I will share my story, next.
I grew up in a rather large and very warm , welcoming family. Both sides of my family, in reference to my father's and mother's, were pivotal in the education of my parents , the upbringing of filial piety, maternal and paternal responsibility, as well as loyalty to the entire family and in quest for the good of the family and those who are in need that the family has obligations to.
I would not say that my family is unique or different from the average Filipino Family, rather, it is their experience , in regards to my mother and father, that brings to me and my siblings a personal touch of the Filipino Diaspora. My father's side of the family are very well educated, my grandmother's side came from a father who was a High School Principal in Padre Burgos, Leyte, and whose wife was also a teacher, and their parents before them were educators and educated during the time of the Spanish, then later in the American epoch. Education has always been stressed and forwarded in my father's side of the family. My grand uncle, the late Dr. Hermogines Ebuenga, M.D, was the first Medical Anesthesiologist in Bohol Island Province, was himself sent to school by my grandfather, the late Mr. Rustico Aray Lucino, a businessman from Bohol. His actions in supporting family, helping family is the very manifestation of the saying "Family Loyalty". Aside from assisting my grand uncle, my grandfather also made sure that all of his children were educated and made sure that they understood the necessity of financial stability, and the possibilities of a successful life abroad as well as one in the Philippines. My father and uncles went on to engineering at CIT and eventually went abroad , an aunt who went to nursing school and eventually went to the US, an aunt went on to law school and now is a bureaucrat in Bohol, another uncle who was a graduate of Cebu Institute of Medicine who is now based in the UK. My grandfather and my grandmother taught their children the importance of personal and filial responsibility--and that one should remember their past and their family who are in need because you really do not know when you yourself will be in need. A person whom you help today, will be the person who might help you in the future. My father and my Mother were both OFWs before finally becoming American Citizens, my father was a Supervisor Civil Engineer at a German-based company in Saudi Arabia whilst my mother was a Registered Nurse who found a job in the United States during the height of the Filipino Brain Drain in late 1980s and early 1990s. Filipinos are also survivors. When he arrived to the United States, my father chose to go to school again--to get his RN, despite being a Civil Engineer. The reasons for this change in careers was to augment our family's income and to better provide for his family; again a sacrifice. In fact, I can even claim that my parents sacrificed everything to come to the United States; a sacrifice to provide a better future for their children and for family back home. Tho my parents moved to the United States and we, with them, they never really forgot the importance of teaching us of the sacrifices of their family, as well as helping relatives and friends whom were in need. Again, upholding the teachings of my late grandfather who stressed the importance of Filial Piety and Filial Responsibility.
For me, as one who was raised in the American Life yet has links to the Brain Drain, I find it rather poignant to think about this situation.
I think that all Filipinos have a personal right to choose whether they want to be OFWS or not, to go abroad and seek greener pastures or to stay and find a great life in the Philippines. That personal and unalienable right to choose is theirs.
But I can totally understand why some of them would go abroad, I can understand why they send money to families every month, I can understand why they go home only once or twice a year, sometimes even once a decade.
The Universal Theme in the Tale of the Filipino Diaspora is this: Filial Piety, Filial Responsibility.
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