entered the country, they immediately began to oppress the Filipinos, degrading them as "racially inferior." Japanese treated Filipino civilians accordingly. A former

The documentary shows WWII veteran Leon Cooper returning to the Philippines at the age of 94 in order to urge the Philippine and American government to investigate in finding the MIA soldiers who fought under MacArthur in World War II. Mr. Cooper takes us with him on his journey in interrogating without restraint and outspokenly, criticizing government and military, and meeting Filipino veterans who are not forgotten in Return to the Philippines: The Leon Cooper Story . The film is provided as a free online documentary by SnagFilms on their website or via YouTube. Here:  http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/return_to_the_philippines Or below: