Flowers From Afar - Mayflowers (2021) - “A las flores del Heidelberg”(1886) - Epiphytic Communities

Aug 26, 2026

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This essay explores how flowers function as agents that activate possibilities within a community described as epiphytic or dependent on botanical relations. It links two works through their shared engagement with flowers: the virtual performance Mayflowers (2021) and José Rizal’s poem “A las flores del Heidelberg” (1886). Together, flowers move beyond ornament and passivity, enabling collective encounters that counter the often violent reality of distance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Mayflowers: Virtual Santa Cruzan and Flower Offering (Kamustahan)

The event context and purpose

The meaning of “Mayflowers” and Flores de Mayo

Flores de Mayo history and its relation to Santacruzan

European origins and arrival in the Philippines

Santacruzan ritual and symbolism

Reyna Caridad: performance scene and themes

Flowers From Afar: Mayflowers (2021),“A las flores del Heidelberg”(1886), and Epiphytic Communities Christian Jil R. Benitez Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines Abstract This essay explores the agency of flowers in activating possibilities of a community, one that can be specifically described as epiphytic or dependent on botanic matters. In particular, the essay considers two seemingly unrelated works yoked together here on the grounds of their similar engagement with flowers: the virtual performance Mayflowers (2021), inspired by the Filipino traditions of Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan, which presented Filipino women migrant workers from various parts of the world the chance to come together during the COVID-19 pandemic through working with artificial flowers; and the poem “A las flores del Heidelberg”(1886) by the Filipino polymath José Rizal, whose description of the phenomenon of flowers permitting one to seemingly return to their homeland resonates with the Thai poetic subgenre of nirat (นิราศ) . By bringing these two works together, flowers are no longer seen as mere ornaments to human practices or inert figures in anthropocentric discourses, but rather as crucial agents actively participating in such encounters, and by extension, enabling the emergence of the collectives they entail. Ultimately, this unlikely comparison makes palpable how flowers help bring about moments of coming together with others—through and against the often-violent reality of distance inbetween. Keywords: flowers, epiphytic community, Philippine diaspora, Philippine contemporary art, José Rizal I Consider the scene: a woman wearing a flower crown sits in a corner, surrounded by pots of live plants and paper flowers. Her name, as displayed on the screen, is Reyna Caridad (meaning,“Queen (of) Charity”), a character in the traditional Filipino pageant Santacruzan who embodies the theological virtue of love. But instead of the usual lavish red gown, this queen wears a modest brown floral dress, and in lieu of a red heart—the Sacred Heart—she holds a dummy infant wrapped in a blanket. Gently, she sways back and forth, singing a lullaby and patting the child as if to put it to sleep. And so, while the love that the queen represents is commonly abstracted as pure, if not religious, the moment at hand renders it particularly, and secularly, maternal. Furthermore, given the overall context of the performance, such too is a love that hails from afar and reaches through distance: Zahra Chell, the woman playing the role of the queen, is a migrant worker in London, thousands of miles away from the Philippines; as such, her performance becomes an ode to her family back in her country, a means for her to be seemingly at home with them. This moment appears halfway through Mayflowers: Virtual Santa Cruzan and Flower Offering (Kamustahan,“Mayflowers” 29:06-31:42), an event streamed via Facebook on May 30, 2021. Conceptualized and organized by the contemporary Filipino artist Nathalie Dagmang, Cielo Tilan (the co-founder of Filipino Domestic Workers Association (FDWA) in U.K.) and the Jesuit artist Jason Dy, it featured performances by Filipino women migrant workers from London, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Mayflowers forms a part of the Kamustahan Arts Project, an online initiative dedicated to gathering Filipino artists, migrant workers, and activists from various parts of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the particular aim of harnessing art to form and strengthen connections among them and beyond. The event concluded a month-long series of online workshops given to Filipino women migrant workers which taught them how to make flowers from paper and other recycled materials, and how to arrange them and put them in installations. These flowers were then used by the participants to make costumes and sculptural works, the photos of which were shared every day on Facebook between May 17 and 29,

FAQs

How does the essay connect Mayflowers (2021) and “A las flores del Heidelberg” (1886)?

It brings the two works together through their shared engagement with flowers, showing how the presence of flowers enables a sense of returning home and forming collectives across distance.

What role do flowers play in Mayflowers: Virtual Santa Cruzan and Flower Offering?

Participants learned to make and arrange paper and recycled-material flowers, used them in costumes and installations, and shared images as offerings for loved ones back home.

What does Santacruzan commemorate, according to the document?

It commemorates St. Helena’s discovery of the wooden cross associated with Jesus’ crucifixion, and is performed as a pageant featuring women representing virtues, biblical, or historical figures.

Aug 26, 2026

Upload by Jacob