Proud to be a Filipino
While on the August 30, 2018 Iberian Peninsula Cruise with my wife, Farida, and
21 other medical colleagues and friends, we met a friendly Filipino coffee
server by the name of Jaime, a Visayan, on board the Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity
Eclipse. He relayed to us his humorous encounter with a female passenger from
the same region aboard a previous cruise.
Jaime said the woman was talking to a companion in English with a heavy Visayan
accent. Eager to meet a fellow “kababayan,” he asked if she was from the
Philippines. She looked at him with arrogance and disdain, to his surprise and
embarrassment, and replied with a firm “No, I only leeve in Tiksas!,” (meaning
Texas). Jaime moved away laughing inside and wondering why she, who obviously
looked like an Asian, unmistakably a Filipina, was ashamed of her heritage, had
opted to re-label her DNA “made in Ameereeka,” and consciously considered
herself a Caucasian, when she could not even pronounce the words “live” and
“Texas” properly.
Our group of 23 cracked up and started asking each other every day which “dick”
(deck) their cabin or the theater was on and asking Jaime for “coopee” every
morning we were at the Ocean View Café main dining hall on the 14th “dick” for
breakfast.
While the jest was made only in fun, with no malicious intent whatsoever, since
some of the members of our group were from the Visayas, and I, a Tagalog, spent
13 years of my professional life as a proud “adopted son” of Cebu, the sad
incident related by Jaime is unfortunately not an isolated case.
Since Farida and I left the Philippines for Chicago on December 31, 1962, for
her pediatric training and my cardiac surgery residency also in Chicago and
fellowship in Houston, Texas, we have known and heard of several similar sad
instances, even among some of our fellow Fil-Am physicians, who were embarrassed
to say they were of Filipino heritage.
In the 50s and 60s, the immigrant Filipinos were mostly laborers and farm
workers. These honorable kababayan of ours who left their families in the
Philippines and sacrificed themselves to be able to support them, had suffered a
lot from discrimination and abuse. Thereafter and to this date, millions of
Filipinos in the United States are either physicians or nurses, or well-trained
professionals in various fields of education, business, engineering, science,
technology, etc. Societal impression, perception, regard, and treatment of
Filipinos in America have all been positively impacted and have changed in our
favor.
There is really nothing wrong with having an accent. Practically all of us and
every nationality have several dialects and different accents. That is natural,
normal, and to be expected. The tragedy in that “humorous” incident was the
woman’s obvious lack of patriotism and pride in the Philippines and the disloyal
denial of her national origin.
Today, when Americans meet Filipinos, they almost always presume they are
physicians or nurses, etc. The reputation of the Filipinos abroad has evolved in
a wonderful way. People in the United States and other major countries do not
only respect but like Filipinos, especially by foreigners who had been to the
Philippines. We, as a people, have made a good impression and reputation for
ourselves around the globe, especially in America.
People in the United States openly admire Filipinos and I usually hear them say
“Filipinos are good people.” Of course, countless millions of Americans have
been patients of Fil-Am doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers over the
past six to seven decades. It is my own observation that Filipino doctors and
especially our nurses have excellent bedside manner to the gratification of
their patients. Americans consider them well-educated, talented, amiable,
compassionate, patient, and hardworking. Naturally, as with any other
nationalities, there are some rotten apples among us. But these are the minority
exceptions.
Since there are more than 10.2 million of Filipinos working overseas (more than
4 million in the USA alone, the second largest immigrants) out of the
106,876,588 total population of the Philippines (2018 report), an article was
quoted as saying, “If the Filipinos around the world all left for home, cruise
lines, hospitals, nursing homes, casinos, etc., would suffer greatly or be
paralyzed.”
As a Filipino-American, who looks at the mirror every morning (excellent for
curing identity crisis), I never forget that I have Filipino-Chinese blood in
me, and no matter how much I have mastered the English language, I am still and
will always be a Filipino, who just happens to be also a US citizen. I go to bed
at night without any delusion of waking up in the morning and finding a
Caucasian looking back at me in the mirror. I am content, secure, and grateful
for what the Lord has blessed me with, including this non-Hollywood Tsinoy face
of mine. Nothing today, not even plastic surgery, can change our DNA. I do not
wish to alter, revise or remodel God’s creation in me. I do not want any of my
ten grandchildren not to recognize me or to ask me “What happened to your face
Lolo?” Or worse, “We want your old ugly face back, Lolo.”
While I am among those who are terribly frustrated and greatly saddened by the
pervasive political graft and corruption in the Philippines and the massive
poverty among our people, I am still proud of our heritage and all that is good
in our people and our native land. This is the inspiration that has prompted our
Las Vegas medical group (which includes most of the individuals with us on the
cruise and other missionaries from various States) to do annual medical missions
in Kamay ni Hesus in Lucban, Quezon, and in Alaminos, Laguna, January-February of
each year.
I enjoin all Filipinos all over the world with this clarion call, those within
the reach of my voice today, and those within the reach of yours tomorrow, to
accept with pride and respect the honorable part of our culture and tradition,
to pass them on to the future generation, and to never be ashamed of our roots,
no matter how modest they could have been.
After all, if we seriously think about it, we really have every reason to be
proud as Filipinos anywhere we are, in the Philippines or abroad, regardless of
our accent.
Even if we are not from “Tiksas”.
Visit philipSchua.com. Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
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Web note: here's how we got this article from Brod Philip.
Hi Brod Philip,
Yesterday while shopping at Seafood City in my West Covina, CA neighborhood I
picked up a copy of the Philippine News.
I read your article and found myself laughing at your candor and humor on the
high seas from the lady from "Tiksas".
With
your permission, I would like to have this published and shared with the brods
in our UPBSI-International website.
My wife and I had also gone on cruises and it was always a pleasure to chat with
our kababayans - food servers, chefs,
room attendants, bartenders, musicians and band members, etc. A few times we got a special
treat from the Pinoy chef
and food servers
with chicken adobo, sinigang soup and fried rice.
Best regards,
Norman, 9/29/2018
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Brod Norman,
Thanks for your email.
Yes, you have my permission to reprint or use my article for whatever and
however you need it.
I write a weekly column for Philippines News and the Asian Journal, and 3 others
in the USA,
Cebu Daily News and MALAYA national daily in Manila.
While on the cruise, we also had the extreme gastronomic pleasure of having
adobo, crispy
pork belly, and garlic fried rice... Nothing beats Filipino food as far as I am
concerned...
Best wishes and God bless.
Philip
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Totally agree, brod. For breakfast, I'll trade for a tocilog or longsilog anytime
over eggs and bacon!
Thanks, Philip. Will let you know when it is online.
Norman
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Indeed, all silogs are gastronomique fantastic!
A radiologist friend said Pukisilog is the greatest: Pusit Kilawin Sinangag
Itlog…. I haven't tried that yet...
Yes, please let me know when it's online.
Best wishes..
Philip
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