Pass The Quilt

My Inspiration to build this website doesn’t originate from any one thing, or any one experience.  It’s from many patches of memories that span 3 decades, and by Filipinos I’ve met that span the globe. 

It’s from my understanding of what culture identity is as was defined around me growing up in a Fil-Am community in the 80s and 90s in San Diego, then learning its not exactly that for the people I met in College at Irvine.  It’s from realizing that Fil-Ams are different region to region, then going to the Philippines to discover in the Philippines itself its different from region to region.  Then traveling and realizing Filipino is a Global Brand with millions of diverse voices that make up an identity with a common question when you come upon one another:  Are you Filipino?

It’s a question we answer with pride, yes, but often times left as that.  No more questions necessary.  It’s a loaded question, with loaded assumptions.  For me, when I came upon Filipinos across the globe, I was the traveler, they were the local.  And we’re not talking about the Philippines.  It’s Chicago, Canada, England, Germany, Dubai, Singapore, Australia, you name it, there’s probably a Filipino there working hard as hell.  It was easy to ask, so what’s it like here?  I started forming thoughts about assimilation, adaptability, and progress.  I also came to an understanding that certain virtues of heritage was preserved.  But it wasn’t always the same things.  The culture is ever evolving everywhere in parallel. 

In thinking of heritage, I started thinking what that was for me personally, and it’s a question still unanswered.  I know of my grandparents, and parents, how they raised us, what we enjoy, what we ate, how we lived.  But I didn’t know much about how they lived before my existence, the sacrifices made, the journey.  All I know is that we are better for it.  But what ‘it’ is, is for the better part my assumption. 

In the pic is my grandfather in Tarlac, Philippines in 2003.  Still strong, and still working his land.  But he’s now there, and I’m out here.  It’s an opportunity lost to understand what he’d done, what he’d thought, and what he knows. Opportunity slips away as the years go by. 

With the magic of the web as a broadcasting tool, I hope to bring opportunity of voice.  And in the process revive the art of writing in a form slightly longer than a tweet or a facebook status update, to fill the gaps in our memories, bring truth to our assumptions, and understand a perspective beyond our boundaries.  It’s pulling patches of experiences and perspectives to enhance our own and capture it as a living chronicle, and recording our cumulative history as we know it.  It’s a quilt and it’s meant to be shared.