PHILIPPINE CARTOONS:

POLITICAL CARICATURE
OF THE AMERICAN ERA
(1900-1941)
Alfred W. McCoy
Author
Alfred McCoy
BACKGROUND
INFO:
Name: Alfred William McCoy

Born: June 8, 1945 in Concord,

Massachusetts, United States

Nationality: American

Parents: Margarita McCoy

Education: Columbia University,

Yale University,
University of California,
Berkeley, Kent School
 He is a professor of the Southeast Asian History at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison where he also serves
as the director of the center for SE Asian Studies.

 McCoy has spent the thirty years of writing about

Southeast Asia History and Politics. His publications
includes the Philippine Cartoon (1985), Anarchy of
Families (1994), Closer than Brothers: Man Hood at the
Philippine Military Academy (2000) and Lives at the
Margin (2001).

 After earning a Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history at Yale,

the writings of McCoy on this region has focused on two
topics, Philippine Political History and Global Opium
trafficking. The Philippine remains the major focus of his
research
Philippine Cartoon:
Political
Caricatures of the
American Era 1900-
1941
by Alfred McCoy
and Alfredo Roces
ACHIEVEMENTS:
 Philippine Catholic Mass
Media Award

 Best Book of the Year for

1985

 Philippine National Book

Award for History (1986)

 Gintong Aklat Award

 Special Citation for

History (1987)
 The Philippine Political Cartoons gained full expression during
the American era. Filipino artists recorded national attitudes
towards the coming of the American as well as the
changing mores and times.

 While the 377 cartoons compiled in this book speak for

themselves, historian Alfred McCoy’s extensive research in
Philippine and American archives provides a comprehensive
background not only to the cartoons but to the turbulent
period as well.

 These prewar political cartoons are an evocative record of a

half-forgotten history. The scandals, struggles and social
changes of the American colonial period gain an
immediacy in these graphic images that eludes even the
most eloquent historical prose.
MANILA: THE CORRUPTION OF
THE CITY

11
 THE CALAMITY OF THE
MOMENT

12
 ANG DATO, DATOON; ANG
KABUS, KABUSON

13
 WHY THE “APARCERO
REBELS

It shows the form of landlord usury

used to strip tenant farmers from
their rightful share of harvest.

14
 A NEW WRINKLE IN THE
ART OF THEIVING

This shows City Capitalist using the Torrens

title process, which required relinquishment of
customary claims to issue titles, to grab lands in
Nueva Ecija and other Central Luzon Provinces.

15
 EQUAL WORK, UNEQUAL
SALARY, WHY?

When Filipinos began . winning civil service appointments after 1913 they found
themselves facing serious discrimination in both wages and positions. Francis B.
Harrison the Liberal Governor General reed the pro; American hiring policies of the Taft
Era (1900-12) and began the “Filipinization” of the civil service.

16
 ANG MGA MAPAPALAD

.
As demobilized American Soldiers filled the insular civil service and American corporations won
the major development projects. Filipino nationalists saw themselves becoming economic aliens
in their own land. The cartoon’s image of Meralco dragging Juan de la Cruz along the neck as he
vomits pesos from his emaciated frame is no overstatement

17
 AMERICAN WORKER –
FILIPINO WORKER

Refers not to a ten fold difference

. in Filipino and American manual wages within the colony, but
to a more fundamental inequality – the difference in wages and working conditions between the
two countries.

18
 LOYALTY OF THE
FILIPINOS

.
The Loyalty of the Filipinos was published on April 14, 1917 only ten days after the US Congress
declared war on Germany and America entered the conflict. The artist Fernando Amorsolo draws a
wise, handsome, Uncle Sam leading little Juan, loyal and smiling on the road to war.

19
 UNCLE SAM AND JUAN

20
In the Philippines, the presence of Political Cartoons has
been seen as early the publication of Kalayaan and La
Solidaridad. Nepomuceno (2012) claimed that
commentaries in newspapers are valid historical
instruments.

Commentaries through the sections of the editorial pages,

are useful in seeking to see the opinions and views of
people on policies which are also rooted on the opinions
and views of officials in government.
Accounts pointed that the Philippine press has had
a love-hate relationship with political cartoons as
only in 1985 has there published book on Philippine
cartoons.

The book of McCoy and Roces (1986) was the first

one to legitimize cartoons as sources of Filipino
thoughts and views.

It reflected on two cartoon themes: anti-American

sentiments and the condemnation of the ruling
class
It serves as primers for engaging in the prevailing
opinions of that time. One positive effect of the
political cartoons is that it becomes the
representation of the current conditions of the
country

Future generations will be able to have a glimpse of

the past Philippine society through these cartoons.

Through the use political cartoons, people get to

visualize politics and appreciate the representations
which are within their world view.
Thank you for listening!