Gratuitous Applause

Today was the first day of class. This semester I'm teaching Filipino American history. Just one class--and I was definitely better prepared for it today than I was last year when I had a second class on a different topic thrown at me (which I willingly caught) two weeks before classes started.

So this class goes from Magellan to Marcos, but really they're just weak bookends to the burgeoning story in between. I started out with an homage to Cory Aquino. I showed the first four minutes of this clip, up to her proclaiming that "I have returned as the president of a free people." It's from her speech before the U.S. Congress in September 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NinoyAquinoTV#play/user/D76CFC30F40BCB55/0/WX9ysynaIq0

"What did you see?" I asked the class. "Gratuitous applause." "A warm welcome." "Congratulations."

Then I flashed back 88 years to the story of the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, to another proclamation of freedom by another revolutionary leader and Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo. Using a cartoon adaptation of the history as written by Howard Zinn, I asked three students to volunteer to do a dramatic reading of the story (It's called A People's History of American Empire. You can look it up on Google Books but the preview blocks out all the drawings, but here is a sample).



The contrast is not subtle. A warm welcome versus a deceitful arm around the shoulder. Sincere (maybe even guilty) congratulations versus a congratulations with a glint in the eye. Gratuitous applause versus gratuitous violence.

"This is American History" read the last slide. That is an homage to Ronald Takaki who asked us to challenge the Master Narrative of American History, that our country was settled by Europeans and that Americans are white.

As usual this idea, to add the Cory Aquino video, came to me last night, meaning I get some good ideas at the last "minute." Thanks to those of you who posted videos after Cory died. You were my source.

So the class went well. Everybody came! All 40 students on my roster and 1 person from the waitlist showed up! That's never happened before. And the average GPA in the class is a 3.08! Normally it's around 2.8. This should be an interesting semester. Let's see if the syllabus scares anyone away.