Filipino Americans: Blending

Cultures, Redefining Race

There are over 3 million people of Filipino heritage living in the
U.S., and many say they relate better to Latino Americans than other
Asian American groups. In part, that can be traced to the history of
the Philippines, which was ruled by Spain for more than 300 years.
That colonial relationship created a cultural bond that persists to
this day.

It's the topic of the book The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans
Break the Rules of Race. Author Anthony Ocampo spoke about the book
with Morning Edition's Renee Montagne.

Interview Highlights

The religious bond between Filipinos and Latinos

When you go back to the Philippines, and you look at the buildings,
the omnipresence of religion, Catholicism is everywhere, The Virgin
Mary is everywhere. Like something you'd see in Latin America.

And when Filipinos migrate to the United States, they'll look at

things like family, they'll look at things like Catholicism, they'll
look at things like their last names, and think, "Hey when it comes to
our history it seems like we have a lot of similarities with this
group, more so than the group that we are boxed into.'"
Growing up Filipino in a Latino neighborhood

So I grew up in Eagle Rock, which is in northeast Los Angeles. And

pretty much from elementary school all the way to the 8th grade, all
of my classmates were either Filipino or Latino. And growing up, there
were certain norms that I saw that were common to both of us.

We went through a lot of the religious rite of passages like First

Communion, First Confession, Confirmation. It was pretty easy to
observe that we have a lot of overlapping words between ourselves and
Latinos. Everyday words like mesa, tenedor, cuchara. That's a table,
fork and spoon.

Why it's hard to find a "Little Manila" in the U.S.

Filipinos are really hard to place. We don't really have a distinct look.
We can look Chinese, we can look Mexican.

So as a lot of people know the Philippines was, after it was colonized

by Spain, it was colonized by the United States for another half
century, and arguably the Americans have had a presence there ever
since. And with the American colonial period, they brought a massive
public education system. They made English the national language of
instruction, along with Filipino. And what that means is that
Filipinos, even before migrating, are socialized to American
norms...So by the time they get here, the usual things that push
people into ethnic enclaves like not knowing the language, not having
the social networks, don't apply because of that strong American
influence.

Why Filipinos have a "low profile" as a nationality in the U.S.

I think Filipinos don't have a higher profile because when it comes to
the way we think about race, Filipinos are really hard to place. We
don't really have a distinct look. We can look Chinese, we can look
Mexican.

I think also because generally the Filipinos that come to the United
States are more of a middle class, highly educated selection, there
hasn't been as much of an urgent need for them to galvanize – build
ethnic economies. I think about other Asian Americans for example. So,
Chinese Americans, Vietnamese Americans, when they come to this
country, you know the Vietnamese nail salon is an easy example. A lot
of East Asians have developed these Saturday language schools which
have been really important for their kids to maintain to the culture
of the homeland.

And when you do all these things that are really concentrated, it
makes people really visible. And Filipinos, because they don't have as
much of a need to congregate in the same way, I think it makes them
less visible.

Source :
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/05/24/478560399/filipino-
americans-blending-cultures-redefining-race

“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the
test of our civilization” - Mahatma Gandhi

Seven continents, 197 countries, and 7.8 billion people. Different

race, culture, and lifestyle. We have our own uniqueness and our own
kind. There is beauty in each kind that we need to respect, understand
and appreciate. Everyone has ups and downs, their advantages and
disadvantages. However at the end of the day we are not living for
other people, we are living for ourselves.

Filipinos can adapt very well. From our history we were colonized by 3
countries. Our ancestors adapt their culture, lifestyle and religion
(and their genes too!). That is why Filipinos nowadays are totally
mixed - race filipino. And you can not tell which is which. But that
doesn’t change the fact that we are the owner of our beautiful
country, Philippines. We may look like a foreigner but trust us we are
Filipino by blood.

Filipino migrate to other countries but we still look for a Filipino

touch in other countries. There is no place like home. Filipinos may
be mistaken as other races but one thing is for sure, you can spot a
Filipino based on how they act, when there’s one.