This is another Google Alert on Christmas morning. It feels good to know that the young Filipino Americans appreciate this book.
BakitWhy Reading Series: Growing Up Filipino
Posted Mon, 12/22/2008 - 16:17 by janice Add new comment
Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults (edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard) is an anthology filled with Pilipina/o and Pilipina/o American short stories that addresses the complexity of growing up Filipino from many different perspectives. As a daughter of Pilipino immigrants, this book helped me understand parts of myself that I thought would seldom be addressed in school, with my friend or in my family. The book itself is split up into five sections: family, angst, friendship, love and home. Each of these sections exist as testaments to parts of my life that I thought were ineffable experiences. Each writer paints the fabric of Pilipina/o America with their words by connecting historical moments with personal narratives and forming a collective story with their own. This book deftly describes symbols of their process to learn about who they are and recaptures moments for a growing audience.
I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I took a chance on this book and its title during a point in my high school years when I was researching Pilipina/o American identity. I needed books that my high school library lacked. Thanks to Amazon.com, that search was simplified but it still continues today. There was something missing from Chicken Soup for the Soul books that just didn't quite address more pertinent cultural issues such as language barriers, the thirst for ancestral knowledge, generation gaps and familial intergenerational strain or struggles regarding identity. It was and still is a hardship to locate Pilipina/o American literature in most major retail stores and public libraries. After purchasing this book, I learned to find comfort in knowing others' stories and strived to write my own.
If you're looking for a good, calm read on your individual quest to constructing and learning about your Pil/Am identity, then this is a good place to start. If you're looking to get acquainted with Pil/Am writers or seeking inspiration, then you have to get this book. If you want to get away from your academic reads, but don't know how to choose non-required reading, well, then please believe me on this one. If you've read my other articles and have begun to trust our blogger-to-reader relationship, then you will only value and cherish our friendship even more. Lastly, if you're looking for a (last-minute) gift for the inquiring and developing Pilipina/o young mind, then I'm sure you can expedite your book delivery. The decision to buy this book shouldn't be entirely based on conditional terms - this book has a story for all ages. Stories take place in the Philippines and in the United States and across certain periods of time while providing personalized backgrounds and reactions to social structures and phenomena.
Authors and writers of Growing Up Filipino are prominent figures in the Pilipina/o American community who contribute to the growing body of literature for and by Pilipina/o Americans. Some of my favorite short stories from this anthology include "San Prancisco" by Joel Barraquiel Tan (about a queer Pinoy and the "coming out" process), "In Place of Trees" by Linda Ty-Casper (about a post-WWII moment in the Philippines), and "Her Wild American Self" by M. Evelina Galang (which is the title of one of her books that I also strongly recommend for Pinays and Pinoys, but most especially for Pinays).
Enjoy the holiday season and curl up with a good book! You can find excerpts of the book here via GoogleBooks.
About Me
- Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
- Profile Views figure is stuck. There are over a million pageviews., United States
- Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.
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