Commentary

Email this article

San Diego and Bay Area Filipinos assimilate differently

By Liberty Solis

March 27, 2006

San Diego--“No history, no self. Know history, know self.” At least that’s what I was taught about learning Filipino history during my three years at San Francisco State University.

Returning home to San Diego I started to notice the difference between the cultural awareness levels among Filipino-Americans in San Diego and the Bay, leading me to question, "How well do Filipino-Americans in San Diego know themselves?"

(Image: Michael Catacutan)

In order to explore the reasoning for differences in levels of cultural awareness, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own—the MySpace.com test.

MySpace is one of the most popular social networking interfaces on the web today. It allows you to connect with friends from all walks of life as well as create sample size of input from twenty people. Ten Filipinos were messaged from the San Diego area and ten from the Bay area. Their ages ranged from 24-28 years old. The questions focused on how much interest they had in learning about Filipino history and the reasons why.

Out of the responses received, the majority of the answers included assimilation influences based on:

·         Childhood: their parent’s playing a role on their identity of being Filipino.

·         Location: the differences in growing up in North County, East County and South County.

·         Peers: the pressures of fitting in to what is socially-acceptable.

Jennifer Lim, a Filipina-American graduate of San Diego State University responded about her interest in learning about Filipino history, “I’m interested to a certain extent,” says Lim. “I think what I am surrounded by has had influence on my decision why I have not learned more about it.”

To achieve the “American dream,” some Filipino-American parents did not teach their children Tagalog, the primary language of the Philippines, for fear their children were going to struggle to adapt to American Society. “My parents never spoke to us in Tagalog. After my older brother was held a grade back from school, they didn’t want me to struggle with it also,” says San Diegan Georja Chavez. “I’ve always wanted to learn but was never guided to take it a step further and do something about it.”

Mike Benito comments, “The American dream to obtain a degree, get a well-paying job, start a family and support one’s family was instilled in me at a very young age, as well as the religious morals my parent’s valued,” says Benito. “I was always afraid to disappoint them.”

Living in the South, East and North counties of San Diego has a huge influence on how Filipino-Americans felt about their Filipino identity. “Growing up in Eastlake, many Filipino’s were about image maybe because we had the newer and nicer houses,” says Georja Chavez. “I grew up in Eastside (the National City area) and moving there made me see how high-maintenance Filipinos could be.”

“Growing up in South County, I’ve noticed that we adapted to the Mexican influence, particularly the style of dress,” says Jae-Anne Elbo. “I felt the need to dress-up for school than dress casual in a pair of jeans because it was how my group of friends dressed.”

The “crab mentality” from peers also cultivates the absence of amalgamation within the Filipino-American community in San Diego. A crab mentality is a way of thinking, best phrased "If I can't have it, neither can you." The metaphor refers to a pot of crabs in which one tries to escape over the side, but is relentlessly pulled down by the others in the pot. “The crab mentality was very evident with peers around me,” says Alexander Del Rosario. “Sometimes Filipinos brought each other down, or were envious of someone or something. It seemed that we were always trying to out do each other.”

Location plays a large role in Filipino-American mentality. For example, the demographic differences between San Diego and San Francisco contribute to Filipino-Americans from these cities viewing their Filipino heritage differently.

When questioned about his interest in Filipino history Liberto Aguinaldo, a San Francisco State University graduate, has a tremendous amount of interest in learning. “I think the more you know about your roots, the more pride you’ll have in yourself and your people. And, proud people can do amazing things.”

Like the San Diego Filipino-Americans influence from peers, Bay area Filipino-Americans were challenged to think about these issues because of the dominating liberal attitudes from friends and surroundings.

“It was during college that I can say my peers’ mentality of being Filipino were challenging me to think of things in a whole new perspective,” says Juslyn Manalo, an active member of the Filipino-American community in San Francisco.

As for San Diegans, Del Rosario states, “We have more followers than leaders. At times we are closed-minded and that’s why we get caught up with so much, we need to start thinking outside of the box and start looking at how we can change things and actually make a difference.”

Incidentally, several San Diego Filipino leaders contacted for this article did not reply to interview requests. One has to wonder whether they were too busy working with community leaders on projects such as the redevelopment of National City, or merely lack interest in the next generation of Filipino-American leaders.

--------------------

Liberty Solis is a freelance writer. This is her second contribution to Vyuz.