Motherland, I am your borders.
I am full of borders crossed
over and over again.
Rigid lines separating
my dark brown skin to my
American tongue to my
too stout with no bridge and my
ilong (1)
love for vinegar with my longanisa (2) and bangus (3)
. I have cracks and fissures...
As a person who identifies as an AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander), it’s extremely important to know my history, to understand that everything we do now was made possible because of the sacrifices made by our forefathers in the Philippines. Freedom is not gained by being passive,...
Moving from the Philippines to America was an experience for me. I was about nine years old, knew little about the world beyond my culture at the time and the transition from a third world country to a first world was brand new.
I remembered receiving benefits that were nonexistent...
Being Pilipino American is an experience that one might view as confusing.
For me, I’ve never really experienced an opportunity where my family members spoke about the Philippines except in the small facets of culture like language, music and food. I was taught that being Pilipino...
People are patchworks. No person is ever made up of one single thing. It’s the several parts that make a whole and all of them are important.
One patch might be race, the other, religion; a patch here, your gender; a patch there, your sexuality; health; body type; financial stability....
“I’m sorry, can you please say your name again?” “Do you have any nicknames, something easier to pronounce?” “Is that even a name?” The majority of my life has consisted of these questions regarding my first name alone, but that’s only the beginning.
After tearing apart...
I grew up in Mira Mesa, a town with a huge community of AsianPacific Islanders. Being Latino, I was always surrounded by the influence of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures. I absorbed the culture because my closest friends invited me into their homes and lives.
One thing I have...
Pierson Cepeda, Assistant Web & Social Media Manager
• April 13, 2016
My name is Pierson Cepeda. I am originally from the island of Saipan, which is a part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States, and that makes me Chamorro.
When my family made the move to California, I was still very much a young kid (nine years old) and...
Lexy Perez, Arts & Entertainment Editor
• April 13, 2016
In today’s world, people are encouraged to love the skin they’re in. My skin color is brown, and I am proud of it. But it can be hard to for one to love his/her skin when society as a whole has such a narrow-minded concept of ethnicity.
This is a perspective which does not recognize...
I fight with the expectation of being tied to my Filipino culture, but I am a proud Filipino. It’s difficult telling people, I’m 1⁄2 Filipino, a 1⁄4 Mexican, and a 1⁄4 Welsh/Swedish, when I just look Filipino.
I’ve visited the Philippines once in my life, as a baby, which...
Where are all the badass women? In the world of comics, they are just too few and far between. For the sake of our culture, girls and boys need to look up to more than just male superheroes.
I am an avid collector of comic books and an aspiring comic artist. I won’t lie; my favorite superhero is not...
On International Women’s Day, which occurred March 8 this year, men and women came together to participate in a Feminists Unite march to advocate for immigrant working women saying, “Ya basta” (“Enough is enough”), to the sexual harassment they face.
I accompanied Feminists...
