Activity 3 in Rizal 1

Name: Saligumba, Marineth C.

Course & Year & Schedule: BSA 1 – Sched 4

Reflection Paper on “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?”

The film “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?”

directed by Eddie Romero depicts how Filipinos struggled to find
their own identity during the Spanish and American colonization in
the Philippines. The film was able to address social issues existing
at that time like the abuse and the maltreatment of Filipinos by the
Spaniards, lack of proper education of Filipinos living in barrios
and provinces, and also the struggle to find the identity of the
Filipino people.

At most parts of the film, there is a big confusion in the true

identity of Filipinos. The main lead of the film, Nicolas Ocampo,
also known as Kulas, had many encounters with the different
definitions by different persons of the word “Filipino”. Kulas was
able to meet people with different personalities during his journey
to the unknown after the death of his mother. At the first part of the
film, Father Gil Corcuera defined the word “Filipino” as the
Spaniards living in the Philippines. Also, Lim, who is a Chinese
merchant, also identifies Filipinos as the Spaniards living here in
the country. But for Don Tibor, Filipinos are those who are ready
to take on responsibilities. All of these encounters made Kulas
realize the true meaning of being a Filipino. Kulas came up with
the realization that being born in the Philippines is not enough to
be called a Filipino, being a Filipino means that we take
responsibility to defend this country, along with the culture and
tradition acquainted with it.

The other concept that I liked about this movie was how the
level of Kulas’ happiness decreased all throughout his journey. As
he continued in his uncertain adventure, Kulas discovered and
learned new things about the world. At the beginning of the film,
Kulas seems to be a happy-go-lucky person even though he lost so
much in his life. But in his attempt to learn more and fit into the
new environment he’s into, the spark in his eyes faded, questioning
his current self. I can relate to this as a young adult wanting to
conquer the world. During the early years of my education, I was
not exposed to the true state of our society. I am just a student
standing in the corner waiting for things to happen. It is late in the
game that I began to look into the world with a different
perspective. Meeting and interacting with new people with
different attitudes made me realize that there is more to explore in
this world. I also started aiming for more than being grateful for
what I have. With all of these things changing in front of my eyes,
I realized that the more you know about how things work, the more
you learn that our current society is a very cruel place to live in. I
had a lot of fun and learning watching this classic film. The values
that we can learn from this film transcends time. Being a Filipino
is such a pleasure knowing that our ancestors fought for the
independence of this nation from the hands of our colonizers. The
people before us made the independence we experience right now
possible. Their
undying love for this country allowed us to enjoy the freedom that
they fought for.