Westernization has dulled the Filipino mind's perception of exploitation and resulted in an identity crisis. This crisis is difficult to resolve because westernization is widespread and Filipinos are unaware of their lack of national consciousness. While other colonized Asian countries had developed civilizations, the Philippines did not and was easily conquered by Spain. Spanish friars were crucial in westernizing the islands and spreading Catholicism, demanding conformity and prohibiting native culture. This created a cult of conformism that discouraged independent thinking. Americanization also distorted history to portray Americans as benefactors rather than occupiers. Global corporations now aim to change values and consumption patterns, further threatening national identity and culture.

1. WESTERNIZATION AND
IDENTITY
CHARRIE MAY CASTRO
CEDRICK ABADINES
DYLAN DIAZ
ANDRE SANTOS

2. • CAUSE (A COUNTRY, PERSON, OR SYSTEM) TO ADOPT OR BE
INFLUENCED BY THE CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, OR POLITICAL SYSTEMS OF
EUROPE (SPAIN) AND AMERICA
WESTERNIZE
Spanish colonization was frank, if brutal.
American colonization was more skillful, more subtle.
We Filipinos became in our own eyes not colonials but wards, not
rebellious subjects but loving children. The colonizer was transformed
by the alchemy of miseducation into a generous parent. Our anti-
colonial struggle was interrupted and postponed. We must take it up
once again. And one of the first battlefields must be our minds.

3. LACK OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The Westernization of the Filipino mind has dulled
its perception of even worst aspects of Western
exploitation and influence and has resulted in a
crisis of identity.

4. The crisis of identity is so serious and
difficult to resolve precisely because
westernization is all over the place that
time and so large that the Filipinos are
unaware of their own lack of a national
consciousness.

5. While other colonized countries in Asia previously developed there own
civilizations or had been exposed to the great civilizations of the region,
The Philippines did not enjoy a sufficiently developed pre-colonial society.
Therefore it did not have the cultural defenses that other colonized people had.
The Spanish colonizers encountered scattered and fragmented communities
based more or less on subsistence agriculture.
But on the whole, the scattered and primitive communities were easy prey
to the invading Spaniards.

6. STATIC VIEW OF CULTURE

7. STATIC VIEW OF CULTURE
Recent anthropological studies of certain Philippine ethnic minorities have
given us additional insight into the general patterns of economic life and social
organization
Many presentations highlight the songs and dances of these tribes
as representative of our rediscovered civilization.
And also Do not Reflect a National Culture.
This effort appears to the premised on a static view of culture. It
assumes that national culture merely awaits rediscovery and that
the principal source of the people’s self-pride must be sough in the
achievements of there their pre- colonial ancestors.

8. SOCIETY AND
CULTURE

9. Over-stressing of this aspect of our cultural heritage may not only
result in an exaggeration of its accomplishment but worse, could
actually be considered a regressive move as it distracts our
attention from a study of the struggles of our people against
oppression and colonialism.
The real base of Filipino culture must be sought in the continuing
struggle of the people against colonial oppression.

10. The other colonizers largely confined themselves to trade;
they did not have the same missionary zeal of the Spaniards
who tried to conquer not only hands but also minds.
The theocratic nature of Spanish colonial administration
greatly shaped the early course of the Philippine economic
and cultural development.

11. ROLE OF THE
FRIARS

12. THE SPANISH FRIARS WERE THE CRUCIAL ELEMENTS IN THE
WESTERNIZING THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO, AND IN
SPREADING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD.
JOURNEYING WITH THE FIRST EUROPEAN EXPLORERS IN
THESE ISLANDS IN THE FAR EAST, THEY CAME WITH THE
INTENTION OF ESTABLISHING THE CATHOLIC RELIGION UNDER
THE PATRONATO REAL OF THE KINGS OF SPAIN.

13. FRIARS
• HE WAS INSPECTOR OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND OF TAXATION,
• PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH
1) CHARITIES, OF URBAN TAXATION
2) STATISTICS
3) PRISONS FORMERLY
4) BUT LATELY HONORARY PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
• HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE PROVINCIAL BOARD AND THE BOARD FOR PARTITIONING
CROWN LANDS.
• HE WAS CENSOR OF THE MUNICIPAL BUDGET OF PLAYSCOMEDIES, AND DRAMAS IN THE
NATIVE LANGUAGE GIVEN AT THE FIESTAS
• HE HAD DUTIES AS CERTIFIER, SUPERVISOR, EXAMINER, OR COUNSELOR OF MATTERS IN
REGARD TO THE CORRECTNESS OF CEDULAS, MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS PRISON FOOD
AUDITING OF ACCOUNTS, MUNICIPAL COUNCIL THE POLICE FORCE, THE SCHOOLS, AND

14. THEY DEMANDED STRICT RELIGIOUS CONFORMITY AND
PROSCRIBED MANY ASPECTS OF NATIVE CULTURE AS
PAGANISTIC AND CONTRARY TO CHRISTIANS TENETS,
BUT BEYOND THIS THEY USED THEIR POLITICAL AND
ECONOMIC POWER IN THE COMMUNITY AND THEIR
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONTROL OVER THE
MINDS OF THE PEOPLE TO DEVELOP COLONIALS WHO
WERE BOTH SERVILE AND IGNORANT.

15. CULT OF CONFORMISM
Conformist - A person who conforms to accepted
behavior or established practices
Instead of developing their initiative to improve their
condition, the people were taught to regards
suffering as a sign of god’s love and to rely on
saying a prayer on behalf of another person rather
than on their own efforts.

16. The people lived in fear of excommunication and it was not
unusual for mothers to counsel their sons to leave the thinking to
the priests lest they be branded troublemaker and worse, lose their
souls.

17. INTELLECTUAL ISOLATION
FILIPINOS WERE HARDLY INTRODUCED TO THE WORLD OF IDEAS
ONLY CHILDREN OF SPANIARDS WERE ALLOWED TO ACQUIRE A HIGHER
EDUCATION.
THOSE WHO WERE ABLE TO READ HAD ACCESS ONLY TO RELIGIOUS OR
ESCAPIST LITERATURE INTENDED TO PROVIDE MORAL LESSONS.
THE ILUSTRADOS WERE ABLE TO GET A UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND SOME
WERE EVEN ABLE TO PURSUE FURTHER STUDIES IN SPAIN.
FROM THEIR RANKS CAME THE WRITERS OF THE PROPAGANDA MOVEMENT,
THE PURVEYORS OF THE IDEAS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT.
BUT THESE ILUSTRADOS WERE FOR ASSIMILATION WITH SPAIN AND
REGARDED THEIR OWN HISPANIZATION AS EVIDENCE THAT THE FILIPINO
DESERVE TO BE THE EQUAL OF THE SPANIARD.

18. MASS PERCEPTIONS
FOR WHILE THE FRIARS WERE SHAPING THEIR MINDS’ THE PEOPLE WERE ALSO
RECEIVING COUNTERING IT WITH SOMETHING OF EQUAL INFLUENCES FROM THEIR
OWN EXPERIENCES WITH SPANISH OPPRESSION WHICH ERUPTED FROM THEIR OWN
EXPERIENCES WITH SPANISH OPPRESSION WHICH ERUPTED FROM TIME TO TIME IN
VIOLENT REVOLTS.
MANY EARLY IMPULSES OF PROTEST CONTRA POSED THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE’S
OLD GODS TO THOSE OF THE SPANISH DEITY. THUS THE MATERIAL CAUSES OF
SUCH REVOLTS-TRIBUTE EXACTIONS, FORCED LABOR, ETC. WERE SHROUDED IN
THE MYSTICAL GARB OF RELIGIOUS NATIVISM AND ANTI-CHURCH VIOLENCE.
THE INROADS THAT CATHOLICISM HAD MADE IN THE NATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
BECAME MORE AN MORE EVIDENT IN THE ADOPTION OF DEMAND FOR EQUALITY

19. THE
ILUSTRADOS
-(Spanish for "erudite," "learned," or "enlightened ones"). constituted the Filipino
educated class during the Spanish colonial period in the late 19th century. They were the
middle class who were educated in Spanish and exposed to Spanish liberal and
European nationalist ideals.
-Thought the Filipino masses would eventually be more militant and decisive than the
ilustrados to join the revolution of the awakened masses, eventually take over its
leadership and compromise it again and again.

20. EDUCATION AND PACIFICATION
PACIFY
- BRING PEACE TO (A
COUNTRY OR WARRING
FACTIONS), ESPECIALLY BY
THE USE OR THREATENED
USE OF MILITARY FORCE
SPANISH COLONIALISM
WESTERNIZED THE FILIPINO
PRINCIPALLY THROUGH
RELIGION.
EDUCATION WAS UTILIZED
AS A WEAPON OF
PACIFICATION AND A
VEHICLE FOR THE
TRANSMISSION OF
COLONIAL IDEALS THAT
TRANSFORMED THE PEOPLE
INTO NAIVELY WILLING
VICTIMS OF AMERICAN
CONTROL

21. DISTORIONS OF HISTORY
ONE PARTICULAR EXAMPLE OF MANIPULATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED IS THE DISTORTION OF THE HISTORY
OF THE EARLY PERIOD OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION. ACCOUNTS OF
THE YEARS OF FIERCE PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE, ACCOUNTS OF THE
ATROCITIES PERPETRATED BY THE AMERICANS IN QUELLING THIS
RESISTANCE WERE SUPPRESSED.

22. SOCIETY AND CULTURE
THE AMERICANS WERE PORTRAYED IN THE SCHOOLS AND IN MEDIA
AS ALTRUISTIC BENEFACTORS WHOM THE FILIPINOS HAD
WELCOMED WITH OPEN ARMS.
THE REVOLUTIONARY VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE OVER SPANISH
COLONIALISM MARKED THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CULTURE – A
CULTURE OF LIBERATION. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS WAS A SHORT-
LIVED GAIN.
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICANIZATION GAVE THE FILIPINOS A
STRONGER FEELING OF SUPERIORITY OVER THEIR ASIAN
NEIGHBORS. AS CHRISTIANS, THEY HAD LOOKED DOWN UPON THE
RELIGIOUS OF OTHER ASIAN PEOPLES AND REGARDED THEIR
CUSTOMS AND CULTURE AS INFERIOR

23. COLONIALISM SPAWNED A LARGE PETTY BOURGEOIS
SECTOR. SHOPKEEPERS, SALESMAN, PROFESSIONALS,
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, ETC. WERE THE PRODUCTS
OF COLONIAL RELATIONS AND EDUCATION. THEY
BECAME THE MOST AVID CONSUMERS OF AMERICAN
GOODS; THEY WERE THE MOST WESTERNIZED IN
ORIENTATION.
UNDER SUCH CONDITIONS, IT IS NOT SURPRISING THAT
THOUGHT WAS MINIMAL. THE DANGERS OF FOREIGN
CONTROL WERE NOT DETECTED BECAUSE OF
COLONIAL CONDITIONING.

24. GLOBAL CORPORATIONS AND
CULTURE
GLOBAL CORPORATIONS ARE ECONOMIC BODIES BUT THEIR OPERATIONS HAVE
A DIRECT EFFECT ON THE CULTURE OF THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
THE DRIVE OF SUCH GLOBAL GIANTS IS TO CREATE NEW NEED, TO REDIRECT
ATTITUDES, TO CHANGE VALUES SO THAT CONSUMPTION PATTERNS ARE
EVOLVED WHICH WILL INCREASE THEIR SALES. NEEDLES TO SAY, THESE
INFLUENCES ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE INIMICAL TO THE NATIONAL WELFARE
THAN OTHERWISE.
WE USED TO HAVE VERY LITTLE EMPATHY WITH LIBERATION MOVEMENTS.
VICTIMS OF CULTURAL WESTERNIZATION, WE SUFFER A CRISIS OF IDENTITY AS
WELL. THE RESOLUTION OF THIS CRISIS CAN BE AIDED BY A STRONGER
IDENTIFICATION WITH THE THIRD WORLD FROM WHICH WE CAN LEARN
VALUABLE LESSONS IN DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF OUR OWN AND IN BUILDING
AN ECONOMY WHICH WE OURSELVES CONTROL.

25. POVERTY AND CULTURE
What then is the concept of a national culture?
It is not the glory of the past of which there was
little. It is not only folklore; it is not only a
revival of tradition.
True national culture is inextricably linked to
the people’s needs, ideas, emotions and
practices.

26. National literature, art, music, and all other forms
of culture must therefore find their source and
inspiration in the people’s activities and dedicate
their achievements to the people.
It is true that the poverty of the masses is a
major cause of the poverty of their culture.
But a real people’s culture will constitute the
negation of a culture that is merely an
appendage of or an emanation from foreign
cultures which obliterated our own pre-colonial
and revolutionary traditions.

27. WESTERNIZATION AND
IDENTITY
END OF THE SLIDE
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 