Sino ang Bayani ko?

In my twenty-three years of existence my biggest accomplishment is not being the youngest and first of my siblings to graduate college, it is being the example to my nephews and niece to really strive for a college education with the purpose of finding what they are passionate about. I have two nephews, one is Tyren 14 years old, and the other is Michael Jr. 7 years old, and one niece, Sarena who is 6 years old. Whatever I do, it is etched in their memories and in some instances will help shape the way they view the world around them. This is why I value my time here on this study abroad trip because it is something I can share with these kids that can get them excited about their future.

I grew up with my mom and other family members telling me how important a college education is and how much money I can make if only I graduate college. I can become a nurse and make a lot of money, or become a lawyer and make a lot of money, or get a job that makes a lot of money etc. No one ever really encouraged me to choose for myself. There are so many options in the U.S. from consumer goods to choosing a college major. It helps to plant seeds in young minds such as myself in the hopes of helping them land a stable career with a great starting salary.

My mom and me in 1993 in the Philippines when she visited from California

This push for higher education my mom has always instilled in me comes from her own experiences growing up one of six siblings in a poor Filipino household in the 60s and 70s. Though her mom (my grandma) could not afford higher education for all six of her children they all worked together to attain scholarships for each one of them, and because of this they were all able to graduate from a Philippine college.

My grandmother Adela, My mother Leonarda, and my grandfather Leonardo 1970s

My mom went to a Women’s college where she earned an English degree, and later a teaching certificate, which lead to her profession as an English teacher in the Philippines. Though respectable, the career she had was not enough to support a family. To make a long story short she moved to the U.S. to pursue better opportunities for my siblings and I. She participated in what author Parenas speaks of in the article “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor” as the “Three-Tier system”. In the context of Parenas writing, my mother was the migrant reproductive laborer who worked as a nurse aide in nursing homes as well as private individual clients. It was in this setting that she met her second husband, which enabled my siblings and I to join her in the U.S., but that’s another story.

In my interpretation of Parenas writing one of her key points is that domestic and reproductive work is reserved strictly for women and that globalization and capitalism are the systems that allow the continuation of domestic and reproductive work to be relegated from women in developed countries to migrant Filipinas to Filipinas too poor to migrate. It is chilling to me that this article speaks about a point in my mothers life and even more chilling to conceptualize that thousands of other Filipina women and women of color went and probably are going through this presently.

So I do not place blame on my mother for wanting me to become a nurse or a lawyer or achieve economic success because I know where her heart comes from. Her childhood was unlike my privileged childhood. Her education was unlike my privileged education. I paid my way through school with student loans, scholarships and her help. She paid her way through school through scholarships and academic excellence.

The day I graduated from the University of Washington 2011

The current president of the Philippines, President Aquino has stated that Overseas Filipino Workers of the Philippines are the heroes of the country. They are the heroes because they provide the Philippines with a constant flow of currency, and maintain positive relationships with host countries. Thanks to my mother I can choose what I want to be in life. More than hope, I have confidence in my future, which I can say is more than a lot of young adults in the Philippines. I met an eighteen-year-old woman named Princess one evening on our trip in Boracay last week who unfortunately could not see past being a domestic worker, but I’ll explain more about this on my next blog.