The Quiet Ones by Glenn Diaz

Author:Glenn Diaz [Diaz, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789715508841
Publisher: Ateneo de Manila University Press
Published: 2019-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

Endnotes

1 Contact—and animosity—between Mexicans and Filipinos date back centuries. A precursor to the zealous and lucrative boxing rivalry, there are records of cockfights between so-called Manilamen, who jumped ship from stalled Spanish galleons, and Mexicans in the area around Louisiana at the turn of the 17th century. A colonial Vegas, if you will, absent the savvy fight promoters, pay-per-view deals, and gargantuan ad revenues. 2 A running joke hereabouts: When the Rapture supposedly happened, only Manny and Mommy D. were beamed up in the Pacquiao household. So the boxer asked God, “But Lord, what about my wife? She is also a good Christian.” “Oh is that your wife?” God asked, at which point Mommy D. quipped, “Ayan. Belo ka kasi nang Belo” (“See? You’re always going to Belo”). Belo is the most highly sought after cosmetic surgeon in the country. 3 In this country, where billions of pesos are lost to monstrous gridlocks every day, cabbies have understandably more time to consider their thoughts, aided, more often than not, by radio commentators who may not have the fluency of NPR anchors but ably compensate for it with sheer forcefulness. I am always happy to listen to their diatribe on such diverse topics as foreign policy (“If Americans in Clark, they clean Pinatubo! Tsk-tsk.”), homeland security (“Muslims, so violent, must be banned near airports, five kilometer radius, if you ask me ha?”), and conflict resolution (“Just bomb Basilan! Wipe out Abu Sayyaf. People should sacrifice.”) 4 An anthropologist studying contemporary urban phenomena in sprawling, putrid Third World Manila. 5 Invoking the following realities: the archipelagic backdrop; the world-famous beaches; and the biggest maritime disaster in history, which makes the sinking of the Titanic look like a minor sea mishap. 6 A pervasive myth, the truth to which several friends had asked me, concerned: Is it true that singing Sinatra’s “My Way” in public in Manila can lead to a painful death by stabbing? A slew of bar brawls here reportedly began with a drunken rendition of the song, leading some bar owners to ban it completely or scrap it off the videoke list. This was never conclusively proven, but that opening—“And now, the end is near / and so I face, the final kar-teyn.”—still sends shivers down some people’s spines. 7 Not to take anything away from the island chieftain Lapu-Lapu (no doubt a great military tactician, how else did he offset the Spaniards’ superior weaponry?), but some say that the province’s world-famous, Bourdain-endorsed roasted suckling pig lechon was served to Magellan and his men by another chieftain the night before his attack and so was just as responsible for the trouncing. The score, if you’re keeping tabs, is cholesterol 1, imperialism 0. 8 The United States, in a final imperious, if clingy, touch, deciding to grant Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. Philippine independence day had since been reverted back to June 12, the day when the country declared freedom from Spain. See? the pro-expansion block in the US Congress asked, it wasn’t really imperialism.

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