While friends Chiara Cox and Elen Callahan did not grow up together, they share a similar journey. They were both born in the Philippines, but eventually moved to the United States. Although they sought to assimilate into their new American culture, they began to long for the people and traditions they had once known in their youth.
On March 30, 2024, they discussed their experience with StoryCorps, a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people. This excerpt was selected and produced by Linda Nunez.
TRANSCRIPT:
Callahan: When you wrote the article last year in Positively Filipino, which is a digital magazine celebrating the story of the Filipinos in the diaspora, it really gave me pause because I connected, like, with, like, your second sentence, and that sentence is, “Growing up as a third-culture kid, this cultural longing did not happen immediately for me. In fact, I hardly felt Filipino.” And the cultural longing that you were referring to was that Filipinos the world over continued to long for comfort of traditions, beliefs, practices, foods, dances, music, and art that root them to the home that they all left behind.
Cox: My parents are Filipino. I was born in the Philippines, but I grew up in Hong Kong. I went to school in Boston, London. And I just feel like I was surrounded by an international set of people. And I always wanted to be like them. I always felt like maybe it would be better to be like somebody else. But when my grandmother died, I didn't have that rock in the Philippines anymore. I was sort of like, “Well, who am I?” And I know that happened for you, too.
Callahan: Yeah. I mean, I think it started off with coming here as an immigrant when I was six. I know that feeling of, I wanted to be like somebody else. Like, I wanted to be like the kids that I saw at school. I wanted to dress like them. I wanted to eat like them. I wanted, like, Oscar Mayer bologna and cheese sandwiches. My mother would pack, like, rice balls for me, and I was like, “Aghh!! Why am I eating rice balls??” It was like I was running away from the culture as fast as I was trying to integrate into this new culture. So, I was like, “Where do I fit in?” So, you created this great website.
Cox: You mean Ang Pamana?
Callahan: Yeah.
Cox: “Ang pamana” in Tagalog means “inheritance” or “legacy.” So, I wanted to highlight the legacy of the Filipinos in terms of culture, music, art, humanities. So, Elen and I started a couple of events last year. We got our community members to perform with Filipino greats.
Callahan: For some of those musicians, this was the first time that they were exposed to that kind of music. This is not just a nostalgia. There is a connection to really understand this traditional art form, which I feel like if we don't continue to pursue it, it could disappear.
Cox: So, what you're telling me is that what we've experienced is the same for the other people in the Filipino-American Association. So, they've been brought up to not look back. They're always looking forward and not looking back. I always use the image of the tree. If you want to bear fruit, you need to look at your roots. You know, where are the roots going? Because the more you know your soul, the more you can bear fruit.
Callahan: That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. It's important to remember the roots.
Cox: But study it so that we know the authentic culture, because it keeps getting diluted. So, people need to keep our history, our culture…alive. Otherwise…we lose who we are.
