Beyond Maria Clara

Trailblazing Filipina expats in Germany challenging the stereotypes of Filipino immigrants.

No matter where I am in the world, whenever I introduce myself as a Filipino, I usually get a reply like, “The only Filipinos I know are the ones working in my friend’s house and the ones working on the cruise ships I took”.

This stereotype has been largely created thanks to the programs of the Philippine government. From Ferdinand Marcos’ Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs) to Gloria Arroyo’s Supermaids, the Philippines has become the largest labor exporter in the world. According to the data from the World Bank, OFW remittance amounts to an average 10% of the Philippine Gross Domestic Product (GDP), highest in 2005 at 12.7%. Our people have become our biggest export product.

But Filipino migrant women have proven that domestic helpers are only job titles and should not be limiting. They might be househelpers on one hand, and businesswomen on the other, carers by weekdays and photographers in the weekends, cleaners by day, students by night.

I interviewed three modern Filipinas in Germany, whose works embody Filipino strength and talent, inspiring others to dream bigger.

By Justine Grace Abrugena

Mary Lou: The Pioneer

She has become one of the most-widely published Filipinos in Germany, particularly about Filipino migrants, women and life as an expat. She has written, among others, Filipino Women Migrants in Germany, TransEuroExpress: Filipinas in Europe, WieFrauenaufdenPhilippinenleben, Philippinen: Paradies in Aufruhr, Filipinos on the move — Wir setzen auf Integration, Partizipation und Empowerment. She has published countless essays both in English and German.

Mary Lou Hardillo is a pioneer of the Filipino feminist movement in Germany. Her advocacy started in the 80’s after she saw an advertisement in a German newspaper depicting Filipino and Asian women as “submissive, sweet and naïve women for rich German men.” She called the paper to express her anger and indignation. Since then, she has made it her mission to push for feminist awareness in Germany and sought like-minded individuals to further her advocacy in women’s rights.

“I participated in townhalls, workshops, seminars, interacted with the local community. I wanted to let the German public know we were not like that at all, that one cannot put people in boxes. I talked to them about our Filipino culture, about the power of the Filipino women in the household, in the family, of the precolonial Filipino woman.”

In 1992, together with other Filipino feminists in Europe, they founded Babaylan, a network support system that aims to unite Filipinas in Europe, provide support and address a wide range of issues affecting women, from physical and sexual abuse, racism, sexism, and discrimination. They facilitate workshops, provide skill trainings, and organize campaigns pushing for participatory roles of women in society building. The network runs on voluntary basis and that all of them have their respective primary jobs. Hardillo herself was working as intercultural mediator and court translator.

“We have no office, no financial capacity as an organization, it is a do-ityourself undertaking. There’s no money for strong women,” she laments.

Her involvement in the feminist movement eventually caused Hardillo her job.

In 2007, Lotis K., a 33-year-old Filipina suddenly disappeared after a series of arguments with her husband. She was in a middle of a divorce case and a fierce custody battle for their 4-year old son. The prosecutors of Cologne charged Lotis K.’s husband, along with his brother and sister, with murder despite the absence of a corpse. Hardillo was the official court translator.

At the final stage of the case, Hardillo was accused of conflict of interest. At that time, she was the chairperson of Babaylan. The court declared her biased, and in 2012, she lost her job.

It was a depressing period for Hardillo but despite the challenges, she continued fighting for women’s rights.

She has become one of the most-widely published Filipinos in Germany, particularly about Filipino migrants, women and life as an expat. She has written, among others, Filipino Women Migrants in Germany, TransEuroExpress: Filipinas in Europe, Wie Frauen auf den Philippinen leben, Philippinen: Paradies in Aufruhr, Filipinos on the move — Wir setzen auf Integration, Partizipation und Empowerment. She has published countless essays both in English and German.

In 2020 she was nominated for the first Else Falk Prize, an award for the extraordinary achievements in the field of gender equality in Cologne. She did not win but for her, it was a recognition of her commitment and sacrifices advocating for Filipino migrants and women’s rights for more than 30 years.

Kay: The Artist

“I am a filmmaker. I moved to Europe to explore my art. In Spain, I felt that there was a glass ceiling for Filipinos, for people who came from “colonized” lands. I wanted to go to a country that did not have that kind of history with us. Germany fits the bill and Berlin offers a unique charm for art and creativity.”

Kay Abaño is a Filipina artist and filmmaker currently based in Berlin. She started her expat journey in 2004, when she pursued Cinematography at the TAI Escuela Universitaria de Artes in Madrid. She moved to Barcelona in 2007 and stayed for six years.

Abaño got involved with the vibrant Filipino migrant communities in Spain, widening her interest in migration and human displacement. Immigration and borders became her muses.

“I have deep admiration for our Filipino migrant workers, this admiration strengthened my passion and drive for my art”.

Migrants are common subject of her visual arts. Interacting with migrants made her political. She realized that art can be a platform to criticize the system that pushes migrants and other marginalized people out. In nine years, she captured hundreds of hours of footage of Filipino migrants in Spain. Her short documentary New Heroes was nominated at the 8th AegeanDocs International Documentary Film Festival 2020 in Greece.

To Abaño, art is an immediate and accessible way to communicate complicated subjects, a platform for stories that she feels need to be told.

“Art gives a chance to say something without being too academic, it comes from a layman’s perspective. It has the power to move people, to magnify, show things that are unspeakable or overlooked.”

Abaño moved to Germany in 2013, to explore Berlin’s booming art scene and expand her creative network.

“I am a filmmaker. I moved to Europe to explore my art. In Spain, I felt that there was a glass ceiling for Filipinos, for people who came from “colonized” lands. I wanted to go to a country that did not have that kind of history with us. Germany fits the bill and Berlin offers a unique charm for art and creativity.”

Despite her success, Abaño admits that funding is still her biggest challenge.

“It is not easy for artists to make money. That is also why I moved to Berlin. Germany funds art.”

She does not want to discourage Filipinos from pursuing arts. She believes that Pinoys are talented, but privilege can play a huge role in pursuing arts. Filipinos are restricted by financial capacity but it should not stop us from exploring and showing what we can.

“It’s not a question of whether we are at par with other nationalities. The quality and substance of our work is richer and more informed because of what we must go through as a nation, as people. We have talents and skills. But how do we get to where we want (as an artist) while also feeding our family? These limitations don’t normally hinder our white Western counterparts.”

Rosa: The Scholar Activist

institute’s faculty. Rosa Castillo arrived in Germany in September 2011 to pursue her doctoral studies in anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin, where she received a summa cum laude distinction. She is currently a research and teaching staff at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at the renowned Humboldt University in Berlin — the only Filipina in the

It is very hard to get an academic position in Germany, she explains. And even harder if one is a scholar of color and a woman. Positions like hers are non-tenured. She is very critical of this system of exclusion and precarity and insists that this needs to change.

When she first arrived in Berlin, she was surprised by the lack of engagement with Philippine studies. This motivated her to form the Philippine Studies Series Berlin in 2014, with the help of Filipino friends. Inspired by a similar initiative at the University of British Columbia, the Series is a volunteer-run platform for lectures, discussions, and art and film events on the Philippines, Filipina/o/x, and the diaspora.

Starting the platform was challenging, she says. They had no funding and no regular venue. In time, the Series eventually became more visible and active and they were able to acquire funding for certain activities. However, Castillo highlights that, more than funding, the success of the Series is due to the spirit of bayanihan, of solidarity.

Castillo is also active in other initiatives, such as decolonizing knowledge production and

A big problem in academia, she says, is the struggle for recognition of the work that scholars of color do. She shares that her “scholarly work has been disparaged as patriotic, as only focused on the Philippines, and without any broader disciplinary or theoretical impact or relevance.”

the academe. Recently, she and colleagues at Freie Universität Berlin won the International Research Marketing Ideas Competition Prize of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the project “Affect and Colonialism.”

It was not easy to get to where she is right now. Regardless of the success of her endeavors, Castillo fought for and worked hard for her place in a white, and male dominated field. A big problem in academia, she says, is the struggle for recognition for the work that scholars of color do. She shares that her scholarly work has been disparaged as patriotic, as only focused on the Philippines, and without any broader disciplinary or theoretical impact or relevance.

“A white academic working on the global South will rarely be accused of having no theoretical relevance. I am not the only one who has experienced disparagement of our capabilities and our contributions just because we are a scholar of color.”

This criticism is even more frustrating because she believes that Filipino scholars are often well-trained. Yet, she says, “this kind of training is not really recognized here, not only due to inequalities in valuing knowledge produced in the global North versus the global South, but also because of different systems of crediting academic work.”

Castillo’s story is an inspiration to continue the fight for recognition and equality; to assert that we aren’t lesser than our white and male peers; to help change the system of exclusion and inequality. Indeed, Filipinos are more than the box that the world continues to put us in.