Global Borderlands: Fantasy, Violence, and Empire in Subic Bay, Philippines by Victoria Reyes (review)

In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the Philippines declared independence from Spain. The United States did not acknowledge this declaration, suppressed an insurrection, and imposed colonial rule until 1946. Before and after World War II, the United States maintained a singular military presence in the Philippines, concentrated in Subic Bay. In the early 1990s, the United States closed the military base. Shortly thereafter, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone was established.

What should we make of this history? Did Philippine leaders and citizens welcome the US military and benefit from the jobs and commerce? Were Philippine people forced to endure an ongoing imperial presence despite open and ongoing resistance? Did US soldiers and sailors violate laws and customs with impunity? Did the military base provide stable and well-paying jobs, with unmatched opportunities for career advancement?

These questions can be posed in more personal and intimate terms. Did Philippine workers resent US employers? Did US military personnel live out sexual fantasies at the expense of Filipinos? Did US soldiers fall in love with and build enduring families with Filipino lovers? What became of the children left behind by US military personnel?

These are complex questions. In Global Borderlands, Victoria Reyes provides nuanced and multilayered answers. Prior research has documented US power, the exploitation of Philippine resources and people and the class and racial inequalities. But there are untold stories—stories that highlight intimate ties, cooperation, emergent meanings, and intertwined lives. These untold stories do not always (or usually) have happy endings. Structured inequalities stemming from class, race, nationality, gender, and sexuality flow them. Reyes combines archival research (court records, historical documents, and news accounts) with rich ethnographic research to surface and explore these untold stories.

Borderlands are spaces in which overlapping and contradictory legal systems operate; local residents and foreigners meet and interact. Borderlands are disputed and pulled in multiple directions. Global Borderlands highlights the complex and contradictory forces at different levels—state to state, employer employee, buyers and sellers, individuals and justice systems, lovers, and family members.

Reyes's methodology straddles structural and transactional ethnography. The first two substantive chapters establish the historical and structural context. Relying on archival and media documentation, Reyes reviews Philippine–United States diplomatic relations. The central theme of this chapter is that the Philippine Republic and its people exercised agency and that Subic Bay was governed by both US and Philippine law. The ensuing chapter examines two (in)famous criminal cases. In 2006, a US soldier was convicted of raping a Filipina; in 2015, a US sailor was convicted of killing a transgender Filipina. In both cases, the United States attempted to circumscribe Philippine legal authority, disputing aspects of pretrial custody, legal proceedings, conviction, and posttrial incarceration. Reyes makes the case that Philippine authority expanded and became more secure over time, she also uses these cases to highlight Philippine ambivalence toward sex workers and to Filipina who interact with American soldiers and sailors.

Building on these chapters, the four ensuing chapters are anchored in transactional ethnography—extended interviews and ongoing interactions with individuals and communities impacted by Subic Bay. Due to space constraints, this review only discusses two of these chapters (and does not discuss chapters examining work and consumption). In a chapter entitled "Sex and Romance," Reyes challenges two myths: (1) the "exploitive sex myth" emphasizes exploitive commercialization of sex to satisfy the fantasies of US military personnel, (2) the "heroic love myth" envisions relationships based on love, intimacy and commitment (including immigration to the United States). Philippine society was quick to assume that a Filipina who was romantically involved with a US soldier was a sex worker. Many were. Some relationships blurred the boundary between romance and transaction. And, in still others, sex work was absent. Reyes skillfully deploys ethnographic accounts of everyday intimacies to challenge both myths and to bring to the fore the condemnation and allure of romance in a global borderland.

Global Borderlands...