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| Igorots on display at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. |
Little was known about her except her name was Maura.
Maura was one of the 1,200 Filipinos brought to the St.Louis expo to show Americans the "little brown brothers," Americans were supposedly "civilizing" to justify occupying the Philippines as part of the United States' fledgling attempt at empire-building and join the ranks of colonizing world powers such as Great Britain, Spain and France.
After a year of research, the reporters found Maura's death certificate and learned that her body, along with five other Filipinos, was shipped back to the Philippines a year after she died.
The journalists informed Langholz who was, coincidentally, visiting Maura's community in Luzon's northern mountains earlier this year. Langholz was unable to find Maura's relatives and could not locate her gravesite.
One of the many disturbing aspects of the 1904 fair was meant to introduce to Americans the new empire the US won as a result of the Spanish American War. The 47-acre Philippine exhibit was the most popular at the St. Louis fair representing 40 groups of Filipinos -- Visayans, Bagobos, Samals, “Moros” (as they were called then), Tingguianes, Negritos and 30 others -- housed in seven villages.. The Igorot village drew the most attention from fairgoers and media.
A Washington Post investigative series entitled "The Collection," reports that Maura's brains were stored for 119 years by the Smithsonian along with the hundreds of human remains of other people of color, in a futile attempt to prove the debunked belief that Whites were biologically superior to other races.
Washington Post reporters Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy found out that the museum's collection houses the brains of people from at least 10 foreign countries. Besides the Filipinos, the collection includes brains from Germany, the Czech Republic, and South Africa. Altogether, there were 268 brains, 27 of which came from Filipinos, four of which came from the Filipinos on exhibit at the St. Louis exposition.
The remains were said to be collected between 1904 and 1941 by Ales Hrdlicka, a curator and then-head of the newly established Division of Physical Anthropology at the time. Hrdlicka was a eugenicist, a school of thought that sought to prove that white people are superior to people of other races.
“The brains in particular were collected to support Hrdlicka’s early 20th-century racist beliefs that brains of white people were larger,” the Smithsonian noted in a separate interview.
"At the Smithsonian, we recognize certain collection practices of our past were unethical," wrote Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III in a statement.
"What was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families, and their communities, and I look forward to the conversations this initiative will generate in helping us perform our cutting-edge research in a manner that is ripe with scholarship and conforms to the highest ethical standard."
Since the publication of the Washington Post articles, the Smithsonian said it is planning to return any remains back to family members or back to their country of origin. The National Museum of the Philippines has agreed to receive whatever remains of Filipinos are left.
Washington Post reporters Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy found out that the museum's collection houses the brains of people from at least 10 foreign countries. Besides the Filipinos, the collection includes brains from Germany, the Czech Republic, and South Africa. Altogether, there were 268 brains, 27 of which came from Filipinos, four of which came from the Filipinos on exhibit at the St. Louis exposition.
The remains were said to be collected between 1904 and 1941 by Ales Hrdlicka, a curator and then-head of the newly established Division of Physical Anthropology at the time. Hrdlicka was a eugenicist, a school of thought that sought to prove that white people are superior to people of other races.
“The brains in particular were collected to support Hrdlicka’s early 20th-century racist beliefs that brains of white people were larger,” the Smithsonian noted in a separate interview.
"At the Smithsonian, we recognize certain collection practices of our past were unethical," wrote Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III in a statement.
"What was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families, and their communities, and I look forward to the conversations this initiative will generate in helping us perform our cutting-edge research in a manner that is ripe with scholarship and conforms to the highest ethical standard."
Since the publication of the Washington Post articles, the Smithsonian said it is planning to return any remains back to family members or back to their country of origin. The National Museum of the Philippines has agreed to receive whatever remains of Filipinos are left.
If not for the Washington Post articles, co-written by Nicole Dungca, a Filipino American journalist, Maura's remains would most likely remain forgotten gathering dust in in one of the Smithsonian's storerooms.
Since there were no known photographs of Maura, the newspaper did a sidebar illustrating the search for Maura. One of the illustrators was Filipino American artist Rey Galeno. Some of his work is pictured below. It is also available in Tagalog, “Paghahanap Kay Maura.,” a first for the Washington Post.
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| ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE WASHINGTON POST |
The winter before the fair was to open, it snowed in St. Louis, a rare occurrence. It was the first American winter for the Filipinos. Maura was among the Filipinos who came down with pneumonia. Despite hospitalization, Maura died from her illness before the fair opened.
Before she died, Maura told The St. Louis Republic newspaper that it was her wish that her body be returned to the Philippines for burial.
Before she died, Maura told The St. Louis Republic newspaper that it was her wish that her body be returned to the Philippines for burial.
Filipino American launches search
The search for Maura's story by Filipino American artist and activist Janna Añonuevo Langholz is a fascinating story unto itself. A descendant of one of the 1904 Filipinos, she was born in 1988 in a neighborhood that was built upon the site of the Philippines exhibit.
The search for Maura's story by Filipino American artist and activist Janna Añonuevo Langholz is a fascinating story unto itself. A descendant of one of the 1904 Filipinos, she was born in 1988 in a neighborhood that was built upon the site of the Philippines exhibit.
It was her years-long effort and determination to honor the Filipinos who died at the 1904 fair that caught the attention of the Washington Post. with all its resources to dig deeper into the story of the Smithsonian's collection.
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INSTAGRAM Filipino American artist Janna Añonuevo Langholz wants to honor her Filipino ancestors who were brought to St. Louis. by the US government. |
After a year of research, the reporters found Maura's death certificate and learned that her body, along with five other Filipinos, was shipped back to the Philippines a year after she died.
The journalists informed Langholz who was, coincidentally, visiting Maura's community in Luzon's northern mountains earlier this year. Langholz was unable to find Maura's relatives and could not locate her gravesite.
Filipino stereotypes
The Smithsonian's past practices and the St. Louis expo were indicative of the racism that permeated US institutions.
The proper name of the St. Louis World's Fair was the1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, meant to celebrate the 100 anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, the prime example of the US's westward expansion by justifying the stealing of First Nations' lands.
The proper name of the St. Louis World's Fair was the1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, meant to celebrate the 100 anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, the prime example of the US's westward expansion by justifying the stealing of First Nations' lands.
The expo also signaled the transition of the US's Manifest Destiny, defined by “the concept of American exceptionalism, that is, the belief that America occupies a special place among the countries of the world” and -- by extension and example -- of the US newly acquired status as a world power after the nation's victory in the Spanish-American War and the United States' brand of "benevolent" colonization over the countries Spain ceded to the US, including Puerto RIco and the Philippines.
Some of 1904 fair's elements, especially the human exhibits of various people around the world which critics characterize as a "human zoo," would come to validate irrational beliefs of white superiority in many ways.
Besides the Philippine "reservation," the term used by the fair's publicity brochures, the expo also featured exhibits from Japan and the First Nations, which included a daily recreation of the Battle of Little Big Horn, and for a fee, visitors could have a picture taken alongside Native American warrior Geronimo.
Mia Abeya, a Maryland resident whose Igorot grandfather was among those on display, says Igorots ate dog only occasionally, for ceremonial purposes. During the fair, they were fed the animals on a daily basis. Some accounts said the Igorots were made to consume 20 dogs a week to entertain the fairgoers. "They made them butcher dogs, which is really abusing the culture of the Igorots," Abeya told NPR.
The media sensationalizing and exploitation of a practice that was a ceremonial rite created a stereotype that still haunts Filipinos and Filipino Americans to this day.
The search for Maura's grave continues. Meanwhile, the Suyoc people plan to build a monument in Maura's honor.
Local leaders in Missouri voted to create a memorial to recall the fair's Phlippine exhibit and the racism surrounding the "human zoo."
And the Smithsonian, admitting the practice that created "The Collection" vows to return what human remains still in storage that includes bones and other body parts of 20,700 individuals.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.
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