da binsi...I already somewhat regret it, but you have to relate my story more to the post WWII immigrants who came from every corner of this earth to this country where back then it was reputed to have its streets paved with gold and money grew on trees, especially for someone from the provincial barrios of the RP with no connections (another story) whatsoever. Being Borged or assimilated was the goal back then, and speaking with an accent other than Brooklynese was not desired.
I relatively recently found out that those 'white people' tried to implement those same policies imposed on the Native Americans on the Filipinos when our ancestors were sold down the river by Spain to the US. It took reading James Mitchner's Hawaii to learn why my parents never taught us bisaya or even Tagalog, even tho they could barely speak English, and participating in
FANHS to really understand.
The Native American culture including its language is no more a bigger part of American History than the Filipino American culture and contributions to this country stretching back to before the US was even a country. Nor are those any bigger than those of the Irish Americans, Italian Americans, etc, etc, etc. Only that of the Anglo Americans is any bigger since we had to defeat the British in our Revolution to win our independence.
There is a summer program at Silliman University in Dumaguete City that I've heard of where I would have liked to send my kids and grandkids to learn the culture and conversational Visayan language for HS and college students. Heck, I'd go as a parent escort and sit in on the classes and functions so I could learn myself. Know they have them in Manila also but none I've heard of in Bohol.
I didn't even realize how much I was missing until my baby daughter was in college and joined the
Fil Am student org there and invited me to some of its events. The only Filipinos I knew growing up were my immediate family. There were no others in my hood or schools. Once I was able to attend a
FIND Dialogue, I realized that I had found my people, even tho they were a lot younger than me.
After searching around and trying out different orgs for folks my age, I finally found
FANHS which was more geared to us multi-gens trying to maintain our Filipino heritage but who now call the US our 'home'. I had some Spanish in HS but never became conversant in it. I've made a stab a learning Tagalog but haven't got anywhere with it yet. Regrets? Some, but I have learned to live w/o it...joey
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