In the Philippines Spanish conquest added Catholic festivals and the observances of saints' days to the regional celebrations of the 7,100 islands making up the archipelago. United States control, from 1898 to 1946, and continuing influence after independence, added Protestant beliefs (in small quantity) and North American music, holidays, and dress.

Even the traditional formal male shirt, the barong tagalog, is an imposed dress. In the 19th century rich Filipinos began wearing Western frock coats. As a sign of servitude, the Spanish forbade them to tuck in their shirttails. The Filipinos obeyed but produced shirts of beautiful embroidery and wore them with pride. Today, the shirt is a modern national costume.

Filipinos thus wear a mixture of regional and Western dress and celebrate Catholic and Protestant feasts and national observances. The 4th of July is now Philippine-American Friendship Day.

In Texas several Filipino performing arts groups replicate and modernize traditional dances. Earlier Filipinos were known for dances of harvest, battle, death, marriage, birth—all the seasons and passages of life. Much of their original costume and ritual combined Hindu, Arabic, Malayan, Spanish, and "American" sources as well as native forms.

The modern dances have distinctly new costumes influenced by centuries-old design; the dances are altered to fit the modern world but are related to older dances performed in the Philippines.

And most Filipino homes in Texas contain art and crafts as much a part of life as memory.

Return to text
Close this window

Last modified May 1999
© copyright 1999
The Institute of Texan Cultures