Got the chance to join Carlos Celdran’s Intramuros Tour last Friday. It was a great experience. And it made me think about a lot of things afterwards. I will be talking about the tour itself on Monday, in AngPeregrino Recommends . Right now though are random (and not so random) thoughts about our way of looking at ourselves as Filipinos, about our national soul, and on our cultural identity crisis.

Conrado de Quiros once told a story about Jose Rizal who boarded a boat bound for the south. While on the upper deck of the boat, where the well-off passengers were, he met a Spaniard. The Spaniard was amazed that he spoke Spanish very well. Rizal replied that he had studied and lived in Madrid and Barcelona for some time. The Spaniard was impressed.

After a while, a German joined them, and struck up a conversation with them. They spoke in Spanish, but then Rizal would sometimes make a point in German for the benefit of the newcomer. The German was amazed that Rizal could speak German very well. Rizal replied that he had toured Germany, and had lived in Heidelberg for a while. The German was impressed.

A Frenchman and an Englishman soon joined them. Again, for the benefit of the newcomers, Rizal used a smattering of French and English to drive home his point. The Frenchman and Englishman were amazed that he at least knew French and English, even if he didn’t speak it well. The Frenchman and Englishman were impressed.

After a time, Rizal went to the lower deck. It smelled of the sweat of men, women and children huddled in cramped quarters along with their belongings. Wishing to learn more about them, Rizal spoke to an elderly man in Tagalog, asking him where he came from. The man answered in Cebuano, saying he could not understand Rizal. Not knowing Cebuano, Rizal could not understand him either.

He turned to a woman beside the elderly man and asked her the same question. The woman spoke in Ilonggo. Not knowing Ilonggo, Rizal could not understand her either. Finally, Rizal turned to a young man nearby and asked him the same question.

The man shrugged and spoke in Tausug, saying he could not understand Rizal. Not knowing Tausug, Rizal couldn’t understand him too.

This story is most probably apocryphal. But it is something to think about, don’t you think?

Carlos Celdran calls Rizal “the great assimilator”.

And maybe that is not just something that describes Rizal but is something that describes the Filipino as well—we are great assimilators. We don’t just allow things foreign to influence us, we adore them. It is one thing to allow, and yet another to adore.

We send home large balikbayan boxes full of “imported” stuff. We have acquired the taste for japanese, thai, french, mediterranian cuisine — just look at the proliferation of these restaurants around Metro Manila. We talk with a twang so foreign, we literally make Americans who dial a 1-800 number believe that they’re talking to people on the other side of the street when in reality we’re in the other side of the globe. The Asian Journal studied migrants in the US and found out that Filipinos have assimilated faster than other ethnic groups, proving something that has been merely been anecdotal before this: Filipinos do have a very high IQ or Intercultural Quotient.

How did this happen? We can give many reasons, but I will focus on three:

1) We are known as a very hospitable culture– a culture that would rather accommodate and tolerate than correct or impose our own sensibilities on others. Because of this incessant need to conform, we can allow ourselves to get bulldozed by other cultures.

2) Whether admitted or not, we have a cultural insecurity: we are ashamed of our skin (there is a lot of skin whitening products for the Filipina in the market today), products, profession, etc. It is almost an inbred thing to feel that a product “Made in the Philippines” is of less quality than its foreign counterpart. We do not even buy it.

3) The “American Dream” (i.e. the dream of working and living in the US and getting a Greencard) is (still) the dream of around 70% of our countrymen today. And because the world has become smaller and smaller, the dream is not just about reaching the US, but Europe, and the Middle East as well. Just ask 70% of our kids who just graduated from high school last March–they’re all taking up Nursing in College in the hopes of leaving the country and working abroad.

There is certainly nothing wrong with having a high Intercultural Quotient. In fact, it is something to be proud of. But the downside is that in our love of things foreign, we oftentimes forget things Filipino. Celdran calls it losing our soul. And his theory is that we lost our soul when we lost Intramuros. (Join his tour to find out just what this means!)

Wikipedia defines assimilation as the “process of integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural community (such as immigrants, or ethnic minorities) are “absorbed” into another, generally larger, community. This implies the loss of the characteristics of the absorbed group, such as language, customs, ethnicity and self-identity.”

In the process of assimilation into another culture, the Filipino soul does get diluted beyond recognition.

And yet, I notice something quite remarkable over the years. We have become so good at assimilation that I think we have found a piece of our soul in the very process of dialogue with other cultures. We have found our soul because when we assimilate into another culture or when we assimilate other cultures into us, we transform the very object of our assimilation. And somehow, subconsciously and without making a big fuss about it, we make it Filipino.

Spaghetti is originally Italian, but has taken its Filipino sweet form with tomato catsup and (lots of!) hotdog. Pancit canton has become distinctly Filipino, even churning a whole industry of instant meals out of it. We have had our Filipino version of sushi which is probably as old as sushi itself—something we call kinilaw.

The jeepney is one of the original Filipinization of something foreign –the original jeepneys were redesigned American army jeeps. In music, before the original Pilipino music (OPM) phenomenon starting in the 70’s, we had Filipino versions of everything American: we had a Filipino Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter, etc. And I don’t think it is merely coincidence that at the height of the Alternative boom in the US (with bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam), Filipino bands like Eraserheads and Yano were also making waves in the Pinoy underground scene. More recently, game show host Edu Manzano brought to the world stage a dance known as Papaya–the music is originally by a Polish artist, but the dance has been given the Filipino shuffle.

The Filipino fast food Jollibee has made a lucrative business out of fusing foreign food with Filipino taste: a langhap sarap cheese burger (Filipinos love to smell their food, so burgers can not just taste good, it also has to smell good), langka pie (which is an evolution of the american apple pie), and burger steak (which fuses the burger patty and the Filipino staple: rice). The R&D of Jollibee is so prolific, it comes out with a new product almost every month. And another curious fact: wherever McDonalds opened shop around world, they’ve eventually become number one… except in the Philippines, where Jollibee is king.

By staying true to its identity, Jollibee has beaten McDonalds at their own game. And I think this is something curious about our so called world-class talents as well. I used to think that it is a sad fact that Filipinos have to play someone else’s game in order to beat them at it. But that is a fact of our Filipino-ness. Filipinos will not give the world Broadway like the British, but Lea Salonga will be so good at it that she will receive the adulation of the whole world. Nothing wrong with that. I am not sure if Lea Salonga is known as a Filipina in Broadway, but Charice Pempengco is surely known the world over as that little Filipina singing wonder, and Manny Pacquiao is known as the Pride of the Philippines.

In the end, maybe the Filipino has not lost his soul. Maybe this dilution is a blessing in disguise, so that people like the Eraserheads, and APO, and Lea Salonga, and Freddie Aguilar, and Manny Pacquiao, and Charice Pempengco and our graphic artists working at Pixar, and our nannies and caregivers or our architects designing palaces and buildings around the world or our engineers working at NASA and Google, could show to the world what the Filipino can do. Maybe the essence of the Filipino is really to be the synthesizer of cultures–bridging the gap between the East and the West, transforming cultures into something else. Yes, we will play the international game, because right now we lack games to offer the world.

And we will play the game, and like everyone else, try to become very good at it.

And the day will come–as it did for Jose Rizal, and Lea Salonga, and Manny Pacquiao; just as it did for Jollibee, and the jeepney, and chopsuey, and spaghetti; when we will not just beat them at their own game.

We will make the game our own. And the world our playground.