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A Glance at Selected Philippine Political Caricature in

Alfred McCoy's Philippine Cartoons: Political
Caricature of the American Era (1900-1941)
What is caricature?

A Picture, Description, or Imitation of a

person in which certain striking
characteristic are exaggerated in order to
create a comic or grotesque effect.
Caricature pictures
Who is Alfred Mccoy?
 Political cartoons and caricatures are a recent art
form that exaggerates human features and pokes
fun at subjects, becoming a part of print media for
social and political commentary. Historians
examine these art forms as they shape public
opinion and are worth historical examination due
to their unique representation of opinion.
In his book Philippine Cartoons: Political Caricature
of the American Era (1900-1941), Alfred McCoy,
together with Alfredo Roces, compiled political
cartoons published in newspaper dailies and
periodicals in the aforementioned time period. For
this part, we are going to look at selected cartoons
and explain the context of each one.
FIGURE 1
 The first example shown above was published in The
Independent on May 20, 1916. The cartoon shows a
politician from Tondo, named Dr. Santos, passing his
crown to his brother-in-law, Dr. Barcelona. A Filipino
guy (as depicted wearing salakot and barong tagalog)
was trying to stop Santos, telling the latter to stop
giving Barcelona the crown because it is not his to
begin with.
FIGURE 2
 The second example was also published by The
Independent on 16 June 1917. This was drawn by
Fernando Amorsolo and was aimed as a commentary
to the workings of Manila Police at that period. Here,
we see a Filipino child who stole a skinny chicken
because he had nothing to eat.
The police officer was relentlessly pursuing the said
child. A man wearing a salakot, labeled Juan de la
Cruz was grabbing the officer, telling him to leave
the small-time pickpockets and thieves and to turn
at the great thieves instead. He was pointing to
huge warehouse containing bulks of rice, milk, and
grocery products.
FIGURE 3
 The third cartoon was a commentary on the
unprecedented cases of colorum
automobiles in the city streets. The Philippine
Free Press published this commentary when
fatal accidents involving colorum vehicles
and taxis occurred too often already.
FIGURE 4
 The fourth cartoons depict a cinema.
A blown-up police officer was at the screen
saying that couples are not allowed to neck
and make love in the theater. Two
youngsters looked horrified while an older
couple seemed amused.
 The next cartoon was published by The
Independent on 27 November 1915. Here, we
see the caricature of Uncle Sam riding a chariot
pulled by Filipinos wearing school uniform. The
Filipino boys were carrying American objects
like baseball bats, whiskey, and boxing gloves.
McCoy, in his caption to the said cartoon , Says
that this cartoon was based on an event in 1907
when William Howard Taft was brought to the
Manila pier riding a chariot pulled by students
of Liceo de Manila. Such was condemned by
the nationalists at that time.
FIGURE 5
The last cartoon was published by Lipang Kalabaw on
24 August 1907. In the picture, we can see Uncle Sam
rationing porridge to the politicians and members of
the Progresista Party (sometimes known as the
Federalist Party) while members of the Nacionalista
Party look on and wait for their turn. This cartoon
depicts the patronage of the United States being
coveted by politicians from either of the party.
FIGURE 6
Analysis of the Political Caricatures
during the American Period
 The transition from the Spanish Colonial period to the
American Occupation period demonstrated different strands
of changes and shifts in culture, society, and politics. The
Americans drastically introduced democracy to the nascent
nation and the consequences were far from ideal. Aside from
this, it was also during the American period that Filipinos were
introduced to different manifestations of modernity like
healthcare, modern transportation, and media.
 This ushered in a more open and freer press. The post-
independence and the post-Filipino-American period in
the Philippines were experienced differently by Filipinos
coming from different classes. The upper principalia class
experienced economic prosperity with the opening up of
the Philippine economy to the United States but the
majority of the poor Filipino remained poor, desperate,
and victims of state repression.
 The selected cartoons illustrate not only the
opinion of certain media outfits about the
Philippine society during the American period but
also paint a broad image of society and politics
under the United States. In the arena of You sent
politics, for example, we see the price that Filipinos
paid for the democracy modeled after the
Americans.
 First, it seemed that the Filipino politicians at
that time did not understand well enough the
essence of democracy and the accompanying
democratic institutions and processes. This can
be seen in the rising dynastic politics in Tondo
as depicted in the cartoon published by The
Independent.
 Patronage also became influential and
powerful, not only between clients and
patrons but also between the newly formed
political parties composed of the elite and
the United States.
 This was depicted in the cartoon where the
United States, represented by Uncle Sam,
provided dole outs for members of the
Federalista while the Nacionalista politicians
looked on and waited for their turn.
 Thus, the essence of competing political
parties to enforce choices among the voters
was cancelled out. The problem continues up
to the present where politicians transfer from
one party to another depending on which
party was powerful in specific periods of time.
 Cartoons depict the transition from a
Catholic-centered, Spanish-Filipino society
to an imperial American-assimilated one,
highlighting the increase of motorized
vehicles, loose laws, and traffic violations.
The "sexual revolution" in the 1930s marked
a meeting point between the conservative
past and the liberated future of the
Philippines, as young people engaged in
daring sexual activities in public spaces.
 Lastly, the cartoons also illustrated the
conditions of poor Filipinos in the
Philippines now governed by the United
States. From the looks of it, nothing much
has changed.
For example, a cartoon depicted how police
authorities oppress petty Filipino criminals
while turning a blind eye on hoarders who
monopolize goods in their huge warehouses
(presumably Chinese merchants).
 The other cartoon depicts how Americans
controlled Filipinos through seemingly
harmless American objects. By controlling their
consciousness and mentality, Americans got to
control and subjugate Filipinos.
Question Time
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