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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Making history from U.S. colonial amnesia : Filipino American and U.S. Puerto Rican poetic genealogies Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18m1n9hh Author Caronan, Faye Christine Publication Date 2007 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Making History from U.S. Colonial Amnesia: Filipino American and U.S. Puerto Rican Poetic Genealogies A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies by Faye Christine Caronan Committee in charge Professor Yen Le Espiritu, Chair Professor John D. Blanco Professor Lisa Lowe Professor Lisa Sun-Hee Park Professor Ana Celia Zentella 2007 Copyright Faye Christine Caronan, 2007 All Rights Reserved The Dissertation of Faye Christine Caronan is approved and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2007 iii Dedication Para kay Ina. Hinahanap kita sa mga dulo ng kaysaysayan. iv Table of Contents Signature Page…………………………………………………… iii Dedication……………………………………………………….. iv Table of Contents………………………………………………… v Acknowledgements………………………………………………. vi Abstract…………………………………………………………… ix Vita.................................................................................................. xi I. Introduction………………………………………………………... 1 II. Assimilation, (Mis)Education and the Selective Memory of U.S History …………………………………......................................... 30 III. Reconstructing (Post)Colonial History: The Search for Subjugated Knowledges..................................……………………………........ 63 IV. Local Genealogies of Global Power..................…………………... 101 V. “Headed for a World That’s Brand New”: Performance Poetry as Activist Tool.....…………………………………………………... 145 VI. Conclusion: Marketing Performance Poets...................................... 173 VII. Bibliography……………………………………………………..... 184 v Acknowledgements Having lived most of my life in the suburbs, I spent little time in a city before this project. I thank the Filipino American poets who introduced me to a Los Angeles I never saw from the far edge of L.A. County and the New York Puerto Rican poets who taught me to navigate the NYC arts and poetry scene. In particular, I’d like to thank Alan Aquino, Alison de la Cruz, Nicole Delgado, Mariposa, Dorian Merina, Cheryl Samson, Ray Ramirez, and Rick Villar for their generosity and warm welcome. This dissertation is a labor of love made possible by the generosity of the UCSD San Diego Fellowship, the Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs Fellowship, the Brython P. Davis Scholarship, multiple Social Science Dean’s Travel Grants, and multiple Ethnic Studies department travel grants. UCSD Ethnic Studies provided me with the best possible intellectual home. It was my great privilege to work with a distinguished, supportive, and enthusiastic dissertation supervisory committee: Yen Le Espiritu, Lisa Lowe, Lisa Sun- Hee Park, Jody Blanco, and Ana Celia Zentella. Yen Le Espiritu is an incredible mentor whose dedication to her students can never be overstated. I thank her for her professional and personal guidance, and for always making time to meet me even after I moved from San Diego. Lisa Lowe’s faith in my work allows her to see the unintended connections I make and push me to develop these connections into stronger and more compelling arguments. For this and her encouragement, I am most appreciative. Thanks to Lisa Sun- Hee Park for helping me with methodological confusion, for her candid advice, and for her careful comments on my chapter drafts. I thank Jody Blanco for always listening sympathetically to my concerns about academic life and offering his honest opinions. I am grateful to Ana Celia Zentella’s help familiarizing me with Puerto Rican Studies and vi especially for her help making contacts with the New York Puerto Rican poetry community. Outside of my committee, I would like to thank Vince Rafael for taking an active interest in my work, for his comments and the wealth of citations he provides. God has blessed me with a wealth of friends. Thanks to Linda Adler, Patty Carcamo, Walter Chen, Chris Henninger, Edmelynne Hutter, Michael Kennedy, Mariana Niell, Mimi Ong, Gina Opinaldo, JoAnna Poblete-Cross, Dean Saranillio, Mary Panelo Schwedler, Angie Shen, Theresa Cenidoza-Suarez, Nishant Shukla, Brian Tong, Andrew Wone, Maria Valenzuela, and Nancy Zhang who have always supported my work simply because it was mine. Much love to Tim Cheng who opened up his home to me, allowing me to finish the dissertation in San Diego and to enjoy my remaining time as a student. I am grateful for Margaret Fajardo’s always dependable friendship. Special thanks to Cecilia Rivas, whose companionship as I finished the dissertation prevented me from ever feeling isolated. I thank May Fu and Lisa Cacho for always being available when I need career advice. To my beloved cohort, Thuy Vo Dang, Tere Ceseña, Theofanis Verinakis, Ashley Lucas, and Monika Gosin, thank you for sharing with me every joyous and stressful moment of my graduate career. My family is my bedrock. Their lives inspire my research and remind me everyday of the importance of this work. Bella & Benny Caronan and Tara & Taylor Lepale are the light of my life. Their smiles and laughter are the best stress relief. Felicity and Dulce, the felines in my family, always ensured I took much needed writing breaks. Maraming salamat po, Mommy and Daddy, for the privilege of dreaming beyond practicality. Thanks and lots of love to Dennis Caronan, my big brother, for always keeping my best interests at heart. I am grateful to Cathy Lepale, my sister and best vii girlfriend, for her wisdom, her always attentive ear, and the comfort that only our sisterhood brings. Finally, my most heartfelt thanks go to David Chen, my husband and my home. His steadfast faith in me nourishes my idealism and keeps me going. Thank you again and again for your unconditional support and unfailing love. viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Making History from U.S. Colonial Amnesia: Filipino American and U.S. Puerto Rican Poetic Genealogies by Faye Christine Caronan Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego, 2007 Professor Yen Le Espiritu, Chair United States national narratives deploy a selective memory in order to construct the U.S. as a benevolent global power and enable its political and economic interests abroad. In the case of the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the U.S. relied on U.S. styled education systems established during the colonial period, to function as “technologies of forgetting” and suppress memories that counter the narrative of U.S. imperial benevolence. This dissertation explores how Los Angeles Filipino American and New York Puerto Rican performance poets remember U.S. imperialism in the Philippines and ix Puerto Rico in the face of institutionalized efforts and social pressure that encourage systematic forgetting. These performance poets educate their communities about forgotten and current histories of U.S. imperialism to organize for social change but these histories are not institutionally recognized. My analysis relies on Foucauldian conceptualizations of the power of institutionalizing knowledge and the disqualified or subjugated knowledges that institutionalizing processes such as language policies, public education and assimilationist paradigms produce. Despite the U.S. nation state’s resources for reproducing institutionalized histories, neither resistance to the narrative of U.S. colonial benevolence nor the histories this narrative omits can be completely eradicated. Instead, the reproduction of these subjugated knowledges takes place in alternative spaces and through alternative pedagogical practices. Examining the spaces and transnational practices that enable Los Angeles Filipino American and New York Puerto Rican performance poets to construct and reproduce historical narratives challenging institutionalized U.S. history, I argue that these performance poets trace a genealogy of global power that engages the politics of remembering U.S. imperialism to enable social change. Put simply, these poets reconstruct the past to imagine and work towards a different future. Making History from U.S. Colonial Amnesia acknowledges both how Filipino American and U.S. Puerto Rican performance poets make history by intervening in a politics of remembering U.S. imperialism and make history by actively participating in local and transnational social movements. x Vita Education 2007 Doctor of Philosophy, Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego 2003 Master of Arts, Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego 2001 Bachelor of Arts, English Cornell University Publications “Colonial Consumption and Colonial Hierarchies in Representations of Philippine and Puerto Rican Tourism” in Philippine Studies 53:1 (2006) 32-58. Research Positions 2004 Graduate Student Researcher for Prof. Lisa Sun-Hee Park Department of Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego 2002 Graduate Student Researcher for Prof. Natalia Molina Department of Ethnic Studies University of California,