You are Bewitched (Postcolonial Criticism)

Colonial Mentality:

you are under the spell of America.

Buy their products and make them rich.

Listen to their music and make them famous.

Follow their culture but you cannot get out of here.

You are in the Philippines,

the land of the would be free people.

Where do you find yourself now?

On the verdant meadow under the shed

of the sky of a mother’s broken dreams

who needs her sons

to fix her wings?

Or in your elusive desire for wealth

in exchange for your identity

as Juan dela Cruz?

Go to America and be their slave,

clean their asses and feed their dogs.

Look to the stripes of red and white,

find among the confusing many stars

your blinded fate to forget yourself.

Tell me they’re better

and I’ll tell you this,

Colonial Mentality:

you are under the spell of America.

The groping grasp of the wings of the eagle

had never freed the ground we stepped on

and its blanketing feathers are still above us

to cover the big sun in the midst of the three stars

on the white background

wherefrom flows blue and red.

Look in your wallet

and find some coins and bills.

Look at the faces who died for your existence

and later, change those cash to green.

Praise America and it will scorn you

for you are a Filipino.

Go ahead and kill our heroes,

kill yourself and kill the Philippines.

For you have in your mind

Colonial Mentality:

You are under the spell of America.

  

            °ooOoo°

            Postcolonial literature is quite a confusing term. It’s about writing about the effects of colonialism. There had been unresolved debates on what should be the definition of Postcolonial criticism. Should it be against colonialism or should it be not, etc. The question does concern me and I have made up my mind to accept its original definition that post colonial literature are works that are written by people whose country was formerly colonized.

            And this poem is my stand on that. I am against it, which is also the stand of the many critics and writers I know. The poem tells the readers to cease the pull of colonial mentality from their native realization. Colonial mentality is a term I have always been hearing since I was in elementary. It means that when a Filipino tends prefer the foreign ideologies, especially from the America, instead of our very own culture. If this continues, we might forget that we are Filipinos. For example, if you would 10 college respondents if who among them can recite the ‘Panatang Makabayan’, 10 out of 10 (if not ten then a number close to 10, either 11 or 12) would say no. This had been the effect of the colonization since the date unknown when, that they are better, which in a way makes us forget the color of our skin.

            America, our colonizer had helped us. We can accept that, but it should not be that they control and scorn us because we are free. Since we are free, we have the choice to become what we really should be. Let us make the wiser choice.

            And that is postcolonial criticism. A kind of writing that wants an awakening of what should be real and get over the past that impales the present. The present should not be past that enslaved us. It should be us.