Good afternoon. I am Terence Co of 9A. The song I have chosen is Tayo’y mga Pinoy by Heber Bartolome. The song’s lyrics are taken from musixmatch.com. The story that the song tells is the persona protesting against colonial mentality and for Filipinos to not succumb to it. The persona is calling us to love and be proud of our own culture. There is no need to always admire foreigners more and be ashamed with who we are.

In the song, there is a part that mentions

Kung ating hahanapin ay matatagpuan
Tayo ay may kakanyahang dapat na hangaan
Subalit nasaan ang sikat ng araw
Ba’t tayo ang humahanga doon sa Kanluran

Bakit kaya tayo ay ganito?
Bakit nanggagaya, mayro’n naman tayo
Tayo’y mga Pinoy, tayo’y hindi Kano
‘Wag kang mahihiya kung ang ilong mo ay pango

Although we as Filipinos already have beautiful and unique talent, we still neglect it and copy what other countries like America do. Because of colonial mentality, we do not have a cultural identity and only focus on how much better other countries are. Post-colonialism influence is still relevant even decades after the Philippines’ colonization after the countries that colonized us left their culture to us Filipinos and when we Filipinos decided to continue using their culture instead

Near the end of the song it mentions

Mayro’ng isang aso, daig pa ang ulol
Siya’y ngumingiyaw, hindi tumatahol
Katulad ng iba, painglis-inglis pa
Na kung pakikinggan, mali-mali naman

It uses the metaphor of a dog meowing to convey Filipinos. Filipinos try to imitate what they are not and deny who they are. An example is that a lot of Filiipinos do not give value anymore the the Filipino language and would rather learn English. Slowly, the Filipinos are not becoming Filipinos anymore and would change their culture to match the other countries since they only focus on how much better looking their culture is. The persona of the song is convincing us to value again the culture of the Filipinos because we are Filipinos ourselves and nothing can change that. The persona wants us Filipinos to continue the fight against colonial mentality and not be ashamed of who the Filipinos are. We are unique in our own ways that other countries cannot imitate no matter how hard they try. Thank you for listening