A Crash Course Through Filipino Culture And History by Alexa Gamboa

            A couple of my classmates and I decided to go to Pampanga for fieldwork. One of our stops was the Nayong Pilipino Park. My memories of this place are so vivid that I can remember the little things that happened, like how I didn’t have enough change for the entrance ticket or how my shoes had so much mud right after I left. Anyway, the Nayong Pilipino Park is kind of like taking a huge load of the culture and history from both the Pre-colonial and Colonial period and jamming it into a few hectares. If you ask me, it’s a crash course in Filipino culture and history that you can literally, run through.                   

          We began our exploration of the park with the Ifugao and the Kalinga village display. The Ifugao Village display comprised of around six high-set houses that had ladders in front of their entrances. Under the houses, you could see tools for basket weaving, metalworking and maybe even mat weaving. According to the workers maintaining the display, the Ifugao people are usually found in the mountains. They are really famous for their rice terracing, and the people of their tribe are famous for the creation of the Banaue Rice Terraces. In the Kalinga Village display, the houses were also kind of similar to the houses of the previous display. They were set high on four legs and they needed ladders to enter. I read on the info placard that like the Ifugaos, Kalinga people were famous for their rice planting, basket weaving, and metalworking. Also, they were excellent hunters.  In both of the displays, the terrain mimicked mountain terrain. The area was grassy at some parts, and there were clearings for the houses. During our brief time in the display, my classmates and I even witnessed a person, dressed like either an Ifugao or Kalinga, biking around the display. It was slightly amusing because there weren’t exactly any bikes during the pre-colonial period of the Philippines.

            The second part of our visit there began when we were walking through a grassy path that mimicked mountain terrain. The ground was muddy and was made slippery with the wet grass, and it was raining lightly. I remember that while my classmates and I were walking, one of us lost her balance on the muddy ground and fell. It looked like it hurt. A lot. Going, back, we found ourselves walking beside statues depicting famous Filipino myths like “Malakas at Maganda,” and “Maria Makiling.” Most, if not, all Filipinos know that Malakas and Maganda were the Adam and Eve of the Filipino creation story, but instead of being made out of clay, Malakas and Maganda came from an abnormally large bamboo trunk that was split open. The display showed just that- a man and a woman, naked, inside a rather large, split bamboo trunk. One of my classmates decided to climb the exhibit and make it look like that he was actually part of the myth. At some point, I think he started leaning on the man. The next myth depiction we saw was of “Maria Makiling.” She was believed to be a mountain spirit and that she occupies Mt. Makiling, which looks like the profile of a woman lying down.  The statue was of a woman, holding her arm out, with dark hair and mocha-brown skin, wearing a billowy, white dress. Again, my classmate wanted to be funny, so he climbed this exhibit, and pretended that Maria Makiling was holding his face. This was yet another slightly amusing part of our visit. 

            While walking from the Pre-colonial display, the environment changed drastically. Gone were the wet, slippery, and muddy grounds, and soon came the concrete. We found ourselves entering the Colonial Period Display. We entered a sort of plaza-type place where a miniature replica of the Barasoain church was. Apparently, Holy Mass is held there every Sunday. I thought that piece of information was pretty awesome because it really is like the true Barasoain church down to the little details, and yes, with the people hearing mass there.

            Nearby the Barasoain church were replicas of the houses of three of the national heroes of the Philippines. The first house we stopped by was of Jose Rizal’s. His house was particularly interesting because the entire exterior of the first floor was made of cement and the entire second floor was of wood. Actually, there wasn’t a second floor. The “house” was kind of just one room with stuff in it. Inside the house, the walls were painted bright orange, so the house had a kind of cozy feel to it. Scattered around the room were various pieces of furniture like a broken piano leaning against the right wall, several benches, a marble-topped table, and a four-poster bed, which, one of my classmates lay down on.

           The next house we stopped was a replica of Emilio Aguinaldo’s house. His house was painted white on the outside, and it was quite boxy with pointed roofs. Inside his house, we found a couple of other interesting pieces of furniture, like a bike with a rather large front wheel, and two tiny hind wheels.  We also found a little rocking horse that was still functional. A classmate and I tried to ride both the bike and the rocking horse, but we couldn’t really get on the bike properly, so we kind of ended up hurting ourselves.

           The last house we stopped by was a replica of Apolinario Mabini’s house. Entering his house was kind of like going inside a big basket. The house was completely made out of wood, with the exception of the nails used. Inside the house, we saw different kinds of old Filipino artifacts like shards of ceramics, sea glass, springs and the like. Of course, none of us could ride any of these artifacts, so we were inside that house the shortest.

            Since we were done with all the main spots of the Park, we decided to go explore the other “extra parts” of the park. At some point, we found a replica of the city walls of Intramuros, a couple of “kalesas” on display, which my classmates and I also ended up riding, and a manmade river where people could go boating for a small price. A couple of my classmates decided to take out one of the boats and go for a ride, but at some point, they ended up getting stranded in the middle of the river, and they had to use an umbrella to propel themselves back to the shore.             

            Overall, it was a pretty fun, yet productive trip. I didn’t only learn from the visit, I also kind of experienced Filipino culture and history of the old country. To me, the place really did feel like a trip through a time machine, and I’m glad I took a break from the hustle and bustle of the urban jungle.