Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Wednesday, 9 Sep 1992 08:52:33 MST
From: <IDJDM@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Re: Where is everybody? :-)

In response to Odilio's 4 questions:

1.  My wife's brother just got out of the U.S. Army and has come to live with u
s while looking for a job at Arizona State University, while finishing his educ
ation.  My wife's family is from Catanduanes, of which only one brother and the
ir mother are still living there.  I am an American of Native American and Fren
ch parents, and have come to love the foods and flavors of my wife's peoples.
We had smoked scad, halo-halo, bar-b-qued beef, baked potatoes and of course, r
ice for a labor day meal.  The rest of the time we spent showing my brother-in-
law around the city, shopping and relaxing since it was a long weekend.

2.  I, myself, have been discriminated by personnel in the Department of Public
Safety here at A.S.U.  I have been told that by one of the personnel that I wor
ked with, that minorities were lazy and expect everyone to give them jobs.  I t
hen informed the individual that I am a minority.  I wrote a letter to the Poli
c Commissioner and informed him of her remarks, of which all he requested of he
r was to apologize.  I soon left the department to move upward within the unive
rsity, and I am currently in a higher grade and income bracket than her.  I hav
e also seen how students are discriminated against, especially if you are a min
ority.  One department that I worked for did not accept or give fellowships, as
sistantships or scholarships to Asians; only for the categories of people terme
d as Indian, Black or Hispanic.  The rational was that the Asian countries prov
ide most of their peoples with funding for their education.

3.  My wife just recently went through hell trying to apply for her second BA d
egree here at A.S.U.  She had completed 164 credit hours at Catanduanes State C
ollege.  She was accepted into the Graduate College here at A.S.U. to receive h
er Masters in Education.  She decided to try for a second bachelors  degree in
Spanish, and that's when the trouble started.  A.S.U. doesn't accept Bachelors
degrees from the Philippines, India and one other country.  We were told that A
.S.U. views a B.A./B.S. degree from these countries as only equivalent to a 10t
h grade education.  Of the 164 credit hours my wife had obtained, A.S.U. only a
ccepted 108.  The University of Hawaii had accepted all of her credit hours pre
viously.  I transferred to A.S.U. from Univ. of Maryland with 39 credit hours.

of which A.S.U. only accepted 9.  So, as a word of caution or warning to other
individuals out there that want to come to A.S.U., I suggest that you go elsewh
ere.  The bureacracy here is unbelievable.

4.  Although I have never been to the Philippines, I also long to see the count
ry that is the land of my wife's birth and childhood.  I have traveled througho
ut Europe, Mexico, the U.S., South Korea and Tokyo, Japan.  My parents say that
 I never meet a stranger, because I make friends whereever I go.  I love meetin
g people of other cultures and learning their languages.  My wife is teaching o
ur daughter Tagalog, I am teaching her Spanish, and we both teach her English.

I don't want my wife to lose sight of her heritage and culture, like my Mother'
s people have (she is half Cherokee and half Chocktaw).  The reservation that m
y mother grew up on, is now under water as a man-made lake in Bristow, Oklahoma
.  The only part of my Father's culture that is still practiced, in music.  My
Father's family came to America in 1810 from France and were violin and cello m
akers.  The other side of his family were Iroquoi Indians from the New York are
a, of which most of the geneology has been lost or forgotten.  I just want to m
ake sure that our daughter is as proud of her heritage as my wife and I are.  W
e try to obtained foods, magazines, and clothing of the Philippines so that my
wife has something from home.  When she was pregnant with our daughter, she

craved certain types of fruits from home, that are not available here in Arizon
a.  However, there are a few Oriental stores that sell some vegetables, fruits
and fish that are used in P.I.  We have also found two places that have Filipin
o videos with Vilma Santos and Sharon Cuneta, her two favorite actresses.