ROLLING THE R’SA NOVEL BY R. ZAMORA LINMARK

Megan KwokSusan Shamoon

THEY LIKE YOU BECAUSE YOU EAT DOG“They like you because you’re a copycat, want to be just like them. They like you because- give it a few more years- you’ll be just like them. And when that time comes, will they like you more?”

Why do they like you? Exploitable, reinforces their power Because no matter how hard you try you are bound to fail

Do they really like you?

FILIPINONESS Two Filipinos (67)“And the rest tell Mrs. Takemoto, who has gone row by row asking them their ethnicity, that they are Filipinos, except for Nelson Ariola, who says he is an American although he is as Filipino as any Filipino can be”

Why does Nelson think he is not Filipino? Class (Immigrant status, parents occupation) Language (speaks proper English, doesn’t speak

Tagalog or Illocano) What makes one Filipino?

FILIPINONESS

Daldalera (74) Google translate: telltale Ilocano dictionary: n. gossip monger, idle talker

• “Katrina and her mother are a disgrace to the Filipino race”

• “But don’t worry kasi they don’t act like Filipinos. They can’t even speak a word of Tagalog.- Compare with the children’s discussion of

Filipinoness in Two Filipinos- Tadiar “Filipinas Living in a Time of War”- the look

FILIPINONESS District Exemption (118)“No, really, Edgar, why do you hate haoles so much?”“I no hate all haoles. Just the kind haoles who think they better than anybody else. You know, the kind who think they still livin’ in the time of Roots.”“Well, what about those Filipinos who say they aren’t Filipinos?”

How does this relate to Daldalera & Tadiar What is Edgar suggesting? Is he racist?

KALIHI IN FARRAH “Everybody in Kalihi wants to be Farrah.

The name itself sounds sultry and expensive” (22).

Orlando Domingo’s “Flipped-Out Farrah” Performing his biyuti (Manalansan, pg. 148)

“We gotta do something before our boys catch this madness and start huddling in skirts and pom-poms,” the football coach Mr. Akana and Mr. Ching tell Principal Shin. “[…] you gotta keep him away from our boys if you want the team to bring home the OIA title.” (24)

Problematizing the assumed desire for whiteness “Once a Farrah Flip, always a Farrah Flip.” Or, “A Flip is a Flip

is a Flip.” (24) Flip - derogatory term for Filipinos, but reappropriated (and as

a double entendre for Farrah’s hair flips)

WHY FARRAH FAWCETT? “Who doesn’t want to be the reigning queen of pin-up posters

thumbtacked on every wall of the house? A swimsuit goddess with long and graceful legs, pearly white teeth, glossy lips, roller-derby hips, and a million-dollar smile […] Who doesn’t want that full-volumed, sunshine-golden mane […]?” (22)

“[…] 1) write letters to Farrah Fawcett c/o ABC Network; 2) show off their collections of Farrah memorabilia. Including cut-outs from glamour magazines and Farrah’s latest swimsuit poster; 3) role-play scenes from Charlie’s Angels; 4) discuss socio-politically charged issues raised by the show, such as prostitution, lesbian undertones, and Orientalism.” (23)

Farrah, flipped hair, “flip” = mediators Becoming Farrah, becoming queer, becoming Flip, becoming

Filipino Is this pervasiveness of pop culture internalizing or appropriating? What does this say about what it means to be a Filipino?

FLIPPED-OUT FARRAH “[…] charging [them] with

discrimination against a Filipino faggot whose only desire is to be Farrah from Farrington, as in Farrah, the Kalihi Angel.” What is happening as Orlando

performs/becomes this Flipped-out Farrah?

KALIHI IS IN THE HEART (104)- The Purple Man and His Disciples (marginalized

characters, edge of society)- “except for the Bishop Museum and the Planetarium,

Kalihi is not listed in Places to Visit in Oahu”- “Cuz to them, you invisible” Edgar says- “If I’m chosen Ms. Kalihi 1979, the first thing I’m

going to do is move the freakin’ freeway away from the Bishop Museum and the Planetarium so the tourists no can make one quick getaway to Waikiki, thank you,” Katrina says, smiling wide

- What does it reveal about Hawaii? Kalihi?- Reference to Bulosan’s America is in the Heart?

Kalihi is in the heart and progress reports in tongue-tied

“And will you also discourage him from associating with Edgar Ramirez and Katherine Cruz?” (Vicente’s progress report 51)

“Will you discourage Mai-Lan from associating with Kathernie Cruz?” (Mai Lan’s report 52)

“Will you discourage him from further associations with these two?” (Florante’s report 53)

As if avoidance makes the “problem” go away