Marvin L. Osborne
English 165 AK
Ms. Erpelo
Research Project
12/15/05
Final
Uniting Communities
If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it! This is a
philosophy that many communities all over
I conducted this interview in the library of Skyline Community College
of San Bruno California. The interview was done in a quiet and
comfortable area of the library. I began the interview by asking Romeo to
give me a little background on him and how he began organizing in order to make
him feel more comfortable. After he gave this information, he told me
about his involvement in the community and some of the hardships that the
Filipino community has had to endure. In addition to this, Romeo talked
about how there is a growing need for additional support within the Filipino
community. At the end of the interview, Romeo left the world with a
challenge to begin supporting and participating if possible in community
activities.
Before I conducted this interview, I always believed that minorities,
and in this case, Filipinos, were to blame for their own lack of unity in their
communities. I have done much research specifically about the
African-American community and have found that it always took some major
conflict to join them together. And as soon as the major conflict was
over, the group was disbanded. An example of this can be found even
today, 35 years after the civil rights movements. Even though there is
still much need for organized communities, not only among African-Americans,
but all minorities, communities are not as united before because people do not see
as severe of a problem as in prior years. That is a severe problem in
itself. With this bias stuck in my head, I did not see how the Filipino
communities would be different. However, by the close of the interview,
it was my hope that not I would understand why and know who is to blame for the
years of ethnic struggles to obtain harmony in the lives of Filipinos.
And in doing so, possibly understand the division in all minorities in
Before I begin to discuss how history and society have economically hurt
Filipinos and caused a separation within the Filipino community, allow me to
first give you a little background on Romeo Garcia.
Romeo Garcia currently works for four departments at
Now that we know a little more about Romeo Garcia, lets
move into how history and society have hurt Filipinos economically and caused a
division within the Filipino community. It is not very easy to organize a
community of people especially if that community consists of the leader’s
peers, friends, family, and other people that he or she may know. Romeo can
contest to this because he had to experience this first hand. The first
challenge that there is when organizing is synchronizing people’s schedules to
match the leader’s schedule. Another challenge is making sure as a leader
he or she does not come across as arrogant. He said that as a leader and
an organizer of a group, he or she does not want to come across as
condescending or plain and simply bossy to the rest of the group. He said
you want to make sure as a leader that the message that is given comes across
as a shared effort and not a one man or woman show (Romeo).
Just as it is not easy to organize a community, it is also not easy to organize
Filipinos when they have been victimized economically by a society that calls
them lazy. Filipinos are not to blame for the struggles they have had to
endure in organizing communities. Society has backed Filipinos into a
corner with tried to block all possible exists. Some people might say, if
Filipinos do not like what is going on in their communities, then they should
stop being lazy and do something about it; however, it is easier said than
done.
This is a picture of Filipinos depicted as organized old women trying to pull
down a statue of three American men who represent
Still holding on to my preconceived notions about minorities organizing, I
asked Romeo if the lack of organization within in Filipino communities came
from people being lazy. Romeo’s response opened my eyes to a problem that
many people overlook. Romeo says that many people cannot help in
organizing the way they would like to not because they are lazy, but because
they are so economically crippled. Many Filipinos along with other
minorities are still facing situations that are similar to slavery, or shall I
say modern-day slavery, working 2 or 3 jobs with every penny going to bills and
barely enough food to say they are not starving. In the book Home
Bound, the author Espiritu says:
Many from both ends of the class spectrum opt out of community affairs because
of a lack of…financial resources, and/or time. I found that parents,
especially mothers, of young children, are most pressed for time and seldom
attend community affairs or join community organizations. Working-class
immigrants, because of their long and irregular work hours and limited
financial resources, are also less able to participate (Espiritu 122).
It is not that Filipinos do not want to participate; it is that they cannot do
so and still keep a roof over their family’s head. Society has pushed
Filipinos into such an economically tough condition that no one can blame them
when they struggle to organize their community.
The
lack of organization in the Filipino community not as a result of their
laziness; it is as a result of the way history is taught. Romeo said the
many minority communities including Filipino communities have been
intentionally and maliciously under represented in society. He believes
one of the reasons for this to be because of the way history is taught to
The way history
is taught opens the door to many false assumptions. History books are not
filled with facts, but are filled with a series of arguments, issues, and
controversies (Loewen 46). History books are
written in a way so that students will continue to “know their place” in
society. Filipinos communities have had to endure this first hand because
of how they have been almost ignored in history books. If one were to
look through the average American history books, he or she would probably find
at most a paragraph about Filipinos. When history is taught in a way that
ignores many cultures and ethnicities, it makes it harder for this cultures and
ethnicities to unit to form communities. The support of these communities
alone will be small because many people do not even know anything about
Filipino history let alone Filipino communities.
Interviewing
Romeo has taught me that there are more reasons for the lack of unity in many
Filipino communities than meets the eye. Many people view Filipino and
many other minority communities as dysfunctional and useless in society.
Sadly, this resulted from the history has been taught in
Work Cited
Espiritu, Yen Le. Home Bound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities,
and Countries.
Garcia, Romeo. Personal Interview. 27 Oct. 2005.
Ignacio, Abe, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, Helen Toribio. The Forbidden Book:
The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History
Textbooks Got Wrong.