Viva San Clemente! : Recreating the Philippine fiesta in Winnipeg

Angono town fiesta in Winnipeg 2013

Members of Winnipeg’s Angono community incorporate the Easter tradition
of the Kapitana and Tinyente into its November town fiesta.

Source: ANAKwinnipeg/ Youtube

November 23 is a special day for the people of my parent’s hometown. It is the day the people of Angono, Rizal celebrate their patron saint, Saint Clement (San Clemente). After 9 days of prayer, the town comes together for a lively, colourful, and musical parade down its historic and narrow streets. Mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents come out to march in the procession or squeeze through crowds to find the best view. People throw water and the marching bands play music. There are cheers and drunken laughter (from those starting the celebration early). It is a lively time in Angono to watch the statue of Saint Clement make its way around the town.



In Winnipeg, this tradition carries on.

The Angono Rizal Association of Winnipeg (ARAW) has hosted the same prayer and celebration for as long as I can remember. Although the celebrations were smaller when I was a kid (think pinatas and potato sack races), it has since gained new energy in recent years. There are a great number of newcomers from Angono who now reside here. They may have come under the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program to put their skills to work, but they have also brought a new sense of modernity to our regional celebration. Gone are the days when the elders only spoke Tagalog. Instead, it is a mix of young and old communicating in modes of Tag-lish (Tagalog and English). The divide is no longer as pronounced. During the weekend, we celebrated not only the tradition of our patron saint, but the idea of nostalgia, culture, imagination, and belonging.





Parehadoras (left) and Higantes (right) during the Angono fiesta Source: demortalz.com



The Philippine fiesta is a Catholic tradition brought from the Spaniards in the 1500s. It incorporates Catholic Saints and religious rites. However, one might notice that the celebration is also much more. The imagery of the higantes (paper mache giants) and the parehadoras (female devotees carrying small wooden oars) imply that there are also pre-Catholic traditions that remain. Here, we too celebrate the ocean and its offerings to the people whose livelihood depend on her. In much the way this evolution has taken place, I imagine the same thing is happening here in Winnipeg.

Instead of marching through the streets of Winnipeg (it is winter here by the way), we gather at the local parish hall. We delight in the endless amount of food everyone has contributed towards. We hold 50/50 raffles and silent auctions to finance this gathering. The marching band music is no longer live, but we dance nevertheless to the DJ who plays it. Our higantes resemble some of the members of our own community and our parehadoras are now elderly. We still throw water, but we also hear our mothers scold us in the background. We throw coins at our own Kapitana and Tinyente as they perform the traditional Easter dance (even if it’s not Easter yet). This is the Angono fiesta in Winnipeg.

I hope as I get older I will look back and smile at the ways the traditions have changed over the years. Maybe, I will smile the same way my parents do when they hear a familiar song from the Philippines. I’ll think back and overlook the fact that it wasn’t played in its purest traditional form, but in an adapted way to suit the needs we have – at home away from my imagined Filipino home.

Pista ng Higantes sa Angono, Rizal (Tagalog)

Higantes Festival in Angono, Rizal

Source: PTV PH/ Youtube

Manitoba’s First Filipino Street Festival

http://www.cbc.ca/video/swf/UberPlayer.swf?state=sharevideo&clipId=2272514937&width=480&height=322

 

Source: CBC News. Manitoba’s First Filipino Street Festival. August 25, 2012.

 

On Saturday, August 25, Winnipeg played host to Manitoba’s first Filipino Street Festival. The celebration was organized by over 37 groups from the city and as far as Russell, Manitoba. Each organization represented a wide array of Philippine diversity – from regional organizations, business, the arts and culture. I was amazed to see the live music that comprised the lengthy parade around Garden City mall as well as the costumes, floats, and talent. I felt like it was either nearing fiesta time, holy week or Christmas at one of the local SM malls littered throughout the Philippines.

 

It was a big accomplishment for the community. And, as the above CBC piece attests, it is testament to Winnipeg’s large, established Filipino-Canadian presence. Setting aside the cliche comments about immigrant reactions to snow and the ‘I want to go home’ soundbites, there appears to be an urgency among our elders for the ‘second-hand’ generation of Filipino-Canadians to gain ‘first-hand’ experiences as ‘Filipinos’.

 



Winnipeg’s Angono community with their traditional parehadoras and higantes during the parade

Days before the festival, I was contacted by CBC Radio for my thoughts on the loss of identity and culture among our generation – a concern that was underlined by the organizers of the event. I agreed to be interviewed with hopes of sharing a new perspective of our evolving identity and culture here as Canadians – that perhaps the situation was hardly dire. What ensued within a snipet of the following morning show interview was one awkward conversation (click if you care to cringe with me).  There appears to be a definitive ‘black or white’ understanding of culture themed through the festival. However, I want to peel back the layers of perspectives. Let’s stop to really think.

Winnipeg’s Aklan Association and their colorful Ati-Atihan tradition in honour of Sto. Nino.

For recent immigrants, the urgent need to pass on a sense of ‘culture’ is the act of finding hands-on experiences in tradition. For example, for me, it means knowing I am from Angono; I am Tagalog; and I can march alongside the higantes come Fiesta time each November (which is what I have grown up doing all my life in Winnipeg). For those established Filipinos who have spent decades-upon-decades away from the Philippines, it means holding onto a memory of a certain past – of home. For the youth, it means defining what Filipino is as a Canadian. With all the different regional groups re-enacting their own collective memories of ‘home’ and establishing their legacies for the future, this parade was as Canadian as it gets. It was a show of our real diversity – showcased and organized by the very peoples of the Philippines that lived, breathed, and experienced the varying languages, regionalisms, landscapes, and traditions. (Take that Folklorama). It means being multicultural in multicultural Canada.

 

So, I’m not quite sure what the DJ was trying to get at during my interview. We are Filipinos and Canadians and we live and celebrate our lives in beautiful shades of grey. I’m certain each generation knows this. It just comes out in our one of many ways.