Filipino-Americans

I’VE been in the U.S. for more than 30 years now.  My wife, Gerlou and I, still speak to each other the Kagay-anon way.

  Wala gyud malimot sa atong Kagay-anon na binisaya.  On the other hand, our daughter, Anjanette came here when she was still in pre-school while our son, Ryan had just learned how to talk.

  Although we continued speaking to them in our dialect, the English language was more influential to them because of television and their schoolmates.

  But they can understand our Kagay-anon tongue.  

  Their ways, however, are more American than Filipino.  And that’s the way it is among Filipino immigrants who had been here in the U.S. as long as we had been here or even longer. 

  There are 2 kinds of Filipino Americans here.

  By the way, we are referred to as Filipino Americans because we are U.S. citizens with origins from the Philippines. 

  Those who were born in the U.S. or were raised in the U.S. from infancy or from their pre-teen years are very much Americanized.  While those who came here as teenagers and up are also Americanized in many ways but they still speak their original Filipino language.

  I remember years ago, a Filipino American student leader told me that he didn’t know where he belonged.  Being raised in the U.S. he said he was out-of-place among the Filipino students who spoke Pilipino because he couldn’t speak the language. Although he spoke the English language fluently with no Filipino accent, he also didn’t belong to the main stream Americans because of the color of his skin.  In other words, he had no barkada. That was years ago.  Today, there are many Filipino Americans born and raised in the U.S. just as there are many who are still fluent with the Pilipino language.

  Mature Filipino Americans like me who had lived here in the U.S. for so long, had consciously or unconsciously acquired some American culture.

  When we drive our vehicles we strictly follow traffic rules; we immediately make a line when a crowd is formed to buy something; we treat our pets like they are part of the family;  we are careful not to throw our trash anywhere;  we vote for candidates that our conscience tells us who are the best administrators.

  Of course, most of us are still rice eaters but most of our children born and raised in the U.S. no longer eat much of our Filipino food.  Between the hamburger of Jollibee and McDonalds, they prefer MacDo.

What I have written may sound unbelievable but that’s as far as I know.