Reading Guide: Race, Class, and Colonial Dynamics

The Value of Whiteness

“Vanity” by Trinidad Tarrosa-Subido

  1. For what does the Filipina woman pray? Why does she wish for this?
  2. According to the narrator, what does it mean to be foreign? How do we view mestizo identity as a form of indigenous self-denial and estrangement, i.e. the act of glorifying the foreign? 
  3. Interpret the following quote: “If I should die tonight and be reborn, / O, Lord Creator, make me too / A foreign woman to my native land”. 
  4. How does the poem explore themes of land reclamation and colonial dynamics? Cite and explain examples. 

“The Immigrant Section” of “Tenement Lover: no palm trees/in new york city” by Jessica Hagedorn

  1. How does the narrator’s immigration experience settle around whiteness? 
  2. What is the connection between the narrator’s socioeconomic class and whiteness?
  3. Hagedorn writes: “But Tito’s American, I told them – something close to being Spanish, not dark at all. I’m dark. But Tito doesn’t mind, he calls me beautiful.” How is whiteness attached to beauty standards and marriage prospects? 

Otherness

“Homecoming” by Reine Arache Melvin

  1. How does Jinky view her whiteness? Why does she feel uncomfortable if she is the biracial beauty standard? 
  2. According to the text, how does skin color impact one’s “true” Filipino experience? 
  3. How are Johnny and Sol archetypes? Does Jinky recognize these archetypes? If so, how does she conceptualize her and her family’s identity in comparison to them?
  4. If brownness is considered less attractive by Filipino beauty standards, why does Jinky feel like “the other”? Why does she feel insecure? 
  5. How would you explain the colonial dynamic displayed in the following lines: “He had told all his friends that his wife was Filipina. That was important for him. So she had let it be. Played the role of a foreign wife, different from his friends’ wives. As long as no other Filipinos were around, she could pass as Filipina”?
  6. Does Jinky favor brownness in the story? Why does she treat Sol, the less privileged nanny, as the person she wishes to be, when Jinky herself seemingly has all the advantages (i.e. wealth, fair-skinned appearance, married a foreigner). 
  7. According to Melvin, how are Filipina women exoticized? What is the West’s impression of a Filipina woman? How do they differ from that of a Filipino’s? (Use the following quotes to guide discussion: “She imagined them tiny and slender and beautiful, with long black hair and slits up their dresses. Again the regret that she was not exotic, not Asian, not different enough to keep him with her.” and “Jinky wondered if she [Sol] knew how pretty she was. Those big eyes and thick lashes, tiny nose and sensual lips. The kind of face Westerners raved about.”?
  8. What is the significance of Sol’s name in the story?

“Vigan” by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

  1. What is the historical significance of Vigan? 
  2. Despite not holding any tangible political power anymore, why is Spanish ancestry still valued in the Philippines? 
  3. How does Brainard explore racial tensions in the Philippines, especially between those of Chinese and Spanish ancestry? How does she explore the perceived relationship between race and “culture”? What values do the narrator’s family associate with race? 
  4. What role does Sylvia play in the plot? How is she othered by the community, and in the writing itself? Do you think that this representation is harmful to the indigenous community in the Philippines?
Thematic Questions:
1) What does it mean to “look” Filipino? 
2) What is the relationship between beauty in the Philippines and colonialism? 
3) How is race in the Philippines a reflection of socioeconomic class? 
4) How does each story situate itself within whiteness and brownness? 
5) All of these stories were written by women. How do each of the authors write about whiteness? What are the similarities and differences?