The Star-Entangled Banner: One Hundred Years of America in the Philippines

Abstract

Carrying a title suggestive of Keith Tor Carlson's The Twisted Road to Freedom: America's Granting of Independence to the Philippines (1995), Sharon Delmendo's study examines the century-long relationship between Filipinos and Americans, proffering the “two nations— and nationalism—variously defined and deployed by conflicting camps in both the United States and the Philippines” (p. 15). Perceiving a bond restrictive of Philippine sovereignty and self-identity, the author labels the two countries' restored accord since 9/11 an imperious renascence instigated by President George W. Bush. Through case studies, Delmendo, an associate professor of English at Rochester's St. John Fisher College, utilizes the identity, values, and state features of nationalism as lenses to interpret Filipino and American accounts of their meshed national experiences. Each case reveals a renewed United States hegemony accompanied by a compromised Philippine independence or national self-concept. Chapter 1 applies the identity idea of the hero to portray José Rizal's image subjugated to an American rendition compatible with United States imperialism. Chapter 2 employs identity to explain how racial stereotypes of Filipinos displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and reinforced in Palmer Cox's children's book The Brownies in the Philippines (1903) confirmed the necessity of American colonization. State and identity interact in chapter 3 via Back to Bataan (1945), a World War II movie that underscores that Philippine sovereignty is obtainable solely through a Filipino resistance to Japanese occupation under United States leadership, as exemplified by an abject yet fictitious descendant of the national icon Andres Bonifacio. Chapter 4 uses the state to symbolize American neocolonialism as elucidated in controversy about civic holidays and the accidental entangling of the two countries' flags (hence the book's title) at the July 4, 1996, Philippine independence observance. The author's theme is rehashed in concluding chapters concerning a novel by F. Sionil José and the American army's keeping of the Balangiga Bells.