From: calliope@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joanna Salgado)
Subject: Re: FIL-AMS
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 20:26:41 GMT

In article <C17w3y.MzG@inews.Intel.COM> sedayao@chopin.intel.com writes:
>In article <1993Jan21.080737.6533@schbbs.mot.com>, R11334@waccvm.corp.mot.com (Cycle-Time-Sys Sh-Shuy) writes:
>
>
>> Here's an interesting article I saw on the paper today.  Some portions have
>> been deleted:
>
>They have a skewed sample.  Stanford, as an elite, expensive
>private school, has a different set of Filipino Americans than a public school
>would.  Drastically different.  I know this from experience, having attended
>a private college and a public one.  If they visited U.C. Berkeley (just across
>the bay), I suspect they would get some very different answers.
>
>> STANFORD, California - To talk about Filipino culture is to painstakingly
>> wring out details of a complicated society where traditions are closely
>> linked with a Spanish colonial heritage and whose popular culture is
>> unmistakably American influenced.
>
>> One would think that there is no Filipino culture to speak of, in the first
>> place.  This is the reason they have earned the monicker 'brown Americans'.
>> Filipinos are so exposed to American culture that culture shock ranges from
>> negligible to zero when they come to the United States.
>
>I was born here in the state, but from my experiences with friends, relatives,
>and others who have immigrated here, culture shock exists and is not negligible.
>
>> For most Filipino-American students in Stanford University who grew up
>> here, the so-called problem of "cultural identity" among children of
>> immigrants has been resolved.  Or it never existed at all.
>
>> They consider themselves Americans.  "I am an ethnic American and being of
>> an ethnic minority is a facet of my being an American," declared Julius
>> Paras, president of Pilipino-American Student Union based at Stanford.  "I
>> am more American than I am Filipino."  "I am definitely more American than
>> Filipino," said Laurie Anne Dee, a sophomore in Florida.  "I know my
>> lifestyle is different from my cousins in the Philippines.  I have accepted
>> that I am an American."  Paras, however, said he knows he will never
>> realize the ultimate American dream - to become President of the United
>> States -because he was not born here.
>
>> Filipino-Americans consider themselves Americans but they do not totally
>> belong to the country as Americans do.  They cannot consider themselves
>> Filipinos because their only link to the Philippines are their parents, who
>> in fact did not encourage them to talk and act Filipino.  They know that in
>> the Philippines, the only thing they have in common with the people,
>> including members of their extended families, is the color of their skin.
>
>I would not say this for all Fil-Ams born here.  I am not even sure that this
>applies to the majority.  There are a number of reasons that the Filipinos do 
>not teach their Fil-AM kids to speak Tagalog.  I know some parents were 
>discouraged (wrongly, in my opinion) by American teachers from speaking to 
>their children in Tagalog.  Some Filipinos are more comfortable in English
>than in Tagalog.  One reason my mother did not teach me Tagalog is that she
>doesn't speak it very well.  She is from Mindanao, and she only learned
>Tagalog here in the US!
>
>> Paras said the cultural framework of Filipino-Americans is something that
>> will always crop up, notwithstanding the fact that they consider themselves
>> Americans.  "There will really be no complete resolution," he said.
>> "Throughout our lives, we will be faced with this question."
>
>> [end of article]
>
>> Nice, huh ?  How about changing the name of this newsgroup to
>> SOC.CONFUSED.FILIPINOS ?  or maybe REC.TRAVEL.PI  (as in "pee-eye").  After
>> all, vacations, travel and tourist spots are favorite topics.
>
>-- 
>Jeff Sedayao
>Intel Corporation
>sedayao@chopin.intel.com
>..!uunet!intelhf!chopin!sedayao