Palimpsesto

Filipino culture is a product of colonization - formed for almost 400 years in a Spanish convent and 100 years in Hollywood. One may take this negatively or positively depending on one's political leanings. Of course before the Spaniards came to the shore of the Philippine arhipelago, the islands already boast 50,000 years of civilization as attested to by the artifacts. Filipino culture is indeed a combination of the indigenous, the Hispanic, and the American. A Filipino is a melting pot of the Eastern and the Western civilizations. This combination of cultures or this colonial acculturation of the Filipino can be likened to a palimpsest, a papyrus or parchment that has been written more than once, with the earlier writing not completely erased.

The image of the palimpsest of a Filipino culture can be seen in Philippine literature and art. "Palimpsesto, the Spanish word for palimpsest truly defines the so-called identity of a Filipino. For we are a palimpsest of which our own indentity is mixed with the Chinese, the Spaniard and later with the Americans. This is who we are, this is what a Filipino is. A palimpsesto of which we can never deny.