Identity & History: Reflecting on Fil Am History Month

October is Filipinx American HIstory month. Bayan Scholars investigated various historical topics, themes they had rarely explored, if at all,  prior to joining the Bayan Learning Community. 

This blog entry is the second installment of student responses to Pilipinx American History Month activities at Southwestern college as well as coursework in our Bayan classes. These responses tended to be more about internal, psychological issues as opposed to the more historically inflected responses from the first installment, Reclaiming History. 

These particular responses demonstrate the complicated relationship between history and psychology. They begin to uncover the nuanced and often hidden ways material history can condition one's sense of self. While Bayan scholars (students and faculty alike!) recognize that identity is not reducible to history and material conditions, we are beginning to appreciate the complex connection between the past and personality.

Moreover, you can see from several posts that these scholars are making connections between their personal lives and the curriculum. They use their academic identity to explore their personal identity, which is in line with the project of humanizing their education (see see entries "Summer Retreat Part I, Part II and Part III for background on how "rehumanizing our education" fits into Bayan's project). 

To collect student reflections, we used the online bulletin board application Padlet. To magnify an entry, float your cursor over the upper right-hand corner of a particular post and click on "expand post".  We welcome your comments! 

Bayan Version of "When Did You Realize Your Race?"

Bayan is an Filipino based community where we focus on  Filipinx American experiences, even though not everybody in our program is Filipinx. Both our English and Personal Development classes help us focus on our identities. In October, we did an exercise to share milestones about our racial or cultural identities. We tried to answer a range of questions about "who we are": When did we  become conscious of our racial or cultural identities? What happened? When did this occur? What did we think and feel? What lessons did we learn? 

These discussions are important because it give us each a chance to investigate our personal stories and to notice if we share common experiences,i.e., to see what makes us unique and what binds us together. Sharing also helps with a sense of belonging, perhaps reducing feelings of socially isolation. We can learn from each others’ stories, even as we begin to appreciate that no one story is representative of an entire people. 

Just as important, we wanted to work against the idea that talking about race is “taboo”. We cannot solve problems associated with racial or cultural identity unless we engage in reflection and dialogue. While we are only beginning our exploration, we'd like to share our initial steps with you. 

We used Flipgrid to record our responses.We based this project on a video featured on an episode of MTV's Decoded by Francesca Ramsey called "When Did You Realize Your Race?" To screen an individual story, click on the scholar's image below. Click on the "Decoded" image to screen  Francesca Ramsey's video. 

We welcome any feedback or comments. Perhaps you might share your story with us, too!

- Many thanks to Jessica B. for her assist with this blog post. 

Celebrating Pilipinx American History Month at Miracosta College

To celebrate Pilipinx American History Month (PAHM), Miracosta College hosted the Building PAHMilya conference. The event included speakers, workshops, and activities meant to recognize and promote Pilipinx history and culture. Conference organizers chose the word “Pilipinx” as a gender inclusive term. A team of Southwestern Bayan Scholars attended the program and had lots to say about the day’s event. This blog entry documents some of those reactions.

Riane R.’s reflection captured the experiences of attendees: “The PAHMilya conference up in Miracosta College was honestly the best thing I've been to! It taught me a whole lot on the history of being a Pilipinx American and how this month of October is dedicated to that. The people were fun to be around, the workshops were very interesting to go to, and the whole thing was just an awesome experience to witness.”

Jared C. pointed out the  importance of hearing other Pilipinx students share their experiences: “Hearing experiences of other students made me feel so much more connected on a personal level with other students that are of the same ethnicity as I am. I never knew that feeling alone racially was an important issue that needed to be talked about. I now wish to continue dialogue between students because these relatable discussions really bring us together as a people.”

One of the most significant moments in the day’s program was the keynote by Cristine

Sidela, the coordinator of Academic Successes and Equity Programs. JP A. noted the impact of Sidela’s keynote: “It was inspirational. Especially when she spoke about her experiences to get to where she is today. This hit me hard because I am walking my path to my goal. Attending the event made me see how there are other Filipinx out there that want to start a community to help Filipino Americans. This is important because of the prejudice of being Filipino even though you're American born, or those who do not feel Filipino enough have a place to be welcomed.

Reclaiming History: Filipino American History Month

October is Filipino American History Month, established in on 1987 by the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS). To commemorate this month, Bayan Scholars attended a film screening of Marissa Aroy’s documentary Delano Manongs that features the often hidden history of FIlipino farm workers and their contribution to the Farm Workers movement. 

Local high school counselor Reynilla Calderon-Magbuhat presented her history workshop “Know History, Know Self”. Both events were co-sponsored by Southwestern College's Filipino Student Organization Pagkakaisa, Bayan Student Organization, and Southwestern College’s Office of Student Equity Programs and Services. 

We also read several chapters from Filipino American Psychology, a text book by Professor Kevin Nadal. We paid special attention to those sections pertaining to cultural values and to how history can condition identity. 

For practically every scholar in Bayan, this month was they spent so much time in an academic setting focused on Filipino experiences. Indeed, it was most Bayan Scholars’ initial exposure to Filipino American history and culture as topic worthy scholarly attention.

This blog collects a sampling of several Bayan scholars’ reflections below, their first time considering Filipino American history. These young adults are only now being introduced to the legacy and heritage of Filipinos in American. We invite you to read these entries with that in mind. And we welcome your comment below should you wish.

To enlarge individual entries, hover your cursor over the upper right hand corner of the post. Then click on “enlarge”.

Exploring Precious Knowledge

Early November, we watched the film  Precious Knowledge, an educational documentary filmed in 2011 by Dos Vatos Productions. The documentary focuses on the ban of the Mexican-American Studies (MAS) Program in Tucson, Arizona. This film includes stories of the students who were a part of MAS. Filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom and community filming this innovative social-justice curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who become engaged, informed, and active in their school and communities.

Precious Knowledge gives viewers an inside look in the classroom of two Raza studies program teachers, Curtis Acosta who teaches literature, and Jose Gonzalez who teaches American Government. Acosta and Gonzalez taught students about their history and culture, and challenging them to reflect, realize and reconcile with their status in US society.

Six Weeks In: Using Writing to Reflect on our Development

Time is less and less our friend this semester! Finals are fast approaching, and we’ve yet to post a single entry. Our intention for Sariling Atin blog page was to keep our friends “in-the-loop” as to what we are learning and experiencing in our Bayan Learning Community. 

To be sure, we’ve been writing, reading, reflecting - a lot! And many of the assignments were tailored toward composing digestible bits and bites of our experiences to share with our readers. But we haven't kept up with our commitment to publicize our journey. 

This post shares Bayan Scholars thoughts and feelings about joining our learning community and their reflections about their first semester in college (all but one or two scholars are entering, first-year freshman). During the sixth week of class, we used Padlet to record our reflections. If you want to enlarge a particular scholar’s post, float your cursor toward the top right-hand corner of post and select “expand”. 

The purpose of this "Padlet project" was to engage in “metacognition”, to reflect on our thinking and our experiences. We used writing to develop introspection skills to support learning and personal development. A second aim was to make public the variety and range of experiences scholars encounter in an ethnic/culturally-focused learning community. 

We have at least eight posts in the pipeline. Stay tuned! We welcome comments!