PRINCESS O.

BALDO
2012-71605

FA 110 D
11/11/15
Bontoc Eulogy: Reaction Paper

The mockumentary is a brave account against discrimination and injustice of not only the
indigenous people of the Philippines during the American occupation but those of other countries
as well. It showed how these people were treated as animals for entertainment by putting them in
carnivals for display.
We werent Americas little brown brothers, we were specimens plucked out of our native
lands, shipped to theirs, and put up for display. We were labeled Filipinos as though we were
some sort of zoo monkeys displayed to amuse little white children. I think this perspective is an
eye-opener to whoever watches the movie. It is nice that such materials exists, one that does not
glorify Western culture but criticizes it in a way that sparks a concern and a sense of nationalism
you never knew you had.
It is disappointing to know this fragment in our history, the same goes for the Americans.
The existence of St. Louis World Fair can still be observed in the guise of gender and racial slurs
most people treat as normal despite being derogatory. The impact of whitewashing the atrocities
of the American occupation affected heavily the patronage towards Western culture by most
Filipinos today. Bontoc Eulogy has the ability to balance this out. It is a reminder to us that we
should support our brothers who suffered and are still suffering from discrimination and
alienation brought about by Western-constructed ideologies (i.e. beauty and civility) and its
application by some of us, Filipinos.