Filipinos Adaptation to Western Culture

The Philippines was colonized by Spain for four centuries. Discovered by a non-Spanish but Portuguese navigator named Ferdinand Magellan in March 16, 1521, the country was named after King Philip II of Spain. The influence of the Spaniards in the Philippines is tremendous and that western culture wraps the culture of the capital and urban cities- from politics, literature, architecture, language, religion, fashion and arts. Great Filipinos writers and artists like Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero and Juan Luna, painter of the famous Spolarium went to Madrid to compete and brought home the bacon to their motherland. Even if there’s a high discrimination among Filipinos that time, Dr. Rizal, Luna and other intellectual heroes didn’t hide away their talents and even used them as means to freedom.
Though the Spanish reign in the Philippines was gone to dust for more than a century, the Spanish influence still runs in culture of Filipinos. Most of the historical places in the Philippines will lead you to Manila. Intramuros or city within walls is among the famous locations that you can fully trace Spanish architecture. Churches and basilicas also portray how the friars designed the Catholic religion in the Philippines.
More than the physical remnants the Spaniards left in the Philippines, the Spaniards have modified the mentality of Filipinos as well. No wonder that the Filipinos interest and taste are very western. This colonial mentality was made even stronger when the Americans came and educated the Filipinos with English language. In relation to arts, you can see that lots of art themes in the Philippines, both literary and visual are western. Novels are written in English and classic paintings display characters that are Greek, Roman, Spaniards or rich Filipinos wearing gowns for women and American coat and tie for male. Even the themes of Philippine movies and soap operas have resemblance with that of the Mexican romance, action, betrayal and from rags-to-riches stories.
With the Philippines’ long history of being colonized by other nations, adaptation to other culture became part of Filipinos attitude. This can be proved at present time with the success of Filipino employees working for business process outsourcing or “bpo” companies. Among the jobs outsourced in the Philippines are web and graphic design, software development, game development, and customer service support. Filipinos can easily get along with foreign employers because of their good English communication skills both verbal and written. Even graphic designers must possess this skill in order to talk to their clients. Having poor communication may result to delays and difficulties on projects. Graphic design in the Philippines is very progressive since Filipinos have both artistic and advance technical skill to use the required graphic software. Career in graphic design in the Philippines is promising that’s why more and more Filipinos are traveling into this prosperous path. Graphic design in the Philippines was resistant even during the global economic recession since the demands for design never cease. Though some industries were hurt by the crisis, they are now recovering.
Tracing a nation’s history will better explain its culture. Some books may contain negative impressions about the Philippines being colonized by Spain or US but somehow, the Philippines has tons of benefit resulting from its great history. If the Philippines was not colonized by these nations, the present condition in the Philippines maybe different. Bpo industry will be stranger to the Philippines.

Spolarium by Juan Luna