I had the privilege of interviewing my good friend, AJ Soriano, an English Major from Skyline College, residing in Daly City California. Coming from a family of five and the only boy from his siblings, AJ embodies the true meaning of family responsibility and loyalty. Through the different segments of this interview, he will be sharing his stories from his childhood to his experience assimilating in the United States as an immigrant.
Welcome to my blog. This blog contains five very interesting and informational videos of Norma Labrador, a proud Filipina of Daly City, describing her life starting out in the Philippines and immigrating here to the United States. Enjoy watching!
Table of Contents
1. Part I "Family Background"
2. Part II "Leaving the Philippines"
3. Part III "Settling in the U.S."
4. Part IV "Being Filipino in the U.S."
5. Part V "Reflections"
1. PART I "FAMILY BACKGROUND"
In this video, Norma Labrador speaks about the background of herself, her family, and her life in the Philippines before coming to America.
2. PART II "LEAVING THE PHILIPPINES"
In this video, Norma speaks about her thoughts about leaving the Philippines and also her feelings about leaving home for a new home.
3. PART III "SETTLING IN THE U.S."
Here, Norma speaks about her experience arriving and living in the United States for the first time. She speaks about her multiple jobs, her children arriving, and other topics pertaining to settling in America.
4. PART IV "BEING FILIPINO IN THE U.S."
In this video, Norma speaks about her experience being Filipino in another country and how it effected her and her lifestyle.
5. PART V "REFLECTIONS"
Here, Norma reflects upon her life starting from the Philippines all the way through her life living in the United States. She gives us an insight of how her moving and leaving effected her.
Brief Description Of my Interviewer:
Doing this interview I found a lot of information about my mom that I never expected. How growing up she didn't really have much, they were poor they had to work at a very young age, but coming to America really change their life. She found out the hardships they had to go through and over came it with a lot of dedication and hard work.
I interviewed a woman by the name of Christina Ridad. She has been living in the United States since 1960's and has accomplished much since then. Mrs. Ridad migrated from the Philippines to the United States at a young age for a better life due to the lack of resources and opportunities in her homeland. Struggle is a common term that most immigrants can relate to. It is something that drives people to push their own limits and persevere in order to live successful lives. In terms of being successful, success has several meanings. People in our society may define success by having a lot of money and owning fancy things. On the other hand, for immigrants like my interviewee, she views success as something that is intangible and must be worked for. Like most immigrants Benito Vergara interviewed, my interviewee shares the same experience. Contrarily, the perception and attitude towards achieving economic and material success greatly differ between them.
Segment 1 (Life in the Philippines)
According to Christina Ridad, life in the Philippines was not easy. In Illocos Norte, Philippines; where she is from, there is more agricultural land. Being unable to find work, other than farming or housekeeping, Mrs. Ridad felt the need to leave her home in hopes of finding something better.
Segment 2 (Leaving the Philippines)
After a few months of living in the United States, she found a job fairly quick that required her to do simple tasks. Within the first year of living in the United States, Mrs. Ridad was able to obtain a job and live sufficiently as she hoped for.
Segment 3 (Homesickness)
By the time Mrs. Ridad arrived to the United States, the routine she left from the Philippines such as feeding her chicken and the lifestyle was the most thing she missed the most. She mentioned about not wanting to live in the Philippines anymore but to just to visit and have a vacation since all of her relatives and families are all in the U.S.
Segment 4 (Being Successful)
The way Ms. Ridad expressed the way she became successful was based on her patience and willpower to keep on learning. With all that she had accomplished, Ms. Ridad said “God came along and gave me the strength to achieve this success, everything that I gained is a blessing and that is my success” (Ridad). Though everyone has a different way of becoming successful, the insight I gained from Ms. Ridad is that patience and persistence will lead you to become successful."If you like to work, there is work" (Ridad) Mrs. Ridad stated.
“If
given an opportunity, grab it and take it, because if not, then you’ll fall
behind.”
Miguel Ignacio with his college sweetheart, Marivic Ignacio.
The person that I interviewed is my father. His pursuit of keeping his family together drove
him to many different experiences and opportunities. He was given the chance to
migrate to the United States in order to keep the family together, which opened
many doors for the next generations. As a result of leaving the Philippines, he realized that his
parents’ decision to bring him to the United States would benefit mostly his
own family. Now he understands and acknowledges his parents for migrating in
the first place. My father's family is one that has never been separated ever
since they came to the United States.
Table of Contents
I. Living in the Philippines
II. Leaving the Philippines and Arriving in the U.S.
III. Settling in the U.S.
IV. Living in the United States
V. Reflections
I. Living in the Philippines
Miguel with his family back in the Philippines
Miguel Ignacio explains how his life in the Philippines was like and how he grew up.
II. Leaving the Philippines and Arriving in the U.S.
Miguel expresses his feelings upon leaving the Philippines and how he was able to be brought to the United States by his two older sisters.
III. Settling in the U.S.
Miguel after a week of arriving in the U.S.
Miguel talks about how life was settling in the United States and the comparison between America to the Philippines.
IV. Living in the United States
Miguel reveals how he was treated by other Filipinos in the United States and how he was able to grow a family which might've been harder in the Philippines.
V. Reflections
During this last part of the interview, Miguel concludes with the lessons he's learned throughout all of his experiences living in the Philippines, leaving the Philippines, and having to live in a new country.
Miguel with his family of seven.
"Try to make something of where you are, whether you're here or in the Philippines, and you'll be a better person."
Introduction: Eduardo Paraviso came to America in the year 2013 from Manila located in the Philippines. He did not plan on staying in America full-time due to the fact he felt that he would be homesick and nostalgic. After coming to find out there were more opportunities in America he decided to stay here in the U.S and to only visit his friend in Manila for vacation.
Table of Contents: I. Family Background II. Leaving the Philippines III. Arriving in the United States IV. Life in the United States VI. Being Filipino in the America VII. Observations
I. Family Background Here Eduardo talks about what it was like growing up in the Philippines.
II. Leaving the Philippines Here Eduardo talks about how it was all possible getting to America.
III. Arriving in the United States Here Eduardo talks about having to adjust to American customs.
IV. Life in the United States
Here Eduardo talks about making friends and having to find a job when living in America.
VI. Being Filipino in the America
Here Eduardo talks about facing discrimination.
VII. Observations Here Eduardo wraps up how it feels to be Filipino in America.
Here I Interview Ms. Clarita Lico, my former Mathematics teacher at Westmoor High School in Daly City. I chose Ms. Lico because I've done interviews with her before and I know that she is not afraid to speak her mind. Here she discusses her journey from the Philippines to the United States in order to reunite with her family.
Table of Contents
Background Information
Life in the Philippines
Life in America as a Filipina
Gaining Citizenship
Life in America- Today
Background
This segment is about Ms. Lico's background and quickly brushes over how her life was back in the Philippines, talking about her experiences from growing up as the eldest of six siblings to discussing about her profession.
Life in the Philippines
Here, she elaborates more into her childhood, educational, and professional experiences in the Philippines. She talks about how her life was growing up in a middle class household. As the eldest, her parents greatly emphasized the importance of getting a college education.
Life in America as a Filipina
This clip goes over her transition from the Philippines to the United States. She goes over her struggles of finding work, living space, and putting up with discrimination.
Gaining Citizenship
Clarita goes over her journey of obtaining United States citizenship, explaining how she was undocumented for almost a year and a half and the steps she had to take to finally gain citizenship.
Life in America-Today
Here we talk about Clarita's life in the U.S. now and how far she's gone since she migrated here. We go over her current profession, comparing it to what she used to do when she first came here. Clarita also mentions how at first she did not like the U.S., but eventually grew to love it as she put aside her own dreams in order to stay with her family.
Patrick Palomata that is a bit different than other stories you've heard. Patrick was born in Sacramento, CA but he was raised in Manila, Philippines. He was only 11 when he moved here and experienced America differently than most Filipino immigrants.
In this clip we learn about Patrick and how it was growing up in the Philippines.
In this second clip we discover how Patrick reacted and was treated when he came back to America.
Left to Right: Lorenzo Palomata, Issa Palomata, Patrick Palomata
I, Aris Marc Gonzales, had the honor of interviewing my lolo, Rudolfo Adel, about his experiences as a Filipino immigrant. He gets into detail about the reasons why he came to the U.S. and how his life was in when he first arrived. Some very surprising and unexpected things are said during the interview. I got to learn more about my lolo thanks to this interview.
For this oral history project, I interviewed Flora Go-Soco, a Filipina immigrant who now lives in Daly City. Flora Go-Soco was born in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines, and grew up in the capital city of Manila. She earned a medical degree in the Philippines, but pursued nursing once in America. Throughout the interview, she shares her personal story and opinions about various aspects of life in the Philippines and America.
Flora introduces herself and gives an overall background of her childhood. She was born in Leyte, but grew up in Manila—in the Malate / San Andres area. She talks about her family's financial status and the background of her parents.
In this segment, Flora talks about her college experience in the Philippines, starting with her time at Far Eastern University. She expounds on her transition from being a student, to a teacher, and finally to becoming a mother. Notable quotes:
It was my mom's dream to have one kid to go to medicine and she handpicked me because I was the youngest [in my family] to graduate from high school - I graduated at 15 years of age.
If you have the means, it's easier than if you rear your children up hear, or rather, have a family here, because in the Philippines, if you can afford nannies then things are easier for you. You get to sleep.
Flora shares the motivations for her immigration to America—which started with her own mother's journey in the 80s. Notable quotes:
My mom already had plans to come over here even before I wanted to come.
During that time [80s] there were not much happening and also not a lot of people were applying. Not a lot of people could afford to go to America. And not a lot of people were interested in going out of the country because there were a lot of jobs around and the streets were safe.
At that time, just like now, they have this vision of America as greener pastures. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Even when things were good in the Philippines at that time, of course from their readings and from TV, they know that there's ... more to enjoy in America.
You want your kids to have a better education, better opportunities, so I actually looked forward to coming over. We even tried to come over even before my papers came out.
In this section, Flora talks about the initial culture shock she experienced upon immigrating, and subsequently, the changes she had to go through to acclimate. Notable quotes:
When we first landed in LA, the first change that I experienced was the weather. It was really cold. I felt like I walked into a big fridge.
The big positive thing is you are able to see the opportunities out there. You are able to expand as much as you would want to. Like I always tell you, there are a lot of opportunities out there, but you have to be prepared for those opportunities. That's why you have to study now and expand later. Spread your wings later.
Flora then shares about her experience in the workforce and tries to draw comparisons between professional life in America as compared to the Philippines. Though she was trained as a medical doctor in the Philippines, she chose to pursue nursing in the United States due to training and accreditation issues. Notable quotes:
Employers always want employees who've been trained or who have had background. Every now and then you'll encounter employers who are willing to train people, mostly because they want to pay chapter. So if you're not trained, then your salary scale is down there. Whereas if you're already trained then you have better opportunities of a higher quality pay scale.
I just got my nursing here in America. I was an MD in the Philippines, so my training as an MD didn't count because those professions are not the same. Although yes they're both in the medical field, but their jobs specs are different - entirely different. So they demand of course the nursing experience - which I didn't have.
Being a Filipino, we were educated with the English as a medium of instruction, so we weren't really - though we were not that eloquent, but we can easily adapt because we've been taught and trained using English as a medium of instruction - using English books. So it was an advantage. Challenge? Of course there's an accent, especially for an older person like me, who came here at a later stage in my life, I had an accent.
In this closing section, Flora discusses her views on identifying as a Filipino, even if she still lives and plans to retire in the United States. She talks about how the two cultures intersects, and she also shares some advice for those who may relate to her experience. Notable quotes:
I enjoy being an American and I enjoy having that Filipino cultural background.
f your heart is set to come here to America, it's not like you are giving up your "Filipinoness," but rather you're going to adjust to the America culture, right, and you have to adapt american ways, but it's advantageous for us not to forget where we came from because Filipino culture is rich and we have very good Filipino values.
Try to adapt to the good things here in America and try to still practice the good values that you have as a Filipino.
A lesson that I learned is to adapt. Whatever you learn here that's good, go do it. Adapt to it. The things that you know - your good values as a Filipino - retain them. And people will love you for the goodness in you. And the good thing is if you show that you're a good person they will appreciation your ethnicity. And you can then be proud that you're a Filipino
I never take negative things to heart. If somebody's negative to me, I just pray for that person. Lift him up to God—and the Lord will take care of you.
Summary & Takeaway
Overall, Flora Go-Soco has been able to experience a varied life both in the United States and in the Philippines. Though she has been able to find comfort in her life, she has faced her own unique struggles and challenges as an immigrant and as a Filipina. Her message to others though is to maintain clarity of thought and purpose in order to achieve the goals and outcomes that are desired. Though challenges and negativity may come up, the ideal response is to lay them aside and keep moving on. As an immigrant, she is grateful for her life in the United States, but she is also respectful and appreciative of her history and background as a Filipina.
Intertwining Pathways Introduction
Marciana Corrales is an 80 year old Filipino woman that migrated to the United States in 1994, and currently resides in Daly City, California. I had the honor of interviewing her about her past life in the Philippines, and also her life now in the United States. Themes such as homesickness, nostalgia, and discrimination risen, and such themes are what intertwines Filipinos together because of the similar experiences faced migrating to the United States.
Table of Contents
|. Migrating to the United States ||. Petition to migrate to U.S. |||. First Job in the U.S. |V. Homesickness
V. Discrimination
V|. Decision to move back or stay
