Filipino Americans of Northern California Organization
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Service Projects
  • News
  • Student Highlights
  • Be A Member
  • Events
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Scholarship
  • Be A Volunteer
  • Sponsors
  • Events

The Evolution of the Filipino Terno

1/1/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
By Rudy M. Viernes

     The Philippine Terno, the formal and national attire of Filipino women today, is the haute couture of national dresses.  It is absolutely one of the world's most distinct and recognizable traditional attire that can ONLY be attributed to the Philippines. It has been called a masterpiece and a national treasure.
     Terno, from the Spanish word "to match” refers to a matching set of clothes made of the same fabric. The modern terno alludes to the matching of a "baro't saya", (literally "blouse and skirt") worn by Filipino women which evolved in design during the Spanish colonial era. Today, the terno is joined at the waist to form a one-piece creation, with both bodice and skirt made of the same material.   
    A terno is a long, elegant dress with a signature "butterfly" sleeves set upright and flat against the woman's smooth shoulders, collar lines, neck and of course the face.  It flaunts a woman's silhouette and its low neckline shows a feminine contour.
    The terno formal gown is worn during formal occasions such as state functions and weddings.
  In beauty contests, like the Miss Universe or Miss International, the Philippine candidate wears the terno during the "national costume" portion. It gets a "oohs and ahs" from the audience.  Philippine beauty candidates always land in the upper circle of the contestants not only because of their charm and beauty but also because of their national costume — the Philippine terno. 
   The terno can be designed in many ways but the butterfly sleeves always remains. The basic style of clothing speaks volumes of the Filipino heritage that spans centuries of multi-colored influences and raw patriotism. The terno is not just a style, it is a legacy.
    The terno can be simple or intricate with lots of embroidery, handpainting, styling the hem in different ways, or layering, folding, pleating, etc.
  Like the men's Barong Tagalog, the terno achieved international recognition, especially in the 70s and 80s when the Marcoses were in power.  Imelda Marcos showed how to wear it during her official state visits around the world.  Her buzz was loud and global.
   Imelda Marcos was the icon of sartorial glamour and style in the Philippines. She was in a league of her own.  She popularized the terno.
    Many claim that when Imelda Marcos wore a terno she would never wear it again.  This was one reason she had a coterie of Blue Ladies (wives of their cronies who always wear blue) trailed Mrs. Marcos wherever she went. They surrounded her in anticipation of being favored with one of her hand-me-down ternos.
     Whatever her critics and detractors think of her and her lavishness, no other Filipina matched Imelda's flawless elegance in a terno.
   The terno is the Philippine women's sartorial wardrobe legacy and the country's national haute couture. It is magnificent and something we can all be proud of.
2 Comments

September 6th, 2013

9/6/2013

1 Comment

 
Filipino English​
by Rudy M. Viernes

    The Philippines is the third largest English speaking country in the world, percentage wise (83 million out of 90 million), behind that of the United States and the United Kingdom, unless you are pretty keen on the Filipino accent and colloquialism. India comes fourth with 350 million out of 1 billion. But the Filipinos are notably more proficient than their Asian counterparts in both accent and pronunciation.
    However, no matter how the Philippines is ranked the fact remains that Filipinos can speak proper English which is “impressive and functional,” not far from the American and British English, sometimes even better grammatically, according to Expedia whose call center in the Philippines is its hub in Asia, and this is a statement!
    By virtue of the Treaty of Paris in 1898 after the Battle of Manila Bay where the American fleet vanquished the Spanish Armada Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. Thus started the Americanization of Philippines with the US military taking over. Pres. William McKinley ordered the gradual implementation of English as the medium of instruction. This ushered in the coming of American educators called, “Thomasites” – all 640 young Americans initially to establish a nationwide system of public education and to train Filipino teachers. As part of a “policy of attraction” their linguistic task involved the imposition of English as a medium of instruction over Spanish, which was then the spoken language through almost 400 years of Spanish rule.
    In 1935, the country became a commonwealth of the United States as envisioned in the Tydings-McDuffie Law with a ten-year transition period to full independence and sovereignty. American Governor-Generals composed the officialdom with a bicameral legislature patterned after that of the U.S. with English the language of deliberation.
    The Stars and Stripes and the Philippine flags flew side-by-side in all public buildings. School children sung the Star-Spangled Banner upright and proud and with equal zest the “Land of the Morning, Child of the Sun Returning”, the first few lines of then Philippine National Anthem, after which were recited the oath of allegiances. To ensure the effective use of English in the schools speaking in the vernacular was strictly prohibited with fines or demerits meted to the violators.
    And years later, at the end of WWII the entry of McArthur’s liberating forces suddenly made English a necessary tool of communication for grateful Filipinos who came to embrace the G.I. Joe for his chocolates, chewing gums and Lucky Strikes.
    Benevolent assimilation was advanced by education in English. Without English a Filipino was deemed illiterate even if he can correctly write and speak Tagalog, or any of the other major dialects.
    In 1936the National Language Institute was tasked to study Philippine dialects for the purpose of evolving and adopting a common national language. A year later the Institute recommended Tagalog, which was widely spoken and the language most understood in all regions of the country as the basis of “Wikang Pambansa,” or national language. In 1959, the Department of Education called Tagalog-based national language, Pilipino, to dissociate it from the Tagalog ethnic group. In 1970 the Board of Education ordered the gradual shift to Pilipino as a medium of instruction in the primary up to the secondary levels in all public and private schools. And years later in 1987 the Cory Constitution finally designated Filipino to replace Pilipino as the Wikang Pambansa. Subsequently the Philippine Congress took steps to sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as a language of instruction in the educational system.
    Thus Filipino has metamorphosed into a Philippine national language in order t instill nationalism and to sink it in the Filipino psyche and as a unifying concept of national identity and independence as do the Japanese of Nippongo and Chinese of Mandarin.
   And to obliterate all vestiges of American rule, Independence Day is now celebrated on June 12 instead of July 4, Dewey Blvd. was renamed to Roxas Blvd., Camp Murphy to Fort Bonifacio, and the name changes went on. The Americans left Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base, and however the country is governed today it was to our own choosing. No use crying over spilt milk.
    Through the years this nationalism issue had exacted a price and this is the decay of English spoken in the schools. What is tragic and funny is the deliberate crossbreeding that resulted into a fractured or pidgin called “Taglish,” that further diminished the purity of our English. As a consequence many present-day college graduates are found deficient in speaking and writing correct English.
    School authorities, or the whole Philippine officialdom are to blame. Where before the teaching profession was the most revered and noble of all professions, when teachers were look up to as molders of youth and the country’s future they now enter the global village as nannies or tutors of the children of the world, or as governess of rich families in Europe, or as construction workers in the Middle East where their salaries, if converted, amount to a princely sum compared to their paltry salaries as school teachers. Leaving their teaching jobs to go abroad isn’t to construe they are unpatriotic. They do so out of economic necessity. They don’t mind the loneliness and depraved life abroad as long as they can put their kids to school, put body and soul together and enjoy little luxuries.
    However, take heart my dear kababayans. Be that as it may the quality of our present English isn’t so bad compared to the English written or spoken in other countries, specially written. Consider the following, albeit funny, to prove our point: Sign outside a Paris dress shop: “Order your summer suit. Because is big rush, we will execute customers in strict rotation.” A sign posted in Germany’s Black Forest: “It is strictly forbidden on our Black Forest camping sight that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they merried with each other for that purpose.” One the door of a Moscow hotel room: “If this is your first visitor to the USSR, you are welcome to it.” In a Bangkok temple: “It is forbidden to enter a woman, even a foreigner if dressed as a man.”
    An instruction booklet in a Japanese hotel how to use the A/C: “Cool and Heats. If you want just condition of warm in your room pls. control yourself.” A brochure of a car rental firm in Kobe, Japan: “When passenger of foot heave in sight, tottle the horn, trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tottle him with vigor.” Outside a Rome laundry: “Ladies, leave your cloth here and spend the afternoon having a good time.” What do you think, guys? Without bias, we think the Filipino English isn’t that bad after all. We can write better than them!

Modern Heroes
By Rudy M. Viernes
​

   The Philippine government cannot provide employment to its teeming employable citizens, sad to say.  That’s the reason so many Filipinos go abroad where employment abounds.  Thus the template OFW was coined for Overseas Filipino Worker, which used to be OCW for Overseas Contract Worker.
 Time was when one was tagged as OCW the term had a rather abject, connotation.  No longer because our government has dubbed them “heroes.”
    Hero, in mythology and legend, is an honor given to someone with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, especially one who risked or sacrificed his life for a cause, or has saved somebody from the pangs of death.
   Our OFWs are called heroes by a grateful government because their dollar earnings, a record high of close to $20 billion in 2011 have saved the country from economic collapse.  They don’t mind the loneliness and deprivation as long as they can build and achieve their dreams of putting body and soul together, sending their kids to school, enjoying little luxuries, if not sudden opulence, especially professionals who are mega-buck earners.

     In our recent visit to the Philippines we traveled north of the country.  We were amazed how the provincial landscape had morphed into a once languorous landform of nipa huts into gleaming homes with TV antennae soaring into the sky, while in their garage are parked trappings of affluence, like a late model car, a passenger jeep with a sign “Katas ng Qatar” or “From Saudi With Love.”
     That scenery was absolutely amazing, vibrant, albeit startling metamorphosis.
Another OFW vignette.  My late wife and I were in the shopping mall one December day.  We were behind a young family with two carts loaded with goodies and the queues were unusually long I figured to my wife it may take about 10 minutes to check those goodies in the counter so why don’t we transfer?  Besides our small basket was totally paled by the two cartfuls in front of us pushed by a shopper who ostensibly was on vacation from Dubai , said so by his T-shirt.
   Thanks to our heroes in the construction sites in the Middle East, factory workers, health care professionals, engineers in industrialized countries, the nannies, tutors and chambermaids of rich families in Europe , entertainers and mariners in cruise ships, plying the high seas.  Their dollar remittances have become a major factor that propped-up the Central Bank reserves that prevent it short of insolvency.
   There are estimated 11 million OFWs worldwide and the exodus goes on with tens of thousands leaving the country every year.  This includes an increasing number of skilled professionals and workers taking on unskilled jobs resulting in brain drain.  This is particularly true in healthcare and education.
  There are medical practitioners in the Philippines , especially those working in government hospitals in the provinces who undergo retraining to become RNs whose services abroad are very much in demand.
    Filipinos in America today find it easy to integrate themselves in mainstream American society because of their high education and speaking skills many of them have ascended to the middle or upper middle class.  Filipino-Americans have the second highest median household income of $65000 exceeding that of the US general population.  Asian Indians and Filipinos lead Asian-Americans in household wealth.  Filipinos constitute the second largest immigrant group in the US and they live a life as sophisticated as educated Americans.  They are among the 49% of Asians in the US --aged 25 and over--who hold bachelor degrees.  By contrast, the corresponding figure for white Americans is 31% and, for all Americans, it is 29%.
    However, in other countries where Filipinos abound like those in the Middle East , there are serious issues they have to contend with.  OFWs both blue collar and white collar face problems of illegal recruitment, maltreatment, exploitation, long hours of work, limited food, or quartered in he doghouse.  They suffer these indignities just so they can earn a mighty greenback to send home.  These issues have become major concerns of our attaches in these countries.  In some cases their paychecks are withheld and passports confiscated for flimsy reasons.  Some domestic helpers, educated as they are as teachers, are physically or sexually abused and maltreated.  There are sad stories of Filipino entertainers in counties like Japan who become sex slaves.  They go abroad for a promise of domestic work or “social services” only to be deceived into sex work.
   But by and large our OFWs have become movers of our country’s economy and have been honored by a government that sets aside a day in December to welcome our Balikbayans at the airport in a perfunctory ceremony, have photo-ops and published in the papers with the caption "OUR MODERN HEROES.”  And our reluctant heroes are grateful for the attention and recognition, if only as an annual parody.
1 Comment

ENERGIZED BY THE TRAIL HIKE?

8/28/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
By Rudy Viernes

Now it can be told.  That even if you haven't had any initiation on trail hiking you can easily make the 3-mile distance without a sweat if there's good company with fun, effervescence and fellowship along the way, while allured by rural charm, picture-perfect rolling hills and enthralling sceneries.  Amidst such surroundings one can only run down his thoughts in quiet reflection, while on the trek, in an act of communion with God and he feels reposed. 
​   FANCO, for the first time, went on a trail hike last Sunday, Aug. 25 at Novato's pristine idyll and sanctuary--the rustic Rush Creek Open Space Preserve at Atherton.  There were 20 of us, young ones and young once who share the same passion with physical wellness as a goal, including Angel, the Chihuahua; Buster, the Pug and Beowolf, the Shishu Tibetian breed, dogs of Jack and Denice Yee.  The fun included some singing on the way while Mang Rudy belted an array of Filipino ditties and kundimans, western folksongs, patriotic and love songs with his harmonica that further enlivened the trek.    Wasn't that fun?  In no time the three miles were traversed in exactly two leisurely hours!

Picture
    "Let's have a repeat," said one.  "Amen to that" enthused another.  OK, while the weather is fine, and before the cold spring breeze sets in we shall have another one at Indian Valley beyond the soccer field.  We'll arrange for a suitable Sunday next month, maybe on the 15th.  We'll sound you off.
    A trail hiker is a health disciple with the will to break force with nature the product of which is a sound mind in a sound body.  In Latin: mens sana en corpore sano.  In English: Physical fitness equals mental fitness.
   The health disciples are: Priana and Izagani Aquino, the very young ones; the younger once Bing-Bong Aquino, Josie Pelletier, Lettie Ranjo, Marion Samson-Gigliotti, Denice and Jack Yee, Leah Duldulao, Marilyn Albert, Marilyn Brooks, Esther Solar, Lena Fogarty, Laura Stabell, and the young once Henry and Pat Yee and  "Mang Rudy" Viernes.

1 Comment

I SAW, I WAS CONQUERED

4/7/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture



​ By Hermes Ford

  It is said: “It’s only when you share life with others that life begins to have meaning, the time you touch the life of others is the time that you really live.” This is what we members of FANCO feel when we hear of the expression of gratitude from the people of ProjectPEARLS in Manila for what we have done to a dozen poor children who are beneficiaries of our donation. Feel good, huh!
  FANCO is now in its third year of involvement in the Sitio Ulingan outreach in Tondo, Manila , charity program of Project PEARLS, acronym for Peace, Education, Aspiration, Respect, Love, Smile. It is founded by Melissa Villa as a tax exempt, non-profit organization incorporated in California . It stirs awareness of the plight of and radiate some light in the life of the less blessed in the home country. The place is a dumpsite of filth and squalor where children scavenge for charcoal and sell them for pittance to augment the family income.
  I was there during my last visit. I saw the destitution. I was moved. I was conquered. The environs envisage like hell’s ferment with maze of fumes swirling around that can cause respiratory and heart illnesses. It’s a macabre scene that you witness and feel. If you aren’t moved your heart must be made of stone. There are numerous organized groups with kindred mission that have allied themselves with ProjectPEARLS. These are nurses, doctors and ordinary citizens who are all modern Comforters of the Afflicted. 

 Karen Beblanas is one of the volunteers who chairs the Scholarship Committee. She reports that a dozen children are beneficiaries of FANCO’s donation. Each receive two sets of uniforms,(T-shirts, shorts, skirts) pair of shoes, socks, a back pack with school supplies.
  All of FANCO’s “scholars” are doing well in school. They are served nutritious breakfast during recess, given free medical check-up by the volunteers and join educational field trips that widen their horizons.


Picture
   With this kind of good news, I think we can augment FANCO’s donation each year as individual members. No amount is too paltry to radiate light in their affliction. $10  may not mean a lot to us but count a great deal to these poor kids to be able to get an education which is their lifeline out of poverty. Let’s roll the ball. It starts with me.

Please visit www.ProjectPEARLS.com to learn how you can help.
Picture
0 Comments
    "There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen 
    ​and writes."  
    ​~William Makepeace Thackeray


    ​Contributors:

    Modern Heroes
     
    by Rudy Viernes

    Energized By
    the Trail Hike

     by Rudy Viernes
    ​

    ​I Saw, I Was Conquered
    by Hermes Ford

    Filipino English
     by Rudy Viernes

    The Evolution of
    the Terno
     
    by Rudy Viernes

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.