Angela Reyes ‘From Conyo to Rizal: Elite Emanation and Inversion’

This talk explores how people imagine a twenty-first-century social persona as emanating from a nineteenth-century individual person. The persona in question is the Philippine “conyo,” regarded as spoiled, empty-headed, rich kids who speak a distinct style of “Taglish” (Tagalog-English). The person in question is José Rizal, one of the most celebrated Filipino historical figures. Drawing on ethnographic and media data, I trace how Rizal is regarded as “the original conyo,” as its first author or animator. Examining how this type-token interdiscursive link between persona and person plays on the inversion of a chronotopic frame, I consider what conceptualizing elite historical continuity accomplishes socially and economically. I argue that citing Rizal creates a channel to move value.