The Power of Flexibility

A lot of great things in the world are things that have been mixed up; food, clothing, literature, and art among other things. The mixture is sometimes an experiment, trying new ways to experience time honored traditions, and other times it is born out of necessity, particularly in a highly specialized form of art. The Filipino martial arts are an interesting example of how taking different ideas and mixing them together can create something so unique that it becomes one of the defining aspects of a culture. The art is a culmination of different fighting styles from different cultures and countries, and illustrates the ideas of the mestiza mentality described by Gloria Anzaldua.

The Filipino martial arts are a lethal combat system that militarily represents the people of the Philippine islands. In Dan Inosanto's, The Filipino Martial Arts as taught by Dan Inosanto, he briefly gives a history of the islands' inhabitants and how they developed the culture. The cultures and people that made up the Philippine Islands include, "…an early pygmy tribe called Negritos…the Proto Malay…[T]he tall burly and sea-loving Indonesians… the famous Hindu-Malayan empire of Sri Vishaya…the Madjapahit empire…the Chinese…the Spanish…" (Inosanto 10). A group of such diversity living together naturally creates cultural tensions. Wars were constantly fought on the islands, but eventually the people would assimilate with one another. In some cases, they would even learn from one another; Dan Inosanto continues saying, "The Filipinos were a clever people. As more invaders came, their fighting styles were studied by the islanders who developed new styles and methods to combat them," (Inosanto 11). Rather than follow a rigid idea of simply resisting the infiltration of all foreign influences, the people instead chose to learn from them, and incorporate it into their own culture as well. This enabled the peoples of the islands not only how to resist hostile change, but also to tolerate it if it ever occurred. The concept of accepting systems other than what is known to the people is one that was rarely seen in the day and age that the martial arts were being developed.

This concept of cultural openness ties into Gloria Anzaldua's "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza" and her idea that in the future, the mestiza must break down the cultural barriers that divide the peoples they represent in order to know who they truly are. She writes that the mestiza, "…has discovered that she can't hold concepts or ideas in rigid boundaries…[R]igidity means death. Only in remaining flexible is she able to stretch the psyche horizontally and vertically," (Anzaldua 2100). What she is saying is that the world is constantly changing and people must adapt to the changes if they are to survive. One of the things that humans must adapt is their culture. Anzaldua comments that the cultural divisions in place currently divides mestizas/mestizos in how they act and what they do. This division is a self destruction of the person, and must be avoided at all costs. The practice of assimilation in the Philippine martial systems is very similar to Anzaldua's ideas in that where most cultures would try to reject foreign intrusions in ways of life, the Filipino warriors were willing to learn from it and see how it could benefit them before rejecting it. In other words, they have learned from experience that in order to survive, they cannot have a rigid point of view, but rather they must be flexible in their practices.

The mixed background of the Filipinos and their warriors gave them a more culturally open perspective in the face of their invaders. Though, like other peoples in the world, they fought against their invaders, the peoples of the Philippines benefited in their resistance. In learning the opposing side's arts, they gained a new perspective and new ideas in dealing with foreign cultures. Like the mestiza who must not only struggle but eventually make peace with her enemies, the people and warriors of the Philippines too had to eventually come to an understanding of their own. The result of this understanding is a people who are proud of their own heritage, no matter where they come from.

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism 2^nd Edition. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. pgs. 2098-2109. Print.

Inosanto, Dan, Johnson, Gilbert L., and George Foon. The Filipino Martial Arts as taught by Dan Inosanto. Los Angeles: Know How Publishing Co., 1980. Print