Fil-Am poet sets on ‘recolonizing’ the US through his poems
By KAREN ANNE C. LIQUETE
Nick Carbó is the author of El Grupo McDonald’s (1995) and Secret Asian Man (2000), which won the Asian American Literary Award. He is the editor of three anthologies of Filipino literature: Pinoy Poetics (2004), Babaylan (2000), and Returning a Borrowed Tongue (1995). With poet Denise Duhamel, he co-edited the anthology Sweet Jesus (2002).
He has won numerous awards, grants (National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts 1999) and residencies (Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain; Le Chateau de Lavigny, Switzerland; the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo). He was Visiting Poet in the MFA program in Poetry at Columbia College, Chicago this Spring. He keeps a blog called the Carbonator, and now he talks to the Youth and Campus Bulletin about how it feels to be a Filipino in America, his subversive poetry, and whether there is such a thing as Filipino humor.
Youth and Campus Bulletin (YCB): Americans who have read your work consider your poetry to be quite subversively funny. What is your reaction to this?
Nick Carbo (NC): While growing up in Manila I was aware of our very Filipino cultural tendency to smile and laugh a lot, to make light of the pressures of everyday living and to deflect what is really bothering us inside. We Filipinos are masters of humor and we use it to manipulate uncomfortable situations, ease familiar and neighborly relations. We even use humor as weapons to attack and criticize our enemies. I grew up with Dolphy and Tito, Vic, and Joey, and who can forget Weng Weng the flying dwarf with super powers. Filipino humor is unique and very subversive.
YCB: In Secret Asian Man, you almost take a gun to your white American reader’s head and force him to read a non-white American name over and over again with "Ang Tunay na Lalaki". Was there any reason behind that action?
NC: This is purely a postcolonial technique. From 1898 through 1945 (and even to today) Filipinos were forced to memorize poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, or Edgar Allan Poe. So we all rose and recited in unison "Under a spreading chestnut tree/ the village smithy stands." Outside the school window all we could see were santol trees or mango trees. "Saan ba yung chestnut tree?" The American cultural markers were thrust upon us and we had to assimilate to get a good education. By making my American readers twist their mouths into tagalog shapes, I am asserting my culture over them and thus, making them a little more Filipino. I am re-colonizing the former colonizer with my poems.
YCB: You relish poking fun at two contrasting cultures which you share an affinity with — being both Filipino and American. In one poem, you criticize American filmmakers for having no roles for Asian American men (only women), while making fun of a visiting Filipino with a rich regional accent who was trying to speak the "American way". What makes you focus on these quirks?
NC: With this poem I am referring back to the Filipino figure of fun called the "provinciano." There were so many movies I saw where they made fun of the provinciano as he came to the big city (Manila) and fumbled around. There is also the provinciano of the komiks named Sianong Sano who survived with his half-wit misadventures. So in the poem I bring the provinciano figure to New York City and he is obviously trying hard to fit in but his heavy accent and naivete show his humble roots. This is also meant to reflect some of the difficulties real provinciano immigrants face in first coming to the States.
YCB: Is there really such a thing as "Filipino humor?"
NC: Yes, there certainly is! In a review of my book Secret Asian Man, Victor Velasco said: "Such can also be said about the Pinoy humor, and its distinct irony. It may be oceans apart from the British wit or American sarcasm but it carries a peculiar might to contain a scathing acrimony." We may go overboard and be accused of OA (over acting). Sometimes we can be so corny like in this joke asking; What is the definition of Iraq, Iran, and Egypt? Answer, Iraq is not a stone, Iran is not a walk, and Egypt is not a car. If you say it in a Pinoy accent, the joke reaches deeper significance.
YCB: What’s next for Nick Carbo?
NC: I am now making video poems. One of my video poems was exhibited earlier this year at the Chromatext/Reloaded show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Gallery along with other poet/artists. Maybe next is the mobi bersyon op Sekret Asyan Man! Naks! Thank you for the fine interview.
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