My Winning Submission: EDSA/People Power Revolution Essay Writing Contest

EDSA/ People Power Revolution Essay Writing Contest, sponsored by Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA) Inc and the Philippine Consulate of San Francisco


To My Grandparents,

How did you feel when Marcos’ government fell in 1986? What went through your mind when you heard the news? Were you happy that a regime that took so much from the people was gone? As Ilocanos, were you upset that a man who began with big promises for the people was unfairly slandered by opposition forces and unlawfully deposed? Were Ferdinand and Imelda your John and Jackie Kennedy? Were the people right in their revolution? What did your families say when they sent letters, or did they mostly ask for money? I wish I had asked before you went to God’s side. I knew of you, and spent time with you, but never had the chance to really know you. I was so young, and knew nothing of death. I felt you would be around for a long time.

I wish I could have asked you about your life in the Philippines. As a young child, I never learned about our Filipino culture and our Ilocano language. Now that you are both gone, I’ll never be able to recapture your unique stories. As an adult, I can now read about the conditions Filipinos faced in early twentieth century America. Having read America is in the Heart, I can imagine a little of what you, lolo, went through on your journey to Hawaii and California. Did you, like so many pinoys, come to the United States in hopes of a better life? Did you see so little opportunity in your home that you felt a long voyage across the sea would open the doors for your success? What made you decide to purchase one hundred acres of Central Coast farmland with your brothers? How were you able to purchase the land, at a time when Filipinos were still looked at with suspicion and prejudice? So many questions, and yet so few answers.

How did you feel about your children? Were they raised to be wholly American, with so little expression or knowledge of their Filipino heritage? I know among many immigrant parents it was better to cultivate the American culture, in order to assimilate more completely, and draw less attention from the government officials who tried to expel “illegal” workers and “lawfully” exclude Filipinos from free access to all being an American national meant. Were you proud of your children? Did you feel, as so many parents do, that there was more you could have done to make them even more successful?

How did you feel about me? A third­-generation Filipino American with so little knowledge or cultural ties with our family’s Filipino culture. A young person who must rely on books, secondhand stories, and friends’ families to learn anything about our Philippines. Who knew so little that, prior to this assignment, didn’t even know what the 1986 People Power Revolution referred to? I knew who Ferdinand Marcos was, but only as a dictator who styled himself a political playboy. I knew of Imelda Marcos’ shoes.

How can I recapture that narrative which, through my and my parents’ upbringing, was so quickly lost within two generations? While I feel so blessed to have unrestricted access to a wealth of virtual resources I can use to study our culture, they are not you. They are not your individual stories. How can we; young, third and fourth generation Filipino Americans with, at times, so little connection with our Filipino heritage, recover a lost history that’s so often ignored in our American and World history courses? We must ask questions and take action.

Would you, our manongs and manangs, be proud of where we have come? We have a TV show that depicts a Filipino American family sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner without over-­the-­top stereotypes. We fought to rename a high school after two of our most prominent, but largely forgotten, labor union warriors in Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz. We produced a documentary that introduces so many of our own to the fight in Delano, and its role in the great labor battles of the twentieth century. We’ve done much but, like those who came in support of their personal values and rights as citizens on the Epifano de los Santos Avenue, there’s still much work to be done. Neither the Filipino people or we are truly free of the status quo.

Ours is not a physical conflict against an individual regime or tyrant, but a cultural struggle against anonymity in history and invisibility in society. Our conflicts are not waged in revolutionary language with great public displays, but with a quiet determination in the halls of government and behind our cameras. In speaking with you and your children, and telling or retelling the story of our people, we honor our culture and those who fight for their beliefs. We are the offspring of Filipinos, but we are also Americans. Our charge may not be to overthrow a government, but like the Revolutionaries we must change minds and hearts of others who do not know about us. We must save our cultures from disappearing into the shadows of history, lest we ourselves forget. We owe our lives to the sacrifices of men and women like you, lolo and lola. Without you, I would not be here, able to enjoy the benefits of this great country. I hope our young people are up to the challenge of honoring the lives of our grandparents and great-­grandparents, and honoring the spirit of those who fought for a better life for themselves and their families on the EDSA in 1986. Though we are in different arenas, we both fight for our right to relevancy and visibility in our national stories.

To my grandparents, I hope I made you proud. I wish we had had more time to get to know each other, and share our stories with family and food. I look forward to showing you more about my life when I see you again.

Love,
Your grandson

See Positively Filipino Magazine's article on the contest here.

Movie Monday: "Ilo Ilo," a film by Anthony Chen

This week, I wanted something that was completely different for me. I happened to find just this in Anthony Chen’s “Ilo Ilo,” a slice-of-life drama showcasing life in Singapore c. 1997, during the great economic crisis in Asia. I also reveals the dynamic between different ethnic groups within South East Asia, and hints at the relative hierarchy of each group. The relative economic differences between, say, Singapore and the Philippines is also shown through the characters’ relative situations, however it doesn’t reflect on which characters are “good” or “bad” in the traditional sense. Many of the actors are unknown to me, and likely many in Western cinema. The screen time is generously shared among the four main characters, so establishing who the “lead” is is problematic for Western audiences. Singaporean veteran actor Chen Tian Wen captures the hardships inherent as the struggling family patriarch Teck. Yeo Yann Yann plays is wife Hwee Leng, who is pregnant with a daughter and dealing with the stress of a hard marriage and a hard job. Newcomer Koh Jia Ler plays Jiale, a parent’s nightmare. A young man faced with his parents’ rocky marriage and hard life, he acts out at school and captures the challenges of any young boy learning for himself. Finally, we have Angeli Bayani playing Terry, a migrant Filipino housekeeper and maid. Bayani’s facial expressions, I think, capture the sort of “I must endure it” attitude necessary when faced with such hard choices as leaving your home for work, and the inherent, though not always obvious, prejudice against Filipinos among other South Asian groups. Many of the performances were spot on, and arguably very little could be added to improve the feel of the film. I appreciate that stereotyping wasn’t as prevalent in this film as in some American-made films, which often portray Asian characters, even in 2015, as martial arts masters, wise teachers and dragon ladies.

Jiale (Koh) is a troubled young man. He acts out at school and is constantly studying gambling odds when he should be focusing on his school lessons. His parents Teck (Chen) and Hwee Leng (Yeo) are at their wits end, finding their own stresses at work while trying to make allowances for their son. Finally, they decide to hire Teresa (Bayani), a Filipino mother looking for work in Singapore to help support her young infant son back in the Philippines. This film shows hardship piled on hardship, and helps introduce Western audiences to a different world that may be more similar than we’d think. There is good material here for looking at the ethnic hierarchies within South Asia, as well as the relative economic positions of immigrants relative to the majority. There is also just a good, quality film that is different than much of what comes out of Hollywood.

I found this film to be eye opening. Specifically, I have not seen many Singaporean films, nor have I had access to many films not made in China, Hong Kong, Korea, or Japan. It is refreshing to see films that showcase something different, without devolving into a kind of “poor me” attitude that is easy to take when showing non-Western films to Western audiences. The characters do not ask for your sympathy, but seem to say “see my endurance.” In the end, however, the human element tries to ensure we do feel for the characters, even troublemaker Jiale. Viewers will likely relate to the economic hardships the characters face, as much of the world emerges from an economic depression unseen for decades. Even when things get rough, however, the characters face their troubles as best they can.

This film is powerful, almost overly so. There were many moments where I felt “wow, I didn’t know it was like that.” The plight of Filipino immigrants trying to send money back home is a familiar situation with many Mexican immigrants looking to feed their families back home, especially here in California. This is not ancient history, or likely even history, as much as it is a reflection of what still happens today. While there is value is realizing what was during the 1997 economic downturn, analogies can be made today, and likely will apply in the future as well. Anyone interested in seeing something different (for me), and seeing a different world outside the most common depictions of Asian cinema would do well to check out “Ilo Ilo.” I wasn’t disappointed.

Stream / Purchase

Points of Interest:

Filipino women as housekeepers and maids, jealousy of relationships with children

Ethnic relations within East and Southeast Asia

Singaporean culture as it relates to other neighboring nations

“under the table” work of worker immigrants

Corporal punishment in cultures