1.) In the early parts of the reading, I learned lots of my people’s history (the Filipino people) more than I did in other American history books, and through these readings, it gave me a sense of pride knowing that. But at the same time, I am disappointed that in order for so many of these “immigrants” to come that they had no choice and were brought here by the countries that conquered them like American, Spain, and England although this was the reality all those years ago.
2.) These stories differ from the narratives we hear about immigration since these stories are forced and the people had no choice but to go along with it, their freedom was significantly reduced to nothing at all. Compared to today’s narrative about immigration where people still are forced to go or migrate due to the chaotic nature in their country like a civil war or dictator being topped. But for the most part, today’s immigration is a fairly normal process albeit sometimes it gets messy just like here in the U.S. From my personal experience, immigration was smooth due to my mom having migrated to the U.S years earlier and went through the citizenship process. Next, my father came along and since both were citizens, I ended up being eligible after having been in the U.S for 3 or 4 years.
I’m glad you got to learn more about your people’s history and this assignment allowed me to learn about them as well. I too am disappointed that they were forced to move here against their will and were met with many hardships. Yet, I’m glad for you it has been a smooth process and that it wasn’t against your will. Asian Americans had such a big impact on all of us without many people recognizing them so I hope we get to learn more about this topic.
Hi Jericho,
Your comments about this not fully being taught in the American school system is major! I only learned bits and pieces of this and the information that was taught was obviously taught through a colonized educational landscape. I’m very happy you were able to learn more about your heritage through this reading! Also, thank you for sharing your own immigration story.
Hi Jericho,
I found it interesting how you mentioned that you learned more about your people’s history in the reading than from schools. I think it’s weird how schools often water down history, especially poc history, yet have countless lessons about European history. Poc are definitely underrepresented, and the lack of education about poc issues, civilizations and etc is just unfortunate. I wish schools would be more inclusive about us, and teach about our history properly and thoroughly, instead of the watered down lessons they teach.