Another paper by French historian William Guéraiche: “Not Quite American: The Philippine Community in the United States (1907-1941)” in (Re)Presenting Filipino Americans, Asian American Studies Institute (A.A.S.I.)-University of Connecticut (U.S.A.), September 2002.
My apologies to the author for the citation on this entry previously, which was incorrect.
Not quite for the historian is right but it’s accessible and entertaining and more importantly, meaningful for me personally. I’m amused by his insistence of using “American Filipinos” as opposed to the more common “Filipino Americans”. Not that it matters one way or the other. Personally I prefer “Americans of Filipino descent” but that’s too long and cumbersome. I’m not sure that our “peculiarity” apart form other migrant groups in America is that we “tried to retain the same social organization that” we had in the archipelago. As a matter fact most people in our generation aren’t all that interested in Philippine culture and its social structure, and most of them have never visited the Philippines. I’m one of the few who “dared” to visit the Philippines and now I can’t get it out of my head.
Very informative.
The article shamed those people who had been writing that the OFW phenomenon started only recently and the much abused reason for leaving is due to unemployment. Even the US depression could not make them go back to the country, not even healthy economy of the mother country.