Jose Mari Chan art for September, with regrets
Since Christmas comes early in the Philippines I made art highlighting the occasion. Unfortunately I read more about him after I made and posted the artwork. It turns out the Christmas spirit isn’t exactly as strong in this man-turned-Christmas-meme as I thought.
Jose Mari Chan is known for his ballads, with his first song written when he was 13 while growing up in Iloilo. He juggled songwriting with school, family business obligations, and raising his own family until he became synonymous with Christmas every September.
This was because in 1990, he released a holiday album “Christmas in Our Hearts” that sold over 20 million units. The popularity made him and his music an annual fixture in television, radio, and now social media, giving him the unofficial title “Father of Philippine Christmas Music”.
As you know, not all that glitters is gold. The opening lyrics to his hit song “Christmas in Our Hearts” has been criticized for glorifying the hardships of child labor and poverty.
“Whenever I see girls and boys, selling lanterns on the streets. I remember the Child, in the manger as He sleeps.
“Christmas in Our Hearts”, Jose Mari Chan.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 16.7 percent of Filipinos lived in poverty, or about 17.7 million Filipinos in 2018. They define poverty as Filipinos whose per capita income is “insufficient to meet their basic food and non-food needs.” This year the World Bank announced that an estimated 2 million more Filipinos became poor due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Selling things on the street is one of the ways many Filipinos gain income. From lanterns to street food, we tend to romanticize street vendors while overlooking the “financial epidemics” that they and millions of others here and abroad endure.
Lantern vendors in Pampanga, which has had a long history in lantern or parol-making and selling, has had difficulty in selling their wares. Some are senior citizens who stopped momentarily, while others seek help from local government. There is even a fiction book that revolves around a 10-year-old lantern maker and his own hardships.
Last year, as the pandemic continued through 2020, Chan changed the lyrics to the song to be more apt with current times. Among these changes was the opening line, which no longer mentions children selling lanterns. The updated opening lyrics are now the following:
“Whenever I hear girls and boys, singing carols in my mind. I remember the past, when everything was fine.”
“Christmas in Our Hearts”, 2020 version, Jose Mari Chan.
Despite the change, his family business has also been criticized for its labor practices. He owns Central Azucarera de Bais, which denied union workers the wages they demanded in 2005. It seems that the union’s demand for better wages were brought down by technicalities, and could not be simply given in the spirit of Christmas, or otherwise.