Well, after this vacation, I’m going to be a high school senior, and probably, the novels, poems, and essays we are going to have to read in twelfth grade are going to be much harder (whoopee). Well, before I further dread the reality that is "Grade Twelve," I would like to share with you a novel that I read in our Eleventh Grade Filipino class. To begin with, our Filipino class aims at making its students successful in reading and comprehension of Filipino writings. In earlier years, we took novels such as Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, but this year we took a different course in our novel readings. Under Mr. Paul Villegas, we took up Lualhati Bautista’s ’Gapo, which I thought would be another one of those boring novels that never, ever end. Well, since I’m writing about it right now, I guess it wasn’t so boring after all.
’Gapo is about "a brown American living in a world of white Filipinos" (translated from the Filipino sub-title on the cover of the book). The "brown American" is Michael Taylor Jr., and this is his story. He is a "G.I. Baby," meaning his father was an American G.I. who "had fun" in the Philippines with his mother, a Filipina prostitute. He is "brown" even if his skin color is white because he was born and grew up in the Philippines, therefore he traces his roots to the Philippines. The Filipinos surrounding him are "white" because they are all for the arrival of the Americans. They believe that being "American" and living the "American Way" is the only way to go, so in a sense, they themselves are "white."
’Gapo is short for Olongapo, where the story is set. The story set is at the time when American bases have sprung up in Olongapo, which acquires the name "Sin City" because of all the bars, girly joints, and whore houses that sprung up after the arrival of the American forces. ’Gapo explores many social dilemmas of that time. However reading ’Gapo makes me realize that many of these social dilemmas still occur today, sometimes even in a weirder, stranger way.
One of the biggest issues in the novel is the importance of having things "American" or imported. In the novel, everyone is into American products. Even if they are expensive and even if the people really have no use for them, they still buy them. "Imported kasi, eh." What these people do not realize is that these items are the rejects from the US, and that they are actually buying expired goods. This still happens today. People pay less attention to local products, and go more for imported things. This not only patronizes the goods of foreign countries, but also weakens our local economy. By buying more imported things, we actually fuel other countries’ economies, leading to the further deterioration of our own economy.
One other issue in the novel is the increase of people wanting to leave the Philippines for a better life. The author looks at the mentality of many Filipino prostitutes in Olongapo whose main goal is to reach America, any which way they can, with the most common way of doing this is getting into a relationship with an American soldier, having his baby, and then pulling his arm into letting her and his child come with him when he returns to America. This is a far-fetched idea, really, because every time a situation like this happened, the American simply leaves behind his child and the mother (which is exactly the story of Michael Taylor Jr.). This resulted in fatherless children, who live in a society that would never readily accept them because of their skin color and because they are bastards.
In a sense, this still occurs today because we have our OFWs who think that there is a better life awaiting them in other countries. These situations are just as bad because the children of such people live without their parents for a certain amount of time each year, making their parents even more distant than they already are. Also, migrating to another country to work makes one a "lower" citizen over there. A Filipino may have a degree in medicine here in the Philippines, but when s/he moves to another country in hopes of a better life, s/he is reduced to one who merely packs the medicines in their boxes.
Lastly, ’Gapo shows the inferiority complex of the Filipinos at the time. In the novel, Filipinos are pushed around by the Americans, and are made second-class citizens in their own country. The funny thing is that many accept this, and only a few fight back. Those who do fight back ended up getting killed, and those who think that American actions are wrong are deported (see, the Americans even had say in legal and government matters, giving them complete control of many aspects of Philippine life). I believe this still goes on up to this day because many Filipinos still see "Joe" as being superior to them. In fact, it even seems worse today because every white guy to a Filipino is automatically "Joe," so there isn’t even a distinction of different cultures in the Filipino psyche.
This is sad because we should all realize that we really are all equals, and that there are no barriers between us, regardless of country, background or skin color. I think that these things are the ideals of the novel ’Gapo, and that indeed, we should follow these. After reading ’Gapo, I think that I am now more aware of the fact that the things that happened before are still happening now. History does have a tendency to repeat itself, and I think everyone will agree with me when I say that our past, regarding the events that occurred in ’Gapo, is one that should never recur.
We should all play our part so that the events and mentality that we hate the most will disappear. Follow the ideals of ’Gapo, as we take a step closer to achieving what we want as a society.