Customer Reviews

Philippine Woman in America

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I arrived in Chicago at 3 years old and have felt the stigma of prejudice and misunderstanding of who and what Filipino culture is about, as I slowly became who I am now. In the 70s and 80s, I felt strange emotions when I began to journey back and forth to the Philippines. I was one of the first wave of balikbayan youth to feel I had sojourned out of the mainland back to the culture in my soul, helpless in integerating who I am, because truly I have come to accept I am both. With a very strong Ilocano-Tagalog flavor in our home life in the early 70s such was my identity - both Filipina and American. My mama has few yet vivid memories of Japanese invasion in the North Ilocano region as a child, yet I myself held some confused and strong emotions hearing about the EDSA Revolution in the 80s...but did not know why, when I lived in Chicago. My point in all this? Reading the work of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard has helped me understand who I am as a Filipina and as an American. Brainard does not sound "revolutionary" and emotional like most Filipino writers think they must express. There is a softness, soothing and tenderness to the touch of her pen. No one has yet been able to penetrate the Chicago area with this understanding. Continue Ma'am Brainard, in your special gift and example. May God honor the rest of the chapters of your life experience. ~~~by Ms. Janis Ver Licuanan

I loved these essays by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. They are straightforward, elegantly-written, and pithy. The essays reveal much of the author's experiences as an immigrant in the United States. A wonderful book by a great writer!