Blog #5 - Me and the Philippines

Me and the Philippines - A Combination of Sorts

While still young, I did not know a lot about my heritage.  I knew I was an American Filipino - first generation born in the United States - and that World War II played a significant role in our family coming to America.  What I did not know was how I came to be.  The reason I say that is because I do not look like the rest of my family.  My immediate family; consisting of my father, my mother, and my sister; are light skinned, have dark brown eyes, and reached a height no higher than 5'3".  What is especially different are my eyes; which are a combination of different colors with the main part being light brown or hazel, surrounded by thin concentric circles of color including green, blue, and yellow.

My next closest family members (grandparents, aunts, and uncles) were the same, although one uncle was @5'5 in height.  I, however, have a tendency to get dark very easily, have hazel eyes, and stand 5'8" tall.  Whenever I asked my parents and grandparents about why I was so different, I would receive vague answers that I probably possessed different features because of a distant relative who was not of Filipino descent - although I was never given an answer on who that person was, nor how many generations back he came from.  I actually questioned my parents a few times if I was truly their child; which they said I was.  Just to be sure, when I turned 18 I went to San Francisco and obtained a copy of my birth certificate to confirm my parents were indeed my parents.  (Yay!, because I really like them)

So what does this have to do with world history?  Well, history helped me understand why I am what I am, and corroborates with what my family told me over the years.  In grade school, I learned the Philippines was "discovered" by Magellan and named after King Phillip.  I put quotes around "discovered" because if people were already there, doesn't that mean it had already been discovered? - but sorry, I digress.  When I returned to college approximately three years ago, I took a U.S. History course.  I further learned the Philippine Islands were acquired by the United States under Theodore Roosevelt after the surrender of Spain following the Spanish-American War.  In this World History course, I am learning even more about my heritage.  In the section "Spain and the Philippines" by Strayer (Strayer, 437-439), I learned when the Spaniards came to the Philippines in the 16th century that the Chinese were already on the islands and had formed small settlements.

Throughout my past, I have been asked what my true heritage is.  In the past I would always joke that I was Filipino, but the reason why I looked the way I did was probably due to someone from one of the many countries that invaded our islands in the past.  I can now definitively say it was due to someone from one of the many countries that have come in contact with the Philippines - the Spanish conquerers, the Americans who acquired the islands, the Chinese settlers, the Japanese, or maybe someone else from another country.  So the probable reason no one could tell me why I look the way I do is not because they did not want to tell me, but because they just did not know.  After all these years, I am okay with that.