WHEW! I've been on a tear lately - really heavy topics ... and I haven't even done anything on Ferguson yet. I figure its about time for a breather.
Its a light-hearted discussion about what makes Filipinos Filipinos. Are Filipinos really the happiest Asians? It's fun to "claim" so-and-so celebrities as Filipinos. Yes, I'm guilty of doing that. Some of the minor things they say are inaccurate but I can let it slide because they raise a question we all face sometimes in our lives.
I'm still a first generation immigrant even though I've lived in the U.S. 65 years. My wife's family has been here for four and five generations. My own family is starting its second and third generations. Like the immigrant groups before us, with each generation, we grow more distant from the Philippines: The names of relatives are forgotten, stories about relatives become myths, family histories blurred, recipes lost, and our Filipinoness become less and less evident.
The family members are proud to be Americans and are as American as we can be in our attitudes, values, the way we walk and talk, behave, and think. And like all Americans, we mingle. Boy, do we mingle. We come in all shades of brown and beige. There are blacks, blondes, and a whole range of eye-shapes. Our accents are Californian, New Yawkese, Chi-ka-goan and Hawaiian.
Many of the younger relatives may not even have asked themselves the question and I'm afraid some may even not count Filipino as among their racial lineage.
I'd like to hear from the rest of the family or from you readers: What do you call yourself? Is it important to you that you have Filipino blood in you? How do you keep your ties to your roots? What box do you check off when the Census asks your race? Or, is the topic even important to you?
The video is from the up-and-coming Fung Brothers from their work on YouTube videos and the cartoonist is the Manila-born Corky Trinidad, who worked for years at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated.
Its a light-hearted discussion about what makes Filipinos Filipinos. Are Filipinos really the happiest Asians? It's fun to "claim" so-and-so celebrities as Filipinos. Yes, I'm guilty of doing that. Some of the minor things they say are inaccurate but I can let it slide because they raise a question we all face sometimes in our lives.
The family members are proud to be Americans and are as American as we can be in our attitudes, values, the way we walk and talk, behave, and think. And like all Americans, we mingle. Boy, do we mingle. We come in all shades of brown and beige. There are blacks, blondes, and a whole range of eye-shapes. Our accents are Californian, New Yawkese, Chi-ka-goan and Hawaiian.
Many of the younger relatives may not even have asked themselves the question and I'm afraid some may even not count Filipino as among their racial lineage.
I'd like to hear from the rest of the family or from you readers: What do you call yourself? Is it important to you that you have Filipino blood in you? How do you keep your ties to your roots? What box do you check off when the Census asks your race? Or, is the topic even important to you?
The video is from the up-and-coming Fung Brothers from their work on YouTube videos and the cartoonist is the Manila-born Corky Trinidad, who worked for years at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated.
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