President McKinley's project of benevolent assimilation had a bigger objective beyond just westernizing Filipinos. The US needed farm workers and turned to colonized subjects as in a labor supply. By the 1960s, nearly half of the country lived in poverty. Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was elected president but his administration became a notorious kleptocracy.
This time of year, right in the middle of the holiday season, there's a beloved, frenzied tradition playing out in Filipino households all around the world, with which reporter Gabrielle Berbey is intimately familiar. A Balikbayan box is a huge cardboard box (often weighing over 100 pounds) that Filipinos living all over the world send to family members who are still living in the Philippines. The word Balikbayan literally means homecoming in Tagalog.
Balikbayan Boxes