A guide to knowing & rekindling culture

The task of protecting our cultural heritage is a difficult one. Those who take up the struggle have to deal with rapacious real estate developers, with pernicious politicians, with an educational system handicapped by decreasing budgets, and with a citizenry culturally lobotomized by overexposure to global media, fashion and the arts.

Where does a concerned citizen start? Joining groups like the Heritage Conservation Society would be a good idea. Another is to begin with yourself and in your own neighborhood. But how does one start making sense of culture and heritage even at this basic level? Thankfully, a book has just come out to address this pressing need for a guide to sensibility in cultural concerns.

A Cultural Worker’s First Manual, by cultural maven Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, provides straightforward answers to basic questions one may ask of culture, cultural work, heritage and human development. It is also a reader, a compilation of essays that tackles issues, past and current, in the cultural realm. The essays are culled from her long-running Philippine STAR column "Pahiyas." The best of these are compiled in the book, a textured fabric of insightful and informative writing embellished throughout with a running glossary of important terms and concepts.

A View Of Culture Past And Present

In the book, Sta. Maria states, "Socio-economic failure, national fragmentation, civic inaction and indifference can be traced to the Filipinos’ lack of consciousness for Philippine history and culture, the core of national identity." One would have to admit that we Filipinos seem to be culturally semi-conscious – just drop into any session of local or national legislatures (half-awake politicians) or tune into the mediocre fare offered on TV (half-intelligent variety shows). We also are lacking in civic spirit – just look at the social and physical blight surrounding us (less than half of the city lacks proper sewers, sidewalks or sanitation). Finally, we have to agree that we are a resounding non-success socio-economically – just look at your paycheck (half of what you used to earn) and check your current quality of life (barely half-decent).

Sta. Maria’s book offers hope to the half-life of our contaminated culture. She outlines a strategy based heavily on education (civics with emphasis on the youth) and pro-activism. The manual is organized into two sections. The first, "Viewpoints for Cultural Action," gives the reader a general background of cultural work from a post-1986 perspective. Sta. Maria paints a clear picture of what we inherited from that immediate past. She traces the evolution of institutions like the CCP and the Intramuros Administration from that point and the directions that these, and newer institutions like the NCCA, have since taken to correct a previously narrow and perceptively "elitist" framing of culture. (From "bringing culture to the masses" to "catalyzing ... a culture of the people.")

This first section also offers a guide to local officials and civil society for cultural programs that impact on the quality of life. This includes the "first step" of reconnoitering one’s neighborhood in a "survey of community assets." Sta. Maria’s simple but comprehensive checklist includes checking your community’s museums, libraries, archives, zoos, monuments, distinctive architecture, shrines, outdoor art, presence of artist’s groups or art schools, fiestas, rituals, personalities, tradesmen (and tradeswomen) and artisans, etc. This is to identify or rediscover the community’s "oldest," "newest," the "best," the most "important." In short, all the things, landscapes, people and events that give distinctiveness and self-esteem to a community. The foundation of any successful government or NGO program, the author emphasizes, should be built on an appreciation of local cultural resources.

Sta. Maria’s essays in this section also touch on issues of direct interest to architects, landscape architects and urban planners. In one essay, based on a commencement address given to graduates at the UP College of Architecture in 1993, she laments, "The current state of ugliness most Filipinos live in is not purely the result of economic deprivation – but the inability of architecture to assert itself as a solution to social problems." Sta. Maria recommends that Filipino architects need to study their own culture and cultural heritage more closely as "...the nation needs architecture to become a dominant force in providing for our people positive images of ourselves."

She covers the issues of heritage conservation as part of the larger picture of cultural and hence, human development. Included are essays on adaptive re-use, city museums, conservation of monuments, public art, urban tourism, and the general cityscape. All these have relevance to current controversies at the Mehan, Intramuros and the Luneta Waterfront.

In one essay, Sta. Maria includes a cultural tourism code used in other countries that we should seriously adopt. Article 5 of this code states, "The design of new buildings, sites and transport systems should minimize the potential harmful visual effects of tourism (on the historical or cultural site)... Where sites of great natural beauty are concerned, the intrusion of man-made structures should be avoided if possible." The manual should be required reading for city and national government officials.

Vignettes And Visions Of A Better Future

The second section of the manual, "Vignettes of Cultural Chronicles," seemingly takes a more eclectic turn as Sta. Maria writes about a whole range of subjects quotidian to the quintessential – like the preparation of sopa de ajo, beauty queens, the importance of learning to draw, Dutch wives, oratory, kissing, and boxing. But all this presents aspects of our way of life in a different light ... all leading back to the fountainhead of culture. Like learning to draw objects by turning them upside down, Sta. Maria gives us new eyes with which to see and savor our culture – "ang pamana ng ating karangalan at kagalingan."

In this section, too, Sta. Maria tackles issues related to urbanization and environmental conservation. She puts these seemingly modern problems in the light of our pre-western sensibility, one that respects nature and engendered life in harmony with the natural world. A revival of this sensibility is necessary to shape a sustainable outlook, one that can be passed on to future generations as we redefine, liberate and energize contemporary Filipino culture and the spatial settings that hold it.

Cultural Work – Just Do It

Of course, all this takes time and hardwork. It is exactly the goal of this manual to provide us with the framework and a guide for the tasks that need to be done. Essays aside, Sta. Maria’s compendium of terms and answers to the FAQs of cultural work are themselves’ meaty morsels that aim to mollify a new corps of cultural workers.

Cultural work, states Sta. Maria in one of the typical entries found in the book, includes "cultural law; art criticism, reviews of literature about culture; actual making of art; teaching of art, history, anthropology, and other related subjects; conserving cultural properties; preparing cultural tourism projects; marketing cultural events and programs; serving on an LGU council as a cultural representative; being a cultural affairs officer for a local government, consular office or embassy; being staff at any of the government’s cultural agencies; assessing the cultural impact of socio-economic development projects and urban planning."

Most everything we do relates to culture. Culture is how we do everything. Our natural excellence (kagalingan) must be made to shine through for the author believes we are all gems (pahiyas). A recovered and nurtured culture will be our gift to the future. What is needed, says Sta. Maria, is the catalyst of education, awareness, and appreciation of our own colorful way of life. This book is a catalytic DIY guide with a soul ... and a good first step for any Filipino.

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A Cultural Worker’s First Manual is published by Anvil and is available at Powerbooks and all National Book Stores. Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at citysensephilstar@hotmail.com.