UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO the Subject Case
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Subject Case: The Filipino Body and the Politics of Making Filipino America A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Josen Masangkay Diaz Committee in charge: Professor Lisa Lowe, Co-Chair Professor John D. Blanco, Co-Chair Professor Fatima El-Tayeb Professor Yen Le Espiritu Professor Shelley Streeby Professor Lisa Yoneyama 2014 Copyright © Josen Masangkay Diaz, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Josen Masangkay Diaz is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii DEDICATION For my parents iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page .............................................................................................................. iii Dedication ..................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... v List of Figures ............................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... vii Vita ................................................................................................................................ xi Abstract of the Dissertation ........................................................................................... xii Introduction: Filipino America and the Imperial Grammar of Colonial Subjectivity .... 1 Chapter One: “Pangako, Puro Pangako”: Cultural Development During Martial Law and the Promise of the Filipino ............................................................................................. 40 Chapter Two: “We Were War Surplus, Too”: Nick Joaquin and the Im/possibilities of Filipino Historical Becoming ......................................................................................... 76 Chapter Three: “Save the Filipino Race!”: Incommensurable Images in the People Power Archive ........................................................................................................................... 122 Epilogue: “If I Was Not There” and Other Considerations ........................................... 163 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 172 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Save the Filipino Race! ................................................................................. 123 Figure 2: Women March Floral .................................................................................... 150 Figure 3: Women March Triangle ................................................................................ 152 Figure 4: Women March Masks ................................................................................... 153 Figure 5: Women March Child ..................................................................................... 155 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am fortunate to have spent the last ten years as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, where I belong to a community of students, teachers, and scholars who remain committed to justice in multiple forms. In the first few years of graduate school, Patrick Anderson encouraged me to pay close attention to the craft of writing and reminded me that a queer of color theory list does not have to begin with Foucault. Rosemary George served as the Director of Graduate Studies during my first few (and most formative) years of graduate school and reassured me that I was making the best choice by returning to San Diego. She kept her door open for me and others, and I miss her often. I have a committee comprised of members who are consistently present. Yen Le Espiritu engages with my work with precision and has offered inspiration in multiple other ways. Fatima El-Tayeb was especially instrumental in helping me wrestle with the monster that was my qualifying paper, an ambitious project that provided the groundwork for this dissertation. Shelley Streeby reads my work with care, investment, and generosity, and I always leave her office feeling better equipped for the tasks ahead. My most challenging graduate seminar was led by Lisa Yoneyama, who introduced me to Walter Benjamin for the first time and reminded me that theory must always be forcefully political. Her incisive questions are only matched by her unwavering support. Jody Blanco has served as my advisor since my fourth year of college. The conversations that we had then and the ones that we have now – in the Literature building, at campus and community events, over meals, and on the Hillcrest shuttle – act as mantras and guides. His instruction years ago, that people live anyway, and his more recent caution, that vii culture is the work of time, reverberates throughout my work here and will continue to do so well beyond my time in San Diego. Lisa Lowe took me on as a student when I was a third year undergraduate taking Introduction to Asian American Literature for the first time. She was the first to introduce me to Filipino American literature in the form of Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters and Ninotchka Rosca’s State of War. She re-invigorated my love for literature with that class, guided me as a confused McNair student, mentored me as a confused doctoral student, reminded me to be confident and resolute in my arguments and to put periods in between long, unwieldy sentences, all the while serving as my unfailing advocate. She is my strongest example of a brilliant scholar, skilled teacher and facilitator, and committed mentor, and there is nobody like her. Many of my friends also happen to be or have been graduate students in San Diego, and they make the city feel like home even when I leave it for weekends, weeks, months, and a year at a time. Kyung Hee Ha, Lauren Heintz, Anthony Yooshin Kim, Joo Ok Kim, Ashvin Kini, Angela Kong, Sara Mameni, Marilisa Navarro, Yumi Pak, Davorn Sisavath, and June J. Y. Ting: thank you for being sounding boards, keeping me company at cafes nationwide, and being good friends. Amanda Solomon Amorao, Jason Magabo Perez, and Thea Quiray Tagle help me push the limits of my own work and make me excited about Filipino American studies. I could not ask for a better “co-heart” than the one that I share with Anita Huizar-Hernandez, Chien-ting Lin, and Jacqueline Munguia. From the first day of LTTH 200A to Times Square to Manila to Taipei and back again, Chien-ting Lin has been a brilliant interlocutor, loyal travel partner, and dear friend. I am not sure where I would be if it were not for his companionship during these last few years, and I do not care to imagine that possibility. viii The Cross Cultural Center and the University of California TRiO programs have provided support and space to/for me in countless ways. The Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS) has given me room to grow as a student and as a teacher. As a Summer Bridge discussion facilitator in 2006, I read a chapter from Yen Le Espiritu’s Filipino American Lives for a training session, and it fundamentally altered the way I saw myself and my future work. In the summer of 2013, I returned to Summer Bridge as a lecturer, and it seems a most fitting end to my time at UCSD – teaching and relearning texts that found me at such opportune times. Along this vein, I am indebted to my students – past and present – who encourage me to be clear and imaginative in ways nobody else can. I have received generous funding from the Office of Graduate Studies at UCSD and the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) program. The latter allowed me to study Tagalog in the summer of 2010, an experience that significantly shaped the ways I conceive of my work. Further, the Department of Literature provided me with a year-long dissertation fellowship that afforded me the invaluable time I needed to travel to Manila, read, think, and write, and move to Oakland, where I met new friends, learned new things, ate many donuts, realized what it meant to miss San Diego, and met Julia H. Rhee. Julia lets me talk about my work too late into the night and teaches me – every day – about strength, passion, family, friendship, and Korean food. Thank you for coming into my life at the perfect time and for believing in me always. Ours is a big love unlike I have ever imagined, HB, and I am thrilled about all of the things that come next. So many of my good ideas come from my family, all of whom are persistent in their love and support even (and especially) when they do no not always understand what ix I spend most of my days doing. Their vivacity is precisely the thing that inspires me to ask different questions and strive for alternative modes of engagement – if only to conceive of the ways that they have learned how to live in this mad world. My Lolo, Antonio Masangkay, was one of my biggest fans. He helped me with my homework in grade school and kept a high school spotlight article of me in his folder of prized possessions. Some days, when nothing else seems to work, I am comforted by the advice that I imagine he would give me during moments of frustration. My Lola, Norma Cosico Masangkay, is a gifted storyteller, and she teaches me so much about humor and history.