How dare they call it an Ibiza skirt/blouse?! Ibiza has nothing to do with capiz!
Capiz shell came from the Placuna placenta mollusk, indigenous to the Philippines. That’s why we have a province named after this shell. It’s also called window pane oyster because we use the shell in our windows instead of glass. Once you see these capiz windows, you know it’s Filipino or you’re in the Philippines. We made these shells into so many things like lamps, wall decor, plates, clocks, clutches/evening bags, jewelry, and adornments in clothes.
And how dare they call it Ibiza skirt! They have deliberately erased the Filipino identity in this garment because we are not white. WTF!
At least they didn’t do it to our ancient martial art, the deadly Kali (or Kali-Arnis-Eskrima).
I know Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) more than your average Filipino because my ex-husband was a practitioner but he stopped going to his master because…he’s very inconsistent. Just like what he was with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Anyway, I became familiar with the names of the grandmasters and some famous practitioners like Dan Inosanto who popularized FMA in the US. His most famous student was Bruce Lee (who invented his own martial art, Jeet Kune Do). It was Inosanto who taught Bruce Lee how to use the nunchaku. Inosanto was also a consultant in some films for fight choreography, especially involving empty hand fighting and knives, and US Navy SEALs.
The ex and I sold FMA magazines on ebay that were published in the Philippines. One of the prolific writers of that magazine became a colleague of mine in a newspaper some years later.
We also sold books and other FMA paraphernalia like arnis sticks, also on ebay. I remember we made a killing with the books about FMA weapons that became out of print. Our profit margins were very attractive. We also sold other FMA books written by other masters or students of known Grandmasters.
We learned arnis in elementary school. It replaced sepak takraw (which we called sipa in Tagalog) as the national sport some years later. I think this is now required in all DepEd-run schools and UP is also teaching this now. A friend is a faculty of sports science teaching this FMA. But that is the sport side of FMA.
The real deal looks like this — only taught in the military because it is for killing — unlike karate or judo or taekwondo, which are more for street fighting or self-defense. This is how our military trained; this is also how our own Marines train US Marines in hand-to-hand combat and jungle warfare.
Ancient Filipinos are terrifying practitioners of Kali/Eskrima (that’s why idiot Ferdinand Magellan died) that the Spaniards outlawed the use of swords/blades like the kampilan, when practicing it.
Little did the conquistadores know that Filipinos can still be deadly even just using arnis sticks (yantok/rattan sticks). We invented the butterfly knife a.k.a balisong, which is illegal to carry outside the house, just like a gun. We Batangueños are deadly like that (we also have the kumintang, a war song that originated from the province of my ancestors).
We’re deadly — do not erase our culture like that.