Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

282 MICHAEL PINCHES
The mestizos came into being as a distinctive social and legal entity during the
Spanish era, having come from mixed Malay, Chinese and, to a lesser extent,
Spanish ancestries. The mestizo identity came to be associated not only with
propertied wealth, but also with a lifestyle and outlook that was successively
hispanised and americanised, in the tradition of both colonial rulers (Wickberg
1964; Constantino 1978:115—28; McCoy 1981; Tan 1985:53—4). The mestizos
generally came to embody ideas of worldliness, sophistication, refinement and high
culture, cultivated, in large part, through a privileged formal education, and defined
in counter-distinction to indigenous Malay Filipino villagers and urban workers.
And, in contrast to the latter, the mestizos came to associate themselves with the
qualities of natural beauty and intelligence. 9 As landlords, clergy, politicians and
intellectuals, the idealised vision of the mestizo and Spanish-Filipino elite saw them
as generous, caring patrons and philanthropists. From their clients, and from the
broader populace, they came to expect service, respect and ritual deference. The
most prominent among the elite assumed the Spanish appellations Don and Doña,
titles that are still used in some quarters.
While these various constructions together defined the broad cultural
boundaries of the elite, they did not always coincide. Many individuals identified as
mestizo, for instance, were not wealthy landlords and lived more modest lives.
Nevertheless, the elite was identified within these loose boundaries. At its core, it
came to be known through a series of named and interconnected family dynasties,
commonly associated with particular regionally based ethno-linguistic groups. 10 In
the regions in which they are most powerful, and in large urban settings, the mere
utterance of these family names generally evokes most of the above cultural
connotations. Despite a good deal of change in the activities, livelihood and social
organisation of these families, the aura of cultural eminence outlined here
continues to surround the present generation of descendants who, in various ways,
endeavour to protect their privileged standing.
Nevertheless, the cultural eminence of the old elite has long been challenged
from a number of sources, through popular secular and religio-political movements,
as well as through the ‘everyday’ practices and discourses of peasants and
workers. 11 With the growth of a middle-class intelligentsia, less beholden to the
oligarchy than their ilustrado forebears, there has also developed an influential
nationalist ideology which has been particularly critical of the old elite for their
‘colonial consciousness’ and lack of commitment to national development. 12 Not
only was the landed oligarchy represented as an enemy by the two major postindependence
communist movements; it was also singled out by President Marcos
as the principal reason for the Philippines’ economic backwardness (Marcos 1978:
17—22), and hence as a justification for the New Society that was supposed to be
heralded in by the declaration of martial law in 1972. Though some of the
oligarchic families, partially disinherited and disempowered by the Marcoses, have
again become prominent, the Aquino and, to a greater extent, the Ramos
governments have also promoted a rhetoric of national development which
questions the exclusive economic privileges and leisured lifestyles associated both