Yes, I said that.
In fact, how I wish all
humans, not just Igorots, were like dogs.
Dogs
are known for loyalty. They are protective of their human associates.
More
admirably, dogs do not devour or feast upon their kind. So when a situation is
called "dog-eat-dog, " it means it manifests a total breakdown of
goodness, of morality, of how it is to be humane. It means everyone has become
selfish. It raises the questions, "Why have we stopped caring for
others?" "Is love still alive?"
There
is a series of famous paintings by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge showing anthropomorphized
dogs playing poker. I have yet to hear a human being whisper a protest. But I
honestly believe that if dogs could speak to us in a language we fathom, they
would probably demand that the paintings be expunged from the face of Earth and
human memory.
As
I said, dogs do not eat their kind. When human beings gather around the table
to play poker, they are not being "doggy." They are being human - and
by that, I mean most probably selfish. In a real poker game, the objective of
the poker player is to empty the other players' pockets and siphon their wealth
to his/hers. Who cares if the poker players you defeat are gambling away food
for hungry children at home or medicine for a sick spouse, child, or parent?
Sounds
like greed, no? It should.
The
Coolidge paintings earned Coolidge fame that outlived him and earned the
paintings enormous popularity that made their maker seem smaller than them, a
case of the creator fading as the creature shines.
Coolidge's
paintings' fame is the diametric opposite of the instant notoriety gained by
the painting of two anthropomorphized dogs - one a woman dog and another a man
dog, both in traditional Igorot clothes. The female dog is dancing while the
male dog is beating an Igorot gong. The hands of an Igorot artist, Clemente
Delim, produced it.
According
to those who know Delim, he created the work to celebrate the Year of the Dog.
It is currently on exhibit in a
mall-that-I-would-rather-not-name-and-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-this-post. 📷:-)
An
Igorot lawyer, a prosecutor from the Department of Justice (DOJ), hurled the
painting to the attention of the Facebook community. He expressed concern that
it could perpetuate discrimination against Igorots. His post became viral.
Personalities from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) added their dissenting voices. Some concerned
individuals echoed them in careful language that revealed genuine and
well-meant fear of exacerbating ethnic marginalization.
"The artist may mean well;
however, considering the historical ethno-prejudice we are still suffering
from, he should explain what his work means. Not everyone understands artistic
license."
"What is he trying to tell us? Am
I right that there is something in this painting that is offensive?"
However, more were angry in their
articulation of dissent. Make that livid.
"He is assaulting our dignity and
honor as Igorots."
"Insensitive to indigenous
peoples."
"He disrespects the Igorot
culture!"
"Dog-brained!"
There
was also that litigious, knee-jerk two-word statement.
“Sue him!"
Some
embarked on a hate campaign.
"Behead the painter!!!"
"Chop his head into pieces!"
"Let us make azucena pulutan out of him!!!"
If
the painter really slurred Igorots by depicting us as dogs, he caused far less
damage than the "Crucify him!" crowd. They claim to be
Igorots. They offended me by spreading the message that we, Igorots, are
irrational, murderous, and diabolical. We do not behead others over matters
that deeply vex us. We are not cannibals. We do not chop fellow human beings to
pieces when they say things that ruffle our feathers.
Opps...Did I just liken Igorots to birds? Will I be virtually crucified, too?
More
than 20 years ago, my and my siblings' friend and singing buddy, the late Lito
Bagano, was working with the community of persons with disabilities in Baguio.
Lito was a community member who had severe polio since infancy. He used to hang
out a lot with his deaf friends, introduced me to some, and -I honestly
believe- even forced one of them, a really cute guy named Mike, to court me
(and I had to learn a little sign language to converse with Mike). Lito also
introduced Delim and convinced me to have him paint my portrait in charcoal. I
still have the portrait at home in Baguio, at the topmost shelf of the wall
cabinet beside a bedroom.
I
must admit that when I was just out of my teens, I was still not sensitive
enough to persons with disabilities. When I asked Delim to paint me, it was
because I was a bigoted jerk. I was incredulous that deaf persons could paint
and it was nice to have the work of one who could. And I used deaf-and-dumb
and deaf-mute to refer to them like almost everybody else did and
seemingly still do, not aware that the deaf are deaf but not necessarily mute
or dumb since they speak sign language and are as capable of discernment as everyone. Remembering it now, I feel deep regret and remorse.
Delim,
without knowing it, helped transform my consciousness. I am now an advocate of
persons with disabilities. In fact, in the DOJ, I am in charge of Disability
Affairs. That's the beautiful part of my shameful, self-flagellating narrative.
Delim
may not remember that he painted me or may no longer have a clue of me at all.
That should make us even. I forgot he was the one who did my portrait. But this
uproar over his work summoned buried memory back to life. As if it was just
yesterday, I vividly recall that he delivered the portrait to me in General
Luna in Baguio.
As
Delim helped salvage me from my own bigotry, I need to speak out to reinforce
the volume of voices defending him, which are less audible than those
condemning him.
No,
Delim is not vilifying Igorots nor is he trampling upon our collective dignity.
On the contrary, he is utilizing anthropomorphism as an expression to dismantle
ethnic prejudice directed at us. He is unquestionably interrogating the
outsiders’ ethos which is biased against us.
We,
Igorots, are widely known as dog-eaters. In fact, some of us actually believe
we are dog-eaters, when only a few of us are. In a world that considers the
dog a human being's best friend, dog-eating is outright infernal, fiendish,
even demonic. That is why in the early 1900s when the imperialist forces in the
United States wanted to convince the American public of the morality of its
continued occupation of the Philippines, they imported 100 Igorots from the
Mountain Province who reached The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave by ship.
In what could easily be denounced now as unforgivable objectification, the US
displayed the Igorots naked but for their loincloths as spectacles in the St.
Louis World Exposition of 1904. The Igorots were regularly given dog meat to
eat, less to nourish their bodies and more to make a case that the Manifest
Destiny of the Superior White Race to Civilize the Inferior Brown Heathens had
to be honored. The American public gawked at the horrifying half-devils,
half-children. In their collective mind, Benevolent Assimilation had to be
enforced. This cruel, racist policy was immortalized by US President McKinley
in his instructions to the Philippine Commission of April 7, 1900:
In dealing with the uncivilized tribes of the
Islands, the Commission should adopt the same course followed by Congress in
permitting the tribes of our North American Indians to maintain their tribal
organization and government, and under which many of those tribes are now
living in peace and contentment, surrounded by civilization to which they are
unable or unwilling to conform. Such tribal government should, however, be
subjected to wise and firm regulation; and, without undue or petty
interference, constant and active effort should be exercised to prevent
barbarous practices and introduce civilized customs.”
Delim
is saving us from a false narrative that has become the Igorots’
inter-generational curse. Dog-eating has been too long portrayed as the most
stark badge of our inferiority. And this supposed inferiority is the
justification for the discrimination we suffer. This discrimination finds
expression in barriers that make it difficult for us to access social services,
justice, and other public goods, and in oppressive policies and programs that
target us.
Yes, some of us eat dogs for breakfast, lunch, or dinner to please palates, as
do some members of other ethnic or national groups. But azucena is not a
staple of every Igorot meal. Pinikpikan, not azucena, is to the
Igorots what tinola is to the Tagalogs and what pinakbet is to
the Ilocanos. In the days of yore, Igorots butchered dogs as offerings to Kabunian
during sacred rituals. Dog-eating was, therefore, an act of reverence for the
Supreme Being.
Rather
than nourishing ethnic prejudice, Delim is helping us recapture the glory days
of our “Igorotness.” We are descendants of people who, during the greater part
of the last century, still shared resources and bounties and ate from one
plate, carried one another's burdens as communal pains, and considered it inayan
to cause others' sufferings or to be greedy. We are keepers of traditional
knowledge that conserved much of the natural resources still unreached by
greedy hands in this country.
We
were like dogs. We did not gobble up our kind. This is Delim’s message.
Let
us not pick on the likes of Clemente Delim, Igorot artist who is deaf. Delim has been
bullied far too much when he should be hailed as a model of how an Igorot
should think.
Let
us reserve our voices for the real enemies of Igorots: the royalties and
principalities of greed and selfishness, their bishops, and their other enablers.
We
need to speak out when the avaricious bulldoze our mountains and kick us out of
our ancestral lands to build homes for the opulent while we are rendered
homeless. We need to speak out when they mine our mountains for gold and
mercilessly pollute our rivers and lands hurting our food security and making
us poor even if our lands are rich. We need to speak out when they frenetically
denude our forests, apathetic to our fate as locals who have nowhere to go for
refuge when landslides bury our homes while the plunderers can always scamper
to the safety of their luxurious, safe villages. We need to speak out when they
keep slandering us in textbooks, movies, and popular media.
Unfortunately, the times when we need to speak out are the times when many of
us choose to be silent as the grave.
Let
us be like dogs again. This is Delim’s entreaty.
Keep
the gongs beating.
