Abstract
This paper analyzes three Philippine cultural texts that depict highland-lowland romantic relationships with the aim of discovering how romantic discourse is appropriated to investigate the conflict and negotiation of culture. The texts examined are the short story “The Girl from Bauko” (Ablang 1988), the TV series Forevermore aired in 2014-2015 by a local Philippine TV station, and the 2006 film Don’t Give Up on Us. All three texts depict the blossoming romance between an Igorot, who is a member from an indigenous minority group, and a lowlander, whose collective ethnic identity is culturally dominant. To address these issues, this paper employs the concept of the “contact zone,” which is conceptualized here as a space where confrontation, exchange or kinship occurs or is developed. This paper argues that highland-lowland romantic relationships as depicted in the three narratives implicate and engage a range of issues such as the metropolis/periphery dichotomy, the romanticization of the highlander, and the prevalent socio-economic and ethnic divides.
Highlights
This paper analyzes three Philippine cultural texts that depict highland-lowland romantic relationships with the aim of discovering how romantic discourse is appropriated to investigate the conflict and negotiation of culture
These perceived differences were subsequently retained and even instituted in Philippine law, in the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997 or the Republic Act No 8371 of the Philippines. This law summarily distinguishes indigenous peoples from other ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines as communities or groups of people who have become “historically differentiated from other Filipinos” because they have resisted colonization or influences of other cultures. One such identified indigenous group is the Igorot[2] who, in terms of administrative, geographic and educational simplification, is identified with the highlands, the Cordillera Administrative Region situated in Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines
I do this in order to investigate how conflict and the negotiation of culture are appropriated in romantic discourse within the Philippine context
Summary
Forevermore is a Philippine television series or teleserye (a play on television and series which is closely related to the telenovela genre from Latin America) directed by Cathy Garcia Molina. Xander’s matriarchal grandmother feels ambivalent towards Agnes, reiterating the image that she does not belong in their socio-economic world Because of their treatment towards Agnes, Xander decides to leave his family to live with the La Presans instead. By directly contrasting the images of metropolis/lowland and periphery/highland, Forevermore acknowledges that such dichotomies exist, but brings them into dialogue through the romantic relationship between Agnes and Xander, and resolves them by depicting love as a site where the ongoing process of negotiation between differing values and beliefs such as class and culture is needed for positive transformations and enduring relationships
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