Pop quiz to all Filipinos out there: is there a Filipino doll among over 280 sashaying and dancing dolls at Disneyland California’s “It’s a Small World” ride?
On a recent trip to “The Happiest Place on Earth”, I was sitting on a boat with 16 other riders, being towed gently on the man-made lazy river, listening to a song that had been played over 50 million times (and counting).
“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears. It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears. There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware. It’s a small world after all,” the lyrics state.
Not only is the classic Disneyland attraction one of the oldest rides—it opened in May 1966—but the song playing for the duration of the ride is a very potent earworm.
In other words, the song gets stuck in your head. On repeat. On repeat.
Sorry, where was I?
Oh, yes. I asked a question—is there a Filipino doll amongst the hundreds of dolls?
You see, although the ride itself is leisurely and sloooow, there’s a myriad of things to see. So at first I thought Filipinos were not represented.
Turning corner after corner, I searched. Maybe it’s just around the riverbend—it’s a boat.ride.people!
Elaborate, colourful, glittery worlds were constructed representing countries like the Netherlands, Mexico, Spain, India, Japan, and China.
There were dolls with baskets of flowers on their heads, dolls with feathered hats dancing the flamenco, dolls wearing sombreros, and dolls reclining on an Arabian carpet.
Where’s the Filipino doll?
There’s the doll on a wheelchair. There’s Ariel with her new seashells (wink wink).
There’s the rabbit-toothed, cardboard-looking, arm-flapping Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) doll from Canada. What in the world was that?
Where’s the Filipino doll?
Let’s pause for a moment here.
Population of Mexicans in the United States: 37 million.
People with Dutch origins: 3 million
People from China: 5 million
People from India: 4 million
So yes, I get it. There’s plenty of representation here.
However, in a country where over 3 million Filipinos currently reside, Disneyland California’s most iconic ride does not have a single Filipino doll on display.
It’s a small thing, perhaps, in a small world, but you’d think we’d get a mention, a single doll, heck, I’d even take a Filipino flag…anything.
But to have no representation at all, that hurts.
At the end of the ride, as the boat docked, I walked away with a sick feeling in my stomach, like I’d just been sucker punched and told I didn’t exist.
Like we Filipinos didn’t matter. Or so I thought.
It was a few days later, when I was editing my photos, that I saw it.
There it was—a single Filipino doll, right beside Ariel’s underwater world.
Its lips upturned in a small smile, black hair in a bun, right hand holding an abaniko (a fan), and the unmistakeable butterfly sleeves of a terno.
So, Disney, you didn’t fail us.
But really, ONE doll to represent THREE MILLION Filipinos in the United States?
You can do better than that.
