Today's TLA is TAL.
Traveling And Learning
The following will be my account of several interesting learning experiences from my travels last year's. First, I found out that there are actually Filipinos in Brasil. I met a Pinay in Brasil. She was working at a Kareoke bar in Sao Paolo. The title of the Kareoke spot was "Filipina Kareoke." I had an interesting conversation with her, because I ended up speaking broken Tagalog and broken Portuguese with her. She told me she has been in Sao Paolo ever since 1979. She was from Quezon City and she rarely visits the Philippines. She was a single woman, probably in her 40's or early 50's. Anyways, I never imagined I would ever be speaking Tagalog and Portuguese in Sao Paolo, Brasil, but it happened. Unfortunately, I think I saw the only Pinay in Brasil. I am sure there are a lot more, but she was the only one I saw. I did see a lot of Korean, Chinese, and especially Japanese people in Brasil.
By the way, I did eat some of the best udon in my life at Liberdade, in Sao Paolo, Brasil. Liberdade is the Japantown of Sao Paolo. I found out later on the trip, that Brasil actually has the largest population of Japanese natives outside of Japan, so no wonder they have good udon there. During our flight back to the United States, I sat next to this Asian woman, who was traveling from Brasilia to LA to Osaka to Taipei. She mentioned to me that she has in the import/export business which was located in Brasilia. She told me her trip was going to last 24 hours. I thought my 12 hour flight to LA was nothing compared to hers. She and everyone else in Brasil thought I was Japanese. This is because of my slanted eyes. At that moment, I started wondering how Asian Brasilians are treated in Brasilian society? Do Asian Brasilians experience the same racism, discrimination, and stereo-types similar to Asian Americans?
The second interesting learning moment was when I traveled to Peru. I learned that most South Americans know nothing or know very little about the Philippines. I learned this when I took a train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes to visit the famous Incan site, Machupicchu. I sat next to 2 older gentlemen from Caracas, Venezuela. They were on vacation to see Machupicchu. The most interesting thing happened, because I started talking to them in Spanish. They asked for my last name (apellido). I told them it was "Reyes" and they were shocked I had a Spanish surname for my last name. Then I had to explain to them that Peru and the Philippines were colonized by Spanish Conquistadores. I think it was a pretty cool moment to educate these 60 year old men, about the parallel histories of Peru and the Philippines.
By the way, Machupicchu was awesome! The terraces look like the rice terraces in the Philippines. Peru reminded me so much of the Philippines. The people are super friendly and nice. But the poverty was pretty bad in Peru. Some of the poor locations of Peru reminded me of the of the Philippines. Then I started thinking you know some parts of Oakland and San Jose have a lot of poverty too. Poverty and the disproportionate distribution of wealth is constant whether I am in East Los Angeles, East Oakland, East San Jose, Quezon City, or Peru. That was an interesting and eye opening fact to learn.
The third interesting learning moment was from Roma, Italia. My family decided to go for a family trip to Italy trip in September, last year. I started looking around Roma and I started seeing a lot of Filipinos in Italy. It is probably the Catholic thing, but why are there so many pinoys in Italy? I ended up speaking Tagalog to a Filipino gentleman working as a busboy in one of the restaurants in Roma. He asked me, "Pinoy ka ba." It was a brief exchange, but it really meant a lot to me. The Filipino gentleman I saw was a different kind of immigrant. This might be an over generalization, but the Italian Filipino works as cooks, bus boys, and domestic help. They are not the same as some selfish Bay Area second generation Filipino immigrants I encounter who work as "mayabang"( kind of means "show-off" or "better than you") nurses, clean cut boring accountants, and square engineers.
I started thinking about, Filipinos abroad. Why do Filipinos outside the Philippines contribute to so much of the Philippines' GDP? Is being Filipino a virtual concept? What is the common Filipino experience in Italy, in the middle east, in Australia, in North America, and even in South America? Why does the Philippine culture emphasize education? Yet our own people look forward to move to another country to make money to pay for a relatives' education. Shouldn't the Philippines make it relatively attractive such that our people don't have to hope to go to another country in order to "succeed" (whatever that means)? Why is it attractive for some to leave the Philippines? Why is it attractive to stay for others? Is it purely economical? Is there a statistical correlation between the yearly incomes of those who leave and those who stay? Are those who stay relatively wealthy in the Philippines while those who leave are relatively poor?
Anyways, I really want to document the Filipino Immigrant, whether it is in Europe, in South America, in Australia, in the Middle East, and in North America. I really want to learn what the push factors (perhaps Professor Gonzalves may have taught it to me in the past) and pull factors which lead our people to leave the beautiful islands of the Philippines. I want to perhaps do a documentary in the future, to document and explain what is a Filipino Immigrant. Maybe it has been done before, perhaps not, but I want to combine my traveling interests with my interests in Asian/Filipino/Ethnic studies. I really want to travel and visit the Philippines some day. I am considering a trip with my friends this year to travel from San Jose, California to Buenas Aires, Argentina all by bus. I am calling it my "Che" trip through Latin America. Prayers and wishes are welcome, if I do decide to do it. It might take a while to accomplish. So, I am still considering it. I am also considering a trip to Manila and perhaps even Brasil again later this year.
Anyways, I think what I really learned from traveling so much last year was the common human experience. Whether you are Italian, Venezuelan, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Chilean, Brasilian, Bolivian, Peruvian, Mexican, Filipino, or even an exchange student from Denver a lot of trivial misconceptions about others does not really matter. People can learn so much from other people by simply talking and being respectful in their presence.
Enjoy,
Jonathan
