Cordillera’s cultural norms push back against political dynasties

Cordillera’s cultural norms push back against political dynasties

BAGUIO, Philippines – Filipinos could only vote in 1907, and only men were allowed to do so. Filipinos in the US were permitted suffrage after World War II in 1946. But the Cordillerans who joined the St. Louis Fair in Missouri in 1904 were the first to cast their votes. That being an election year in the US, the Igorots in the fair were made to place a bean in either one of two gangsas (gongs), which had the faces of Theodore Roosevelt and Alto…