Cultural Immersion Project : Philippines

1. Krizel, a co-worker/friend, was born and raised in the Philippines and moved to the United States when she turned 22 years old with her father. Krizel lived a very laborious and difficult life as a kid all the way to her early teens, living in a two bedroom apartment for a family of six; it could become crowded sometimes. “The Philippines teaches you to work at an early age” Krizel said, you would have to go to the nearest lake every morning so that you may have water to bathe yourself that day, carrying 4-5 buckets of water to the house and back was very tiring. She would have to walk about 6 to 7 miles everyday to go to the nearest school

Ronald Takaki’s chapter in his sweeping 1989 text, Strangers from a Different Shore, “Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos”, outlines the experiences of primarily male Filipino immigrants to the U.S in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The author did a good job showing what the Filipino went through. Like many immigrants before them, they came seeking work and a better livelihood. They faced backbreaking work, low wages, and at time, extreme racism. However, in many ways the Filipino immigrant experiences were extremely different from other ethnic groups, the Chinese and Japanese immigrants.

San Francisco today is not the same place it was hundreds of years ago. This is obvious in terms of the city’s modernization, but a change that is equally as important, is the huge amount of diversity in cultures. Chances are, if you were to ask a student at Skyline College if their parents were born in the United States, many of them would answer no. Every immigrant has their own story of how they ended up in San Francisco, but the most important are the stories of the very first groups. Most first generation Filipino Americans hear about the stories of how their families ended up in the United States, but never the stories of how the very first Filipinos got here. Why did the first group of Filipinos leave all that they had in the the

Filipino migration to the United States has been influenced by political and social relationships between the two countries. Annexation, war, and labor demand are among the most influential impacts that led to mass immigration in the US. Those who were trying to escape violence and poverty took the chance to live as low-wage workers or enlisted under in the military. However, just like other minority groups, the Filipino immigrant experienced was not immune to the racial and social obstacles in their pursuit of the American Dream. As a Filipino American I believe that to truly understand myself, its essential to learn the history of those who came before me.

Over the last month I have had the opportunity to spend time with some friends of our family. The culture in which I had the privilege was the Philippine Culture in Hercules, California, where the entire town is predominantly Filipino. The culture is rich in heritage and tradition as will be expressed throughout the remainder of this essay.

It’s no joke when one becomes a person at the fringes of a ‘foreign’ society. Or a mere shadow, if one hasn’t worked out her legal status. It is a major personal pain, stemming from a bruised pride - because in the Philippines one may be somebody, but suddenly becomes marginalized here. That hurts all the time, silently.

The first cultural immersion activity that I participated in was going to St. Charles Catholic Church on Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2014). I had a friend who was catholic attend the church with me so I would have a better understanding of what to do and not stand out so much. In addition, I asked my friend to attend with me so I would not do anything in church that was disrespectful. Before going to the church, I thought that I would have to dress up in dress clothes but my friend told me that it is not necessary to dress up for a catholic church, which surprised me. When we first got there, my friend used the holy water and kneeled before entering the pew. I did not do these things because I felt like I would mess up and it would be

The decision that was made to include this day for the Cultural Immersion assignment and not for the Faith Immersion was that the Jewish community is viewed as a nationality/culture and not a religion alone. Therefore, the understanding of this population was that they are considered a people not simple a section of religion. Another interesting factor that lead to this decision was that they are of the Jewish faith, however, they believe that Jesus was the messiah and did come and die and rise again for the sins of man. Consequently, I remembered a co-worker from several years ago that through conversation mentioned that he (Jacob) was a member of a Messianic Jewish congregation called, Beth Messiah Synagogue. Through countless discussions

Before I choose a topic about Filipino culture I orginally desired to learn about life at an inner city school by observing it with my own eyes or the policies of catholic high schools on homosexual students. However, time and material forced my hand so I interviewed my best friend on his moms native culture of the Philippines. This interview was conducted last week on the first floor of the steely library. So my orginal thoughts of the Philippines I'll be honest weren't much. It was a nation that I didn't know had achived indpendacy from the united states over 50 years ago. I honestly thought we still held it as a territory. Until this interview I never thought about the Philippines up until this interview so forming any context of the island or culture was rather diffcult outside of its basic geography. Prior to this interview I associsated this island nation with nothing. From a cultural standpoint I knew nothing of what it held a belived it to be a largely indpendent nation in culture similar to the way of the rest of the pacific islands. When I thought of the Philippines I could not help but picturing a simply rainer version of african with people of different decent. The picture was a nation with no econmy, no infrastrucutre, and loose collection of mud

Many countries and organizations start to wonder that what is going on with Philippines, and it is going to collapse from many problems that occur in the country or not. Philippines is a sovereign island county that locates in the Southeast Asia, and it is also one of the countries that locates on the Ring of Fire. In 1965, Philippines used to be second richest country in Asian, but it is currently one of the poorest countries in Asian (Cruz, 2013).

Manila is the capital of the Philippines and it is located in Luzon; which is the largest island in the archipelago. Due to its convenient location for a trade route, it is known as the Pearl of the Orient.

The Philippines is an archipelago composed of 7,641 islands as reported by National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA). According to the United Nations Development Programme (2010), it has an estimated 14-17 million Indigenous Peoples (IPs) that belong to 110 ethno-linguistic groups. These people depended so much on natural resources and the services

“Rizal had a burning desire to know exactly the conditions of the Philippines when the Spaniards came ashore to the islands. His theory was the country was economically self-sufficient and prosperous.  Rizal entertained the idea that it had a lively and vigorous community enriched with the collective and sensitive art and culture of the native population. He

The Philippines is an island in Southeast Asia that consists of more than 7, 100 islands. For a small country, it has such a rich history. It has gone through colonization of various states such as Spain and the United States. According to the Fund for Peace 2016 Fragility State Index, the Philippines is categorized in the High Warning with a score of 84.7. This rank takes into account various factors: social, economic, political and military indicators. In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan sailed to the Philippines, starting its Hispanic colonization. Spain ruled over the Philippines for more than three centuries. After the Spanish-American war, it became a U.S. colony until 1946—finally gaining its independence (Harris). For a relatively new

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island that comprises an archipelago of 7,107 islands located off Southeast Asia, between the Philippine Sea on the east and the South China Sea on the west. The islands are categorized broadly under three major islands which are Luzon in the north, the Visayan Islands in the center, and Mindanao in the south. The Philippines total area is approximately 300,000 sq km, which includes approximately 298,000 sq km of land. The country has no land boundaries. The capital of the Philippines is Manila and the country’s most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The archipelago, a Spanish colony during the 16th century and ceded