1
50
2
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies
Description
An account of the resource
<strong><br />Note: Collection upload in process</strong>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Shawn Lupo
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
"Jane"
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, June 2, 2019]<br />[Being Audio File]<br />SHAWN: It is June 2nd, 2019, 7:08pm, I shall be doing an interview with a Filipino immigrant,<br />this immigrant did not want her real name to be used in the interview , so throughout the<br />interview I shall be referring to her a Jane. So hello Jane , and thank you for giving me your time<br />today.<br />JANE: Hello and go ahead with your questions<br />SHAWN: Okay, so to start off where and when were you born?<br />JANE: I was born July 7th, 1968, in Dingras, Illocos Norte, Philippines<br />SHAWN: Where were your parents born?<br />JANE: It is the same thing, Dingras, Illocos Norte, Philippines<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, so it looks like your family is generations into that city, how many<br />generations is your family in that city?<br />JANE: We have three generations.<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, what did your parents do in terms of work?<br />JANE: My father is a businessman and my mother is a housewife<br />SHAWN: So for your father’s business is it like a family business or was just working under<br />someone?<br />4<br />JANE: It’s a family business<br />SHAWN: Oh okay, what did your grandparents do?<br />JANE: My grandfather on the mother's side is in military and my grandmother is a farmer and a<br />housewife and my grandmother on the father’s side is a businessman, the same thing with my<br />grandmother<br />SHAWN: On your grandfather that was in the military was the military in the family?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: And on the business side, for your grandparents that were in the business is that also in<br />the family?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Okay, and so growing up how many siblings did you have? And like was your family<br />big?<br />JANE: No, we have a small family, and I have two siblings<br />SHAWN: Two siblings, okay, did you or did any of your family members move to American<br />before you?<br />JANE: No, it’s just by myself<br />SHAWN: Just by yourself, okay, what was your academic experience in the Philippines?<br />JANE: When I was in college I was a library assistant, and after college I served as an assistant<br />at Allied Bank<br />SHAWN: What did you major in at college?<br />JANE: Business and Management, Business Management, bachelor of science in business<br />management<br />5<br />SHAWN: Okay, so do you have any professional experience working in that field?<br />JANE: Yes I do<br />SHAWN: Okay so, what made you devide to move out of the Philippines?<br />JANE: Coming here to the US, its financial staiblity and a better life<br />SHAWN: What made you think that you would have better finacial stability in the US?<br />JANE: First of all is they said that there’s more job here compared to the Philippines and the pay<br />rate is better than the Philippines<br />SHAWN: And who did you hear this from?<br />JANE: A lot of people, a lot of Filipinos coming here and I heard it from them.<br />SHAWN: Okay, so when did you finally move to the US?<br />JANE: That was 1996<br />SHAWN: 1996, was there any huge struggles you had in moving to the US?<br />JANE: Yes, because it is hard to get a visa and when I came here again I had to find a job, thats<br />the struggle I do, and then competing with Americans is not that easy to find a job<br />SHAWN: When you first moved to the US how were your English skills?<br />Jane: So-so<br />SHAWN: So-so, did you move anywhere before you came to the US?<br />JANE: Yes, I work in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Indonesia, and China<br />SHAWN: Was this apart of the export economy of the Philippines? Where they send out many<br />workers to different countries, was it apart of that?<br />JANE: No<br />SHAWN: This was on your own accord?<br />6<br />JANE: This one I applied in the Philippines, its an import-export business from a US company,<br />they hired me after graduation, like 6 months before my graduation they hired me, and they send<br />me to every countries, like every like Hong Kong 6 months, I go to Taiwan, 6 months,<br />something like that. It’s like quality control.<br />SHAWN: Okay so with your thoughts that you had about America before you immigrated did<br />they change after you came to America? Before you came to America you believed there was<br />more financial stability, do you agree with that now that you arrived here?<br />JANE:Not exactly<br />SHAWN: Why?<br />JANE: Because if you don't have a good job money is not good , yes, and if you don't have an<br />education job is not good either, so it’s not a paradise<br />SHAWN: Okay so, what was different about living in America compared to the Philippines?<br />JANE: Living in America is easy if you have a good job, living in the Philippines is not that easy<br />because there's no job in the Philippines, there is a job again they’re hard to find , you have to<br />have a connection to get a job in the Philippines. Down here it is fair, you apply, you have the<br />skills they hire you, so that’s the difference in it<br />[4:57]<br />SHAWN: With your belief that with skills you can get hired in America, do you think as an<br />immigrant your discriminated against a lot more than Americans? In the American job market<br />JANE: Yes-yes , and no. Yes if it depends on the company and no because some companies<br />don’t discriminate. But on my experience they do discriminate, the first time I worked, but the<br />second time I worked for a company, no.<br />7<br />SHAWN: And so with your English abilities being so-so, do you think it gave you an advantage<br />or disadvantage compared to other immigrants from other countries?<br />JANE: Disadvantage<br />SHAWN: Why do you believe that?<br />JANE: Because sometimes they don’t understand you, the way you speak in English is different,<br />they can hardly understand you sometimes with the Americans. But with the migrants just like<br />us, they do understand, so that’s the disadvantage of it<br />SHAWN: Okay and so when you came to the US where do you live?<br />JANE: I live in San Diego<br />SHAWN: Did you stay with family or were you alone by yourself?<br />JANE: Alone by myself<br />SHAWN: How did you provide for yourself<br />JANE: I had to work<br />SHAWN: So what was your first job when you came here?<br />JANE: When I first came here, my visa was just a tourist visa, so I did so-so job, like a<br />housekeeper, babysitting, something like that. And then when I get my card, or greencard<br />something like that, I get married, so I helped my husband, my ex-husband by the way, to run his<br />business, and then after that when we get divorced i find my own job by myself, which is in the<br />hotel being a manager.<br />SHAWN: Did your professional and academic experiences help you get this job as a manager?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Was the job related to what you did in the Philippines in terms of profession wise?<br />8<br />JANE: Yes, because its management<br />SHAWN: Was managing in America very different from managing in the Philippines?<br />JANE: Of course<br />SHAWN: What were the biggest differences?<br />JANE: Here, it just not only management, in the Philippines if they say you're manager, you're<br />manager. Down here being a manager you need to do everything, like if you're short of staff you<br />need to step in and do their job, in the Philippines you don’t do that, you have to find somewhere<br />else to do the job, not you doing it, here you are forced to do it<br />SHAWN: When you came to America did you continue your education in America? Did you go<br />back to college?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: What college did you go to?<br />JANE: Ashford University, online college<br />SHAWN: What did you do?<br />JANE: I did my master roll<br />SHAWN: In what?<br />JANE: Business management<br />SHAWN: Business management, and so has that helped you with your career in America?<br />JANE: Yes<br />SHAWN: Is it significant or just a little?<br />JANE: Significant<br />SHAWN: Like how?<br />9<br />JANE: Right now I’m dealing with a lot of doctors, okay, and also in hospitals it helps me do all<br />the job im not supposed to be doing it, meaning to say it advances, because they see that with<br />master roll they respect you more, and they give you more opportunity to go up<br />SHAWN: So when you came to America have you noticed anything different between first<br />generation immigrants like yourself and the Filipino-American community?<br />JANE: Yes, I do, the first generation, more family orientated, more respectful to their eldery<br />family, listens more, advices and education are the priority, while the second generation is<br />ego-lucky, doesn’t know struggles, disconnection from Filipino culture, and traditional culture<br />clash with western culture, and largely unfamiliar with their home country<br />SHAWN: What do you think causes these differences?<br />JANE: Well which one? Are you talking about the first generation or the second generation?<br />SHAWN: What do you think caused the difference between first generation immigrants and the<br />Filipino-American community, do you think it's more so how the Filipino-Americans were raised<br />or do you think it's more so just being in America?<br />JANE: Definitely the way Filipinos raise, like when the children are born here they are raised<br />like Americans, whereas the Filipinos born in the Philippines come here they raise us like a<br />Filipino, meaning to say that the respect is there, the more--go ahead<br />[10:08]<br />SHAWN: So you believe the first generation immigrants raise their second differently than they<br />would in the Philippines?<br />JANE: Yes, definitely<br />SHAWN: Why do you think that happens?<br />10<br />JANE: Maybe because parents down here don't have much time with their kids, while in the<br />Philippines we got a lot of time to mold our children. Here parents they tend to work more hours<br />and they tend to forget their kids, they need to mold them the way their supposed to be, but<br />because of their work hours or work load they don't have that time, that’s the reason why,<br />because the way you do it, you have to spend more time with the kids or the children while<br />they’re growing up, so that that’s the big impact of raising a kids, so comparing to the<br />Philippines y’know people down there you have your own family, you have your relatives that<br />they look after, so the kids saw it. Down here in America you have your family and your<br />relatives, it's still again the time is not there for them together or something like that. Plus you<br />know there a lot of people here already like a lot of, what do you call it, countries coming in here<br />so those things they learn things from those in the school, where in the Philippines there’s only<br />one country that you're dealing with, so we are just like one company or something like that, that<br />you don't have any kind of people there like Americans or Chinese in the school that they learn<br />bad things or good things from them, it's only Filipinos, down here [California] its Filipinos,<br />Mexicans, White, or something like that, so those are the different one, those one different<br />cultures. So with this one they learn things from them, that’s what I think, I might be wrong<br />though.<br />SHAWN: So I know you’re pressed for time so I guess I’ll just ask you one more thing. So do<br />you have any advice for any Filipinos in the Philippines that want to come to the US?<br />JANE: For them it’s not bad to dream to come here, but you need to think first, because down<br />here if you come here without education it’s useless, okay, with education on it it's easy, better<br />life, because if you don’t have an education , you can have like housekeeper making $9 an hour,<br />11<br />$9 an hour not gonna put food on the table, not enough. So with education your making more<br />than that , so better before you come here to get an education first , and then when they come<br />here they can study more, that's all I can tell<br />SHAWN: Jane, thank you so much for your time<br />JANE: You’re welcome<br />SHAWN: So it is June 2nd, 2019, 7:22PM, and I shall be ending this interview<br />[End Audio File]
View/Download File(s)
Link to download files
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FwkWqmTn9ScMrTcwbhiWS43KFpKh21Tw/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FwkWqmTn9ScMrTcwbhiWS43KFpKh21Tw/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdcFuQ1a8RYHDMSK0ESALl2mCSEUwDii/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdcFuQ1a8RYHDMSK0ESALl2mCSEUwDii/view?usp=sharing</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History Interview with "Jane"
Subject
The topic of the resource
Dingras, Ilocos Norte; San Diego, California; Filipino Americans -- Social conditions, Criticism of American Dream, Filipino Americans -- Employment, Discrimination in employment -- United States, Ashford University (online college), Business Management, First Generation Immigrant Families, Second Generation Immigrant Families, Filipino Americans -- Family relationships, Filipino Americans -- Cultural assimilation, Generational differences
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with "Jane" [pseudonym], interviewed by Shawn Lupo
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/2/2019
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of these recordings. Usage is restricted for educational, non-commercial purposes only. For other uses, please contact archivist Jason Sarmiento at ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0026
Ashford University (online college)
Business Management
California; Filipino Americans -- Social conditions
Criticism of American Dream
Dingras
Discrimination in employment -- United States
Filipino Americans -- Cultural assimilation
Filipino Americans -- Employment
Filipino Americans -- Family relationships
First Generation Immigrant Families
Generational differences
Ilocos Norte; San Diego
Second Generation Immigrant Families
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies
Description
An account of the resource
<strong><br />Note: Collection upload in process</strong>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Jenny Khoeut
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Jaselle Abuda
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, June 6, 2019] [Begin Audio File] KHOEUT: Alright, it is June 6, 2019 and it is 9:03 PM. This is Jenny Khoeut interviewing for ASA 150 Filipinx American Experience class and today I am interviewing ABUDA: Jaselle Abuda. they/them/theirs KHOEUT: Alright, and let us begin. So I’m going to ask you a few questions, just about your life history, experience, and journey here to America. So what is your name? ABUDA: My name is Jaselle Abuda. KHOEUT: And where and when were you born? ABUDA: I was born on July 2, 1996. KHOEUT: And where were your parents born? ABUDA: Same town. KHOEUT: Um, do you know what jobs your parents did when they lived in the Philippines? ABUDA: In the Philippines, no. KHOEUT: And what about what they do now? ABUDA: What they do now is that because my dad has disabilities, he doesn’t work anymore but my mom works as a CVS assistant in the hospital. KHOEUT: Okay, thank you. What about your grandparents? Do you know what they did and what they are doing now? [2] ABUDA: Yeah, I’m not sure if my parents did this back in the Philippines, but my grandparents were families of farmers, small owned lands in the provinces, we, I think we grew rice, small plants and then to either sustain ourselves or sell it to the community market. KHOEUT: Okay, cool. I wanna ask you a little more about your family. So do you come from a big family? ABUDA: Yeah. KHOEUT: Yeah? How many siblings do you have? ABUDA: I have a total of five siblings, including myself KHOEUT: Okay ABUDA: I mean 4. KHOEUT: 4 siblings? ABUDA: One unfortunately died. KHOEUT: Sorry to hear that. Um, did any of your family members or relatives move to America before you? ABUDA: So a lot of my dad side moved to america moved to america way before any of us. I believe the first one that moved here is my aunt. She’s the second oldest or the oldest out of my dad side Khoeut: Okay, do you know how that journey was like for them? ABUDA: I know snippets of it, because it’s kinda hard because she has a mental disability so conversations with her is kind of hard, but from my knowledge it was all because she married a person from the military. KHOEUT: What age did you migrate to the US? ABUDA: i migrated around 5 or 6 years old [3] KHOEUT: Do you have any academic experience when you lived in the Philippines? ABUDA: I did preschool and a little bit of kindergarten KHOEUT: Can you tell me why your family decided to move to america or move out of the Philippines? [ 4:38] ABUDA: One of the reasons my parents and my family moved to the US because they really saw how bad it was especially during Marshall Law. My dad explained that it was really hard it was a very difficult time not only for him but everyone else in the family, so what they wanted was a better life not only for us but for future generations KHOEUT: Thanks did you move anywhere before settling in the US or did your family move anywhere? ABUDA: They did here and there. I think mainly from Seattle to LA to Sacramento: KHOEUT: And your family is still in Sacramento? ABUDA: Yeah, well most of them at least KHOEUT: Okay, do you have any thoughts abouts America before you moved here? Did you family have any thoughts? ABUDA: I thought America was its own planet because I always thought each country was in each own. [laughs] I don’t know how to describe it because the plane when you were a young kid it’s kind of a big jump from the provinces to another country so I always thought it was something foreign something new. I didn’t know what I was going to what I was putting myself in. KHOEUT: What about your parents? What did they think? ABUDA: They thought that the US was a great opportunity to make a family and build a family because the education here is free, the K through 12 at least is free. They saw the opportunity for us to receive education the way that they weren’t able to in the Philippines. [4] KHOEUT: Okay, moving on. Did you have any impressions about the culture or politics of america before moving? ABUDA: I did not. In what way? KHOEUT: Like when you were younger? ABUDA: No. KHOEUT: No? Do you know if your parents had any impression about the culture? ABUDA: I think they know about the racism and bias in the workplace, especially for my dad and yeah what was the question? KHOEUT: The impressions about the culture or politics before moving to America? ABUDA: I think a lot of them thought was better like I guess the way of living. A lot of them were I guess full assimilation. They wanted us to be fully assimilated into American culture, because they didn’t want us to struggle in America. KHOEUT: After settling and living in America, did those impressions change or alter at all? ABUDA: For my parents? KHOEUT: For your parents and for you? ABUDA: Definitely yeah. I think they realized that although it’s kind of better compared to the Philippines, the same problem such as poverty and working harder than you should is the same here then there. So like all their struggles didn’t leave the Philippines. It was the same here in the US. KHOEUT: So what was different about living in America as opposed to living in the Philippines? [9:49] [5] ABUDA: So something that was different was especially the environment especially in the Philippines or in my region, it was predominantly trees, fruits that you could pick out of the trees near my house. Just being able.there‘s a different connection to nature in the philippines compared to here where it’s predominantly buildings, building structures. KHOEUT: What do you have a preference living in? Would you have rathered stayed in the Philippines or continue to living here? ABUDA: As a young person or now? KHOEUT: Now. ABUDA: Now I think I would’ve lived in the ph because it’s simpler there and also it’s just different there. And also, but I know there’s things that I can’t run away from and the situation in the ph especially for my family in the Philippines, we’re not the migrants that migrated to the Us who were educated and well-off and have financially stable. I think that will always be a dream not only for me but for all of us here and like yeah I would love to live in the Philippines, but I don’t think it’s sustainable considering the state of the Philippines and like I don’t know you have to work harder than you should to survive. KHOEUT: So earlier you mentioned you went to school in the Philippines. Did you go back to school here in America? ABUDA: So my situation is I came to the US at 6 years old and then I stayed here for 3 more years. Did and finished my kindergarten years here and then went back to the Philippines at 9 years old and stayed there for 3 more years so I was there for 1st grade and 2nd grade and then after that 4th grade, I started 4th grade in the US, so it’s like a back and forth situation. Sorry I didn’t give you that context. KHOEUT: No worries about it. Can you describe how that transition was like and if you can what was different about the education. ABUDA: The education in the Philippines is by period, from what I can remember. Its by period where the 1st period was like math or science and then there’s so the curriculum that I was exposed to there was always math, science, social science, I guess that ties into history, and then Tagalog as the language and then English as the language. That was kind of a little too much. I didn’t excel in Tagalog. I didn’t excel in English either, so I don’t know. [6] [15:00] The transition to the US is that although I had a fundamental understanding in English, I wasn’t fluent. So coming to the US around 4th grade to 6th grade, I was always taken out of the classroom to go to a different classroom because I was considered ELS, English learner student. We would always have separate worksheets that I would do for English, so have me be more fluent and meet the requirements to pass to the next grade. Yeah, okay. [laughs] KHOEUT: [laughs] Okay. What generation would you consider yourself? ABUDA 1.5 KHOEUT: 1.5? Okay. Do you notice anything different between 1st generation immigrants and Filipino Americans? ABUDA: I think I see a difference because in the first generation there’s certain ideals that they’ve been exposed to in the Philippines compared to in the US, so I guess there’s a hint of or a mixture of American culture, not to say there’s no influence of Ameican culture in the Philippines but there’s more here in the US [pause] KHOEUT: Okay. ABUDA: Oh wait, I want to add this in. A lot of what I noticed is that there’s always this push for authenticity within the Filipinx diaspora where the Filipinx migrants from the Philippines to the US feels more authentic than their FIlipin American counterparts and that’s something that troubles me because the notion of authenticity is kind of in a grey area and it doesn’t necessarily define a person or country, and I’ve been seeing that throughout my years in the US and the Philippines, and all around my community. KHOEUT: Okay, thank you for sharing that. To end this interview, can I ask what you believe is culturally authentic or what makes someone Filipinx? ABUDA: I think what I believe what makes someone Filipinx is not forgetting Filipinx American and Filipinx history. As much as there’s hurt and trauma in our history, in Filipinx history such as 330 years plus 4 years of Japasnese colonial and 48 years and beyond of US imperialism. [7] [20:00] I think that even in those histories, they’re important because it not only shaped the Filipinx identity because it also shows our resistance as a Filipinx diaspora and nothing defines a person authentically but what I think defines a person’s authentic self is looking back on their own history. Not only their families histories, but their ancestral histories and not forgetting where they came from and how they came to be and how they came to exist. KHOEUT: Okay, thank you so much for taking your time for this interview. ABUDA: [laughs]
View/Download File(s)
Link to download files
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJ0bLF6JpkrwEFC78ipvBZsERgXaknkX/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJ0bLF6JpkrwEFC78ipvBZsERgXaknkX/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nJAProlLl57cy5NtpUOI6KiYRIXfmhOl/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nJAProlLl57cy5NtpUOI6KiYRIXfmhOl/view?usp=sharing</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History Interview with Jaselle Abuda
Subject
The topic of the resource
Martial law -- Philippines, Immigrants -- Education, Discrimination in employment -- United States, English Learner Student (ELS), English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Education -- Philippines.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Jaselle Abuda, interviewed by Jenny Khoeut
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/6/2019
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of these recordings. Usage is restricted for educational, non-commercial purposes only. For other uses, please contact archivist Jason Sarmiento at ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0023
Discrimination in employment -- United States
Education -- Philippines.
English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers
English Learner Student (ELS)
Immigrants -- Education
Martial law -- Philippines