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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.
Liana Mae Atizado
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Brian Atizado
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 Brian Atizado
Subject
The topic of the resource
Quezon City, Daly City, Immigrant families--United States, First Generation Immigrant Families, Second Generation Immigrant Families, San Francisco Bay Area, Pilipino American Student Association (PASA), Hayward, Filipino Culture Night, Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Brian Atizado, interviewed by Liana Mae Atizado
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
June 9, 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.
Format
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Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0001
Daly City
Filipino Culture Night
Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
First Generation Immigrant Families
Hayward
Immigrant families--United States
Pilipino American Student Association (PASA)
Pilipino Culture Night
Quezon City
San Francisco Bay Area
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.
Kyrene Giezel Gutierrez
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Dante Gutierrez
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, June 9, 2019]<br />[Begin Audio File]<br />GUTIERREZ, K: Alright, it is June 9, 2019 and it is 3:19pm. This is Ky interviewing for the Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project for ASA 150. Today, I am interviewing:<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: My name is Dante Gutierrez.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Alright, so let’s start with a little of your childhood and your early adult life. So, where and when were you born?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I was born in Manila in 1953.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What did your parents do? What jobs?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: My parents is doing a civil service servant. She [my mother] was assigned in the water works company in Manila, and she has been a cashier there until she retired. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How many siblings did you have? Did you come from a big family?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: On my father’s side, there were 5 siblings and on my mother’s side, there were 8 siblings. I don’t think that was a big family. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How about you? Did you have siblings?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Yea, I had siblings too. We were 5 in the family. I am the second to the eldest and the rest are three daughters. Yea, three sisters. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Did any of your family members move to America before you?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: No, I did not have any family members that went to America. It’s only us [immediate family members: wife and kids].<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How did you immigrate to America?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: We visited America in the year 2000 in November. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What was your academic experience in the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: In the Philippines, I’ve been doing the – the profession that I have acquired during college, I’ve been a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines and worked with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, like IRS here in America. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why did you decide to move out of the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I decided to stay in America, because I want to experience American life and I think it is peaceful staying here as compared to our country. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why do you think it’s more peaceful?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Like for example, there are now many more movements threatening the government to stabilize the situation. <br /><br />[4:51]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: And the political parties, they were not coordinating with each other. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What did you think about America before you moved here?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I was thinking that there are more opportunities in America. There are more job opportunities in America, which is better for our children for their better lives and education if we stayed here.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Did any of that change after you arrived? Any of your thoughts? <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Yea. I’m not thinking for anybody else that harm us, because it’s very peaceful here and the situation here is so secured. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What jobs did you perform when you moved to America?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I was assigned doing the accounting job like in the Philippines. I’ve been connected with the construction company. I handle the accounting system and the budgeting department. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What else were your jobs here in America?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: After that, I lost my job and I was unable to find a job, because one of my daughters gave birth. I was taking care of them and help raise her child, too. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What experiences helped you get the job, like did any of your past professional and academic experience from the Philippines help you get the job in America? How did you get your job?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Before, in the Philippines, I was also assigned in the manufacturing company, being the accountant over there. Then, after that, I was doing product management in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before going to America.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why were you in Saudi Arabia?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: In Jeddah. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why were you there though, dad?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: What?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why were you there?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Why?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: At Saudi? How did you get there?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: There was a job offering and consequently, the company that I was working before that is going to be closing. And Saudi Arabia hired me for contract basis. <br /><br />[9:53]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How long did you work at Saudi?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I’ve been working in Saudi Arabia as a product management. It was two years. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What are some of the memories you had in Saudi?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: The memory… what memory are you talking about?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Did you have any memories in Saudi?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: One thing is the climate. The climate is too hot in there as compared to other countries. The people there, only a few of them understands English. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How long have you been living in America approximately?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Right now, I’ve been living here for almost 20 years, I think. I’ve been here since 2000 and right now, it’s 2019. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Do you notice anything different between you and Filipino Americans? People who were born in the Philippines versus people who were born here in America, like Filipinos. Do you notice anything different?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I think the only difference is the culture. Number one is the culture. What they eat here compared to the Philippines, I think they don’t want to eat the Filipino food here. For example, the fish. Most Filipinos who were born here did not want to eat fish. One thing is the Filipino attitude, like saying po in a respectful way, they are doing the same thing. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Where did you first live when you were in the U.S.?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I stayed in Daly City when we arrived here as a room tenant. After two years, I’ve been renting out an apartment, for a one-bedroom apartment. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What are some of the things you remember as a child living in the Philippines? <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: As a child, when I grew up... I think the most memorable thing that I have to…<br /><br />[14:57]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I have to get some money in order to have your [daughter’s] education. Without money, I think you cannot get sent to school. Even though there are some public schools over there, but still you have to pay. One more thing is we came from a poor family. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What was the highest education you’ve had in the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Highest?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Like how high did you in your education?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I finished my college in the Philippines and took my board exam, also in the Philippines. I graduated in college as BSC in Accounting, Bachelor’s of Science in Commerce Accounting Major. After I finished my college, after a year, I found a job. While in the job, I was planning to take the board exam to be a Certified Public Accountant over there. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Did you ever get your Master’s?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Yea, one more thing is that I got my Master’s when I already finished my Certified Public Accountant career. I got it October 1999. I got my Master’s Degree in Business Management. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Do you use your degree?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I never use my degree, my Master’s in Business Administration. I think, only few, when I used it in here, during my budgeting function here in America. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What were some of your experiences while here in America?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: What experiences?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Like did you face any discrimination, racism? <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I think there’s no discrimination regarding the job opportunities. The only thing that I noticed is that you must be flexible in your job when you’re already hired as being a worker. You must do whatever you can do just to help other staff inside the company. That’s the only thing I noticed that I experienced. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: I remember you talking to me one time about how you lived during the Marcos regime. How was that?<br /><br />[19:54]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: During the Marcos regime, I think most of the people were disciplined, especially during the martial law time declared by President Marcos. Nobody was inspired to give a negative opinion on the government and how it ran. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What was your opinion?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Opinion for what?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: For the government.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: The only question I have in my mind is that why are there many political candidates who wants to occupy some position in the government. They were investing more money, billions of money, just to run for a position in the government. That’s the only thing I would have in my mind. Maybe, one of the reasons is that they want to protect their business interests. I think that’s the only thing I have in mind. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Do you still participate in voting back home in the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Right now, I’m not participating anymore since I’ve been living here in America even though I still have rights to vote. With the situation now, it’s so very different. Whatever the people choose, they [the government] are still doing the same thing. They’re still doing their personal interests or business interests. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How often do you go home to the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I prepare to go home now yearly as possible. If I have time or if I have some money to pay for my ticket, I have to go home yearly just to visit any difference or any progress made to be seen with my eyes. Like, the one before when I never went to the Philippines for 10 years, it’s very different now that there are so many… what do you call this one? The areas have too many people now. Place are now overcrowded, more traffic. Even though the road is widened and I don’t know what’s the reason on how they solve the traffic. There are many peddlers on the street. You could imagine traveling for 10 miles away. You can spend 2 hours. That’s how worse is the traffic in the Philippines. <br /><br />[24:51]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Do you have any regrets leaving the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I don’t have any regrets living in the Philippines, because I was born there. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: No, leaving, leaving the Philippines. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: No, no, no. I never regret. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Tell me more about Ilocos Sur. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Ilocos Sur now is good. There are more roads that were built. Many business establishments were there already. The one department store is already there. Going to Ilocos Sur is more comfortable, because there are more roads built coming from Manila, from the other provinces, like Baguio and Zambales. There are many alternative routes. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: How is it different from when you were growing up?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: The only difference is that there was only one road they were using when going there. There’s the national road, the Manila road, but the McArthur highway. They call it the McArthur highway. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: McArthur, as in General McArthur?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Yea, I think that road was named after General McArthur. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What did you learn about in school, in terms of the Philippines?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Academic or what? <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: nods<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I think there’s no difference in learning school here and there in the Philippines, because the adoption is also the same as an American textbook. So, what you learn here is almost the same in the Philippines. The only thing is the way the teacher teaches his class in the Philippines, the way he teaches, the way he wants his class to learn. <br /><br />[29:58]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: So, it’s about the same material?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Yea, the same material. They are the same books. The teaching method is also in English, but the only difference here is purely English. Unlike there, sometimes they are using the Filipino dialect and English if the class do not understand [the dialect]. That’s the only difference I think. But also, Filipino subject in the Philippines. They also have World History subject and Filipino History, of course. They’re also teaching how to do Home Economics. They also teaching the [inaudible] work, like how to make the tables, how to repair the vehicles. The home jobs. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: What do you like about America?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Number one reason that I like to stay here in America is that it’s very peaceful although there are some crimes. But the police enforcer can resolve it right away. The judicial right and judicial cases are solved right away unlike in the Philippines. Some of the crime cases were not solved until now even though it’s been 10 years above or below. Number two reason is the climate. The climate here. You are experiencing 4 seasons: the autumn, summer, spring, and fall [winter]. On the negative side, the house rental or apartment rental is too expensive as compared to the Philippines. You could imagine if you are the only one working on minimum wage, you can’t live here in America. All your earnings, being the basic earner, only goes to the owner of the house or owner of the apartment. The members of your family or maybe even around 4 people in the family or household would be working in order to live. <br /><br />[34:53]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Were you a part of any labor organizing work?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: No, I never did that. Even in the labor union, I never became a member. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Why not?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: Because my previous job, they won’t be covered. Under the administration, you are not allowed to be a member of any union clubs. <br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Do you know anything about Filipino labor organizers from back in the day?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I know the Trade Union of the Philippines, TUP, and the FFW, Federation of Free Workers, that I know in the Philippines.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: But you weren’t a part of any of those?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: No, I haven’t been part of those, because the policy in the Philippines is that if you are under administration, you won’t be able to become a member for any of the labor unions.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: Is there anything else you would want to share or add about your experiences as a Filipino immigrant coming to America or anything like that?<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I think the only experience I’d want to add is that I have heard, many instances that Filipinos with other Filipinos are not helping each other. Filipinos want to promote himself as being a worker, but Filipinos should help other Filipinos. So, right now, if there are some Filipinos who want to come into America, they should plan that they have the right home to stay in America, they have the right job to pay for their obligations. <br /><br />[39:48]<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, D: I think they have more relatives living here in America. Just in case, if they need help, some of their relatives can help him. I think that’s the only thing I’ve never experienced here. Because we don’t have any relatives living here in America. It’s only us, who started and wanted to acquire those American Dreams.<br /><br />GUTIERREZ, K: That’s it. That’s all. Thank you for letting me interview you and if there’s anything else, just let me know.<br /><br />[End Audio File]
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Link to download files
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R51oS-CJX2EjFsO595yJHEe1-v3PH5v_/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R51oS-CJX2EjFsO595yJHEe1-v3PH5v_/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wmONEKUvz0518hoRgUv-ai0KqeJoSUJ8/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wmONEKUvz0518hoRgUv-ai0KqeJoSUJ8/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 Dante Gutierrez, interviewed by Kyrene Giezel Gutierrez
Subject
The topic of the resource
Manila, Philippines, civil service servant, water works company, Certified Public Accountant, accounting, Bureau of Internal Revenue, immigration, immigrant families--United States, immigrant, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Filipino Americans, Daly City, BSC Accounting, Bachelor's of Science in Commerce Accounting Major, Certified Public Accountant, Master's Degree, M.S., MS, Business Management, discrimination, racism, Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos, President Marcos, Martial Law, Illocos Sur, Ilocano,Ilokano, Baguio, Zambales, McArthur Highway, union, Trade Union of the Philippines, TUP, FFW, Federation of Free Workers
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Dante Gutierrez, interviewed by Kyrene Giezel Gutierrez
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
9-Jun-19
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_0016
accounting
Bachelor's of Science in Commerce Accounting Major
Baguio
BSC Accounting
Bureau of Internal Revenue
Business Management
Certified Public Accountant
civil service servant
Daly City
discrimination
Federation of Free Workers
Ferdinand Marcos
FFW
Filipino Americans
Illocos Sur
Ilocano
Ilokano
immigrant
Immigrant families--United States
immigration
Jeddah
M.S.
Manila
Marcos
Martial Law
Master's Degree
McArthur Highway
MS
Philippines
President Marcos
racism
Saudi Arabia
Trade Union of the Philippines
TUP
union
water works company
Zambales
-
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.
Ralph Gabriel Giron
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Gloria Dela Cruz
View/Download File(s)
Link to download files
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XoskjxST4KD0e2-ncVdddzKyhNi_ipAn/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XoskjxST4KD0e2-ncVdddzKyhNi_ipAn/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SjnwSj3IFQtOc9F1mtsmZFkePs2aj43Y/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SjnwSj3IFQtOc9F1mtsmZFkePs2aj43Y/view?usp=sharing</a>
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Giron] <br />Today is the second of June 2019. Today I will be doing err conducting an interview with a Filipino immigrant. My name is Ralph Giron. May I… have your full name?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah, my name is Gloria Dela Cruz.<br />[Giron]<br />[coughs] So… Gloria, I will be asking you a few questions talking about your life as a Filipino immigrant. Umm… most of these questions are going to be in English. If you think that your English is not good enough, you can, of course, speak in Tagalog. Umm…yes! We shall start! So, to start off, where and when were you born? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />I was born in Malolos, Bulacan in Philippines. [Felt uncomfortable providing birthdate.] <br />[Giron] <br />Where were your parents born?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />At the same place I was born.<br />[Giron]<br />What jobs did your parents do?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />My mom is [was] a sew… umm…dress maker and my dad is [was] a soldier before.<br /><br />[Giron]<br />Soldier? Uh to go upon that, when did he fight err what war did he fight?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />What war did he fight? They just umm it is a community fight, like in the same place in the Philippines. Where in there is… the new people’s army that were fighting in [for] their freedom against the government. <br />[Giron]<br />Okay and do you remember your grandparents?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yes.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay… with your grandparents…do you… Where were err where were your grandparents born and what did they do?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Umm… my grandparents were born in the same place where [was] I born in the Philippines, and what they job before are… they are the farm raiser, like umm [pause] How do you call that? They raised chicken and…<br />[Giron]<br />Farmers?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yeah.<br />[Giron]<br />Okay so, another quick question: how many siblings did you have?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />I have four siblings.<br />[Giron] <br />Boys? Girls?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Two boys and three girls [Four related by blood. One half-sister] <br />[Giron]<br />Did you come from a large family?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Uhh no I have only my dad and my aunt. [Pause] So there are only two kids from my grandparents so it’s not really large.<br />[Giron] <br />I meant, as in general, with your parents and your siblings. Did you grow up with a larger family like umm, uncles? Aunts?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Uh yeah yeah, yes I did.<br />[Giron]<br />And how many can you count in total?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />At my father’s side they only two and my mom’s side is there are three siblings.<br />[Giron]<br />Did any of your family members move to America before you?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Uh they are my auntie before, on the third cousin, my parent’s third cousin, they were in Texas right now.<br />Giron: And when did they move to America?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Uh they said America is a better place for good education…<br />[Giron]<br />No.. uhh When did they move to America?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />When? Um that will be 1970…1976 like that.<br /><br />[Giron]<br />Okay, and to go off of this, since they moved before you did when did you move? What year did you move?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />My family and I move here on 2005.<br />[Giron]<br />What state did you reside in?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Here in California.<br />[Giron]<br />[changing subjects] Umm so in the Philippines, I’m assuming since you’re an immigrant, did you study in the Philippines?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Uh yes I graduated in college. Major in Bachelor of Science in Commerce. Oh! Studying Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Economics.<br />[Giron]<br />And what school did you go to?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />I graduated in Regina Carmeli Uni [Pause] now is um University of Regina Carmeli. <br />[Giron] <br />Regina Carmeli? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yes.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay. So growing up in the Philippines err having your education in the Philippines, what was it like? How were the schools there? How was your academic experience?<br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Umm compared to the U.S., Philippines is way…lesser [struggling to think of the word]<br />[Giron]<br />You can speak in Tagalog.<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yeah yeah, kung ikukumpara ko ang studies from Philippines [than] here in U.S. I can say that America is much better than the education in the Philippines. In the sense that… mas marami ang year ng pag <br />a-aral mo, dito sa America ‘kay sa Pilipinas. <br />[Giron] So you’re saying that you go to school longer in the Philippines that you do… <br />[Dela Cruz]<br />No, here [in America] is longer. Cause right now we have up to grade twelve. In the Philippines we only have fourth year. Grade six in elementary. Four years in high school, and four years in college. <br />[Giron] <br />Ahh okay that is very interesting. Sorry, I did not go to… I did not have education in the Philippines, so that is very new to me. Umm and you said you… I’m sorry what was your major again when you were in college?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />My major was in Economics.<br />[Giron] <br />Economics! Okay! So umm since you majored in Economics, what was work like err what work did you apply for? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Uhh I never got a chance to use my major because when I first graduated in college I went to a different country with my mom to work with her with one family there as a domestic helper and it last for one year and then when I came back umm I got this job in a publication where you will uhh make a newspaper, magazines, books, leaflets, invitations like that, something like that. And then I cannot… I didn’t pursue the… [Struggling to think of the word]<br />[Giron]<br />Your original major?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yeah, my original major.<br />[Giron]<br />Umm and this is a little bit personal, but do you have any regrets not pursuing your major or did you enjoy doing the whole newspaper business? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Actually, my major’s course is not really my dream course because what I want at the time is to be a nurse, but because I don’t have money, or my parents did not have money to put me into that kind of school. So it [I] never happens to be a nurse at that time. But I enjoy being a newspaper, a layout artist in that publication.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay! So, the next couple of questions will ask about umm you coming here to America. So, to start off, when did you decide to move out of the Philippines? So, when did you start thinking, “I want to move to America.” About when did you start think about that?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Actually, that wasn’t our plan before. It wasn’t came to my mind that I would be going here to America, but there’s an opportunity for my sister to be here, to come here in America, and then after the five years of being here she petitioned my parents. After my parents, she petitioned us, siblings, so that how we get in here in America. <br /><br />[Giron] <br />Okay! Let me get this straight. So, your older sister?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />My youngest.. um no, my sister next to me. <br />[Giron] <br />So, a year? Or?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah a year.<br />[Giron]<br />So, your younger sister had an opportunity to come to America and when she came here, did she become a citizen? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yes, she married a citizen… guy.<br />[Giron] <br />So, she married someone who was a citizen, therefore she became a citizen, and she petitioned your parents to come to America and then she also petitioned you guys, the siblings.<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah the remaining children.<br />[Giron]<br />So, when did that occur?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Umm, for my sister, or…?<br />[Giron]<br />For you. So, once your sister petitioned you guys, when was the petition? <br />[Dela Cruz]<br />I remember my parents came here 1996, and they file a petition for their kids, for their children after that. I think I came here like 10 years after they were in America.<br />[Giron] <br />Why did you choose to move here, rather than stay in America [I meant to say the Philippines.]<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />In the Philippines?<br />[Giron]<br />Yes. <br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yeah, umm they said umm America has a great opportunity for us Filipinos. They said.. what do you call honey… green… <br />[Giron]<br />[Laughs] uhh yeah, I don’t know the correct saying.<br /><br />[Long Pause, then resumes. We had to search up the proper saying for her reference] <br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah, they said America is a land of milk and honey, like there is a greenest pasture here in America. The greatest opportunity for us Filipinos to be here, so we can uhh.. para pag unlad yung sarili naming.<br />[Giron]<br />Uhh did you have any children that kind of… So, the reason why you wanted to move to America, because the saying that you just did, that America is the land of milk and honey and talked about opportunity. Did you want your children to have a better opportunity?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Yeah, that’s the first thing that came to my being err to my mind that I want my children to come here, to get the knowledge or the.. to get study here, finish their college here, and I’m also dreaming that they can be a doctor here, sometimes, [Quietly laughing in unison] because being a doctor here in America is a kind of umm mataas na ni pag ina aralan. Mataas na ni pag ina aralan na kahit saan ka marating, kahit saan mag punta basta graduate ka ng America being a doctor, marami kang chance sa ibang lugar mapuntahan or ma pag trabhoan dahil mas mataas ang edukasyon ng pagiging doctor dito sa America.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay, very interesting! So, you referred to America or, you believed err used to believe that America a land flowing with milk and honey. After you moved here, did any of that idea change?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Uhh not really kasi sa Pilipinas wala ka naman masyado na pa-pasukan na trabaho. Maliit lang pag kumita ka, halimbawa na “in’ ka sa isang company, they just… they’re not giving you much salary so you can send your children to what your dream of them become. So, I’m very lucky that I have my parents, my sibling, who brought me here together with my children, so they can have this opportunity that they can study whatever they want. <br />[Giron]<br />Okay, that’s it? So, you do not regret leaving the Philippines at all?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />No. No regrets at all.<br />[Giron]<br />Okay! So, for your life, now that you’ve lived here [in America] for over a decade already, and you lived most of your life in the Philippines. Can you tell me different situations err what was different about living in America, as oppose to living in the Philippines?<br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Umm… living in the Philippines is easy, like when you don’t have anything to eat you just plant and you have something to eat, but here in America if you don’t get a job, you don’t have nothing to eat. Like hindi mo ma bi-bilhin yung gusto mo bilhin pag na sa Pilipinas ka, pero compared in the Philippines to America, mas masaya and buhay mo sa Pilipinas dahil enjoy mo… they said that… there’s nothing like home.<br />[Giron] <br />There’s no place like home?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />There’s no place like home. All your friends, all your relatives are living there, so… as if you have a lot of company. Marami kang, kung baga, ka-kampi, compared dito sa America na limited lang kayo, konti lang kayo, na mag mga maganak ng nadtio, walang masyadong tutulong, especially kung wala ka naman ka maganak, walang masyadong tutolong sayo. Compared na sa Pilipinas ka ‘aan doon yung maganak mo. Umm mayroon kang ma pu-puntahan kung kailangan mo ng tulong. Hindi sinasabi sa pera, pero tulong as in companion ba. Unlike dito sa America, puro ka trabaho. Kailangan mo mg trabaho para meron kang magandag opportunity na makatira sa ganitong lugar, makabilhi ka nang gusto mong bilhin, makain mo yung gusto mong kainin. Something like that. <br />[Giron] <br />Okay, and, so, now that I have a better idea err better understanding of your thoughts about America and the Philippines, I wanted to ask about your first few years here coming to America. So, when you first moved here you said that you lived in California, you currently reside in California, and this is the place you first came. I kind of want to know about your experience of coming to America for the first time. So, do you still remember the day you left the Philippines and the day you arrived in America, in the airport? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah, in the airport I was so amazed on the place. Of course, it was different, too much different compared to the Philippines, in a sense that the roads are really [Pause] developed compared to the Philippines. I can compare that America is really established. The roads are really… ni pinagplanohan, may plano lahat. Unlike sa Pilipinas na “oh itinayo itong daan na ito ng pa ganun lang.” [Waving arm motion] Like hindi nag isip or hindi masyado na plano. Kung ico-compara mo dito and lahat na makita mo sa daan is una una lang yung dadaanan mo, makikita mo na talagang wide, Na sa plano.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay! To make this a bit clear for me, you’re comparing the differences between the Philippines and America. You said America, when you see the roads, you know that things were built with a purpose. Things were built with a plan.<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yes.<br />[Giron] Comapred sa Pilipinas where, it seems like they just built things randomly, without a plan. Is that what you’re trying to say?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Mhm! Yes, that’s it.<br />[Giron] <br />Okay! So, I would like to know… which airport did you come from, oh, not come from, but when you came to the Philippines, which airport in California did you arrive in?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />We arrive in San Francisco Airport.<br /><br />[Giron]<br />Can you tell me about your experience, about… What was going through your mind as you stepped foot out of the airplane? Were you excited? How were you feeling?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />I am [was] a little nervous because I don’t now what will I expect America will give to me. What job should I do here, compared to what I have in the Philippines. I don’t know if there’s same job that I can get here as a publisher because when I first applied, I don’t want to mention the company, but I applied in some company, like a publication company. They said, I hear that this company is having a politics, you know, politics in the sense, that they just accepting people like your relative, your friends. So, I never got the chance to get into that company the same as I’m working in the Philippine. <br />[Giron] <br />So, with that when you said that you weren’t able to go into the job that you were used to, with the publication, did that change your life? As in, since you didn’t get into that job, were you forced to…<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yeah, I forced to go a different route, yes. <br />[Giron] <br />What route was that in, since you weren’t able to…<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Actually, I, in economics there’s a little background of accounting, so… [asking me a question] Do I have to mention this company? <br />[Giron]<br />Uhh you don’t have to mention the company.<br /><br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />So, I get into this company as a accounts payable in accounting because I have an experience or I have a background in accounting, to what I graduated, I used that experience or I can use that experience to get into that job. For the first time, yes, it is difficult for me to adjust because you will be working with people that new for you, like American people, different culture, like what you grow in [pause] different surroundings, yeah and different… I don’t know how you will work on that place you don’t know how to be with other people. Hindi mo alam kung pa-pano sila pakisamahan dahil iba ang kanilang kinalakihan, o ang ugalit, or kanilang ni pagaralan. And then that time, even this time I can admit that I having a hard time speaking English, so I don’t know how will I talk to them, and how will I talk to the customer that I was assigned to.<br />[Giron] <br />When you first came here, your life was very tough especially the adjustments. Was it similar for your children… the adjustment for them, was it difficult for them as well? <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />I never got a chance to ask them, but I think they don’t have a very hard time being with other people because they were so little before. Growing up here, I think they were really easily adjust themselves.<br />[Giron] <br />Perfect! So, when you first arrived here in California, did you have a place to stay? Did you already have a home? Did you stay with a relative? How did you get by for the first [few] years here, so where did you live?<br /><br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Umm my parents that time had a house to live in Sunnyvale. So, they owned a house, but, because living in California is too expensive, so… We lived there for like five years, and then after that because life is very tough, my parents didn’t have anymore job that time and then my siblings are living in different place like, they were just living in apartment and I was the only one living with my parents. It’s too hard for us to pay that house… the mortgage of the house, so we decided to move into an apartment with my parents and with my kids, too. <br />[Giron]<br />Okay. Uhh [Pause] So, you told me before… I think I’m done with the “Living here in America” with that section. Umm, I wanted to go into your professions when you first moved here to America. So, you told me you wanted to get into some publications, but you didn’t get in. You told me some other things as well, but you said that it did not work out. What did you eventually settle on? What type of work did you eventually settle on?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Actually, you cannot pick your job. You cannot pick any job you want as long as you’re just… as long as you have a job to do [Pause] <br />Yeah, before, like I said, I was in this company I work in accounting, but the job is too tough for me, so I started one course to be a CNA, like a certified nursing assistant, I work in this [accounting] company, like I said, seven years, but this is too tough for me because like that time they said the company will be close in a couple of years. I decided to take a course, like a CNA, so I can have another job kapag ng saran a yung [accounting] company. <br /><br /><br />[Giron] <br />So, when you said you took another course did you have to go back to school here in America just to become a CNA? Or how did that process go?<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />I never dream of being a CNA. I just took that course because I want an easy easy… easy job, like papaano ako makaalis ako dito sa company to ayo kong ma bakante, like ayo kong pag nag-sara itong company na ito ay…<br />[Giron]<br />Jobless?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Maging jobless ako kaya… Naging practical lang ako na gusto ko saana dalawang trabaho, saana para ma kumita nang mas malaki, but the thing is, I cannot make… do double job at that time. It’s too hard having two job at the same time.<br />[Giron] <br />And, so, what was funny is that in my class now we learned about Filipinos and wanting to help [out], so it was very interesting to hear that you wanted to be a CNA. You wanted to be a CNA, a nursing assistant. Can I ask, you wanted… in the Philippines you wanted to become… your dream job was to become a nurse, so why did you settle to become a nurse assistant rather than pursue being a nurse when you knew the money…<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Of course, money is a problem here, how can I pursue my study being a nurse if I don’t have a job to do, so I can pursue that nursing job or nursing course. Kailangan may trabaho muna ako bago ako ma pursue ko yun, pero, dahil may mga anak ako, I have two kids, it’s too hard to get back to school being a full-time student while I have have my two kids with me, living with me and no one will look [after] for them and especially I don’t have money to use to continue my study being a nurse. Inisip ko papaano kong gagawin yun kung yung ang mga anak ko ay kasama ko, at mag fu-full time student ako? Ano kakainin ng mga anak ko kung estudyante ako? Kahit mga uutang ako nang pag aaral ko… how ‘bout yung kakainin yung mga anak ko? Saan ko ku-kuhanin yun? <br />[Giron] <br />That’s understandable.<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />So, I’d rather work than going to school. Being a CNA is konting panahon lang para tapusin mo. So, I think I take that course for only three months. So, after I finish that I get a job. Actually, a double job, but it’s too hard, so I stay for only one job and then, but after being a CNA for like two years I decided to get another job and I was now employed in electronics and now, compared to being a CNA and compared to being an accounts payable associate going to CAN and going to electronics I can say that electronics is more better for me… for my age because right now I’m a lead… a production lead in that company, so I’m earning like more than I’m earing in accounts payable or being a CNA before. <br />[Giron] <br />So, the current job you’re in now you make way more… <br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yes.<br />[Giron]<br />Okay! So, a lead is that like a manager status?<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />No, it’s umm… compared to supervisor, your’re under the supervisor. <br /><br /><br />[Giron]<br />That’s great to know that you were able to face America with all the issues and not having a job here early and all the difficulties you had in thie first few months… was there any other issues and hardships you faced.<br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yea, a hardship I’m facing right now is the apartment that we’re living right now… because my kids are getting older and I don’t want them to live in this apartment that not comfortable for them. I want more bigger hosue because my dream is to give my children a better life, but for me doing that it’s too hard, also ‘cause like I said living here in America it’s not really easy. You have to have two jobs so you can have your [Pause] Makuha mo yung gusto mo. As in makakuha ng bahay na mas kumportable para sa mga anak mo, pero, dahil na sa hirap nang buhay [intangible] dito sa California mahirap. Acutally, California it yung center nang job. Sa ibang lugar, halimbawa, i-compare mo sa, like in Texas, Texas is more… houses are more affordable, but the thing is… the problem with that area is the job. Ang mas mura sa lugar na ganoon, pero yung trabaho wala rin masyadong makakuhang trababo doon sa ganoong lugar. So, sa California dito talaga centro ng lahat ng company. <br />[Giron] <br />Okay, so, one final question: Did you notice anything different between the first-generation immigrants and the Filipino-<br />American community? Meaning, since you are an immigrant, you’re a first-generation immigrant [Pause] you grew up in the Philippines… was your life different from the Filipinos born in America? Did you notice anything different? For example, the opportunities.<br /><br /><br />[Dela Cruz] <br />Yes, opportunities, in the sense, that mas maganda ang opportunity na mga tao naka pagaral dito [in America] kaysa sa naka pagaral ka sa ibang lugar bago ka nag punta ka dito. Syempre, ang mas priority na ma nga company ay yun naka graduate ka, naka pagaral ka dito sa America, kaysa naka pagaral ka sa ibang lugar. So, masasabi ko na, yes, mas masarap ang… laka ng pagaral ka dito sa America kahit nung bata ka pa, na ka graduate ka dito kase mas maganda ang buhay, magiging buhay mo kung nag tapos ka nang pag aaral dito at naka kuha ka ng trabaho dito. Yeah, compared sa… na sa Pilipinas ka naka graduate tapos dito ka ng trabaho wala kang opportunity na makuha mo ung gusto mo talaga na trabaho dit sa America.<br />[Giron]<br />Okay, Gloria, that will be the end of the interview. I do not have any more questions left, so thank you for taking your time to speak with me… and yeah.<br />[Dela Cruz]<br />Uh yeah you’re welcome.<br />[Giron] <br />Thank you!
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 Gloria Dela Cruz, interviewed by Ralph Gabriel Giron
Subject
The topic of the resource
Malolos, Bulacan, Philippines, dressmaker, soldier, civil war, farmers, Texas, California, immigrant, immigrant families--United States, B.S. Commerce, Economics, Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Economic studies, University of Regina Carmeli, Tagalog, domestic helper, OFW, overseas Filipino workers, publication, layout artist, petition, petition visa, petition visa in the US, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, CNA, Certified Nursing Assistant,
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Gloria Dela Cruz, interviewed by Ralph Gabriel Giron
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2-Jun-19
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
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Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0014
B.S. Commerce
Bachelor of Science in Commerce
Bulacan
California
Certified Nursing Assistant
civil war
CNA
domestic helper
dressmaker
Economic studies
Economics
farmers
immigrant
Immigrant families--United States
layout artist
Malolos
OFW
overseas Filipino workers
petition
petition visa
petition visa in the US
Philippines
publication
San Francisco
soldier
Sunnyvale
Tagalog
Texas
University of Regina Carmeli
-
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.
Isabel Mangoba
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
James Garcia
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[June 2, 2019]<br />[Begin Audio File]<br />[0:00]<br />MANGOBA: Could you give me your name and just a brief introduction about who you are?<br />GARCIA: My name is James. I am a 1.5 immigrant. I immigrated here when I was 9 years old in<br />2006.<br />MANGOBA: Who are you right now?<br />GARCIA: [laughter] I’m a 4th year college student at UC Davis. [pause] I don’t know how to<br />introduce myself.<br />MANGOBA: That’s fine.<br />GARCIA: Just cut this out. [laughter]<br />MANGOBA: So you’ve answered where and when you were born.<br />GARCIA: Okay.<br />MANGOBA: Where and when were your parents born?<br />GARCIA: So my mom was born in Batangas in the Philippines in 1971, and then my dad was<br />born in Cavite in the Philippines in 1971.<br />MANGOBA: How old were you when you immigrated to the U.S.?<br />GARCIA: So I immigrated to the U.S. when I was 9 years old.<br />MANGOBA: Where did you first live in the United States?<br />GARCIA: So the first place I lived in when I moved here was in Los Angeles in 2006 in<br />Koreatown.<br />MANGOBA: Is that where you live now?<br />GARCIA: No. So my family lives in West Covina now. So they moved from L.A. back in 2009<br />to West Covina.<br />MANGOBA: When you immigrated, who did you come with and who did you leave behind?<br />GARCIA: My mom actually came here first in November 2005, and then, during that time, there<br />were four of us- three of my siblings and I- being taken care of by my grandmother in the<br />Philippines- my mom’s mom. In May 2006 was when we first moved here to the U.S.<br />MANGOBA: Why did your family decide to move out of the Philippines?<br />GARCIA: So, as you know, the life in the Philippines is kind of tough compared to the life in the<br />U.S. The Philippines is filled with situations where there might be possibilities that my siblings<br />and I are going to get sucked into a life of drugs, a life of alcohol, gambling, and stuff like thataddictions.<br />My mom really wanted to take us out from that life, so she decided to bring us to the<br />United States and bring us here so that we can have a better life, better education, and a better<br />future.<br />MANGOBA: What were your family’s hopes, or your own hopes, for your new life in America?<br />GARCIA: Like I said, my mom’s one hope, or one wish, is that we all grow up to be really<br />successful in life- to live a life without drugs and have a really bright future- to live up to our<br />potential basically.<br />My hope from moving to the U.S. is really to just one, reach my dreams, which is to become a<br />doctor, support my family in the future ‘cause my mom worked really hard. My one goal is to in<br />the future just buy her a house. It’s not just my goal, it’s my siblings and I’s- it’s all of our goals.<br />Right now, we’re all just working really, really hard to get a really good career and give back to<br />our families once we grow up in the future.<br />MANGOBA: Did immigration affect what you planned to pursue [as a career]?<br />[4:32]<br />GARCIA: Yeah. In the Philippines, I studied really, really hard. I was in a good school. I was top<br />one out of my whole class in kindergarten, in grade 1, grade 2, grade 3. I worked really, really<br />hard to just excel in school. But immigrating here, I think that it kind of advanced that skill and<br />the experiences. Because of the opportunities that I was given here, I was able to integrate that to<br />who I was in the Philippines and do better here. So I would say that immigrating here really did<br />just give me the skills and give me the experiences I need to really excel and become a better<br />person than I was as a child in the Philippines.<br />MANGOBA: What was the most difficult part about leaving?<br />GARCIA: So the most difficult part about moving from the Philippines to the United States is for<br />sure adjusting to the life here- to the American society- and there was a lot of challenges that just<br />came with that. ‘Cause, you know, there’s that language barrier, the culture barrier. It was really<br />hard. When I was a kid, it was hard for me to adjust just because 1, I couldn’t really speak<br />English that well. There was a time in elementary school where I didn’t talk to anyone for 6<br />months and I just sat by myself during recess and lunch because I didn’t know how to talk to<br />people. That’s the thing- I couldn’t make connections and really engage in communicating with<br />my peers when I was in elementary school. And also the cultural barriers- the life. Families here<br />in the United States are very different from how I lived in the Philippines, or how my family<br />lived in the Philippines, so there was that disconnect between my friends and I. What they<br />experience in their life is so much different than the way I experienced my life. Their values are<br />different, their heritage. I have a very different heritage than they did- a different upbringing than<br />they did. Just like understanding where they come from, and really just assimilating to how they<br />lived their life- I think that was my main goal as a child here growing up. Just to like understand<br />how to really live in the United States. That was the hardest part. I really had to learn a lot and<br />really sit in the background and try to learn how to live here with people- with friends.<br />MANGOBA: Since you were so young, how did you approach having to transition [into<br />American culture]?<br />GARCIA: I had a really good school. I think that, when I was in elementary school, my parents<br />tried really, really hard to let the principal know and my teachers know where I came from, who<br />I was, and that I immigrated here. So my principal and my teachers there were very<br />accomodating of me. It was actually my principal who introduced me to the first person I ever<br />talked to in elementary school here in the U.S- the first friend I ever made. I still remember his<br />name. I don’t talk to him anymore, but he’s made a big impact on me, on my life. I think they<br />were really willing to help me adjust to life here. I tried really, really hard in fifth grade and<br />fourth grade. I still excelled in my studies which was good, but it was because of the them-the<br />staff that worked there- that made it easier to interact with my peers.<br />MANGOBA: Do you think that anyone saw you differently?<br />GARCIA: I think so. I think that fifth grade is that time, you know- I was like 10 I think- where I<br />started to become more integrated into the culture here. In the beginning I’m sure they did. I’m<br />sure they saw me as that kid that just sat alone by himself, didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t have any<br />friends. But once I started to integrate myself more into extracurricular activities that they<br />offered- I was in the basketball team- I did all these extracurriculars. You know, softball,<br />volleyball- I just really tried my best to participate in as many activities as I [could] as my way of<br />trying to fit in. I really liked playing sports, so I was like, “You know what, I might as well try<br />it,” and make new friends, learn from them, and maybe it would make it easier to adjust here.<br />MANGOBA: What was different about living in America as opposed to living in the<br />Philippines?<br />[9:43]<br />GARCIA: [sigh] There’s so much more freedom here. I don’t know. I think that’s also the<br />cultural [difference] here compared to the Philippines. In the Philippines, [pause] there was a<br />problem with poverty and stuff like that so, in the Philippines, it was more restricted, you know?<br />I didn’t have as much freedom as I did here because I didn’t have the capacity to. My mom<br />didn’t have the mean to give us that kind of life. But here, when I moved here, I just found it<br />really easy to [...] In terms of, let’s say, financial capacity, right? They were just giving me<br />money and everything, and I was just like, “Damn, I could really just save up and buy stuff.”<br />Whereas in the Philippines, it was really hard for me to get money. My mom was trying really<br />hard to provide us with money. I think that’s it. [pause]<br />Sorry, what was the question?<br />MANGOBA: What was different about living in America as opposed to living in the<br />Philippines?<br />GARCIA: Yeah, so again, the culture part is a big thing. Different cultures, different values for<br />sure. [pause] Yeah, I want to elaborate on it, but I just don’t know which example [...] ‘cause,<br />you know, American families are very different from Asian [and/or] Filipino families. Our<br />values are different, and there’s just that clash between cultures that I just really had to learn how<br />to live with. You know, as Filipinos, there’s this certain hierarchy that we have to follow, right?<br />We have to always follow our parents, we have to respect our elders. Whatever they tell us, we<br />just have to follow it. It’s just the way it works in our culture. Here, once you’re 18-once you<br />have the ability to make decisions on your own- you can kind of start living on your own life and<br />really just start learning and experiencing whatever opportunity was given to you- whatever is<br />presented to you either in school, at home, or in any other place you come across here in the<br />United States.<br />MANGOBA: [inaudible] So with such a big difference, in culture and value, do you find it<br />difficult to stay rooted in your Filipinx culture while transitioning into America and American<br />culture?<br />GARCIA: Surprisingly, no. [...] There’s two different examples for why I was able to stay rooted<br />in my Filipino culture. One is because, being a part of an immigrant family, my whole family<br />was deeply rooted in our culture. That would help because I would come home to my family, my<br />mom would cook Filipino food, I would speak Tagalog at home because I couldn’t speak English<br />at home. Well, it’s not that I couldn’t, but my mom just told me that in order for us to not forget<br />our language, we have to preserve it at home. And two, my first group of friends here were<br />Filipinos. They were the ones that I spent all of my elementary school [years with]- Fourth and<br />fifth grade and most of middle school. We just stayed friends and they were all Filipinos too. A<br />lot of my friends, even now, are mostly Filipinos, and that’s the main reason I was able to stay<br />rooted. We were able to share our values, our experiences, our culture. So being exposed to the<br />values of being Filipino both at home and at school and my other experiences too, I think that<br />kept me rooted in my culture.<br />MANGOBA: So you say most of your friends are Filipino and always have been, but do you<br />notice anything different between first generation immigrants and Filipino Americans here?<br />[14:14]<br />GARCIA: Yeah. My friends back then- yeah, they were Filipinos, but they had a very different<br />upbringing than I did. They were second gen[eration] Filipinos, so meaning that they were born<br />in a society where they can live their life as Americans. Yes, they are Filipinos- that’s how they<br />were born- but they were really living American lives. Whereas, for example, for me, I was born<br />as Filipinos and I lived a Filipino life. Yeah, so the main difference again, it comes back to how<br />we function in society. The culture and the values that we all have are very different. So, for<br />example, like I said, even if my friends were Filipino, the way they talk to their families, or just<br />the way they spend time with their families, were not similar to Filipinos do it. You know,<br />Filipinos are very family-centered. They’re very collectivistic, meaning that family is one of the<br />big things for them. They always want to support their family. They always want to respect their<br />elders. Whereas here, Filipino Americans- yes, they do still live that kind of life, but they<br />definitely live by the American life more. They’re more towards autonomy, like making your<br />own decision. They’re more into following their dreams. In Asian culture- in collectivistic<br />cultures, especially in the Philippines- you can follow your dreams, but your main goal is to<br />support your family in the future. You can always see that. Kids in the Philippines, once they<br />grow up, they’ll still live with their parents. There’s kind of that switch in roles: once they grow<br />up and get their jobs and make money, a lot of that money is going to go back to their families.<br />Whereas here, once you get money, you can start buying stuff. You can create your own life.<br />You can experience new things. The family values is very diminished within Filipino Americans<br />here compared to Filipinos in the Philippines.<br />[pause]<br />MANGOBA: So your family has tried really hard to maintain that type of dynamic right?<br />GARCIA: Yes.<br />MANGOBA: And it’s still like that to this day? Nothing has really influenced [a shift away from<br />those values]?<br />GARCIA: Actually, no. So I live in SoCal, my family’s in L.A. I think there has been a shift in<br />the way my parents have treated [my siblings and I] now compared to how they treated us as<br />kids. I think that once my siblings and I started to adjust to the American life, my parents started<br />to treat us like American kids. They would tell us, “Follow your dreams or whatever makes you<br />happy.” which is not common in the Filipino culture. The fact that they’re saying it really just<br />shows that they’re really trying to give us the means to be happy and to do a career where we can<br />prosper and love what we do. There has been for sure a shift from how they treated us as kids<br />and how they treat us now. I think living in the United States has really influenced how they<br />treated us.<br />MANGOBA: [pause] [inaudible]<br />GARCIA: [laugh] It’s okay, take your time.<br />MANGOBA: [pause] How do you think migration has changed or formed who you are today?<br />GARCIA: That’s a good question. I think definitely moving to the United States has given me<br />more opportunities prosper, to become a better person, to do more with my life. I think it really<br />goes back to the things I was given as a kid- the opportunities I was given: better education, a<br />better way to develop my own autonomy. If I was in the Philippines, for sure I would’ve been<br />different- I wouldn’t be the same person if I was in the Philippines. The way I am now, I’m a<br />very service-oriented person. Service-oriented meaning that I like to give back to my<br />community. I think the main reason why is because I experienced living a life in poverty. I<br />experienced a life surrounded by stress, surrounded by pressure to assimilate into this culture. So<br />whatever I can do to lessen that stress, because I went through it, in other people, I think I really<br />try my best to make sure that other people- not remove that experience, not remove that feelingbut<br />just alleviate what they’re going through. Yeah, I think my experiences before migrating here<br />and, actually, my experiences after migrating here, really shaped who I am today and what I<br />want to do in the future.<br />[20:52]<br />MANGOBA: What do you wish more people knew about immigrants and immigration?<br />GARCIA: I love this question. So, in my opinion, I think that when people think about<br />immigrants, it’s more like people coming here to work, to have a better family, and that’s just<br />where it ends- to work and to have a better future for their families. But they never really think<br />about the things that these families have to go through. I don’t know if you know the word<br />“acculturation”. Acculturation is a little similar to assimilation, but more towards adjusting to<br />the receiving culture and experiencing everything that comes with this cultural clash, like stress.<br />There’s something called acculturative stress that is very big on mental health research in Asian<br />American immigrants. People need to realize that immigrants come here not only to work, nbut<br />also to really overcome challenges that go with that. The United States- yes, it was built by<br />immigrants. We all know that, it’s in our history books. But it’s it is not made, right now, for<br />immigrants. As you learn in [Asian American Studies], the path to citizenship is so difficult right<br />now. I have Filipino friends whose families aren’t even citizens yet, and they’ve been waiting for<br />20 years. There’s so many implications that come with that. You can’t do much in the United<br />States without being a citizen. In order to rent an apartment, you have to be a citizen. In order to<br />start a bank account, you have to be a citizen. All these challenges that come with becoming<br />citizens, and not even [just] that- like providing for your families, looking for jobs that don’t<br />require you to be a citizen. A lot of those jobs are minimum wage, low-income jobs. In addition<br />to trying to become a citizen, you’re also trying to get a lot of money for your family. All this<br />stress builds up to the point where it affects immigrants’ mental health and physical health. I<br />think if we can come to an understanding that immigrants are going through much more than just<br />trying to get a job- just moving here and trying to get a job. They all have to go through a great<br />deal of obstacles. A few do rise above. It takes time, but it happens. In order to live a good life in<br />another country, you have to work for it. I think our society, especially the American society, just<br />needs to sit down and understand what’s going on within these immigrant families.<br />[ 24:49]<br />MANGOBA: You took ASA 150 [The Filipinx Experience in America] right?<br />GARCIA: I did. Yes.<br />MANGOBA: Do you think the class does justice [in reflecting the experiences of all generations<br />of Filipinx in America]?<br />GARCIA: I think so. ASA 150 is one of the few classes in the United States where it talks about<br />the Filipino culture, Filipino migration. I think that’s really important because it gives us the<br />opportunity to learn something about ourselves- learn something about who we are that we didn’t<br />learn in high school. When I took ASA 150, and I learned a lot of different topics about Filipino<br />migration, export, and stuff like that, it really just took me back to how my family is. Honestly,<br />that’s how my family is- how one of the greatest sources of income or GDP for the Philippines is<br />labor export. I have my aunts and my uncles that work in Dubai and Singapore, and all of these<br />remittances go back to the Philippines and raise their GDP and stuff like that. Learning about<br />these things in ASA 150 really opens your eyes to how the process is. It really makes you realize<br />that it’s not just your family, but it happens to families all over the world. At least in my opinion,<br />understanding that this is happening not only to you but to everyone else is a doorway- an<br />entrance to figuring out how to help each other out. Because, again, our Filipino culture is very<br />family-oriented and we really try to do our best to look out for each other so ASA 150 is a<br />subject that gives you the first step in how to do that. It always comes back to understanding<br />where you come from.<br />MANGOBA: I think you covered most of my questions, so is there anything you’d like to add<br />that has not been asked?<br />GARCIA: No. Unless you have any other questions, but it’s up to you.<br />MANGOBA: I don’t think I have anymore questions.<br />GARCIA: Cool.<br />[End Audio File]<br />Finding Guide for Oral History of James Garcia<br />[0:00-10:00]<br />Immigration at 9 years old in 2006 - 4th year college student at UC Davis - mom born in<br />Bantangas in 1971 - dad born in Cavite in 1971 - First lived in Koreatown in 2006 - Moved to<br />West Covina in 2009 - Mom immigrated first in 2005, grandmother takes care of siblings in the<br />Philippines until immigration in 2006 - hopes for immigration - effect of immigration on career -<br />transition into American culture as a child - comparison between American and Filipino culture<br />[10:01-20:00]<br />Comparison of life in America and in the Philippines - affect on personal cultural life -<br />comparison between immigrants and Filipino Americans - family values - affect of immigration<br />on family values - affect of immigration on identity<br />[20:01-27:24]<br />What more people should know about immigration - acculturation - acculturative stress - affect<br />of immigration on mental health - Immigrant perspective/opinion on ASA 150
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Title
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Oral History Interview with James Garcia
Subject
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Batangas, Cavite, University of California Davis, Immigrant families--United States, Filipino Americans -- Social conditions, First Generation Immigrant Families, 1.5 Generation Immigrant Families, Second Generation Immigrant Families, Children of immigrants -- Education, Immigrants -- Education, Americanization, Acculturation, Assimilation, Collectivism, Individualism, Filipino Labor Export, OFWs, Reasons for Immigrating, Language barrier, Filipino Americans -- Family relationships
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with James Garcia, interviewed by Isabel Mangoba
Date
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6/2/2019
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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
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Audio Recording and Transcript
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ucdw_wa014_s001_0027
1.5 Generation Immigrant Families
Acculturation
Americanization
assimilation
Batangas
Cavite
Children of immigrants -- Education
Collectivism
Filipino Americans -- Family relationships
Filipino Americans -- Social conditions
Filipino Labor Export
First Generation Immigrant Families
Immigrant families--United States
Immigrants -- Education
Individualism
Language barrier
OFWs
Reasons for Immigrating
Second Generation Immigrant Families
University of California Davis
-
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
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Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
Publisher
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Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies
Description
An account of the resource
<strong><br />Note: Collection upload in process</strong>
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Alexandra Fontanilla
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Katherine Isip
Transcription
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[Session 1, May 30, 2019]
[Begin Audio File]
Alexandra or Alexa: It is May 30, 2019 and it is 2 PM. This is Alexa Fontanilla interviewing for ASA 150: The Filipino American Experience. Today, I am interviewing:
Katherine: Katherine Isip. I’m 27.
Alexa: [laughs] Okay. Um, where and when were you born?
Katherine: Um, May 24, 1992 in the Philippines—in Manila.
Alexa: Um, where were your parents born?
Katherine: When?
Alexa: Where?
Katherine: Where? In Manila, Philippines, too.
Alexa: Um, what jobs—uh, do—did/do your parents do?
Katherine: So my dad is a business man and my mom was an interior designer.
Alexa: Oh, she was?!
Katherine: Uh huh!
[3]
Alexa: Oh my gosh! Is that why she was friends with my mom? [in reference to our mom’s being sisters-in-law and interior designers]
Katherine: [laughs] No.
Alexa: [laughs]
Katherine: But she went to Interior Designing school and she, like, designed sets before, but she stopped working because yeah—because of the babies AKA me and Maxine [her sister].
Alexa: Okay, okay. Um, what does Lolo [our grandfather] and Lola [our grandmother] do?
Katherine: Oh, they’re both, um, business people. Businessman, businesswomen—woman? Woman.
Alexa: [laughs]
Katherine: Dami [a lot]?
Alexa: Yeah [laughs].
Katherine: [laughs]
Alexa: How many siblings do you have and do you come from a big family?
Katherine: [sigh] I don’t know if it’s big, but I have two sisters—yeah.
[4]
Alexa: Okay.
Katherine: But yeah.
Alexa: Um, did any of your family members move to America before you?
Katherine: Uh, my aunt—wait. My aunt? How do you say it? Aunt? Aunt?
Alexa: Uh, it doesn’t matter. They’re both the same.
Katherine: Okay. Yeah and I’m not sure about my grandparents, but I think my grandparents as well.
Alexa: Um
Katherine: Yeah. They are, they are.
Alexa: Kind of. They have dual citizenship.
Katherine: Yeah.
Alexa: Um.
Katherine: No—no they’re immigrants. They’re not citizens yet.
Alexa: Oh, okay. Okay. Um, what was your academic experience in the Philippines?
[5]
Katherine: Um, what was my—it was good. It was fun. Like, I think I learned a lot. Um, it was hella long though because it was 5 years for PT School. The normal like—
Alexa: Mhm.
Katherine: Like um, a bachelor’s degree there would be like 4 years, but my course was like 5 so… yeah.
Alexa: Um, and then what was your professional experience like?
Katherine: Professional? It is different than it is here because over there we don’t have—like here we have PT aids and PT assistants. In the Philippines, it’s just us.
Alexa: Oh, okay.
Katherine: And we’re under doctors.
Alexa: Ohh.
Katherine: Um, here in the States we are as well, but um, we have more power?
Alexa: Mhm.
Katherine: I guess. Like to treat patients, like to determine what the patients need because usually doctors would
[6]
just diagnose and send them to us and then we’ll be the ones to evaluate and see.
Alexa: Mhm.
Katherine: But, in the Philippines, it’s the doctors who diagnose and give the treatment plan and we just implement the treatment plan.
Alexa: Oh, okay, okay.
Katherine: Uh huh.
Alexa: Okay.
Katherine: And the pay, and the salary.
Alexa: Okay, do you get paid more here?
Katherine: Of course, yeah. For sure. I think I get paid there a day… if I convert it into dollars. Like, around $11 a day.
Alexa: Oh, wow. Okay.
Katherine: Mhm.
Alexa: Okay, um.
Katherine: So, yeah.
[7]
Alexa: Uh, why did you decide to move out of the Philippines?
Katherine: Because I was making $11 a day.
Alexa: [laughs]
Katherine: [laughs] And I like—love it better here in the States compared to the Philippines.
Alexa: Um.
Katherine: I don’t know. The way of life here.
Alexa: Oh okay, yeah. That makes sense. Uh, when did you move to the United States?
Katherine: Last year.
Alexa: 2018?
Katherine: 20—oh, shoot! 2017.
Alexa: 2017. Okay.
Katherine: So, it was like a year and a few months ago.
Alexa: Okay. Um, did you move anywhere else before settling at the US?
[8]
Katherine: Like a different country?
Alexa: Yeah.
Katherine: No, just directly from the Philippines.
Alexa: Okay, um. What were your thoughts about America before you moved here?
Katherine: Um, what were my thoughts? I guess I thought that it would be hard to live here because in the Philippines, you know, we got used to having ya-yas, or maids.
Alexa: Mhm.
Katherine: So, like, compared to here you’re more independent. You do everything.
Alexa: Yeah.
Katherine: Like laundry and cooking and everything. Not like in the Philippines, like someone else does it for you.
Alexa: Mhm.
Katherine: So I think that’s like the big, like, thing that people tell me is the difference.
Alexa: Uh huh. And like, those thoughts—have they changed like after you started living here or?
[9]
Katherine: They’re still the same.
Alexa: Yeah I was about to say.
Katherine: Yeah, it is true.
Alexa: Do—is it—do you like it more?
Katherine: I mean, it’s not that hard. Like, you have dishwashers and washing machines and stuff like that over here. Well, you have some in the Philippines, but not a lot of people have that.
Alexa: Yeah.
Katherine: So, I think it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.
Alexa: Mhm. Okay, that’s good. Um, where did you first live in the United States?
Katherine: Um, Anaheim, California.
Alexa: With who?
Katherine: With Auntie.
Alexa: [laughs]
Katherine: With my auntie and uncle and my grandparents.
[10]
Alexa: Um, what jobs did you perform when you moved to America?
Katherine: Well just a PT.
Alexa: Um, so. Did the experiences that you had in the Philippines—did it help you get the job?
Katherine: Yes, for sure.
Alexa: Okay, so I know you went back to school here. Um, what was that like compared to the Philippines?
Katherine: Um, it’s super-fast paced.
Alexa: Here?
Katherine: Like, yeah. Like it’s extra—like in the Philippines it’s fast paced, but here it’s EXTRA. And like your professors here or like instructors are like I feel like they care less. I don’t know. Like in the Philippines they’re like “What do you need? What can we do? Blah blah blah to help you pass.” Or like they really teach. Over here, yeah they teach, but not as detailed or something—like you do all the work.
Alexa: Oh.
Katherine: You know what I mean?
Alexa: Yeah. So like in the Philippines did they kind of, like, walk you through it?
[11]
Katherine: Yeah.
Alexa: Oh, okay.
Katherine: Not like when you were in like high school—like it’s going to be step by step. I mean it was a faster pace, but they—it’s like super organized and like you would like get it… unless you’re dumb. Then, you won’t.
Alexa: [laughs]
Katherine: [laughs] Unless you’re dumb, but I mean, if you’re like okay, you would get it.
Alexa: Okay, okay.
Katherine: It’s not that hard.
Alexa: It’s not that hard. Okay.
Katherine: I mean, it’s hard. I mean it’s harder in the Philippines like the exams and stuff compared to here. Like, I think Filipinos who study in the Philippines and who started studying here. Like, even though like in high school or something, like I think they excel in school here more than compared to the Philippines because it’s harder, like the topics and stuff.
Alexa: Yeah. Okay, that makes sense.
[12]
Katherine: Like it’s super advanced over there, but they like teach you step by step.
Alexa: Yeah.
Katherine: But over here it’s like okay, but we study by ourselves. You can do that. Like [the professors] explain a little bit, help you a little bit. But not like, you know what I mean?
Alexa: Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Um, and then just for the record, where did you go to school and what did you study?
Katherine: Over here? Or in the Philippines?
Alexa: Over here.
Katherine: I studied my Doctorates of Physical Therapy in Unica College in New York.
Alexa: Um, and then, last question. Did you notice anything different between first generation immigrants and um, like me, like Filipino Americans?
Katherine: Mhm, like yeah. I think it’s a big difference. Like, I think Filipino Americans are like more, um, how do I say it? They’re like—they’re more [sigh] open? Not open, like more—they express their, um, what they think more compared to the ones in the Philippines. Like me, I can’t like say stuff, like talk back—not talk back, but like, it’s different. [frustrated sigh] How do I say it? Alexie [her nickname for me]!
[13]
Alexa: If you want to say it in, like, Tagalog that’s fine.
Katherine: Even with—like, I mean, starting. Like I’m thinking pero parang ang hirap din [but it’s like hard still]—wait. Um, parang mas-- [it’s like more--]
Alexa: It’s just like—do you not feel like you—
Katherine: Vocal yung mga people, yung mga kids here compared to the Philippines [the people and kids here are more vocal than in the Philippines] or like the people in the Philippines.
Alexa: Vocal?
Katherine: Mas like, mas conservative [the Philippines is more conservative]. There you go. I think that’s the word. Conservative.
Alexa: Oh, okay. So it’s more conservative in the Philippines?
Katherine: In the Philippines. Like, not super, but if you compare the two, Filipinos in the Philippines are more conservative than Filipino Americans.
Alexa: Oh. Do you think, um, like now that you’ve, like, lived in America for while that, like, do you think you’re still that kind of level of conservative or like, have you changed?
[14]
Katherine: Oh, for sure, I’ve changed. For sure. Yeah. Like, I’m more open to things that are not that open in the Philippines. Like, gay marriage and stuff like that. Like, those kinds of ideas. Like, yes, I accept those more than the people in the Philippines. I guess. Something like that. Like an example. Because it’s very conservative in the Philippines remember because we’re like a Catholic country and like religion is like a big thing. So, like, being gay is like a—it’s not that—I mean it’s more accepted now, but still like, it’s still hard for people there.
Alexa: Mhm, okay. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, it’s a lot more open here and I guess, um, there’s a lot more support for it here.
Katherine: Mhm, I mean in the Philippines they do too, but it’s not as like—there’s still like older generations, who are, like, against that and like thinks that’s like not right. But, like, over here there’s like a lot of people who are accepting it. I mean there’s still people who don’t but you know, most people… yeah.
Alexa: Okay, well. That concludes the interview.
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpJ246ok2NPTIV5xenQG-VEoD5oQ9qbL/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpJ246ok2NPTIV5xenQG-VEoD5oQ9qbL/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RxccS_zqfTqAtAfjeYe6nRSwdN5tNH1k/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RxccS_zqfTqAtAfjeYe6nRSwdN5tNH1k/view?usp=sharing</a>
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Title
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Oral history interview with Katherine Isip, interviewed by Alexandra Fontanilla
Subject
The topic of the resource
Manila, Philippines, business-man, business man, interior designer, interior design, businesspeople, business-woman, PT, physical therapist, physical therapy, PT aids, physical therapist aid, PT assistants, physical therapist center, Anaheim, California, CA, Southern California, SoCal, Utica College, New York, Doctorates of Physical Therapy, first generation immigrants, first-generation, immigrant families--United States, gay marriage, gay rights
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Katherine Isip, interviewed by Alexandra Fontanilla
Date
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30-May-19
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
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Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
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ucdw_wa014_s001_0013
Anaheim
business man
business-man
business-woman
businesspeople
CA
California
Doctorates of Physical Therapy
first generation immigrants
first-generation
gay marriage
gay rights
Immigrant families--United States
interior design
interior designer
Manila
New York
Philippines
physical therapist
physical therapist aid
physical therapist center
physical therapy
PT
PT aids
PT assistants
SoCal
Southern California
Utica College
-
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
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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.
Noelani Ruth Pastor
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Noel Pastor
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
NRP: It is May 23, 2019 and it is 4:40 in the afternoon. This is Noelani Pastor, interviewing for<br />the Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project for the Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives<br />and the Welga! Project. Today, I am interviewing:<br />NP: Noel Pastor, Noelani Pastor’s daddy, father.<br />NRP: Okay, so I am going to start asking you questions about your background and things<br />about yourself. So, question number one, where and when were you born?<br />NP: I was born on May 5, 1968 in a little town called Dingras in the province of Ilocos Norte.<br />Located in Northern Philippines.<br />NRP: Where were your parents born?<br />NP: I believe my, my father was born in Laoag City, in the same province Ilocos Norte. My<br />mother was born in the same town where I was born which is in Dingras, Ilocos Norte,<br />Philippines.<br />NRP: What jobs did your parents do?<br />NP: My father worked for a telecommunications company delivering telegrams. People<br />probably don’t know what that is, but they’re called telegrams and my mother was a full-time<br />mother, housewife. And at the same time, they were both ministers of a Christian church.<br />NRP: Okay, what jobs did your grandparents do?<br />3<br />NP: My grandfather, I was very young when, on my father’s side, he was a mechanic and also<br />a musician which is where we got our talents from. And my grandmother, on my father’s side,<br />she was a full-time house wife. My grandfather from my mother’s side, he was a full-time<br />farmer. My grandmother on my maternal side is, she passed away when we were babies so we<br />never really got to know her.<br />NRP: How many siblings do you have?<br />NP: I have four siblings. One older brother, and two younger sisters. Of course I look better<br />than my older brother.<br />NRP: Did you come from a big family?<br />NP: Immediate family or inter-family?<br />NRP: Inter-family.<br />NP: Yes, we came from a very big and very close family on both sides, father’s side and<br />mother’s side.<br />NRP: Did any of your family members move to America before you?<br />NP: My fathers’ brothers and sisters all moved to the U.S. in California before we did. And<br />then, on my mothers’ side, my -- her sister moved to Hawaii and her, my grandfather, her dad<br />moved to Hawaii before we did.<br />NRP: What was your academic experience in the Philippines?<br />4<br />NP: My academic experience [ laughs ] in the Philippines is I remember being a smart kid. Uh,<br />probably that’s where Noelani got her brains from, her daddy. But, um, it’s different in the<br />Philippines. We go to school -- we even, in elementary school, we go to school from basically<br />sun up to sundown. From 7 to 11 o’clock. And then, I remember taking an hour for lunch break,<br />maybe hour and a half. And then, from 1 to 5, in the afternoon, so there was a lot of schooling.<br />And the, at 5 in the afternoon, we were not done yet. Uh, we had to clean the classrooms. So, all<br />the kids had to clean their own classroom. We did not have any janitorial services, so yeah, we<br />basically cleaned the school. We studied, of course the basic things like english, math, science,<br />home economics, Philippine history. Those sorts of things -- those are the subjects that I can<br />remember. And of course, physical education, that’s why I’m fit.<br />[4:51]<br />NRP: Okay, I know in class, we talked about how, in the Philippines people are forced -- or<br />students are forced to speak english and were punished, in a sense, if they spoke one word of<br />filipino. Was that experienced the same as you were growing up in school?<br />NP: That’s really not true. We are not forced to speak english. We were very encouraged to<br />speak english -- or tagalog, which is the national language of the Philippines which a lot of<br />filipinos are very smart speaking english because they do encourage -- they do teach it in<br />elementary school. There were days where we could not speak, uh, the local dialogue which was<br />ilocano -- we could either speak english or tagalog.<br />NRP: Why did you and/or your family decide to move out of the Philippines?<br />NP: To find a better life -- supposedly. My father's’ family migrated to California long before<br />we migrated and they petitioned us to come and live in -- to the U.S., to join them in the U.S.<br />which we did, decided to come to have a better life because as you know, U.S. is the land<br />flowing with milk and honey. I haven’t seen the milk and the honey yet. All I have are school<br />5<br />bills from my daughter Noelani [ laughs ]. Oh she is the honey, that’s it -- she’s the honey, that’s<br />what it is. Okay, I got it.<br />NRP: [ laughs ] Okay, when did you move to the United States?<br />NP: I believe it was January 1982.<br />NRP: How old were you at that time?<br />NP: Do I have to say it then you’ll know how old I am?<br />NRP: [ smile ] You already said your birth date so.<br />NP: I believe I was 12 at that time and I was in, I just finished, I had just finished sixth grade<br />in the Philippines when we moved to -- when we migrated to the United States.<br />NRP: Did you move anywhere else before settling in the United States?<br />NP: Uh, no. We, we lived in the Philippines. I lived with my grandparents, and then of course<br />I didn’t live with my, my immediate family.<br />NRP: What were your thoughts about America before you moved here?<br />NP: I didn’t have any, really any thoughts about America -- I mean, I didn’t want to come to<br />the U.S. because I was living with my grandfather's’ siblings who took me in when I was, since I<br />was two years old so I never really wanted to leave them -- that’s the environment I grew up in<br />was full of love and I didn’t really want to leave them there. But of course I was forced to come<br />to the United States of America. So I never really wanted to come.<br />6<br />NRP: What was different about living in the -- living in America, as opposed to living in the<br />Philippines?<br />NP: The food. There was a lot of abundance of food here in America. Burgers, we don’t have<br />burgers when I was growing up, only hot dogs, only rich people could eat hot dogs and even to<br />this day, only rich people can afford to eat burgers and hot dogs. Philippines is a very poor<br />country and, depending on where you’re from, and only the rich can afford those foods so that<br />was the main difference, I think for me was the food and the vehicles you know, you have a ride<br />everywhere you go. Down there, you don’t really have a ride -- you ride the tricycle or you walk.<br />And of course the people are brown in the Philippines, everyone is brown. Here, everything is<br />multi-culture, you know, multi-colored people. So, yeah. But the main thing that I noticed, the<br />main difference that I noticed was really the food.<br />NRP: Where did you first live after coming to the United States?<br />NP: We [immediate family] first lived in, Salinas, California. That was our port of entry<br />because, again I said my -- like I said, we were petitioned by my father's’ sister. My father's’<br />family all, live in California. My mother’s family live in Hawaii so we came here [Hawaii] for<br />two weeks and then we -- our port of entry was California so we lived in California first.<br />[9:50]<br />NRP: Now, I’m assuming you stayed with family?<br />NP: Yes, we did.<br />NRP: [ nod ] Okay. What -- oh this question doesn’t exactly pertain to you. [ long pause ].<br />7<br />NP: Are we confused with the questions?<br />NRP: [ laughs ] What job did you perform when you moved to America?<br />NP: I was in the seventh grade so I did not really perform any jobs. However, we, I remember<br />doing, at that young age, my uncle Frank’s friends would hire us to do yard work. So we would<br />go clean their yard because they’re well off. Clean their yard, you know, tend to their garden,<br />that kind of stuff. Yeah.<br />NRP: So last question. Did you notice anything different between first generation immigrants<br />and the Filipino American community?<br />NP: The first generation immigrants from the Filipino community?<br />NRP: Filipino American.<br />NP: In my era and today’s era?<br />NRP: From when you first moved to the United States, did you notice anything different<br />between immigrants and Filipinos who have grown up in America and were born in America?<br />NP: Well, you know, for the ones that are first generation filipinos migrating to the states, it’s<br />a lot tougher. You know, you’re not spoon fed with anything really. You have to work hard for<br />everything that you got. Of course, you have to live with reality at central to make it. You have<br />to work to help the family because granted your parents are only getting paid minimum wage.<br />So, you have to find ways to earn money for your school supplies, that kind of stuff. So, I think<br />that’s the, that’s the main thing is trying to, you know, make a living and going through the<br />culture shock at the same time. Whereas if you were raised here, really, everything is already<br />there for you. As a, a first generation, an immigrant from the Philippines, you don’t have such<br />8<br />thing. You know, you really have to work really really hard, even to have a good future, you<br />know, no college is promised to you, the future’s not promised for you. You have to go get it, so<br />you really have to, to work very very hard. Not only to help yourself so you can have a better<br />future, but to help the family. Yeah, I think that’s the main thing. The uncertainty of your future<br />is very very challenging, you know, what are you going to do when you can’t afford college.<br />What are you going to do when you don’t have money for -- when your parents don’t have<br />money for your school supplies? We are mentoring kids now also from -- that are first generation<br />immigrants from the Philippines and I see them go through the same things that I went through.<br />These kids come from, you know, straight from school. They go straight to work at McDonalds<br />or some fast-food chain until 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock at night -- they get home around 11<br />o’clock at night and still have to do their homework. So, those are the challenges of first<br />generation immigrants from, from the Philippines. So as you go through life, you try to make a<br />good life for yourself and have a good future so that, you know, your kids will not have to go<br />through the same things that you went through. So that, they can have a nice house or they can<br />have better food. They don’t have to worry about school supplies. To be a first generation<br />immigrant, is very very difficult and a lot of kids wish they could go back to the Philippines and<br />live the life that they have cause here you got to, really, have to work. [ sigh ] yes.<br />NRP: Alright, so thank you so much for taking your time out of the day to do this interview for<br />the oral history project. Right now it is 4:55 pm in the afternoon --<br />[14:22]<br />NP: Can I add something?<br />NRP: [ laughs ] sure.<br />NP: I’d like to add that I’m so proud of my daughter Noelani. [ laughs ] Cause she’s so smart.<br />And she, uh, works so hard and you know, uh, and she’ll have a good future. Hopefully, she’ll<br />9<br />find a good husband, someday. [ laughs ]. I’m embarrassing her, but I’m really really proud of,<br />you know, how she embraces her filipino culture. You know, it’s very very rare for the kids that<br />grow up here, granted she was born in Oklahoma, she’s an Okie. But it’s very rare for, uh, the<br />children, second generation filipinos that grew up here [United States} to embrace, try to<br />embrace the filipino culture and I wish that she’ll go back to the Philippines and eat the filipino<br />food once again and then she’ll marry filipino -- I’m not racial but I’m just hoping [ smiles ].<br />NRP: Well, thank you. And we conclude this interview at 4:56 pm.<br />[15:33]<br />[End Audio File]
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LnWdr4bui7yTO-qGhqONypljWpo3mKz_/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LnWdr4bui7yTO-qGhqONypljWpo3mKz_/view?usp=sharing</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tvautyjwheWLsJFSRXl9XiCCpD6EvdjS/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tvautyjwheWLsJFSRXl9XiCCpD6EvdjS/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 Noel Pastor, by Noelani Ruth Pastor
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigrant Families--United States, Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project, First Generation Immigrant Families, Filipino American Community, Ilocano, Salinas,
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Noel Pastor, by Noelani Ruth Pastor
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
5/23/2019
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
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Video Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0036
Filipino American Community
Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project
First Generation Immigrant Families
Ilocano
Immigrant families--United States
Salinas
-
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.
Clarimin Diaz
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Noemi Botor
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
Diaz: Okay it is June 2, 2019 and it is 3:00pm. This is Clarimin Diaz interviewing for the Filipino Immigrant Oral History Project for the Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the Welga! Project. Today I am interviewing:<br /><br />BOTOR: Noemi Botor<br /><br />Diaz: Okay, let us begin. So lets begin our discussion by talking a little bit about your childhood and early adult life. Where and when were you born?<br /><br />BOTOR: I was born in Baguio City, Philippines.<br /><br />DIAZ: Can you talk about your childhood experiences in the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: I moved at kind of a young age from the Philippines so from what I can remember, I just remember like the area I lived in and going to school but like not too much [laugh].<br /><br />DIAZ: Okay Noemi, where were your parents born?<br /><br />BOTOR: So my parents were also born in the Philippines [Baguio City].<br /><br />DIAZ: Do you know anything about their experiences in the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: Not very much, I know that they went to college there and what not. They didn’t come from or move to the states or go to college here [The United States] so we didn’t know very much about what to do with that process [going to college]. Their experience there, they were both working as nurses and we moved because they didn’t get paid very well in the Philippines so I guess they were looking for a better life elsewhere.<br /><br />DIAZ: I see, so do you know what kind of jobs your grandparents had?<br /><br />Botor: My grandparents. I know for my dad’s side, my grandmother was an office worker and my grandfather was in the Navy.<br /><br />DIAZ: So did you come from a big family?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah, it was a pretty big family. I remember for my first birthday there were like hundreds of people there, so it was a pretty big, yeah [laugh]<br /><br />DIAZ: Did any of your family members move to America before your you or your parents?<br /><br />BOTOR: There were a couple, but it wasn’t family that we were very close to so, I am not sure where they are now. But I know there people who had moved before us.<br /><br />DIAZ: Earlier you mentioned your experiences in school, can you give me any more specific details about your academic experiences in the Philippines, like what it was like to be in school in the Philippines at that age?<br /><br />BOTOR: Well I remember first I went to a private school and our teacher was only responsible for our class and within our class there was only about I would say 10 kids max. It was very small, private, and personal. I remember having to walk to the school every day. I feel like the basic things that I learned were things I needed when I moved here [United States], but I also learned other things like brushing our teeth [laugh] and stuff like that [laugh].<br /><br />DIAZ: Why did your parents decide to leave the Phillipines and move to America?<br /><br />BOTOR: Well first we actually moved to England before moving to America and I feel like one of the biggest factors was just basically how much they were getting paid. Like I said, they don’t pay nurses in the Phillippines very well and so they got jobs offers in England so we moved there, but I think they got better job offers in California so then we ended up moving to California.<br /><br />DIAZ: Around how old were you when you were living in England? Do you remember what it was like living in England?<br /><br />BOTOR: I left the Phillippines when I was like 4 or 5 and then I lived in England for two or three years before moving to California.<br /><br />DIAZ: Do you know what year your parents moved to the United States?<br /><br />BOTOR: I am not sure [laugh].<br /><br />DIAZ: That’s fine.<br /><br />DIAZ: So what were your thoughts about America before you moved here?<br /><br />BOTOR: I feel like it was the typically stereotypes that people think about. I was just thinking about the types of food that I would like to eat because America is known for burgers and like really big foods and things like that. So that was one of my expectations but like culturally, that wasn’t something I thought about I guess when I was younger [age 9] but I just knew that this is how this place is and so I am going to move there and it will be fine [laugh].<br /><br />[5:20]<br /><br />DIAZ: So, growing up in America, how has your view changed about living in the United States?<br /><br />BOTOR: Well there is a lot of talk about why people move to America in the first place and its because people want to chase that American dream. So when I moved here with my parents, I knew how lucky I was compared to my cousins who had to stay back in the Philippines. But I think just like the image of the American dream and like what it stands for, that has definitely changed over time because things are a lot harder than like how people say it is.<br /><br />DIAZ: So what do you think are some of the differences between living in America as opposed to living in the Philippines, like the culture and overall experience?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah, I would say one of the biggest differences in definitely transportation. Back in the Phillipines my family and I would mainly travel by Jeep or like taxi but coming here or like when my parents moved to the UK [England] at first, they had to like get their own drivers licenses which they didn’t need before. So, I think that transition was definitely a big thing. And then, I also think, I remember when I was younger, I would like always be outside playing [in the Philippines] and it didn’t matter where I was or what time it was. So, I feel like when we first moved to California, when I was like living in the city, because I was living in this place called Berlingame, instead of like here where I live now in Brentwood. It was a lot more city like so I didn’t have the chance to go outside to the park and play with my friends and things like that.<br /><br />DIAZ: What is your academic experience like here in America?<br /><br />BOTOR: I feel like compared to when I was back in the Phillipines, I feel like for one the classes are bigger and I guess you’re not like so personal with your teachers compared to back in the Philippines. We [the Phillipines] still teach the basic stuff, like the education and GE’s are the same but then there are some differences because I remember back in the Philippines they would like teach us like basic hygiene, cutting out nails, and check our hands if they were clean and if they weren’t they would tell our parents about it [laugh] and I didn’t experience any of those kinds of things [here in the United States] because I thought like initially coming to America like, oh I wonder if they are stricter here but it was like to opposite.<br /><br />DIAZ: I see, so from your experience do you notice anything different between first generation immigrants and the Filipino American community here in Davis?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah, I know first generation immigrants speak out more on like the culture since they’re the ones who know how to speak [the native language] and things like that. And so, it’s nice to see that being involved with the community that way, educating like Filipino Americans who’ve like never have been back home [the Philippines] and things like that. <br /><br />DIAZ: How do you retain your culture in America?<br /><br />BOTOR: I feel like a big part of it is my parent’s influence because obviously if they decided not to eat Filipino food anymore then I eventually forget what Filipino food is. So it’s a good thing that my parents you know kept cooking Filipino dishes, they always speak Ilocano and Tagalog in the house, so that I would not forget how to speak [Tagalong and Ilocano] and yeah I would say that my parents role in retaining the culture is a big part of it. <br /><br />[10:05]<br /><br />DIAZ: Do you visit the Philippines often, and if so what type of things do you usually do when you go back to the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: I visited last last summer [2 years ago] but before that I haven’t been there in like six years. When we do visit I notice that we never go to like where people consider tourist areas of the Philippines. We always like go back home [Baguio City] and stay around that areas or we would be in Manila just because that where the airport is. <br /><br />DIAZ: Is there anything you miss about the Philippines when you come back?<br /><br />BOTOR: I definitely miss the food because for example, us living in Davis, there is not a Filipino restaurant near by so when I like come home [Brentwood] on the weekends one of the things I like to eat is Filipino food. Its just not accessible to me back in Davis. Also like how cheap the food is [laugh] and things like night markets and stuff like that are really fun and I miss those. And of course, most of my family is in the Philippines so it’s nice seeing them because back here [in the United States] its mainly just me, my mom, and my dad.<br /><br />DIAZ: Do you currently go to college right now?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yes<br /><br />DIAZ: And what are your plans for after graduation?<br /><br />BOTOR: So after graduation, I’m thinking of taking a gap year and during the gap year I want to continue to taking education classes and I also want to start preparing for the GRE and take that. I am hoping to apply to grad school in like this upcoming year. I am going to apply to Davis [UC Davis] again so hopefully I can stay in the area but I am also going to apply to other places like UC Santa Barbara for their toxicology or environmental program.<br /><br />DIAZ: What are your career goals? Is there anything you want to pursue specifically?<br /><br />BOTOR: Well one thing, there is something I keep telling myself that I am going to do but I don’t think I will end up doing it until I really have the time and certain outlet to do it for, but I’ve been really wanting to become more fluent in my language [Tagalog and Ilocano] because I would want my kids to know it too and so I can teach then obviously, but I don’t know it myself. So I think it would be cool to become more fluent in Tagalong and Ilocano.<br /><br />Diaz: Have you been involved in any activism while in college at UC Davis?<br /><br />BOTOR: No not really.<br /><br />DIAZ: How involved would you say you are in the Filipino American community on campus [UC DAVIS]?<br /><br />BOTOR: I was more involved during my first two years. I definitely went out to more events and things like that. I’ve kind of been more focused on my other club activities during my junior and senior year, so I wouldn’t say that now I am extremely involved with the Fil-Am community.<br /><br />Diaz: So, I want to as you a few questions about your academic experience here in America. Have there been any obstacles you’ve experienced while pursuing higher education?<br /><br />BOTOR: I think one of the biggest obstacles that, I don’t know much about it, but I just know from what my parents have told me but people always say that “Oh if you want to apply for this, just know that they also offer financial aid” because there was this one summer where I wanted to study abroad in Japan but I have never applied for financial aid and I know from my parents it can get frustrating because sure they both make enough to be considered okay financially but I feel like they don’t consider that they put their money into other things like for example, my parents always send money back home to the Phillipines to help out there, they don’t just use all of their expenses on me. There are so many other things that are not considered. So its kind of annoying that we are not able to get aid.<br /><br />DIAZ: Have you struggled in college or has it been a smooth sail for you?<br /><br />BOTOR: No, I would definitely say that I struggled a lot, just like trying to figure out how the [academic] system works I guess. Like I said, my parents didn’t go to college here so we didn’t really know the things that I could have taken advantage of. I later found out that people take college classes at a community college while they are in high school to help them with GE’s and stuff. I wish I would have known that because I would have done that if I did, but I didn’t. So there’s just little things like that that my family and I didn’t know just because they haven’t been to college here so I’m kind of like the guinea pig in this trial.<br /><br />[15:00]<br /><br />DIAZ: Is there any advice that you would have for any Filipino immigrants that are pursing higher education?<br /><br />BOTOR: I would definitely say if you know family that have been here for a while, definitely talk to them and ask for advice because sometimes when you go to [academic] counselors they have the same experience as you do and although some of their advice may be helpful, there is no harm in finding someone who’s like more similar culturally and how they went about things.<br /><br />DIAZ: Okay Noemi, thank you for your interview today.
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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
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Oral History Interview with Noemi Botor
Subject
The topic of the resource
Baguio City, Philippines, nurse, nursing, office worker, Navy, England, UK, OFW, California, American Dream, Berlingame, Brentwood, Filipino school curriculum, Filipino education, Davis, Tagalog, Ilocano, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, toxology program, environmental program, graduate school, grad school, financial aid, finances, Japan, study abroad, first generation, first-generation, immigrant families--United States
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Noemi Botor, interviewed by Clarimin Diaz
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2-Jun-19
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 archivst Jason Sarmiento at ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu
Format
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Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0008
American Dream
Baguio City
Berlingame
Brentwood
California
Davis
England
environmental program
Filipino education
Filipino school curriculum
finances
financial aid
first generation
first-generation
grad school
graduate school
Ilocano
Immigrant families--United States
Japan
Navy
nurse
nursing
office worker
OFW
Philippines
study abroad
Tagalog
toxology program
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara
UK
-
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.
Samuel Hewitt
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Noemi Botor
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, May 24, 2019]<br /><br />[Begin Audio File]<br /><br />HEWITT: Okay are you ready? [laughs]<br /><br />BOTOR: Yep!<br /><br />HEWITT: Alright my name is Sam Hewitt and today is May 24th. It is currently 7:15pm and I am interviewing:<br /><br />BOTOR: Noemi Botor.<br /><br />HEWITT: Alright. So, I have a couple questions that - not a couple, a good amount, I was hoping you could answer for me. First question: Where and when were you born?<br /><br />BOTOR: I was born in Baguio City, Philippines. And when?<br /><br />HEWITT: Mhmm.<br /><br />BOTOR: March 1st, 1997. <br /><br />HEWITT: Where were your parents born?<br /><br />BOTOR: My parents were also born in Baguio City, Philippines. Yeah.<br /><br />HEWITT: What jobs did your parents have in the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: Before I was born, for a while my parents were managing a floral shop. But they decided to move out of the Philippines to find better pay as their main jobs as nurses because they weren’t paid very well in the Philippines.<br /><br />HEWITT: Okay what jobs did your grandparents do?<br /><br />BOTOR: My grandma was just like an office worker and then my grandpa - on my dad’s side - and my grandpa was, he was in the, oh yeah, he was in the navy.<br /><br />HEWITT: How many siblings do you have?<br /><br />BOTOR: I’m an only child [laughs]<br /><br />HEWITT: That’s rare for Filipinos. [laughs] Do you have a large extensive family?<br />BOTOR: Yeah. Actually, even my parents’ families are kind of small. Cause my mom had two other siblings and then my dad has one other sibling but their parents, they had families of like ten to twelve siblings.<br /><br />HEWITT: Did any of your extensive family move to America before you did?<br /><br />BOTOR: Some of them, but not really the ones who we’re very close to so I’m not really sure where they're at or what they're doing.<br /><br />HEWITT: What was your academic experience in the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: I remember for preschool, it was very - it was a very small class and it was very hands on. And then when I moved to a different school, it was kind of more of what you see here with several classrooms and different teachers and things like that?<br /><br />HEWITT: Was the different school in the same city?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah it was in the same city. But I think one was private and one was public. So the private one it was really only our class that they had to manage.<br /><br />HEWITT: Why did your family decide to move out of the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: Like I said, my parents wanted better pay as nurses cause they don’t pay very well in the Philippines. But also, just like in general trying to look for a better life. So first we moved to England then we moved here.<br /><br />HEWITT: When did you move to the US?<br /><br />BOTOR: When I was seven or eight. That’s when I moved.<br /><br />HEWITT: What year?<br /><br />BOTOR: Oh god what year is that? <br /><br />HEWITT: I don’t know [laughs]<br /><br />BOTOR: I’m twenty-two [laughs]<br /><br />HEWITT: Alright well some year. Okay did you move anywhere else before settling in the US, other than England?<br /><br />BOTOR: No, it was just - we left the Philippines, well actually at first my parents left to England ahead of me and it was just my grandparents taking care of me for about two years. And then when they felt I was old enough, then they brought me over to England. But then after that we moved to California.<br /><br />HEWITT: Okay what were your thoughts about America before you arrived?<br /><br />BOTOR: I don’t know, I feel like since I was really young, I didn't really have any really big expectations. But I feel like the usual stuff I was thinking about was there. Like “oh I can eat really good burgers” [laughs]<br /><br />HEWITT: Really good American food? [laughs]<br /><br />[4:59]<br /><br />BOTOR: But I didn't really have any expectations on school would be like or making friends would be like. So, nothing really big then.<br /><br />HEWITT: Did your thoughts change after you arrived?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah, a little bit. I noticed that, for example, a lot of kids would be interested in - especially the first month that I was in America because I still had an accent from England, so a lot of kids were intrigued by me. So, I kind of felt like an attraction to some people. There like “Oh my god look at this Asian girl, she has an English accent. Blah blah blah that’s so cool!” And they would ask me questions like “Oh why do you eat that and why do you do this and that?” I remember being asked those things.<br /><br />HEWITT: When you say, “eat that,” what do you mean by “that”? Like traditional Filipino food?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah. Like my mom would pack me lunches and I've heard other people’s stories before where they were ashamed to bring it. But I haven't experienced a bad one, people were just wondering what I was eating, and it was never a bad thing to me so I wouldn't stop eating it. I would continue to bring food from home that my mom or my dad made.<br /><br />HEWITT: That's good. What was different about living in America as opposed to living in the Philippines?<br /><br />BOTOR: I feel like - I don't know, when I was in the Philippines, I felt more free just because I could go out anywhere with my friends even at such a young age and it would be fine. But when I first moved here, I lived in - I didn't live here in Brentwood. I first lived in Millbrae and it was kind of more like a city. So, I didn't really get to go out and play as much because we lived in an apartment and it was in a city area. So, there wasn't really - I couldn't really go out into the street to play with my friends really because it would be a highway or something.<br /><br />HEWITT: Yeah like a busy intersection.<br /><br />BOTOR: Mhmm.<br /><br />HEWITT: What was different about education in America as opposed to the Philippines? If you can remember?<br /><br />BOTOR: [clicks tongue] I guess there was less punishments in America. In the Philippines, they would be really strict. I remember that before going into the classroom, they would check how clean out hands were, and we would get in trouble if they were dirty because they were really look for hygiene and stuff. I remember even transitioning from England to America, it was kind of different because I remember my teach asked me how to spell the word color. And in England they have the u in it, but they don’t here. And so, when I was trying to spell it out with the u, the other kids were like “no that's not how you spell it” and my teach had to be like “oh no that how they spell it in England.” So, there was stuff like that [laughs]<br /><br />HEWITT: Where did you first live in the US? You said you lived in Millbrae?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah, I first moved to Millbrae. And then I think in the fourth grade that's when I moved to Brentwood.<br /><br />HEWITT: Did you notice anything different between first generation immigrants and the Filipino American community?<br /><br />BOTOR: I feel like for Filipinos there’s - I feel like there's a lot of insecurities because of all the colonial baggage that we face. I feel like a lot of Filipinos have a lot of trouble identifying themselves because it’s like we’re part of that Asian American model minority. But there are some of us who aren't like that and are into different things. So I just find a lot of Filipinos having trouble identifying with themselves and who they really are. Because there's a lot of outside influences that pressure them to be a certain way.<br /><br />HEWITT: Do you feel that’s true for the FilAm community at UC Davis?<br /><br />BOTOR: Yeah definitely [laughs]<br /><br />HEWITT: Alright well I think that’s about it.<br /><br />BOTOR: [whispers] Is it long enough?<br /><br />HEWITT: [laughs] Do you have any more remarks?<br /><br />[9:59]<br /><br />BOTOR: I don't know. I hope - obviously with each community, especially one that's like Filipino Americans and things like that, they'll always have their flaws, but I hope that they continue to grow in the rights ways in rather than the wrongs ones. That’s all I have to say about that.<br /><br />[10:25]
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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 Noemi Botor, interviewed by Samuel Hewitt
Subject
The topic of the resource
Brentwood, CA, California, Baguio City, Philippines, floral shop, florist, nurse, Navy, England, UK, United Kingdom, California, Millbrae, first generation, immigrants, immigrant families--United States, model minority, UC Davis
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Noemi Botor, interviewed by Samuel Hewitt
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
24-May-19
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_0018
Baguio City
Brentwood
CA
California
England
first generation
floral shop
florist
Immigrant families--United States
immigrants
Millbrae
model minority
Navy
nurse
Philippines
UC Davis
UK
United Kingdom
-
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.
Wendy Hernandez
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Paolo Banaag
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
Hernandez: “Alright, it is June 3, 2019 and it is 9:43. This is Wendy Hernandez, interviewing for the Filipino immigrant Oral History Project. Today I am interviewing:<br /><br />Banaag: Paolo Banaag<br /><br />Hernandez: Alright, let us begin. So we are going to start by talking a little bit about your childhood and early adult life. <br /><br />Banaag: Alright.<br /><br />Hernandez: When and where were you born?<br /><br />Banaag: I was born in the Philippines, Manila<br /><br />Hernandez: And where were your parents born?<br /><br />Banaag: My parents were also born in the Philippines.<br /><br />Hernandez: Do you know what jobs parents did in the Philippines?<br /><br />Banaag: My mom was a hotel and restaurant manager and my dad is an engineer. <br /><br />Hernandez: How many siblings do you have? If you have any?<br /><br />Banaag: I have two little sisters.. Well, they’re not that little anymore [laughs]<br /><br />Hernandez: Do you come from a big family?<br /><br />Banaag: Well, my immediate family is only 5. But my dad has 9 nine brothers and sisters and my mom has four brothers and sisters. So, I would say its a medium size family. <br /><br />Hernandez: And did any of your family members move to America before you?<br /><br />Banaag: Yes. My uncle did. <br /><br />Hernandez: When.. When did you immigrate to the U.S? If you by any chance remember?<br /><br />Banaag: Yeah, I came here November 2000.<br /><br />Hernandez: Do you remember traveling by yourself or with other members of your family?<br /><br />Banaag: No, we all came together.<br /><br />Hernandez: How would you describe your experience immigrating to the US?<br /><br />Banaag: It was kind of tough, because I had to leave all my friends behind but it wasn’t as tough because before coming to the U.S my family migrated to another country. When I was seven, my family moved to Brunei, which is a small country in South-east Asia. Then from there, we came to the U.S. So in terms of transitioning, it wasn't as physical.<br /><br />Hernandez: Do you know the process? [Such as] did you have a visa; was it easy? <br /><br />Banaag: No, definitely not. We actually came to the U.S with a tourist visa. We were only supposed to be [in the U.S] for a couple of months and then we decided to stay. So for a while we were actually undocumented and it was quite a process to get our green card, our social and then all of that documents.<br /><br />Hernandez: Since you did immigrate to the U.S at a young age, did you know, at the time, that you were considered an immigrant?<br /><br />[Pause]<br /><br />Banaag: I actually had a cousin who married this white guy and he, for some reason, would tell us that we were immigrants. So that’s how I was like ‘okay, yeah, okay .We are immigrants, I get it.’<br /><br />Hernandez: Did your status affect you in a specific manner? Like in education, work, etc.<br /><br />Banaag: Definitely, I came here when I was fourteen. So I went to a high school. I attended community college for two years. I actually did nursing for two years and then, when it was time for me to apply for a nursing program, they wouldn’t even give me an application because I didn’t have a social security number. Also, I didn’t have.. I couldn’t work and I didn’t have financial aid which was before California Dream Act, DACA. So I had to do a lot of under the table jobs to put myself through college. I had to refigure out my career goals and educational goals because I was undocumented. I took the bus everywhere because I couldn’t really drive; we [couldn’t] get our license.<br /><br />Hernandez: How was your academic experience like being undocumented?<br /><br />Banaag: Well, since I was still the first person in my family to go to college here, in the U.S, it was quite like nobody could really help me figure it out. I had to rely a lot on friends, counselors, professors to really figure out the way to a higher education. Again, being undocumented [meant] you don’t really know what is available to you. You don’t know kind of like where the system is just going to tell you can’t move anymore forward. So there was a lot of unknown and it was really tough to motivate myself to pursue or to continue with a higher education. But I guess I just had the right people around me, who just kept pushing me forward. I was eventually able to transfer to UCLA and majored in English. But even at that time, I was commuting from Glendale to UCLA; which is like a two hour bus ride back and forth-that how it affected my education. <br /><br />Hernandez: What jobs did you have? Like you said you did like under the table jobs.<br /><br />Banaag: I was a—. Well I worked for—. I was a receptionist at one point. And then I actually worked as a nursing assistant when I was like seventeen or eighteen. So I was like on life-input, feeding elderly people.. I was working at a convalescent hospital. And sometimes I would work from like 11pm at night till 7am in the morning. Then I would go straight to school afterwards. I kind of had to do whatever job was [available]—. I had to go anywhere where they would let me work pretty much and do whatever they would ask me to do. <br /><br />Hernandez: Did you state that you didn’t have a social security number? Did you use a fake social?<br /><br />Banaag: At the time I had a PIN number and I think they were able to use that. But they knew that I didn’t have papers. And actually, their reason that I got let go was because they were going to do an audit or something like that. So that’s why.<br /><br />Hernandez: As a first generation immigrant do you feel like there’s any difference with like within the Filipino-American community?<br /><br />Banaag: In terms of..?<br /><br />Hernandez: In terms of education experience and job experience.<br /><br />Banaag: I feel like being undocumented kind of separated me aside from the Filipinos who grew up here and have their papers. But there are a lot of Filipinos and actually not just Filipinos but a lot of Asian Americans who are undocumented. I feel like there’s a stigma where people hear like ‘Oh, undocumented people [are] only referring to the Latinx population.’ But there’s actually a big population of Asian Americans who don’t have their papers. But I do feel like the subculture that I belong to there’s not a lot of Asian Americans or a lot of Filipinos who belong in because I did have my documentation. <br /><br />Hernandez: Yeah, did you have any specific thoughts about America before you moved here?<br /><br />Banaag: [laughs] Yeah, you know, like America is supposedly the land of opportunities; the land of the great or whatever. I just feel like it still gave me a lot of, obviously, opportunities but I feel like it is a lot harder than what people, especially in LA, it’s a lot harder to get to that position than what people typically say. I feel like I still have relatives in the Philippines who think that money just grows on trees here and it’s not really like a struggle or process to find work and to be competitive or to be marketable. So I feel like there’s a misconception that people have outside of the U.S that think about the U.S. <br /><br />Hernandez: What was different about living in America as opposed to the Philippines?<br /><br />Banaag: I feel like there’s just so much options here. Maybe, even a little too much. In the Philippines it’s—. The level of education there is also pretty high but definitely in the U.S it opens a lot more doors for you. In the Philippines too, its like mobility is very hard. You can't just drive anywhere. I think, actual physical mobility and then also social and upward mobility, the states definitely provide you with a lot more. <br /><br />Hernandez: You mentioned that you now in LA. Did you first live in LA when you first moved to the U.S?<br /><br />Banaag: Yeah. So my uncle lives in Glendale, which is a part of LA county. We actually lived in his attic, for like a good year. There were five of us living in his attic before we got our own apartment. But ever since then we´ve stayed local.<br /><br />Hernandez: Are you still under DACA?<br /><br />Banaag: No, my dad—. Ironically enough, my dad got petitioned right after I graduated from UCLA. All through my education I didn't have financial aid and when I graduated my dad got petitioned by his job. And that's how we were able to get our paperwork. I believe this was six years ago that I got my citizenship. Five or six years ago. <br /><br />Hernandez: How would you describe your education as a DACA recipient?<br /><br />Banaag: Again, I wasn’t DACA. I feel like—. DACA didn't start until 2012. I was undocumented from the year 2000 to like 2009. I never really got to apply for that. Just being undocumented, again, there were so many opportunities that I wasn´t able to get. Even like scholarships, there were some scholarships you can ́t apply for because you don't have your social. On top of having to work to pay for college. I feel like it did kind of pushed me a little bit more. You know, they have that word ´ganas,´when you´re undocumented. You kind of are a little more resilient than your documented peers only because, to me, I was paying for those classes out of pocket so if I failed them I would have to pay for them again. So I kind of had that motivation of like, ´okay, you can't mess around because you're just wasting your money.´ So in a sense, being undocumented kind of humbled me in a sense’ to pursue and persist in my education. (Sp?)<br /><br />Hernandez: Do you remember your academic experience in the Philippines?<br /><br />Banaag: No, I left the Philippines when I was like in fourth grade. I wasn ́t experienced, I can tell you that. It was definitely a learning experience for me. <br /><br />Hernandez: Have you traveled back to the Philippines since then?<br /><br />Banaag: Yeah, I went back in 2011 and came back, actually recently, this past Christmas. I was there for a couple of weeks. <br /><br />Hernandez: How would you relate your experience now going back to the Philippines-do you miss it?<br /><br />Banaag: I miss my grandma because she still lives there and so does some of my family members. But, I feel like my life is here now. But I do still treasure having to come from the Philippines and the experiences I ́ve had then. It has definitely shaped me into the person I am today like being able to speak another language, being able to have another culture aside from just American. I'm a professor and a college counselor, it helps me be a little more relatable and adaptable to my students. <br /><br />Hernandez: Do you see any difference, like your family in the Philippines, in the way they treat you?<br /><br />Banaag: Not necessarily, my mom's side of the family is a little bit ´Americanized.´ So they don't even live in the Philippines. They don't really treat me any differently. But my dad's side of the family is a little bit more on the lower socio economic side. So they do feel like being in American, again, you're automatically rich. Money falls from trees over here, so I feel like they have that expectation of like ´oh, he’s going to be snobby or he’s going to be better than other people.´ But I try to not be like that. I don't show off when I'm in the Philippines, I just try to like hang out with my family. <br /><br />Hernandez: Well, that is it for my questions. Would you like to enclose anything else from your experience?<br /><br />Banaag: No, I mean, again, I think being an immigrant it teaches you how to be flexible and adaptable to a lot of things. You also gain a lot of grip and a lot of resilience by being an immigrant because, again, you have an experience from another country and uprooting everything and risking everything to just come to another country. It takes a lot of courage and determination. It does teach you a lot of things in life that other people who might not have left or traveledñ they don't understand that process. It has really shaped me today. <br /><br />Hernandez: Thank you for your time!<br /><br />Banaag: No problem Wendy. [Laughs]
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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 Paolo Banaag, interviewed by Wendy Hernandez
Subject
The topic of the resource
Manila, Philippines, hotel manager, restaurant manager, engineer, Brunei, Southeast Asia, visa, undocumented, green card, immigrant, immigrant families--United States, California Dream Act, DACA, nursing, first generation, first-gen, UCLA, University of California Los Angeles, Glendale, convalescent hospital, physical mobility, social mobility, upward mobility, petition, petition visa, professor, college counselor
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Paolo Banaag, interviewed by Wendy Hernandez
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
3-Jun-19
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_0017
Brunei
California Dream Act
college counselor
convalescent hospital
DACA
Engineer
first generation
first-gen
Glendale
green card
hotel manager
immigrant
Immigrant families--United States
Manila
nursing
petition
petition visa
Philippines
physical mobility
professor
restaurant manager
social mobility
Southeast Asia
UCLA
undocumented
University of California Los Angeles
upward mobility
visa
-
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.
Daniel Gonzalez
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Rheanne Cruz
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
[Session 1, June 10, 2019]<br />[Begin Audio File]<br />Daniel: So today is June 10, 2019 and it is 11:10 AM. This is Daniel Valentin Gonzalez<br />and I am interviewing for the Filipinx Oral History Project for ASA 150: The Filipinx<br />Experience in the US. Today I am interviewing:<br />Rheanne: Rheanne Cruz.<br />Daniel: Alright so let's get started. So first we are going to start by talking a little but<br />about your childhood and your young adult life. When and where were you born?<br />Rheanne: I was born in Manila, Philippines and I was born on March 19th, 2000.<br />Daniel: Okay, and where were your parents born?<br />Rheanne: My mom was born in Mindanao, Philippines but I’m not sure where my dad was<br />born.<br />Daniel: And what did your parents do?<br />Rheanne: My mom is currently a nurse, but in her time in the Philippines she was just a<br />student.<br />Daniel: Oh okay. And do you know what your grandparents did for work?<br />Rheanne: Yes. My grandma moved over 20 years before my mom and I did, and she was a<br />personal caretaker.<br />Daniel: Oh okay, and that’s here in the US?<br />Rheanne: Yes.<br />[3]<br />Daniel: Okay. And how many siblings did you have?<br />Rheanne: I am the only child.<br />Daniel: Oh okay, so you said that your grandma moved here before you and your mom<br />did?<br />Rheanne: Yes.<br />Daniel: And was she the only family member that moved here before you did?<br />Rheanne: Yes my only immediate family member, but I had extended family here. I had like<br />aunts and uncles.<br />Daniel: Okay. But your grandma was your primary contact?<br />Rheanne: Yeah.<br />Daniel: Okay, and did you have any schooling or academic experience in the Philippines?<br />Rheanne: No I didn’t.<br />Daniel: So when did, at what age did you come here?<br />Rheanne: I came when I was four.<br />Daniel: Okay. And why, well I guess you didn’t have much of a say in coming did you?<br />Rheanne: Yeah no, my mom moved over, well she decided to come here because the<br />“guarantee of a better life”<br />Daniel: Okay, so right now where do you live?<br />Rheanne: I live in Los Angeles, California.<br />Daniel: Okay, did you live anywhere else prior to living there?<br />Rheanne: I lived in Roseville, California in Sacramento.<br />[4]<br />Daniel: Okay then, and what made you go back to, or go to LA?<br />Rheanne: Oh it was my parents divorce.<br />Daniel: Okay I see. Did you have like, do you remember any feelings you had about the<br />United States before you moved here?<br />Rheanne: I was really young, but I guess all I really remember thinking about Americans or<br />America was that they had a lot more than the Philippines did.<br />Daniel: And what about your mom, did she like express anything about the US?<br />Rheanne: No not really, I don’t remember talking to her much about it.<br />Daniel: Oh okay, and did your grandma have any influence in you, what your family did?<br />Rheanne: We video chatted with her and not really, if it was something she had a lot more<br />than anybody in the Philippines did, but she was definitely sending it over to us.<br />Daniel: Okay, do you remember any differences about the way you lived in the<br />Philippines compared to the way you lived here?<br />Rheanne: In the Philippines I guess I saw a lot more people, I lived with a lot more people,<br />and here I lived with my grandparents and my mom and I didn't really see anybody like that<br />around, it didn't feel like, there was a bigger sense of community in the Philippines.<br />Daniel: Oh okay, so you haven’t been able to find something similar here?<br />[5:02]<br />Rheanne: Yeah it's like in the Philippines there's like being able to walk over to a neighbors<br />place and feeling very welcomed, and here it’s like not super normal.<br />Daniel: So umm, did you, where did you first, oh sorry.<br />Rheanne: It’s okay, don’t worry.<br />Daniel: Where did you first live when you came to the United States?<br />[5]<br />Rheanne: I first lived in Roseville, California.<br />Daniel: Oh okay so you started there.<br />Rheanne: Yeah.<br />Daniel: So did you, so you went to school here in the US right?<br />Rheanne: Yes.<br />Daniel: And did you go to school with like any other first generation immigrants or other<br />Filipino immigrants?<br />Rheanne: I went to, I lived in Roseville, so that was predominantly white I remember only 3<br />students of color in my classes and I didn’t know if they were immigrants or not, but when I<br />moved over to Los Angeles there was actually a lot more first generation immigrant kids.<br />Daniel: Oh okay then, did you, so how was that comparing those two different<br />environments?<br />Rheanne: When I was younger I guess I felt like an outsider in order to socialize with kids<br />and feel relatable, but when I moved over to Los Angeles where its much more diverse I felt a lot<br />more welcomed.<br />Daniel: Okay, and what about, did you notice, so when you lived in LA was there<br />diversity between just like other ethnicities besides Filipinos?<br />Rheanne: Yes.<br />Daniel: So did you notice anything different between those immigrants and the Filipino<br />immigrants, or did you feel like they shared similar experiences?<br />Rheanne: I think they were pretty similar, if there was family around people were very close<br />to family, and family was, and like, our home countries, people definitely were still in contact<br />with them, but I don't know. I guess in the school that I went to there weren't as many Filipinos<br />and Filipinos that I met had a lot more family over so it was kinda different. Yeah sorry if that<br />was a little bit vague.<br />[6]<br />Daniel: No yeah, no you’re good. Yeah a lot of times we don’t really like think about<br />these things when you're going through it. Okay well that's all the questions that I have unless<br />you have any closing remarks or any other comments that you’d like to make as well.<br />Rheanne: Oh no I think that’s it.<br />Daniel: Okay then well thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.<br />Rheanne: Okay no problem.
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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 Rheanne Cruz, interviewed by Daniel Gonzalez
Subject
The topic of the resource
Manila, Philippines, Mindanao, nurse, Los Angeles, California, LA, Roseville, Sacramento, first generation, immigrant, immigrant families--United States, divorce
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Rheanne Cruz, interviewed by Daniel Gonzalez
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
10-Jun-19
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
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Audio Recording and Transcript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ucdw_wa014_s001_0015
California
divorce
first generation
immigrant
Immigrant families--United States
LA
Los Angeles
Manila
Mindanao
nurse
Philippines
Roseville
sacramento
-
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.
Philip Esguerra
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Alexis Magsano
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
Oral History Transcript
Philip: Hi, today is June 4, 2019. It's 5:48pm, and the title of this project is the Filipino American Oral History report for Asian American Studies 150. I am here with my subject, Alexis Magsano...
Alexis: Oh yeah. Hello!
Philip: ... and what we're going to do is ask him questions about his experience of being a Filipino American. And without further ado, let's begin. So my first question is, "where and when were you born?"
Alexis: I was born November 10, 1998 in a little city in the Philippines, part of the Bohol region-ish [sic], called Tagbilaran city. Don't me about the hospital, I forgot the hospital.
Philip: All right. Do you know where your parents were born?
Alexis: Oh yeah! My mom was born in Bohol also. I forgot the city. My dad was born in Pangasinan and...I don't remember the place either. If I remember it, I'll say it but...yeah.
Philip: Okay. Back in the Philippines, do you know what your parents did?
Alexis: Working?
Philip: Yeah, working.
Alexis: My mom had just graduated...ok not just graduated, just graduated[sic], but I think she was just working like odd jobs here and there. My dad was here in America working for Bear, the Biotech company.
Philip: So your dad was already in America?
Alexis: Yeah. So he moved here... I want to say 3 or 4 years before I was born to just kind of like get a better job. But he had already met my mom. They were already married.
Philip: Okay. How many siblings did you have, and did you come from a big family?
Alexis: My immediate family is not too big. I only have 2 other siblings. They're both younger than me. They were both born here. I was the only one born in the Philippines.
But I mean, my extended family are all here too I guess, if you count that as a big family.
But other than that, my immediate family is just my mom, my dad, 3 siblings.
Philip: Okay.
Alexis: 4 siblings. I have a sister, half-sibling. Complicated story, but she's there.
Philip: All right. So you already said your dad moved to America.
Alexis: Yeah.
Philip: Did anyone else move here, or...[inaudible]
Alexis: Well...my dad and his siblings moved here with my grandma at the same time. So my dad was around 26... 25, something like that [sic].
Philip: Okay. So you said your dad moved to the Philippines [sic] to get a better job or [inaudible]?
Alexis: Oh yeah! Well first he wanted to be a doctor in the Philippines, but then my grandma came here a little bit earlier than he did, and she needed his help raising his siblings, so he agreed to come here, and he just kind of stayed here. He wanted to stay, I think, in the Philippines, but I think ultimately he just stayed here because it was a better opportunity for him and, I guess, me.
Philip: All right, cool! Do you know what date you moved to the United States?
Alexis: I came here 2001.
Philip: 2001?
Alexis: Yeah, tail end of 2001. Around Fall.
Philip: All right. Was there any place you settled in the United States before you came to where you currently live?
Alexis: Well, we always stayed around that general area, around the Vallejo-ish [sic] area, but I think within a year, after we moved here, we eventually resided in our family home that they are in now. I mean granted, the residents were all different. Back then, it was me, my mom, my dad, my dad's entire family. So like, his mom, his siblings, his mom's siblings, were all there.
5:14
Philip: So you don't remember too much about [inaudible]
Alexis: Decent amount about the period of time afterwards. Like, pre-school was rough. I was the only one who spoke Tagalog. I didn't speak English, of course. At all! So the teachers had a hard time with me. It was hard making friends in general. Up until graduating high school, on my report card it said "English learner", even though I was basically raised on English. But even then, I was labeled as "English learner".
Philip: Before moving to the Philippines [sic], did you know how your family perceived America? Like, did they have any initial thoughts based on...
Alexis: Well, like I said before, he didn't want to come initially. Initially, my dad saw America as this foreign place away from home that he didn't want to go to because, well, he's young, has friends in the Philippines. Most of his family is in the Philippines. The only ones that moved really were his mom and his siblings, so he didn't want to come here at first. But I think coming here, and seeing the places he saw, like he saw Tahoe for the first time, like so snow, and in general just how, much more, I want to say industrialized or modernized, I think he realized that it was a better place in general to raise a children going forward. And for my mom, I remember now, he worked as a teacher before moving. And he was an English teacher primarily for people in the Navy. So she would teach English to Navy people before they go out to the world because English is one of the more general languages, so she would teach them that. So they would come back with stories. And her dad was also in the Navy, so he'd come back with stories too about, you know, America and foreign lands and stuff. And so she'd always see it as a, I don't want to call it a fantasy land, but it was definitely like a dream for her, just this place that's, you know, modern and clean, has all this stuff, because I mean the city that she was raised in was not the most modern city. The house was like 50 square feet (laughter).
Philip: Right
Alexis: So it was definitely a dream place for her.
Philip: So they saw it America kind of like the American Dream?
Alexis: Yeah, yeah. And especially once I got into the picture, I think they realized that maybe raising a family in the Philippines wouldn't be the best for them at the time. It was probably not the best for me.
Philip: I see. When you moved to America, did you ever meet anyone who was, I guess, also first generation? Like Filipino Americans in your class?
Alexis: Not until I was a little bit older. Like 9, I think. That's when my dad's cousins came to live with us. So they were fresh off the boat [snicker]. But no, they were first generation immigrants. That's all our family. So that was my first experience with first generation immigrants as well that were related to me.
09:38 9:38
Philip: Okay. So going back, you said in pre-school, it was a little bit tough making friends because there was a language barrier.
Alexis: There was a language barrier, yeah , yeah.
Philip: Was it always like that growing up?
Alexis: I guess at the start of pre-school, there was a language barrier, with the Tagalog thing. But I think moving from there, it was more of a race thing because I was one of three Filipinos among an elementary school of like 300-400 kids, so it wasn't tough making friends because of the language, but I think it was tough making friends because everyone else, I'm not trying to say it was racist or anything, but I think it was more comfortable to be with people of their own culture and seeing how, the Latinx's are with the Latinx's, the African Americans are riends with the African Americans. And you know, I was friends with two other Filipino kids, but it was definitely more of a culture shock for me to be friends with these kids that none of us knew had any idea of different cultures and like, it was just hard. Well, it wasn't hard because we were kids, but it's definitely different probably making friends back then for me than it was for most people.
Philip: So kind of like, just that idea of crossing like cultures?
Alexis: Yeah, like I would talk about lechon or something. No one gets that. Or I think it's a big Filipino thing to respect your elders. There are just some cultures that put as much of an emphasis on respecting elders as much. So whenever I heard people talk smack about their parents, like their grandparents, I would kind of cringe a little bit because that's not what we do. So just those little things.
Philip: I see. Let's see...
Alexis: Oh yeah, there was this one girl that didn't even know where the Philippines was. So I mean, yeah I don't blame her. We're not exactly the biggest country, but it was definitely surreal listening to some girl go, "Oh you're Filipino? Where's even that?" And I was like, "Oh, like in Asia." Then she pointed out the big land mass and she's like, "I don't see you." That was wild! [chuckles]
Philip: Yeah, I could see it's very different. Yeah, so back in your hometown it's like Filipinos were kind of like the minority?
Alexis: See no. Here's the funny thing: they were only the minority in my elementary school. So coming into middle school, when they had to assimilate with the other elementary schools, for example there's one elementary school where Filipinos are the majority. Like Filipinos were 90% going with that elementary school. So when we were all mixed in, all of a sudden I'm dropped in this environment where there's a bunch of Filipinos. And so, it's not like I had assimilate back into my own culture, but it's like I had to figure out how to interact with people of my own culture, because I hadn't done that in the past six years.
Philip: I see.
Alexis: So it wasn't really like a culture shock, I'd say. But it was just more new interacting with other Filipinos, like have people to make Filipino jokes with. Just stuff like that.
13:39
Philip: Let's see, what else can I ask... I guess kind of just to cap off the interview, I guess looking forward in the future, what are your views on the Filipino American community as a whole?
Alexis: I think, as a family come up, I think before this, I guess, decade, I feel like we didn't do the best job in general, I mean I guess with my limited scope of the world, what were we 10 years ago? Middle schoolers?
Philip: Yeah.
Alexis: I guess with my limited scope of the world, I can't really say as much. But I feel like we didn't do as good of a job staying connected to our roots while being here. Because there's a lot, a lot, a lot [sic] of Filipinos that I know that either don't speak the language or just understand it. They can't speak it. And that's fine. It's not like I'm calling them "not Filipino", and it's not even their fault. But I just think that, in general, we just need to do a better job of kinda staying, I'm not saying like staying traditional, but just staying informed of our traditions and our culture. Because I know, especially Latinos, they're very in touch with their culture, in touch with their language, in touch with their home country. And I mean, every other race, I feel, is here. And I just think, I don't know if it's because we didn't do too good of a job assimilating, or because maybe a lot of our parents thought that to be successful is to be American. So it's not really any of our faults, but now we have this whole generation where there's this cultural disconnect between our generation and our motherland. And I think we should try to rekindle that. Because it sucks to hear that, you know, I can't speak Tagalog with a lot of people because, you know, they only understand, they don't speak, or they just don't understand at all. And when I see other races and other cultures having these conversations among themselves, or even if they're just communicating in English about a tradition of their culture, because I feel a lot of Filipino traditions are lost. And I mean, even back in the Philippines, our country's native script is dying. I don't remember what it was called, but it's not even being taught anymore. And I just think that there's this cultural disconnect that I think we can do a little better with.
Philip: So just kind of like having that deep cultural roots...
Alexis: Yeah.
Philip: The older generation teaching...
Alexis: Yeah. I don't want to be saying we need to be like super traditionalist, but at least be aware of what our traditions used to be. Be aware of the language, be aware of where we came from, you know.
Philip: I see. Ok, well that's all the questions I have. Thank you. So the time is now 6:06 pm, and this concludes the end of the interview. So thank you.
Alexis: Yeah, no! Thanks for having me.
Philip: Yeah no problem!
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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 of Alexis Magsano
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bohol, Tagbilaran City, Pangasinan, Philippines, Bear, biotech company, biotech industries, immigrant families--United States, immigrants, first generation, first-generation, Filipino families, family, half-sibling, sibling, half-sister, American Dream, better opportunity, opportunity, opportunities, 9/11, September 11, Vallejo, San Fransico Bay Area, Bay Area, SF, Norcal, Northern California, California, NorCal, City of Vallejo, "Vallejo, California", Tagalog, English learner, Tahoe, Lake Tahoe, teacher, Navy, teach, teacher, English teacher, Filipino Americans, fresh off the boat, FOB, f.o.b., language barrier, minority, assimiliating, assimilation
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Alexis Magsano, interviewed by Philip Esguerra
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
4-Jun-19
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_0009
"Vallejo
9/11
American Dream
assimilation
assimiliating
Bay Area
Bear
better opportunity
biotech company
biotech industries
Bohol
California
California"
City of Vallejo
English learner
English teacher
f.o.b.
family
Filipino Americans
Filipino families
first generation
first-generation
FOB
fresh off the boat
half-sibling
half-sister
Immigrant families--United States
immigrants
Lake Tahoe
Language barrier
minority
Navy
Norcal
Northern California
opportunities
opportunity
Pangasinan
Philippines
San Fransico Bay Area
September 11
SF
sibling
Tagalog
Tagbilaran City
Tahoe
teach
teacher
Vallejo