.. Invisibility

This week in English class we read the poem Ikaw by Kevin Nadal. The poem is basically about Filipinos' experiences and how they were mistreated when they came to America. The first part of the poem reads, "You called me a negrito when you invaded my country .. You called me a savage when you enslaved my people .. You called me a monkey when I came to your country .. You called me a rapist and won an award". As the poem goes on, he describes other historical events where Filipinos faced oppression. Here is a video of him reading Ikaw:

Watching and listening to him read his poem gives me a different take on the poem, rather than reading it on my own. In a way, I can feel his anger and it because of his emotions there is an added depth to it . Aside from oppression, other themes I saw in this poem were, invisibility and how little people know about the history of Filipinos.

I was unaware of most of the things Nadal said in his poem. Like for instance, people like Joesph Ileto and Fermin Tobera that go unmentioned in history textbooks. Events like the St. Louis Fair, where Filipinos were put on display with animals, gets overlooked. And all the Filipino soldiers that died fighting America's war, goes unrecognized. It's like these events weren't significant enough for people to learn. Leaving the Filipino people essentially invisible. And the greater masses unaware of the history of the Filipino people.


Til next time .. Happy readings (: 

Hi ! Hello & everything else ..

Hello ! My name is Maria Delos Santos. I'm currently going to Southwestern College for the first year, so as a freshman. I come from a big Filipino family, I grew up being raised not only by my mom but by my Lola, aunts, uncles and older cousins. That's a lot of people to raise three little kids, but to me that's just my family. Ever since I could remember, my life has been influenced by the Filipino culture. I was raised in a household that was all Filipino .. all the time. What I mean by that is, that my cousins and I were raised pretty much the "filipino" way. Knowing the culture, values, being used to the food and especially the language. I don't remember learning the language very much, but it just seemed to come second nature to me. I also got American cultural influences from my uncles and cousins who were mixed Filipino and White, so I felt that I had a good balance of both cultures. When I saw that the Learning Community, Bayan, had a Filipino American Focus I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. Not only because I'm Filipino American but because, I wanted to learn more about essentially where I come from and how Filipinos became who they are now. In Henry's class, we're reading Filipino American Psychology by Kevin Nadal, and I can say that so far this book is can describe exactly how my family and our culture and values. I have learned a lot of new things about Filipinos like how Spanish and American cultural values had a big impact on our culture. It also reaffirmed or gave me names to things that I already knew, like the filipino values of "kapwa", "utang ng loob", "pakisama" and "hiya". These are the values that I grew up in and my family wanted to instill in my cousins and I. Seeing it in print is kind of the reaffirming part because even though I know that that's how most Filipino families are, reading about it makes it have a bigger impact on me .. knowing that people who read the book will understand the dynamics and values of a Filipino family. I'm excited to see what else Bayan has in store for us .. Til next time happy readings (: