Echaves: La Gloria’s call
Sunday, September 5, 2010
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PHILIPPINE actress Gloria Diaz might have made an ethnic slur against us Cebuanos with her statement about our English language handicap. That, if she was accurately quoted.
If she is to be believed, however, she says she was misquoted and therefore, misinterpreted.
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Whether or not the whole incident is of a Manileña cutting down a Cebuano to half his size should not surprise us. People from “Imperial Manila” have always looked down on the “Bisaya,” thinking and speaking like they’re God’s gift to the rest of the Filipinos.
When the Malacañang press corps comes down to Cebu to cover the Philippine President’s activities, they strut their wares and run roughshod over anyone.
When organizers meet their Cebuano counterparts to discuss preparations for national conventions here in our city, they bark out instructions in rapid succession you’d think they were rushing for an appointment with the Grim Reaper in the half-hour.
Ask Cebu-based trainers who perform very commendably. Soon enough, Luzon-based peers and delegates flock to congratulate, their voices showing pleasure and patronizing surprise.
At a national function, speak with your impeccable English with non-Cebuanos and one of their first questions is, “Did you study abroad, or in Manila?’
Through the ages, however, we’ve proved these snooty creatures as miserably wrong, myopic and narcissistic. If they have not learned their lessons, then we can only say, “World, meet Rip Van Winkle!”
Back to Gloria Diaz. The Vice-Mayors’ League of the Philippines thinks she’s a “persona non grata.” Our city legislators want her to appear before them and “explain” her remark.
At first, she said yes. Now she’s changed her mind. She’s qualified her statement in print, radio and TV, and that’s it.
So, is she some national idol by whose standards our ideals will rise or fall? Therefore, we’d like to preserve her standing in our eyes and minds?
The last time I looked, she was our first Filipina-turned-Miss Universe. Her victory was ours, and we basked in her triumph as the world sang “To thine be the glory.”
But, my goodness, that was 1969! Gloria Maria Aspillera Diaz has since then borne three children, is a single parent and a senior citizen, and where her movie career is concerned, a has-been.
Are the legislators really interested in her words? How much of the request for her appearance is triggered by a curiosity to see how much of the international beauty has remained, or whether she still stands proud beneath her see-through blouse (assuming she still wears such clothes in public places)?
If she stands by her explanation, no gavel from the vice-mayor or rephrasing from the legislators will make her sway.
Besides, she’s already questioned the readers’ sense of the significant vis-à-vis attention better given to pressing national issues.
There’s the dengue issue, she says, the Hong Kong sentiment about the hostage-taking crisis, and the economy. Take it from La Gloria: “My God! I am very irrelevant.”
Let’s heed that call for sanity.
