Exploring Ethnic Identity Formation of Filipinos Versus Filipino Americans

Introduction

To help us understand how people maintain their identity within a certain cultural context, we need to consider the traditions, behaviors, beliefs and values of a society. Culture is learned through experience and observation, and it is transmitted over time from generation to generation. However, culture is adaptive rather than static (Greene, 2018). Furthermore, cultural identity influences how we make decisions and interact with others.

Social anthropology examines how people in various cultures have organized human relationships throughout history. Additionally, it is a field of study that can be used to understand ourselves and others in a deeper and more meaningful way, enabling us to look past sweeping stereotypes. As societies change, individuals formulate new identities and relationships in respect to their dynamic circumstances. In order to understand a certain culture, we can break societies down into institutions that function to maintain order and social control. These institutions can include, but are not limited to, ethnicity, race, kinship, and religion.

This paper aims to explore these institutions by comparing the collective groups of native-born Filipinos and Filipino Americans. After visiting the Philippines in 2016 as an American citizen, I began to develop a curiosity regarding certain aspects of Filipino culture. Why do Filipinos embrace the American presence in the Philippines? Why do Filipinos desire to migrate to the United States? Are Filipinos in the United States considered American? Do Filipino Americans fully assimilate into American culture?

As a result of my curiosity, I chose to explore the cultural and ethnic identity of Filipinos, starting with the impact of three different colonial periods. Through investigating the unique historical past of the Philippines, a thread can be traced through social institutions to illustrate how Filipino culture has evolved over space and time. Furthermore, I intend to uncover how and to what degree Filipinos adapt to cultural norms and institutions in a new cultural environment, and whether they fully assimilate into the American social structure. Through exploring change, conflict, and the evolution of culture from the Philippines to the United Sates, the re-negotiation of social structures and cultural values becomes evident as Filipinos grapple with the complexity of ethnic identity formation. Qualitative research follows, which supports the notion that defining ethnic identity is becoming increasingly complex for both first-generation Filipino Americans who emigrated to the United States and second-generation Filipinos born in the U.S.

The Impact of Colonialism Periods

Before the Spanish arrived in the Philippines in search of the Spice Islands, the nation was composed of many different tribes and chiefdoms scattered across an archipelago comprised of over 7,000 islands. Among most cultures, a relational will was emphasized, embedded in a web of connectivity to other people in a world dense with spiritual entities and spiritual connections. Starting with the arrival of the Spanish in 1565, three different empires have colonized the Philippines, with the Spanish bringing over explorers and Catholic missionaries to the archipelago over a period of 300 years (Reyes, 2015). While aiming to convert indigenous peoples to Catholicism, new forms of religious sects emerged, as there was a lack of tension between indigenous social structures and Roman Catholicism (del Castillo, 2015). Building on a preestablished system of animism, the result became varying forms of syncretism, mysticism, and Folk-Catholicism.

The Spanish established ethnolinguistic groups within a developing hierarchal system of social stratification, in which the elite stood at the top and the indigenous at the bottom. These distinct groups of Filipinos included ladinos, ilustrados, and mestizos. The Ladinos group consisted of Filipinos who became bilingual, speaking both Spanish and the indigenous language. The Ilustrados were Filipinos trusted with managing haciendas. The mestizos group consisted of the offspring of Spaniards and Filipinos. These groups were mainly organized according to skin phenotype. Those who were light skinned and lacked distinct Filipino physical features stood at the top of the social stratum, and because of their elite status embraced everything Spanish. On the other hand, the indigenous pigmies, labeled Negritos because of their dark skin, resisted cultural beliefs and practices imposed upon them by the Spanish. Indigenous values and beliefs were viewed as inferior while the colonizer’s values and culture were viewed as superior. On June 12, 1898, the Philippines would gain independence from Spain but lose it once more when Spain surrendered to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris agreement. The resulting annexation and colonization of the Philippines by the United States came about as part of the spoils of the Spanish-American War.

Under American colonization, public education was introduced and implemented. This newly established educational system reflected dominant norms of Americans culture and became a form of institutionalized racism that further perpetuated social stratification. “Implementation of colonial education in the Philippines was to model the paradigms and social norms of the colonizer” (Morente, 2015). As a result, Filipinos were racialized at best as non-white, and at worst as uncivilized savages. From the viewpoint of the American colonizers, Filipinos were the “racial, political, and moral problem which needed to be improved”(Morente, 2015) according to the same paradigm applied to other non-white groups. The same curriculum that was introduced to African Americans, Native Americas, and Hawaiians in the United States was implemented in the Philippines to further develop and expand U.S. democracy, so much so that education became the foundational element of Filipino national development. Around 1903, wealthy Filipino scholars who valued American ideals were recruited and trained to effectively disseminate American values to native Filipinos. The Americanization of the Philippines was well on its way, with English instruction as the main vehicle for the successful implementation of American education and colonization. Filipino linguistic assimilation is a byproduct of the historical colonial relationship between the Philippines and the United States and the intentional and pervasive Americanization of Filipino culture.

Although the colonization of Japan only lasted between 1941 to 1945, the Japanese occupation of the Philippines had a huge impact on the archipelago (Morente, 2015). Japanese soldiers went on a brutal killing spree, murdering 100,000 Filipinos and Americans. American POW’s were forced to march in humiliation for miles at a time and were shot dead when breaking formation. Furthermore, the damage done to the Philippines was devastating, as roads, bridges and farms were destroyed, resulting in long term economic hardship and a lack of food.

These significant occurrences over four hundred years of imperialism and colonialism illustrates that the Philippines has a unique and complex history unlike any other country in the world, and by the time the nation of the Philippines gained independence in 1946, religion, social class, government, education, and the English language became the “colonial imprints” of three colonial powers (Morente, 2015). The history of the Philippines cannot go unrecognized when discussing the impact on the ethnic identity formation of both Filipinos and Filipino Americans and we should not underestimate the degree to which Filipinos were systematically indoctrinated to believe that Western ideals are superior to those of their own native culture.

The Effects of Colonialism

With the increased popularity of television, the media began perpetuating subtle forms of colorism, as the valuing of light skin became more visible and prevalent than ever before. To illustrate, television shows would only employ light skinned hosts. Furthermore, traditional Filipinos with distinct features were portrayed as poor peasants or criminals, while those with light skin, straight hair, sharp noses, and American values were portrayed as superior. The result of these biases was an internalized colonial mentality, a conceptual theory defined by “feelings of inferiority within societies experiencing post colonialism relative to the values of the foreign power through the contact period of colonization” (Morente, 2015). The culture or doctrines of the colonizer become intrinsically more worthy or superior. Therefore, Filipinos have been forced to see themselves through the lens and eyes of the Spanish, Japanese, and American colonizers. Superiority, pleasantness, or attraction are associated with the cultural values, behaviors, physical appearance, and symbolic objects of anything American or Western. Conversely, anything that is Filipino is rejected as a form of internalized oppression.

These biases were deeply ingrained and continued through the Filipino immigrant population in the United States. The notion that white is beautiful and brown is ugly is a consistent reminder of colonialism, resulting in a palpable tension between Philippine-born nationals and U.S born Filipinos. Those with Filipino faces are a reminder of home as their accents give them away. They remind the Filipino youth of outdated traditions and overbearing, conservative, religiously fanatical parents. Native Filipinos are ridiculed by Filipino Americans as being “fresh off the boat.” Because of the internalized colonial mentality, the native Filipino is an uncomfortable reminder of inferiority and ambiguous sentiment towards the Americanization of the Philippines (Morente, 2015).

Migration to the United States

The earnest recruitment of Filipino labor for the Hawaii plantations began in 1907 and continued without ceasing until 1935. From the twenties to the thirties, Filipino contract labor in the U.S. totaled about a half a million migrant workers. Most migrants settled in the U.S. mainland rather than return to their native villages as a result of organized revolution and the subsequent Philippine American War from 1899-1903.

Within this legacy of defeat and occupation, the nation of the Philippines developed a neocolonial consumerist dependency and “has never cohered as a genuinely independent nation or national autonomy”(Juan, 2001). Those migrants that made up the Filipino diaspora came from family or kinship networks in villages, towns, or provincial regions and chose to escape from this newly neo-colonized, retrogressive, capitalist regime. Migration became an avenue to obtain the freedom to seek one’s own fortune. Consequently, returning to the Philippines became undesirable, being viewed as not quite a nation but rather an oppressive, corrupt agent of transnational corporations which exploited its citizens and failed to represent the masses.

Two later events led to Filipinos leaving their homeland in droves. The first was the utter devastation of World War II, resulting in the worsening of economic and political conditions from which the Philippines as a nation has never fully recovered. The second was the Marcos dictatorship in the seventies and eighties. During the Marcos martial law regime, the productivity of overseas contract workers was viewed as serving to keep the corrupt system afloat. Nevertheless, Filipino migrant workers continued to leave the Philippines to seek work in other countries and were expected to send remittances back home to relatives who were still living in poverty inflicted upon them by their corrupt oppressors. The conception of the diaspora resulted in the rendering of the Philippines as a faint memory of home and initiated a deviation from traditional cultural beliefs and practices. Seven million Filipino migrant workers fled poverty and injustice to seek work abroad, while occasional visits and other means of communication deferred the eventual homecoming (Juan, 2001).

Unfortunately, Filipino migrants faced alienation, brutal treatment, and racism. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, signs that read “positively no Filipinos allowed” is a reminder of the unjust and anti-Filipino practices in the United States, displayed on doors of hotels and other business establishments. In this way, white business owners explicitly displayed their hate towards Filipino migrants. In the 1940’s, Filipinos were referred to as “brown monkeys”, “Negros”, “uncivilized”, “inferior human species”, “savages”, and “ignorant”. Carlos Bulosan said in the thirties “it is a crime to be a Filipino in America.”

From the mid to late 1960’s, following the passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965, preference was given to professional migrants, including doctors, nurses, and engineers. This wave of migration fundamentally skewed the composition of the Asian American population as a group of highly skilled and educated individuals. It promoted the spread of an Asian American model minority stereotype perpetrated by the media and developmental science research, which erroneously grouped all Asians into a single pan-ethnic category.

Historical Formation of the Filipino American Identity

“Phenotypes have long been a marker for discrimination in the United States.” (Kiang and Takeuchi, 2009) with biases dating back to institutionalized slavery, when those with lighter skin led more privileged lives by performing household chores, compared to those with darker skin who worked long hours in the field. To this day, light skin is associated with privilege. Filipino Americans reflect a population that can be distinguished by diverse complexions and physical features that include both European and Asian heritage, with ancestral origins ranging from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Borneo, and India as far back as the year 900AD. This racialized atmosphere allowed the internalized colonial mentality to persist and thrive within the growing Filipino American subgroup in the United States.

As a result of colonial mentality, Filipinos have been socialized to uniformly value Western ideals and physical characteristics. Colorism and societal preferences for lighter skin and more Eurocentric features are commonly found in other Asian cultures as well. Darker skin tone and more ethnic features have become indicators of lower income and increased physical and mental health concerns among Filipino Americans. Xenophobia in America leads to damaging outcomes, such as the alienation of immigrants by members of the host country. Filipino Americans feel that they fall short of society’s standards based on negative interactions with members of the mainstream culture. Furthermore, those with less ethnic traits and lighter skin are ostracized by their dark-skinned peers until they prove themselves as legitimate and authentic members of their ethnic group. Outward consistency with one’s ethnicity, like dark skin and ethnic features, could lead to a greater coherence in terms of one’s self. Once established, ethnic identity has a wide-reaching impact on development, with consistent links to positive adjustment outcomes such as well-being and self-esteem (Kiang and Takeuchi, 2009).

In the United States, racial discrimination plays a significant role in ethnic identity formation because race is a “historical process by which identities are created, lived out, transformed, and destroyed based on the fundamental assumption that race is a fixed, objective social fact” (Hernandez, 2016), independent of ethnicity, class, or nationhood. The case of the Filipino American is only one example of how race is a fundamental concept that profoundly shapes history, politics, economic structure, and culture, being universally accepted as the “organizing principle of social stratification” (Hernandez, 2016) which defines rights and privileges and determines the distribution of resources. Race essentially determines one’s opportunities in life. Racism is characterized by the denial of these rights, privileges, and resources based largely and skin phenotype (Greene, 2018) and institutionalized racism reinforces ideologies and practices of subordination and suppression.

Throughout its history, America has had an obsession with categorizing its inhabitants by race as our nation’s founders made it clear that the constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness applied to only whites (Ocampo, 2016). Whereas European immigrants were able to attain middle class status within a generation and were able to maintain their native language and culture, Filipino Americans are unable to do the same to the color of their skin. In schools, American girls are praised for their blonde hair, light eyes, and pointed noses. In contrast, Filipinas have dark, slanted eyes, straight black hair, and flat noses. Appearance-related biases have persistent and often damaging effects on development and mental health (Kiang and Takeuchi, 2009). There is some evidence to suggest that immigrant families may idealize white families and therefore assimilation to the host culture is encouraged among their children. Interestingly, a strong ethnic identity among Filipino youth in America is solidified along with higher reports of discrimination.

The Philippines has never concisely fit into the concept of Asia as a monolithic area of ethnic ancestry. The physical marking of Filipino people as non-white persons within the United States racial landscape “categorically excludes them from full inclusion as Americans” (Hernandez, 2016). Although often categorized as Asian, Filipinos are neither truly Asian or truly American, “occupying various intermediary identities in the spectrum between two polar opposites” (Hernandez, 2016). Furthermore, private citizens are not mutually exclusive entities from the public structures that govern them, which is illustrated by the seemingly innocuous act of replacing kinship terms and the loss of connections in the Philippines with the passing of older generations. This speaks to the power of assimilation and its resulting erosion of traditional relationships associated with the language and culture of Filipino ancestors, although some descendants are now aiming to reconstruct their Filipino identities by engaging in indigenous methodologies designed to revive a deep connection with Filipino family and community.

Ethnic Identity Formation in the United States

Discussion centers on the social importance of appearance and potential strengths gained from ethnic identification. However, ethnic identity is about much more than race and physical characteristics. The construction of ethnic identity involves a process of selecting, rejecting, and redefining both ethnic and mainstream notions of being Filipino American and therefore by definition is always changing. Ethnic identity can also be defined as the ability of individuals to connect their own personal experiences with those of the larger community. Filipinos present a theoretically interesting case study because of the socialization to the U.S. culture which has already taken place in the Philippines. Coming from a former U.S. colony, Filipinos have long been exposed to U.S. lifestyles, cultural practices, and consumption patterns during the Americanization of the homeland. Therefore, in the United States, a colonial mentality becomes subconscious. As the second largest immigrant group to the U.S. and the second largest Asian American group, Filipino Americans develop “historical amnesia” to the U.S. colonization of the Philippines.

Therefore, the assumption persists that the Philippines lacks an authentic indigenous culture by most anthropologists. Furthermore, assimilationists predict as all U.S. ethnic groups, Filipinos will become progressively more like the majority culture with the advancement of economic status. However, they ignore racial divisions between the European and non-European distinction that remains a central in American society. Institutional practices racialize and homogenize people of color as Asians, Latinos, or African American, thus preventing individuals from fully identifying as unhyphenated Americans or pluralist ethnic group in which members productively coexist, resulting in a racial categorical identity that is defined by reference to their inherent differences from, or inferiority to, the dominant group, and these individuals are powerless to opt out of the labeling process.

For Asians in the United States, the very term “Asian American” arose out of the racist discourse that constructs Asians as a homogenous group. Blatant exclusion and legal discrimination force Asian Americans to encounter many barriers that prevent them from participating fully in the economic, social and political institutions in the United States. Economic mobility enables white Americans to become unhyphenated whites but on the other hand does not lead to the complete acceptance of Asians as Americans. It seems that Asian Americans, including Filipinos, can’t ever be members of the majority. Inequality in the United States forces incoming populations to develop self-identifications in accordance with categories and related behavior that are not of their own making. Because they are dark skinned immigrants from Asia, Filipinos, regardless of their class status and their familiarity with the U.S. culture, are defined as Asian American and face the consequences of being “non-white.” In America, the pressures of larger society had a strong influence on their ethnic identity.

Filipino Americans’ distinct identification patterns are also linked to their experiences with racism in the U.S. Due to vast differences in their phenotypic or physical appearance, Filipinos often find themselves mistakenly identified as members of other racial-ethnic groups, like Latinos or African Americans. Research has shown that Filipino Americans experience racism and microaggressions more frequently than do other Asian Americans and share similar experiences with their Latino and African American peers in which members of mainstream culture assume they are criminal, intellectually inferior, and hold low status jobs as a result of the second-rate status of their degrees. Filipino boys are stereotyped as misfits and violent gang members and Filipinas are stereotyped as either submissive or sexually promiscuous. Their racial experiences are distinct from that of other Asian American adolescents and their racialized experiences of being Filipino American may include encounters with the model minority stereotype alongside.

Nevertheless, immigrants from the Philippines are often thought to be the most assimilated of all Asian American subgroups and least likely to live in homogenous ethnic enclaves. Filipino Americans share an affinity with Latino culture in the U.S. as an unintentional acculturation strategy. The younger the age, the faster the acculturation and language proficiency. Female gender predicts higher endorsement of host culture and its values, perhaps because of mainstream Western culture’s relatively egalitarian attitude toward women in contrast to Filipina roles and responsibilities within a more traditional household. In contrast, older aged immigration often predicts acculturation struggles and resistance to the host culture. Interestingly, ethnic identity has been implicated as a buffer against the stressful experiences associated with discrimination, in contrast to those who experience better outcomes as a result of possessing a lighter skin phenotype.

The Model Minority Stereotype

“The model minority” was a termed coined in the 1960’s with the goal of eradicating racism, becoming the inception of a concept that homogenized Filipinos as Asians in contemporary U.S. society (Morente, 2015). The term “model minority” romanticizes Asian Americans as hardworking, successful, and law-abiding citizens who overcome hardship, oppression, and racism to achieve success. Popular press articles cite strong families, the significance of education, and hard work embedded in cultural values and practices as the primary reason for the success of Asian Americans’ in the U.S. The irony of this stereotype is that although Filipino Americans are often typecast as model minorities who are hardworking, well-adjusted, highly intelligent, and academically successful, their status in America remains as a racial-ethnic minority whose members and experience constant discrimination in everyday life. These preconceived notions ignore differences between Asians and Filipinos based on social class, period of immigration in the U.S., immigration patterns, language diversity, religion, beliefs and values. They also obscure challenges by subgroups like the Filipino Americans, as illustrated by the surprising fact that the demographic of Filipino American youth had one of the highest school dropout rates along with high rates of teen suicide when compared to other Asian groups.

Furthermore, the process of racial-ethnic identification and identity development may be particularly complex for Filipino Americans given the different ways in which numerous social institutions have categorized them. To illustrate, the U.S. Census recognizes Filipino Americans as “Asian American” but the U.S. Department of Education has classified Filipino Americans as “Pacific Islanders.” Interestingly, presenting “Filipino” as a separate category from “Asian American” on forms has solidified racial-ethnic identification as Filipino rather than Asian American, splitting the subgroup into two separate categories. Some Filipino Americans recognize their Filipino heritage as distinct from other Asian Americans, acknowledging the influences of American and Spanish colonization on Filipino culture, and thus self-identify as Filipino American as oppose to Asian American. However, Filipinos are unique in that they tend to switch between identifying as Asian, Pacific Islander, and Filipino (Rodriguez-Operana, Mistry, & Chen, 2017).

The role of “proximal contexts” (Rodriguez et al., 2017), family, peers, and student-teaching relationships play a large role in shaping the development of Filipino American identity and how Filipino American youth encounter and internalize the model minority stereotype. Teachers can magnify Filipino American adolescents’ encounters with the model minority stereotype by placing increased psychological pressure on students to strive for high academic achievement which may have the opposite effect of causing shut downs and lower levels of academic achievements. The intense pressure and stress in school contributes to high rates of suicide previously mentioned. Teacher assumptions overlook the needs of Filipino students, and differential treatment can lead to experiences of peer harassment for being smart that further alienates them as they are already being ostracized. On the other hand, racist teachers would often discourage Filipino youths from aiming too high by applying to top tier universities. Among peers in school, racial jokes are made daily between friends of different ethnicities, although getting picked on by classmates daily becomes increasingly stressful. On the other hand, supportive friends facing similar struggles foster a greater awareness of model minority stereotypes that impact the experiences of Filipinos. In either case, Filipinos youths in school may internalize the model stereotype of being “the quiet one”, “the smart one” or “really hard-working”, citing good grades as evidence. America is a society that racializes, and yet is indifferent and ignorant to racial differences. These ethnic experiences of Filipino Americans affect interpretations of their ethnicity and place in the U.S.

Catholicism and Cultural Identity

“Catholicism provides the prism through which mainstream Filipinos understand their own reality and construct their own value” (Paredes, 2017). Filipino Americans strive to be faithful, and despite having only a few precious hours every weekend to get chores done and spend quality time with their children, they are eager to volunteer in church and community life as an extension of their catholic faith, based on the fundamental belief that God asks of his people to care for fellow their brothers and sisters. The Catholic Church remains a trusted foundation of Filipino communities in diaspora as the teachings of the church protect family values, instill obedience to mutual obligations, and allow individuals to maintain self-control. Filipino American parents want their children to be embraced by the Christian community. Catholic religious principles are tied to moral duty and therefore familial practices include employing guilt and shame in keeping children from deviating too far from cultural values and norms. These children are less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, or engage in premarital sex. As Catholics emigrating from a Catholic nation, they join the American Catholic Church as a growing part of the single largest denomination in their new nation. Filipino Americans may not adhere as strictly to prescribed Catholic rituals, but in terms of outward religious status, nothing has changed for Filipinos. “Being Filipino is almost synonymous with being Catholic” (Cherry, 2014).

Virtue Ethics Within the Family

Family relationships are paramount, as the desire to be closely connected to others stems from the collectivist nature of the traditional Filipino culture. Family relationships have a significant impact on Filipino Americans youths’ experiences because Filipino parents tend to hold high educational expectations for their children and academic attainment remains a significant priority. If grades fall below expectations, extracurricular and social activities are restricted. However, traditional Filipino parents in the United States do not wish for their children to go away to attend college but rather desire to keep their children close. This phenomenon can be described as “push and pull’ because keeping children close to home can sometimes limit educational opportunities. There is also a delicate balance between educational pressures and taking care of household responsibilities.

Parenting values and behaviors have not changed drastically for first generation Filipinos who value traditional core values. Children are raised with a sense of both respect and obligation toward their parents and elders within the family hierarchy. Within parent-child relationships, Filipino mothers provide 90% of childcare and Filipino fathers are known to be disciplinarians, but overall first-generation Filipino parents are viewed as controlling. Obligation to the family comes before individual desires or goals, and children must make sacrifices to uphold harmony within the family and extended family, which may even include fictive kin. For example, children are expected to contribute to the needs of younger siblings, especially the eldest daughter, as Filipinas have more responsibility and sons who are granted more freedoms and privileges. Family dynamics are more egalitarian in Filipino culture when compared to other Asian subgroups, but Filipino families are more hierarchical and gendered than white families. American culture tends to be much more individualistic and places greater emphasis upon individual effort, goals, desires and rewards.

Furthermore, Filipino American parents exhibit academically oriented controlling behavior like traditional Filipino parents. Parental influence has a substantial effect upon a child’s performance in school and Filipino parents may sometimes encourage their children to pursue either more education or a particular career with the expectation of financial support as a form of reciprocity. Filipino parents see their children as an investment and actively try to improve them as productive members of the family and Filipino community. However, slight differences in cultural perspectives and contexts of parental involvement may yield different consequences for children in the Philippines versus Filipino American children. For example, Filipino parental education attainment in the Philippines is higher than those of Filipino American parents but Filipino mothers are employed more in the states resulting in a higher household income. In the Philippines, English is not always spoken at home and children have less access to computers and the internet due to lower income and lack of resources. Although Filipino parents help more with homework, Filipino American students’ grades are higher. Lastly, American parents are less involved in school activities, with a lower frequency of attendance at events with their children. On the other hand, Filipino parents volunteer more at school events.

The structural traits of Filipino families may have a greater impact on their children’s school performance when considering levels of parental involvement (Lee Blair, 2014). One structural distinction to consider is the prevailing poverty in the Philippines which affects every facet of family life. Coupled with the long history of political and social strife, Filipino parents face difficult challenges in raising their children. As a result, they engage with their children in conversations about schoolwork and future plans at a higher frequency. On the other hand, parents in the United States have more access to resources they can provide for their children, and there is a decreased likelihood to maintain strict rules for both sons and daughters in Filipino American households.

Virtue Ethics Within Communities

The diversity and complexity that make up Filipino American communities in places like California, Hawaii, Chicago, and Houston is “virtually boundless” (Cherry, 2014). The community is not a singular entity composed of individuals, but multiple communities drawn from thousands of islands with a host of regional and cultural differences. Smaller associations develop in the U.S. due to common bonds and social networks made throughout various regions within the Philippines and internal class differentiations are made. Therefore, Filipinos in the United States tend to associate with people from the same region or province.

The relationship between ethnic identity, culture, race and power has been played out in the details of people’s daily lives. Collective values are shared among the Filipino community, and relationships with extended family are important. This is because Filipinos come from a culture based on collectivism in which harmony exists as the result of an effort to help one another. In addition, Filipinos avoid behaviors that may bring shame to oneself or the family. Furthermore, a sense of inner indebtedness or gratitude based on the concept of reciprocity develops when one individual has provided some type of assistance to another, as an act of kindness communicates a mutual understanding of repayment. Companionship and unity with fellow Filipinos also result in the recognition of status given to an individual by others because of the awareness of shared identity. An individual’s actions and how they treat others provides the most reliable insight into the essence of the person within the perception of the collective. Togetherness is paramount, unity trumps individual goals, making the denial of self is a core value of the Filipino culture. Failure to conform would result in feelings of embarrassment, resulting in the avoidance of family functions or cultural events and an overall lack of participation in community.

This relationship-oriented virtue ethic is a result of a unique history of the Philippines, namely a Southeast Asian tribal and animist tradition mixed with a Spanish Catholic tradition. According to Reyes (2015), Filipinos value a collection of virtues which are anti-utilitarian, all directed towards the preservation and strengthening of human relationships. Filipino virtue ethics present an interesting viewpoint on ethical options that emphasize human relationships rather than individualism.

Social Ties

On the other hand, According to Min (2002), settlement patterns of Filipino professionals in Midwestern metropolitan areas indicate that because of their ability to speak English and their educational backgrounds, “immigrants did not settle in any particular area in such overwhelming numbers as to constitute a distinct concentration”. As a result, there is an absence of strong ethnic networks that reinforce the culture of origin daily, and the attendance of ethnic events are “periodic, brief, and disconnected from their otherwise white-dominated environment.”

Filipinos in America sometimes maintain social ties at family get togethers in the United States. They also maintain socials ties with Filipino family, kin, and community members when visiting the Philippines. However, Filipinos who do not live near their kin maintain social ties with other Filipinos through membership in various professional, alumni, and political associations. Ethnicity may be highlighted, but there is not a strong emphasis on cultural behavior that differentiates them greatly from their professional peers. Formal and organized associations are based on ethnic bonds but are equally if not more so focused on class interests and concerns. Professionals limit their contact largely to those of the same background to address the needs of their profession and thereby their children. They simply do not have time to attend Filipino dances, parties, or social functions, forgoing cultural and family-oriented events that create strong ethnic networks that would otherwise reinforce the culture of origin for their second-generation children. Therefore, Filipino American youths can only develop an ethnic identity that is mostly symbolic, being familiar with certain Filipino foods and speaking broken Tagalog.

Some parents refrain from teaching their children Tagalog for various reasons. First, parents emphasize English to encourage academic progress. Second, parents want their children to know they are American and do not want to their children to be associated with immigrants. Third, the low level of language maintenance among Filipino professionals is attributable to their economic status. Many Filipino Americans move to white neighborhoods as their household income increases. Therefore, Filipino linguistic assimilation is a product of the environment. Finally, an emphasis on speaking English is the result of the legacy of cultural colonialism and the internalized colonial mentality.

In the past, native Filipinos were willing to help newly arriving families from the Philippines by offering their homes until their guests were able to find work. In contrast, Filipino Americans with the colonial mentality will not offer help fellow Filipinos in any way. Traditional Filipinos would view this as the failure to social obligation. Furthermore, Filipino Americans may intentionally separate themselves from Filipino culture and community and the colonial mentality is passed down to their children, leading to a disconnect to humanity and a reliance solely on the nuclear family, which is often plagued with strife and contention due to the clashing of traditional Filipino values and American values.

The First Generation

Responding to the preference for highly educated labor in U.S. immigration legislation, between 1966 and 1976, close to one-third of all Filipinos admitted into the United States came through as professionals and other highly trained individuals. Many Filipino nurses were recruited to fill the nursing shortage in the United States, particularly in inner-city hospitals in older metropolitan areas like Los Angeles. Parents of professional backgrounds also migrated to be near family and friends.

Other migrants who were long established accountants, engineers and computer programmers in the Philippines had trouble obtaining employment in their fields after migrating. Therefore, they didn’t hesitate to take available jobs that they would otherwise be overqualified for. Some Filipino migrants found work as janitors, draftsmen, marine merchants, or book-keepers and supply clerks for the county government, with fathers having a harder time securing work than mothers.

After several years of toiling at various entry-level positions, migrants were able to save money and move to middle-class suburban neighborhoods where they were the lone Filipino family. Parents chose to move to these neighborhoods seeking an improvement in quality of life, such as superior school districts, proximity to the coast, and safety. Ethnicity factored into the choice of neighborhood but in unexpected ways. When choosing a new home, Filipino Americans intentionally avoided ethnic enclaves and perceived these areas as cheaper due to the saturation of a single ethnicity. They preferred to buy homes in all-American middle-class or multi-cultural suburbs. Additionally, according to the 1980 census, over 91 percent of post-1970 Filipino immigrants speak a fair amount of English, with even grandparents speaking English. The neighborhood environment became a strong influence on the Filipino ethnic identity of second-generation kids.

For first generation Filipinos who migrated to the United States, assorted and sporadic memories of the Philippine homeland include those of folklore and customary practices of religious celebrations. Residual affective ties are to national heroes, singers, movie stars, and athletes (Min, 2002). Indigenous foods, dances and music temporarily healed the trauma of removal from kinship networks in the Philippines and family reunification can resolve the psychic damage of loss of status and alienation. Not exerting a commanding influence on daily life, the Philippines and all its traditions exist as a faint nostalgia.

Meanwhile, language, religion, kinship, family rituals, and common experiences in school or the work-place function invariably as bonds of community. Alienation in the host country is what unites Filipinos who emigrated, as a shared history of colonial and racial subordination, marginalization, and struggles for cultural survival replace an ever-fading homeland. Years of struggle in inter-ethnic coalitions and union organizations have numbed the pain of stigma and accomplishments of the civil rights movement of the sixties have provided nourishment for ethnic pride. On the other hand, impulses of assimilation and multiculturalism persist, and upward mobility seems to be the turning point at which first generation Filipinos became Filipino Americans.

Is there a Filipino nation that first generation Filipino Americans can identify with? They are not obsessed with a physical return to roots or land. Rather, the desire to return to the Philippines is tied to a symbolic homeland. Some Filipinos in their old age may desire eventual return only when they are economically secure. In general, Filipinos will not return to the site of misery, oppression, poverty, exploitation, humiliation, unemployment, hunger, and lack of dignity. Overseas contract workers would rather move their kin and parents to their place of employment in countries like the United States where family reunification is possible. As a reaction to the Filipino collective identity in crisis, first generation Filipino Americans remain in a stage of cultural and ethnic identity formation and elaboration, reluctantly maintaining physical appearance, accent, and peculiar, non-white folkways that sustain and reproduce Eurocentric white supremacy each day, while simultaneously striving to be accepted by mainstream American society.

The debt of reciprocity may lead to psychological distress (Manalang, 2016). First generation Filipino Americans are expected to conform, comply, or obey because they expect that others will return the favor. They also greatly desire to be socially accepted by others, to the point where a Filipino may isolate himself altogether when feeling culturally conflicted because of the delay of repayment. Children are indebted to their parents for the sacrifices they made for their success, and familial bonds are strained due to clashing among family members while attempting to settle the debt of reciprocity at the micro-social level. At the macro-level, the role of indebtedness renders first generation Filipino Americans especially grateful to the United States for providing an alternative path out of poverty by being allowed to migrate to the U.S. and attain citizenship. These feelings of indebtedness to the United States as a nation lead to an increased likelihood of assimilation, the idealization of White America, and the desire to contribute to economic participation through owning successful businesses, civic participation, volunteerism, and military service. These Filipino Americans avoid criticizing the U.S. government but remain more critical of the Philippine government, which is viewed as corrupt. Not receiving recognition for these efforts mean indebtedness remains unfulfilled as their contributions are therefore are diminished and not valued. Furthermore, Filipinos desire to model responsible citizenship to children because they interpret American citizenship as a blessing from God and the reason for giving back to the community.

The Second Generation

The children of the first generation who come over to the United States with their parents at a very young age are more likely to assimilate to American culture. However, Filipinos seek to return to their ethnicity during young adulthood as they develop an increasing racial awareness throughout their years in school. Racial and ethnic consciousness resurface in college where various groups and organization are sensitized to multiculturalism and provide a cultural niche in which they can meet Filipino friends and relate to other students of or underrepresented minority ethnic groups in the United States, meeting people with different ethnic backgrounds, food preferences, and personalities. Ethnicity becomes salient when Filipino American college students become involved in student politics and activism, allowing them to relate to Latinas and African Americans in a racially conscious atmosphere. This phenomenon challenges the assimilationist view because a permanent and meaningful ethnic consciousness crystallizes. Furthermore, the recognition of racism helps Filipino Americans at universities and colleges not only understand contemporary race relations but also allows them to reinterpret childhood experiences. Student organizations allow second-generation Filipinos to work through painful emotions that result from experiences of racial discrimination which are cumulative.

Second generation Filipinos look for easy and intermittent ways to express their ethnic identity that do not require vigorous practice of ethnic culture or active participation in ethnic groups while simultaneously confronting political pressure for assimilation and racism that signals to them that they will never be accepted as American. As children of middle-class, acculturated parents, second generation Filipinos have grown up largely without assigned roles or groups that anchor ethnicity. The majority do not live in ethnic neighborhoods, attend school with other Filipino children, or belong to Filipino organizations.

Their ethnic behavior is largely symbolic, characterized by an “unacquainted allegiance to an imagined past” (Min, 2002). Because Filipinos are dark skinned, their ethnicity and race are ascriptive rather than voluntary. They must conform to the forces of acculturation and assimilation and construct a distinct new culture that is not fully American. Ethnicity is a continuous process whereby second-generation Filipino Americans define and redefine their ethnic identity and is constructed as an imagined import from abroad rather than a product of domestic social conditions. Second generation Filipino Americans regard ethnic culture as the original culture of the homeland in the Philippines that includes languages, folk dances, and music. There is also an awareness of the tension between their own life stories and the expected story of Filipino ancestry. In an all-American middle-class suburb, second generation Filipinos lose track of culture and dialect. All the popular kids at school were white and blonde, and identities are largely shaped by the dialogue of racial domination in the United States. Get-togethers with nearby relatives are sporadic, as well as reunions with family members, either in parts of the United States or the Philippines. These experiences of ethnic Filipino culture are intermittent, brief, and disconnected from most of the other areas of their lives. As a result, for second generation Filipinos, ethnicity remains symbolic and changes in both its importance and its content over time.

Before college, most Filipino Americans see themselves as average American teenagers and strive to assimilate by participating in “Anglo” activities like surfing, skiing and listening to pop music. They speak only English and date and associate primarily with white people. In striving to assimilate, they may even slight the Filipino culture, becoming almost anti-Filipino and avoiding Filipino organizations and associations all together. The decreasing significance of Filipino ethnicity during adolescent years is a byproduct of peer pressure from their white environment. At a very young age, second generation Filipinos learned to downplay their differences as Filipino ethnicity faded into the background. Additionally, there is a lack of cultural socialization at home, with a lack of deliberate teaching of language, traditions, and history of the Philippines, with parents not realizing the effect this has on the ethnic identity formation of their children. For example, second generation Filipinos can develop feelings of bitterness toward other Asian groups that share a stronger sense of culture among its members.

Second generation Filipino kids soon come to recognize the lack of cultural socialization in Filipino families to the influence of U.S. colonial rule on their parents’ generation that valued American and Western things. The lack of cultural transmission in their homes stem from the desire of the parents to succeed in mainstream society. Because of discrimination experienced by parents, they believed that Filipino culture would hold their children back. Cultural socialization remains subtle in interpersonal styles, child rearing patterns, and mind-sets that are difficult to articulate and define. Nevertheless, second generation Filipino children remain puzzled and wounded as they struggle to understand their place in U.S. society.

Within the family, second generation Filipinos are rewriting cultural traditions that are patriarchal and restrictive. However, in the eyes of their parents, and grandparents, a woman who is outspoken is too Americanized, as being Americanized equates to being overly independent. Overall, children are forced to reconcile family expectations with individual ambition, in most cases choosing to identify more with being American because of their independence. Most children of traditional Filipinos do not buy into the traditional Filipino way of not questioning authority.

Qualitative Research: Stella Luhuman

My first interview was with Stella, a thirty-year-old, recently married Filipino American. Her entire nuclear family migrated from Manila in the late 70’s, including her mother and father, and eventually her grandparents and older siblings. The reason for the migration of her family from the Philippines to the United States was her father’s desire for better opportunities for his family.

Her father came to Southern California ahead of his wife and two very small children, leaving his job as a news anchor in Manila. When his wife joined him in the United States, his son and daughter were babies. It was easier for Stella’s father to emigrate because as a perk of his profession he was able to obtain a green card. Stella was the last child born to her parents, the only sibling born in the United States, and refers to herself as “first born” American.

Although her father had been a journalist and news anchor in the Philippines, he and his wife desired to fulfill the “American Dream.” When he came over to the United States, he got a job at Chief Auto Parts, now known as Auto Zone, and has continued to work at this company for over forty years. Her mother had obtained a degree in Math from the Philippines and was “all about math”, so she was able to get a job at a bank. Gaining employment as soon as possible was important for obtaining American citizenship, which is the reason Stella’s parents accepted any job that they could get.

Both of Stella’s parents were bilingual, as they had attended private schools in the Philippines that enforced the speaking of English, so much so that if you were caught speaking Tagalog at any point you would have to pay a fee as part of school regulations. In contrast to large public universities in the Philippines, private schools emphasized English and communicated a higher social status in the eyes of others.

Once Stella’s parents had secured employment in California, they sent for their two young children and the grandparents who had cared for them since their infancy. Stella’s brother was five years old at the time and her sister was seven. Stella’s siblings had been born are raised in the Philippines up until this point. When they arrived in the states, their American parents were strangers to them. Stella was the first in her family to be born in the U.S. with an age gap of over ten years between herself and her siblings. Therefore, throughout their lives, clashing occurred between Stella, her siblings, and her parents.

Stella’s perspective of Filipino culture is that Filipinos desire to emulate Americans and achieve the “American Dream”. She recognizes distinct differences between Filipinos from the homeland and first-generation Filipinos in the United States who adapt to American culture. First, people from the Philippines are “very very nice” and “mild mannered” as judged by her interactions with some of her cousins who still live there and other Filipinos that she has met. Second, “It’s a lot slower paced over there.” Although native Filipinos try to emulate certain aspects of American culture, they are very respectful and emphasize manners and education.

Stella witnessed her family adapt and changed over the years, and she found aspects of the Americanization of family members frustrating. Moving to the states was an easy transition for her parents as they were already as they had already been exposed to American media and culture in the United States but her parents and siblings idealized the American standard of beauty. When her sister married a Jewish man and gave birth to two biracial children, her parents often praise the physical appearance of their grandchildren as “cute” or “pretty” when compared to their cousins who are 100% Filipino. This became a source of contention between Stella and her parents, as Stella does not believe that American physical features constitute the true standard of beauty.

She also clashes with her older brother, who she says is obsessed with American or Aryan physical features and would only date an American woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. He often expresses envy towards a cousin who is married to a white woman that family members venerate as a sort of trophy wife. Stella says, “I get into fights with him about this. We are so brainwashed with media and movies and the white person as the main character. My brother is so brainwashed. He thinks if I don’t look like him, (Tom Cruise) then I’m ugly. If my girlfriend doesn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes than it’s not good enough. All his friends are white. It’s creepy. Why is that the definition of beauty? Why is that the definition of being cool? Why is that the standard? It really bugs me!” Stella believes her siblings are more intimidated by white people because they grew up in the Philippines, and she gets frustrated with her parents for their preference towards her nieces and nephews who are half white.

According to Stella, Americanized Filipinos try to emulate American culture as much as possible, though at the same time tend to be very clannish. They act like Americans but only hang out with Filipinos and Stella finds this “kind of strange.” Filipinos emulate Americans in the way they dress, the music they listen to, the places they hang out, and the way they promote themselves on social media. They also avoid speaking Tagalog. Stella also says that Filipinos who emulate Americans have aggressive personalities, which is uncharacteristic of traditional Filipinos from the Philippines. She mentions that traditional Filipinos are laid back and quiet but acknowledges that they are aggressive in the area of scholastics.

When contrasting first generation Filipinos with second generation Filipinos, Stella points out some very notable differences. For example, first generation Filipinos tend to be very conservative and religious as a result of their Catholic upbringing in the Philippines. They follow customs from the Philippines that play out in everyday life in America, such as scaring their children into submission using religion, using guilt and shame on their kids for putting their individual needs ahead of the family’s needs. “If you choose to hang out with your friends then you’re bad.” In Stella’s view, for her traditional parents, everything is very black and white. The golden rule is “do unto others as you would have done unto you”, a quote taken from that bible that Stella could not recite in its entirety. Also, her parents were very adamant about no premarital sex. Staying out too late was a sin and boyfriends were strictly vetted.

Regarding ethnic identity, Stella describes herself as 70% American and 30% Filipino, although she does identify as Asian American because she looks Asian and the Philippines is in Asia. Her father proudly identifies as 100 % Filipino and is more patriotic. On the other hand, Stella’s mother identifies with American culture, although she has a thicker accent and prefers Filipino food.

Constant tension between being Filipino and Filipino American was played out in high school. Stella only a handful of Filipino friends. She chose rather to make friends from different cultures. To this day, most of her friends are Mexican, and her husband is Mexican. In school, Stella was ostracized from the Filipino group, often getting dirty looks and stares. Ironically, Filipino classmates would speak to her in Tagalog as a form of teasing because they knew she did not speak the language. “I have friends from different cultures, whereas other Filipinos tend to be very clannish, so I felt ostracized in high school because the Filipinos didn’t connect with me and I stood out because I wasn’t a part of their group.” Furthermore, her Filipino classmates often visited the Philippines and had relatives there that they keep in good contact with. On the other hand, most of Stella’s family members had already moved to the United States and were not that close to begin. Her mother is an only child, so she doesn’t have any first cousins on the maternal side of the family. Her father has a large family, and Stella has cousins in the Philippines, but in all her thirty years of age she has never visited the Philippines. The only cousins that she is close with live in the states and she’s has never had a reason to go to the Philippines. According to Stella, her family is Americanized in the way that they only participate in family gatherings that include the nuclear family, in contrast to traditional Filipino families who throw large events and invite as many members of the extended family as possible. Furthermore, her family members have no interest in going back to the Philippines, aside from possibly her father.

Racial discrimination in school from white Americans was hurtful and cruel. They would refer to Stella as Japanese or Chinese in order to communicate “we don’t want you here.” They would also tease her for eating with chopsticks and having slanted eyes. In high school, racial discrimination turned into a form of sexual harassment, as white male students would make comments as they played out sexual fantasies about Asian girls.

Gloria Dimayuga

According to Gloria, a twenty-one-year-old Filipina American also living in Southern California, families from the Philippines different from Filipino American families in the way that their life events are frequently planned and always big. Activities and parties included the entire clan, whereas Gloria’s family gatherings only include members of the nuclear family. Filipino families hold events for “every single thing” and invite everybody. Gloria says, “We are not like that at all. No..its just us. Close the door!”

When discussing the history of colonization of the Philippines, Gloria says the Spanish influenced the Philippines the most, including the language, food, and religion. Tagalog consists of Spanish words, and many traditional foods from the Philippines were derived from Spanish cuisine. The idea of honoring women came from the Spanish as well, as their queen was put on a pedestal. When the Japanese colonized the Philippines, Gloria’s grandfather was forced to work on a railroad and was once hit in the head with a gun by a Japanese soldier. During the Japanese occupation, and after World War II, “Filipinos were definitely on the side of the U.S.”

Gloria acknowledges that the introduction of Roman Catholicism had the biggest effect on the Filipino culture, however Filipino Americans don’t necessarily adhere to strict formalities dictated by religion. For example, in the Philippines, formal dress is required at church, and women are even required to wear veils. Furthermore, missing mass is a mortal sin and the recital of prayers and weekly confession are a must. Although most Filipino Americans identify as Catholic, Gloria agrees with Stella in that Catholicism as a religion in the states is much more lenient. Filipinos wear shorts and sandals to church and don’t go to confession as much. Stella identified herself as Catholic and reluctantly admitted that she does not attend confession regularly. On the other hand, Gloria and her family do not identify at all as being Catholic, although her father is a pastor at a local Christian church, of which the denomination Gloria was unable to recall. Interestingly, Gloria refers to others labeling her as a Catholic as a stereotype and is completely unfamiliar with Catholicism and its religious. “I don’t know anything about the saints and mass. My church is Christian.”

Before migrating to the United States, Gloria’s father came from an affluent area in the Philippines. In contrast, her mother was from a less affluent area. After marrying, they moved to Manila, where her father trained to be a pastor like his father before him. When a pastor from an American church in Norwalk, California passed away, Gloria’s father was recruited to fill the role. Once in the states, her mother was able to get a job as a secondary school teacher.

In contrast to Stella, Gloria lived in the Philippines until the age of five, although she did not attend school there, which she refers to as “the downside.” She explains that when visiting the Philippines over the years, her aunts and uncles always treated her cousins as older and more mature even though they were younger. Her aunts and uncles viewed their children as more knowledgeable because Gloria hadn’t attended school in the Philippines. They speak to Gloria in broken English and assume she cannot speak Tagalog. This bothers her because “they know I speak Tagalog.” Her parents speak Tagalog every day at home in America, although Gloria admits that English is her first language and it isn’t always easy for her to formulate sentences in Tagalog.

Gloria does not recall experiencing any type of culture shock when migrating to the United States at the age of five. She had already been speaking English in the Philippines because she watched television shows for kids in English, like Barney and Teletubbies. When she would go to malls in the Philippines with her mother, Gloria’s mother would always speak to her in Tagalog but she would respond in English. Other Filipinos would ask, “Is she American?” Because of her ability to speak English, Gloria was excited to move to the U.S. as a young child but she says she was too young to fully understand what was going on.

Gloria experiences culture shock more so when she returns to the Philippines to visit. People often stare when her and her mother when they talk in public. Once while visiting a tiny shop in a low-income area, a store owner suddenly became furious at Gloria and her young brother for laughing in the store. I wondered if they were speaking English at the time, but Gloria could not recall.

In elementary school in America, Gloria would get made fun of based on stereotypes which affected her pride in being Filipino and made her increasingly sad. For example, American boys would refer to her as “skinny” or “chinky” and tease her for not being able to see because her eyes were too small. The insults of cruel classmates caused her to internalize negative stereotypes, but as she got older, she learned to shed these negative stereotypes and accept herself for who she was.

Today Stella is the President of the Filipino club at her university. Although most of the members are Filipino, she wants the club to remain inclusive and often encourages members to invite friends. Throughout her lifetime, Gloria has had many Hispanic and Caucasian friends. She does admit to succumbing to the pressures of fitting into the Americanized standard. Although Gloria identifies herself as 100% Filipino “by blood” she also identifies as being Filipino American. She doesn’t necessarily put herself in the category of Asian American. She often got angry when observing members of other Asian Americans groups hanging out together and having fun because she “missed out on that.” She often questioned why she was unable to relate to Asian Americans even though she considered herself as the part of the same ethnic group. These experiences are what led her to become the President of the Filipino club. She now feels as though she has fulfilled the desire to be included in an ethnic community that she had missed out. Her group hosts and organizes Filipino culture night, an event that showcases ancient traditional dances, talent shows, and skits, simultaneously maintaining a connection to her indigenous ancestry and adding contemporary themes.

According to Gloria, when comparing native Filipinos and Filipino Americans, the broken accent becomes a marker the native Filipino. Furthermore, she says Filipino families are closer knit and family oriented than American families. There is less independence among these families and Filipino parents want their children to stay close as opposed to going away to college. Like Stella, Gloria has experienced some major clashing with her parents, although the older she’s gotten the more she understands them and the less she fights back. Clashing often occurred as a result of her mother being “traditional in thinking.” Gloria’s mother attended bible college and had never been to public school. Therefore, Gloria felt that due to their different life experiences, her mother could not relate with a lot of the issues Gloria dealt with in school, like problems with friends and boys.

Finally, Gloria explains that with the added pressure of achieving the idealized American standard of beauty, tension between being Filipino and Filipino American arises over the issue of who is more authentic versus who is “whitewashed.” On the flipside, American racialization also has its expectations of Filipinos in America. Over the years of encountering Americans, Gloria says they impose their language on others rather than learning the language of other cultures. Gloria also reluctantly admits to unconsciously conforming to American beauty standards portrayed in the media in the way she acts and dyes her hair, although her mother says her hair is beautiful the way it is.

Analysis

Because of the large amount of information I received from both Stella and Gloria’s interviews, I chose to first focus on the similarities of experiences in the ethnic identify formation, racial discrimination, and family ties between the two. I will then go on to describe subtle as well as more obvious differences between them. I will also draw on data collected from my literature review, which is largely supported by the findings of my qualitative research.

First, both Stella and Gloria acknowledged that there are distinct differences between native Filipino families and Filipino American families in cultural values and behaviors. Traditional Filipinos are anti-utilitarian and daily life is governed by the collective. Therefore, Filipino children are expected to adhere to family and social obligations and to deviate from these obligations would bring shame upon themselves and their families. Filipino families are close knit and large, often being referred to as clans. They organize large family get togethers often, which include extended family and fictive kin. Filipino families value polite manners and maintain a family hierarchy. Although they are exposed to American culture in the Philippines, they do not emulate or value independence to the degree that Filipino Americans do. The only similarity between Filipino and Filipino Americans seems to be the importance placed on education, which according to data from the literature, dates to the initiation of the public education system introduced at the start of American colonization in the Philippines. On the other hand, Filipino American families tend to stick to planning activities within the nuclear family exclusively and are less likely to extend a hand to fellow Filipinos or attend organized events based on shared ethnicity. Second-generation Filipinos exert more independence within the family, although this causes contention with their more traditional Filipino parents. Nevertheless, rules in Filipino American homes are much less strict than those in the Filipino homes.

Second, both Stella and Gloria reported clashing with their parents, finding it difficult to relate to their traditional religious views. Stella reported how her parents used shame and guilt to ensure that her and her siblings put family before friends. They also adamantly warned her away from premarital sex, enforced a strict curfew, and forbid them from engaging in typical American teenage behavior, like drinking or doing drugs.

Third, racial discrimination and ostracization were experienced by both women growing up in school through interactions with white Americans, which caused them emotional stress. However, they were both able to acculturate by embracing friends of other ethnicities. Stella had few Filipino friends. Most of her friends were Mexican. Gloria also reported making friends with both Latinas and Caucasians in school.

Finally, both women expressed a common feeling of resentment toward other groups lumped into the Asian American category as they were unable to achieve the same level of comradery within the group themselves. Additionally, they loosely classify themselves as Asian American, with Stella internalizing this aspect of ethnic identity based on American racialization and the geographical location of the Philippines.

When describing their own ethnic identity, both women used percentages, of which the category of Asian American did not apply. Stella identified herself as 70% American and 30% Filipino. Being the first and only child born to her parents in the United States, she often clashed with her older siblings who grew up in the Philippines and were influenced by the internal colonial mentality beginning at a very young age. Gloria identified herself as 100% Filipino “by blood” but also identified as Filipino American. Both women would not describe their ethnic identity as fully American. The two women also saw a correlation between being considered an authentic Filipina with the frequency of travel back to the Philippines. Gloria has never felt like an authentic Filipina in the eyes of native Filipinos.

Although Stella’s parents emigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream, the migration of Gloria’s parents to the states was less thought out and more based on obligation to the church. In the case of Stella’s parents, they desired to find jobs as soon as possible and therefore accepted positions that they were overqualified for, as many migrants did in the mid-20th because they held degrees that many Americans viewed as inferior.

Finally, according to literary data, being Filipino is synonymous with being Catholic. A large majority of Filipinos who migrate to the states are ingrained with moral values derived from their Catholic beliefs, causing friction between children who want to emulate American culture, ironically at the urging of their own parents. After years of tension and clashing, Filipino parents are forced to adapt their parenting styles somewhat to allow their children to fit in with American youths. Therefore, in the United States, Catholicism plays less of a role in the personal, social, and ethnic identities of second-generation Filipinas like Stella. Gloria has never identified as Catholic and neither have her parents, even before migrating to the United States. In the Philippines, this is virtually unheard of, as Gloria’s father is most likely in the minority. Yet still, Gloria views the idea of all Filipinos being Catholic as a stereotype placed on Filipinos by American society.

Conclusion

As laid out in this paper, the topic of ethnic identity for Filipinos and Filipino Americans is an extremely complex one. It seems that Filipinos are afflicted with the universal human flaw of seeing “the grass as always greener on the other side.” However, this cliché simplifies a long, unique, and complicated history of cultural and ethnic identity formation.

Members of the same immigrant population came from various towns, villages, and regions in the Philippines, each with its own distinct cultural and religious practices. After emigrating to the United States, Filipinos also experienced different degrees of upward mobility, thereby developing different values and patterns of behavior and experiencing varying types of racial discrimination depending on their context. Furthermore, racial lines are drawn among the Filipino ethnic group internally, as animosity and jealously seem to bubble up within extended families as result of the colonial mentality.

Ethnic groups that have remained on the economic margin have been more insulated from assimilating forces and have been relatively more successful at preserving their ethnic distinctiveness. Those who have experienced widespread economic mobility tend to experience minimal cultural manifestation of their ethnicity, which is largely intermittent and symbolic. Assimilationist predictions are proven incorrect as one needs to listen to the Filipino people’s own interpretation, definitions, and perceptions of their ethnic experiences through their life histories as well as the history of their ancestors. In a global context, can the word “assimilation” even exist? Filipino assimilation into American culture is a paradox and is never fully attainable.

With globalization, mass migrations, and a Filipino diaspora extending into the United States and multiple nations around the world, Filipino ethnic identity is constantly evolving. Filipinos in America live with the constant tension of identifying themselves as Filipino or Filipino American, but resolutely identify as both. They simultaneously resist and accept the structures of social class and racial domination in the United States. Because of their class background, racial status, and ethnic origin, they initially conform to the forces of acculturation and assimilation, but then resist the dominant ideologies about their place in U.S. society. They construct a Filipino American culture that is neither an extension of the original culture nor fully a facsimile of American culture. Filipino American culture and identity is not constructed in isolation but in dialogue with and in opposition to the racist ideologies and practices within the United States and continues to be shaped by a colonial history and a white-dominated culture.

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Appendix

Interview Questions:

1. Where is your family from in the Philippines and why did you migrate to the United States?

2. How do Filipinos from the Philippines differ from first generation Filipinos?

3. How do Filipinos differ from Filipino Americans?

4. How would you describe your ethnic identity?

5. Is there a constant tension between being Filipino and being Filipino American?

6. Can you describe any experiences that you have had with racial discrimination in school and what is the role of skin color?

7. How much affect do you think American racialization has on which ethnicity you identify with?

8. How are families from the Philippines different from Filipino American families?

9. How has the colonization of Spain, Japan and the United States affect the cultural values, behaviors, and ethnic identity of Filipinos vs Filipino Americans?

10. How big of a role does Catholicism play in personal, social, and ethnic identity of Filipinos and has it changed over migration to the United States?