Now we are all familiar with the five senses right?
Well if you’re not we humans have the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Yet, as a Filipino, I must tell you all a secret we have. Filipinos have heightened senses.
Allow me to give you some background:
My family immigrated from the Philippines in the 80’s and I grew up in a predominantly white community and attended primarily white institutions. From this, my family has developed a keen sense of sight of finding other Filipinos. We have the ability to identify another Filipino from a mile away. And when we met other Filipinos, they were automatically part of the family. It does not matter if we were even related by blood.
My grandfather was especially good at this, he would introduce me to his Filipino friends like,
“This is Tito Manny, he is a member of our Church
This is Tita Lea, she works at your birth hospital
This is Tita Regine, I met her at the supermarket this morning.”
Now I think for Filipinos hearing and smell go hand in hand.
Picture this: A classic Filipino party, the drunk titos singing karaoke; mic in one hand beer in another. The little cousins all playing video games and that one random baby sleeping in your bed. And then we have the snooty titas with their fake Louis Vuitton bags sitting at the table with all the food gossiping.
In our language, Tagalog, we have this term called “chismis” literally meaning “drama.” From this we have the chismosas. These snooty aunties are also referred to as chismosas. They have an amazing way of sniffing out information and once they hear something, chismosas will spread that like wildfire.
Fun fact, there are no serial killers in the Philippines. It’s hard to be a serial killer in a country where everyone is so nosy and thinks they’re private investigators.
It goes without saying, I mean that could be personally biased but as you can tell Filipinos have great taste. Don’t you all agree? See? You all have great taste too.
Now to my favorite sense. Touch. Touch is a predominant aspect of Filipino culture. Whether it be in our greetings such as the mano, performed as a sign of respect to elders and as a way of requesting a blessing from the elder. Or in the way we eat our food with our hands. Yes, it’s fun and yes you should try it. Plus there are less dishes to wash.
I am proud to be Filipino and so much of the culture influences who I am as a Drag Artist. So the next time you meet a Filipino, remember our five senses. That we can spot another Filipino from a mile away, once we hear something our noses go into other people’s business, we have amazing taste, and have a way of touching hearts.