THE PORTRAIT OF FILIPINAS IN SELECTED PHILIPPINE FOLK SONGS

Abstract

This study aimed to draw the portrait of the Filipinas through folksongs from the different regions of the Philippines. Specifically, this study was conducted to answer the questions: (1) What are the characteristics of Filipinas based on the folksongs? (2) Why was Filipina defined as maid in the 1990s? This study utilized retrieval process, Functional-Flexible translation approach (Sabio, 2016) and Reflexive-Refraction Theory (Hosillo, 2006), textual, extra-textual and textual-historical analyses of the folksongs. Five (5) folksongs retrieved from different parts of the Philippines were used in the analysis. The folksongs represented five indigenous and ethnic groups from Southern Tagalog, Nueva Ecija, Bohol, Antique and Echague. They were chosen for their themes and topics focusing on women characteristics. The Functional-Flexible approach of translation used to translate the folksongs has six (6) steps, namely, source language, the texts, transferring, transposition, restructuring and target language. The lyrics of the folksongs were analyzed and common themes were extracted. It was gleaned from the study that Filipinas possessed the same general characteristics regardless of ethnicity.  Simplicity, honesty, integrity, industry, hard-work, sincerity among other virtues worthy of emulation were the general descriptions of Filipinas based on the results of the study. These innate nature of Filipinas were also the qualifications that made them in demand as maids during the influx of domestic helpers abroad in the 1990s which led to the definition of the word Filipina as maid by an Italian dictionary.