What the school system won't make you read

I'll be honest, I didn't mind high school. Mostly because 'minding it' was NOT an option, and I was sure my parents had some radar that would turn on alarms and red strobe lights in the house if I so much as thought of skipping. Minding high school was just not an option. So I just sucked it up and dealt with it. Mostly poorly.

There were parts I liked - mainly lunch time, Spanish and English. I went to a French high school so any language was pretty much a bird class.

I HATED French. The teacher was a staunch separatist who thought it was appropriate to ask us for our personal info - like address and email and phone number. I am still not too sure what he was going to use them for. Plus he had this really breathy way of speaking and utb-of-Crisco oily hair. AND he made us read books in the most illogical way. The test involved giving the definition and context of page upon page of vocabulary word, so we were basically reading the dictionary and memorising page numbers more than getting to enjoy and understand the novel itself.

It actually made me hella nervous to pick up a book for a few years after that.

So when a kasama asked me "what books I had read" while we were preparing materials for the International Women's Day march this past March 8, I just turned mute. High school and the academic snobbery of McGill just turned books into a stigma. As though I would be a lesser person for not having read this guy or the other.

I haven't read most socialist and communist lit. Nor have I read most political, sociological or economic treatise* out there. Which doesn't mean I like reading - I just don't like reading about people who've discovered this week's truth of the month.

Anyways.

To this kasama's question I gave the following answer -

I've read Jessica Hagedorn. And Screaming Monkeys. And Babaylan and Returning A Borrowed Tongue. I've looked really hard for alternative readings and analyses of Filipino history. I picked up Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, but after starting it over three times I've all but given up reading it. Next up on my reading list is Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory and Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults.

Taking his advice, I finally started reading America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. I picked it up on a pretty epic trip, and am still not too sure why it took me so long to crack its spine.

From pretty much the third page, I had to take pauses and breathe in a little deeper. The themes he brings up in such a human and sensitive way - family unity and separation, poverty, peasant's land rights, class and social dynamics in the Philippines and in America, migration, "difference" and racism are still so relevant today although written in 1943.

In the space my brain's at right now, having just returned from working with peasants who were struggling to eat and keep their land, and preparing for the Ugat conference, this book couldn't have come at a better time to bring it all together. And remind me of things I had forgotten or had chosen not to know about my family's life, like where my family is really (REALLY) from and why my dad really (REALLY) came here.

I would quote some passages but I think you'd be better off reading it on your own. Some parts affected me really deeply that may not really strike a chord with you - it's just a matter of what hits home to each of us, depending where we've been and where we're at. Regardless, be it now or later, please please please get your hand on this novel. I swear, pick it up and first thing you know, three hours will have gone by and you'll have barely noticed. Hit me up if you want to share a copy - I have a sneaky feeling MTL public librearies may not carry a copy.


* 1: a systematic exposition or argument in writing including a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved and conclusions reached 2obsolete : account,tale - HONESTLY, just the definition makes me cringe.

Upcoming Event: Comedy Off the Main

Here's a great community event for one of our sister organizations.

Philippine Women Centre Benefit Show
March 25th, 2009
$10 donation

Comedy OFF the Main
Wednesday 8:30 p.m.
Oliveira, 213 Rachel Est

If I Can’t Dance…

“…I don’t want to join your revolution”

Free coffee on Saturday May 23rd to whoever can identify who said that, cause at 10:25 on this Thursday night I can’t for the life of me remember who that was. A kick ass anarcho-feminist did, that’s all I can remember.

As far as I’m concerned, it may as well have been Ate Cel. Seriously, the woman can rock a rally like no one else – physically and verbally. I got to know her multi-faceted awesomeness at the March 8th International Women’s Day rally in Montreal, and I’m forever grateful for the encounter. She can switch from dancing in the street to spitting tight rhetoric on the LCP in a second, in both instances managing to unite people and move them to join in, shout out and get involved.

The PWC decided to extend International Women’s Day and turn it into a two weekend event, and invited Ate Cel to share on the history of migration and organization of Filipina women in Canada. I have to admit, I left feeling a little more fierce and a little more empowered – knowing that if I put a little back into it, I could probably get things moving in Montreal, too.

From the shift Canadian (im)migration policies have taken, away from specialized trades targeting cheap Filipino labor, to an overt de-skilling and disregard for Filipinas’ skills and education level through the LCP, she struck so many chords along the way it was hard to not be moved. To tears, to anger, or ideally to action.

She didn’t only speak on the ‘struggles’ and the ‘oppression’ though. She spoke on how women organized in Canada to better their condition, demand their rights and get some space (literally, sometimes), and recognition in a country that was totally satisfied forgetting they were around.

The last thing I want to do on here is generalize how you all would have felt listening to her, so I’ll speak for myself: it felt so good to hear how a community could and did come together in though times and changed things for themselves, even if that meant moving the boat and maybe getting some cut eye and un-kind words along the way. It felt good to hear that they didn’t wait, or got fed up of waiting, to have people do things for them and for change to come on its own and got to it themselves. That they faced up to the hard truth of injustice, and unfair treatment, and the sadness, and maybe the anger. That they stopped trying to do it alone, came together, and used the negative and turned it into positive.

And it’s so good to know that I have examples of really cool women to base my life on – that ‘they’ can become ‘we’, you know?

In these days of third-wave, POC/WOC revolutions, I’d like to append to that quote “if you’ll give cut eye to my doorknockers and pink shirt”… But that’s stuff for another post.

We added a few excerpts from her presentation to this week’s Sigaw Ng Bayan radio show. Check out the CKUT archives HERE to listen to the show – guaranteed you’ll love it! Hmmm – maybe we can figure out a way of uploading those here directly?

Philippine History Workshop

Let me tell you about Emmanual Sayo.

We call him "Kuya Manny" and he is a strong, quiet presence who is also kinda brilliant. A community researcher, he has been actively organizing the Filipino community in Canada for at least a couple decades. We're very excited to have him around.

On Sunday, March 15, he came over to one of our houses for a Philippine History Workshop. That was... interesting. He had a two-page outline which we sorta skipped through, stopping every once in a while to elaborate on the bombing of Manila, or the difference between the occupations by the Japanese vs. the Americans. We ended up having a deep discussion on the organizing work here in Montreal, which was unexpected, but quite enlightening. I gotta say, I thought that the thing was a bit of a blur. But I guess I shoulda been more aware of the fact that we can't sit for a just a couple hours and review hundreds of years of colonization.

Kuya Manny's goal for the workshop was to emphasize the fact that before we go into learning about the real history of the Philippines, we should be investigating our own history and getting to know ourselves in the context of our migration in Canada. Why did our parents leave the Philippines? How did they end up in Canada? What is our role as Filipino youth now that we are here and trying to understand ourselves in this country?

Stuff to think about.

In the meantime, find yourself a copy of Renato Constantino's "The Miseducation of the Filipino". It may just blow you away.

(Actually, find anything by Renato Constantino. He and Leitizia Constantino wrote a couple books called "The Philippines: A Past Revisited" and "The Philippines: A Continuing Past". Both excellent critical analyses of Philippine History. Amado Guerrero's "Philippine Society and Revolution" is also pretty amazing.. Oh! and find yourself a copy of Carlos Bulosan's "America is in the Heart"! It's about a young farm boy who leaves his home to be a migrant worker in America, but it takes place in the early 1900s and it's just gorgeous. You won't regret this read.)

(hmm.... I think the bloggers and I will compile a reading list for y'all. Ooh! project!)


By the way - the folks at the Kapit Bisig Centre are hosting a series of workshops and discussion groups leading up to the Ugat conference. Want in? Email us (kabataangmontreal at gmail dot com)

Filipino Youth of Montreal to Share their Stories, Return to their Roots in 2.5-day Conference

Kapit Bisig Centre
press release

Filipino Youth of Montreal to Share their Stories, Return to their Roots in 2.5-day Conference
for immediate release: March 10, 2009

Montreal - Côte-des-Neiges is abuzz with excitement over the latest endeavour of the Kapit Bisig Centre. “Ugat : Sharing our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding Our Roots (A Filipino Youth Intercollegiate and Community Conference)”, is a 2.5-day conference organized by Kapit Bisig Centre member organization "Kabataang Montreal," to bring together Filipino Youth around Montreal and - as the title of the conference states - share their stories and understand their “Ugat”, the Tagalog word meaning “roots”.

The conference aims to gather Filipino Youth of Montreal to share their stories and understand one another in their context of migration and settlement in Canada. Participants are being invited from all backgrounds and experiences.

“No matter where you were born, or how much schooling you completed; no matter what language you speak, who you choose to worship, or who you choose to love, at the root of it is our common ancestry, our common history, our common colonization and our common migration,” says Julie Nieto, member of Kabataang Montreal and one of the key conference organizers. “That’s what makes us Filipino. And now we’re in Canada, and Quebec specifically. We are here in Montreal. ‘How is that going for us?’ is the next question we need to address.”

From the understanding of our roots of migration and the history of the Philippines, conference participants will then explore and discuss the settlement and integration of Filipinos in Canada, and specifically in Montreal. Panel and workshop topics will include racism, identity, gender, language and education. Another goal of the conference is to train youth to engage in discussion on policies affecting the Filipino community in Montreal.

“I’m so proud to see our young people taking a more active role in Canadian society,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, and one of the keynote speakers for the conference. “So many of our youth are suffering, but so many more are starting to stand up and demand recognition.”

So far, many Filipino youth are eager to participate and the Filipino students of McGill University are no exception. Frances Bruno, co-president of the McGill University Filipino and Asian Students Association (MUFASA) says, “The members of MUFASA are eager to meet and learn alongside the Filipino students of Concordia, as well as with all other Filipinos around Montreal.”

As a daughter of OFWs, and a so-called “first generation” Filipino youth, Frances’ experiences are not uncommon: “Having to learn a completely novel language and adapting to a different culture was initially a challenge for me in terms of finding and embracing my identity at the age of 9, but ultimately helped me to realize that acknowledging your roots is all you need no matter where you are in the world.”

The conference will take a unique dynamic approach, bringing in speakers from community organizations as well as academic researchers. It will also feature an encore presentation of “Pinoyville: CDN”, a play first presented by the Kapit Bisig Centre in November 2008, as well as a photo exhibit by high school-aged Filipino youth, reflecting their experiences in Montreal.
“This conference is a continued assertion that the Filipino community in Montreal is growing stronger and more united,” says Joanne Vasquez, chair of the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec. “With over 60% of all Filipinos living in Cote-des-Neiges, this is our ‘Pinoyville’. Even if you didn’t grow up in this neighbourhood, all Filipinos have meaningful experiences here, even if it is simply about being among people who look like you.”

Ugat : Sharing our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding Our Roots (A Filipino Youth Intercollegiate and Community Conference) is set to take place May 22-24, 2009, at the Ampitheatre of the Jewish General Hospital Institute for Community and Family Psychiatry (ICFP), 4333 Cote-Ste-Catherine. For more information, or to volunteer, email Julie Nieto or Josie Caro at kabataangmontreal@gmail.com.

-- Kabataang MontrealMember Organization of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance
E-mail: kabataangmontreal@gmail.com
Tel: (514) 678-3901

Ugat: Sharing our Stories

Welcome to the 'Ugat: Sharing Our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding our Roots' conference website! The conference will be geared towards Filipino youth of Montreal to explore our history and discuss issues in our community.

The conference will be taking place at Jewish General Hospital's Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry Ampitheatre (4333 Côte Ste. Catherine) from May 22-24th, 2009. We will continue to post updates, as well as resources and interviews with the organizers in preparation for the event.

For now feel free to visit these interesting sites:

Kabataang Montreal and the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec will be organizing the event.

And if you want to know more about is, the bloggers for this site are:

Steph
Rob