We Filipinos are Mild Drinkers Analysis

The literary text "We Filipinos are Mild Drinkers" written by Alejandro Roces is a piece that talks about the time shared between two characters having a conversation over some drinks. The characters were of two different races, one is Filipino while the other an American who is called Joe all throughout the piece. It was set during a time where the Americans were coming back around the Philippines as mentioned in the piece. The Filipinos were at good terms with the Americans during these times as it was during peace times that the story took place, there were still some Americans stationed around the Philippines and the farmers would often see them.

In the piece the Filipino farmer was just going about his daily tasks of tending to the crops in the field when an American was passing by that invited him to come drink some whiskey with him; the Filipino declined and instead offered the American a drink common to the Philippines at the time, the "Lambanog", the author must have meant for this action to portray the hospitable nature of Filipinos when it comes to accommodating guests into their homes. This is further supported by the farmer finishing up his work early just to share a drink with his guest. Although as farmers of course they take good care of their animals as they work as much if not more than they do which is seen by how the farmer treats Datu, his carabao. This may have also been meant to show how Americans are pretty open to trying out new things as a way of broadening their experiences as seen when Joe tasted the Lambanog for the first time and he was practically in tears from the taste showing how our country's culture has more to offer for foreigners to try themselves.

The piece also reflects other traits of the characters' respective nationalities. Like for one how Joe showed how Americans are pretty lively and extroverted when it comes to strangers; and how they're pretty strong drinkers. Meanwhile the farmer showed the nature of Filipinos being meek, hardworking, generous, and humble. The work depicts these traits fairly well despite its length and more surprisingly how it is accurate to how these respective nationalities mostly act. Another minor detail is how it shows how the Filipinos went about their lives during the peace times compared to the Americans, the Filipinos went back to the plains and began working on their crops again while the Americans went on to celebrate a victory by drinking and going around.

In conclusion, the piece was overall entertaining; showing how the Filipinos and Americans had a close bond despite the difference in culture and language barriers, to displaying said differences through the characters' dialogue to one another.