The Palate of Power: Americans, Food and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War

Abstract In 1898, Spain ceded political control of the Philippine Islands to the United States. Although armed resistance by Filipinos did not officially end until 1902, the U.S. began conducting a study of the Islands in 1900 to determine whether they were ready for democratic self-rule and eventually determined that they were not. Food played an important role in Americans' evaluation of the Philippines' modernity and readiness for independence. This article examines the ways in which food was part of what Paul Kramer calls 'fiesta politics,' the displays of civilization that both Filipinos and Americans put on for each other as part of this evaluation process.Keywords: Philippines, America, canned foods, mangoes, imperialism, fiesta politics, tablewareIn 1900, American Edith Moses gave a "Filipina Lunch party" at her home in Manila. The luncheon featured neither dishes nor dining customs native to the Philippines, yet Moses considered it a great success. Edith Moses was the wife of Bernard Moses, a member of the Civil Commission appointed by president William McKinley to determine what kind of government the Philippines should have in the aftermath of its acquisition by the United States (Bureau of Insular Affairs 1904, 5). Bernard and Edith Moses were stationed in Manila and it was Edith's role to exchange acts of hospitality with the Filipinos of the upper classes both in Manila and in communities in other parts of the Islands. She was a lively participant and chronicler of what historian Paul Kramer called "fiesta politics," publishing the account of her time in the Philippines only a few years after she returned to the U.S. Kramer uses the term fiesta politics to refer to the performances, both private and public such as parades and banquets, that Americans and Filipinos participated in together that enabled Filipinos to demonstrate their readiness for independence to American visitors and that enabled those same visitors to appear to receive and evaluate this claim seriously (Kramer 2006, 259).For the most part, as we will see, Americans in the Philippines made it clear in their writings that they did not consider Filipinos ready for independence, but they do appear to have placed great importance on seeming to consider the possibility. Most histories of America's involvement in the Philippines recognize that some anti-imperialists in the U.S. argue that the Philippines had a right to be treated as a nation among nations. Other Americans objected to the nation's involvement with the Philippines on racist grounds that it was a bad idea to bring more people of color into the family of the US. Kramer, however, draws our attention to those less-noted Americans who were engaged in fiesta politics and sought a middle way between complete Filipino independence and colonial subjugation (Kramer 2006, 213-328).Edith Moses performed her unpaid cultural work as an essential adjunct to her husbands' work. Bernard Moses, a professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, was in the Philippines to study the situation and make recommendations. An implicit part of this work was to establish America's right to determine the future of the Philippines. This project was accomplished through the performance of American mores for a Filipino audience as well as through the witnessing of Filipino demonstrations of readiness. When Moses displayed her nation's civilization the audience was supposed to understand the superiority of American culture and to translate this understanding into respect for and trust in American management of the Islands. Fiestas were, Paul Kramer explains, "rituals above all meant to efface the uninvited character of the U.S. presence in the Philippines" (Kramer 2006, 188).Unstudied until now, food played an essential role in fiestas - the parties and public gatherings that Filipinos and Americans attended together - and thus in fiesta politics. Preparation, service, and consumption of food in the crucial few years when Filipino independence was still considered an open question reflected each side's deepest anxieties and convictions on the most important topic of the time. …