Group 8 Political Caricatures

PHILIPPINE CARTOONS: POLITICAL CARICATURE OF THE AMERICAN ERA (1900-1941) Alfred W. McCoy Author

Alfred McCoy

BACKGROUND INFO: Name: Alfred William McCoy Born:

June 8, 1945 in Concord, Massachusetts, United States

Nationality:

American

Parents:

Margarita McCoy

Education:

Columbia University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, Kent School

 He is a professor of the Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he also serves as the director of the center for SE Asian Studies.  McCoy has spent the thirty years of writing about Southeast Asia History and Politics. His publications includes the Philippine Cartoon (1985), Anarchy of Families (1994), Closer than Brothers: Man Hood at the Philippine Military Academy (2000) and Lives at the Margin (2001).  After earning a Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history at Yale, the writings of McCoy on this region has focused on two topics, Philippine Political History and Global Opium trafficking. The Philippine remains the major focus of his research

Philippine Cartoon: Political Caricatures of the American Era 19001941 by Alfred McCoy and Alfredo Roces

ACHIEVEMENTS:  Philippine Catholic Mass Media Award  Best Book of the Year for 1985  Philippine National Book Award for History (1986)  Gintong Aklat Award  Special Citation for History (1987)

 The Philippine Political Cartoons gained full expression during the American era. Filipino artists recorded national attitudes towards the coming of the American as well as the changing mores and times.  While the 377 cartoons compiled in this book speak for themselves, historian Alfred McCoy’s extensive research in Philippine and American archives provides a comprehensive background not only to the cartoons but to the turbulent period as well.  These prewar political cartoons are an evocative record of a half-forgotten history. The scandals, struggles and social changes of the American colonial period gain an immediacy in these graphic images that eludes even the most eloquent historical prose.

MANILA: THE CORRUPTION OF THE CITY

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THE CALAMITY OF THE MOMENT

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ANG DATO, DATOON; ANG KABUS, KABUSON

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WHY THE “APARCERO REBELS

It shows the form of landlord usury used to strip tenant farmers from their rightful share of harvest.

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A NEW WRINKLE IN THE ART OF THEIVING

This shows City Capitalist using the Torrens title process, which required relinquishment of customary claims to issue titles, to grab lands in Nueva Ecija and other Central Luzon Provinces.

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EQUAL WORK, UNEQUAL SALARY, WHY?

. winning civil service appointments after 1913 they found When Filipinos began themselves facing serious discrimination in both wages and positions. Francis B. Harrison the Liberal Governor General reed the pro; American hiring policies of the Taft Era (1900-12) and began the “Filipinization” of the civil service.

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ANG MGA MAPAPALAD

. As demobilized American Soldiers filled the insular civil service and American corporations won the major development projects. Filipino nationalists saw themselves becoming economic aliens in their own land. The cartoon’s image of Meralco dragging Juan de la Cruz along the neck as he vomits pesos from his emaciated frame is no overstatement

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AMERICAN WORKER – FILIPINO WORKER

Refers not to a ten fold difference . in Filipino and American manual wages within the colony, but to a more fundamental inequality – the difference in wages and working conditions between the two countries.

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LOYALTY OF THE FILIPINOS

. The Loyalty of the Filipinos was published on April 14, 1917 only ten days after the US Congress declared war on Germany and America entered the conflict. The artist Fernando Amorsolo draws a wise, handsome, Uncle Sam leading little Juan, loyal and smiling on the road to war.

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UNCLE SAM AND JUAN

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In the Philippines, the presence of Political Cartoons has been seen as early the publication of Kalayaan and La Solidaridad. Nepomuceno (2012) claimed that commentaries in newspapers are valid historical instruments.

Commentaries through the sections of the editorial pages, are useful in seeking to see the opinions and views of people on policies which are also rooted on the opinions and views of officials in government.

Accounts pointed that the Philippine press has had a love-hate relationship with political cartoons as only in 1985 has there published book on Philippine cartoons.

The book of McCoy and Roces (1986) was the first one to legitimize cartoons as sources of Filipino thoughts and views. It reflected on two cartoon themes: anti-American sentiments and the condemnation of the ruling class

It serves as primers for engaging in the prevailing opinions of that time. One positive effect of the political cartoons is that it becomes the representation of the current conditions of the country Future generations will be able to have a glimpse of the past Philippine society through these cartoons. Through the use political cartoons, people get to visualize politics and appreciate the representations which are within their world view.

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