pj gubatina policarpio & catherine ceniza choy
Epicenter of the Epicenter 11
pandemic. In the New York-New Jersey region alone, ProPublica learned of at I’ve been thinking a lot about Queens. least 30 deaths of Filipino health care Primarily the neighborhoods of workers since the end of March and Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Corona, many more deaths in those peoples’ which has emerged tragically as the extended families. The virus has struck epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak in hardest where a huge concentration of New York. Corona (and later Woodside) the community lives and works. They was my home from 2013-17. While are at “the epicenter of the epicenter,” my time there was brief, the largely said Bernadette Ellorin, a community migrant, working-class, multilingual, organizer.” ProPublica intergenerational community/ies I am reminded of your critical work on along Roosevelt Ave and its ethos Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration had a profound impact on my work in Filipino American History, making as an educator and curator. In central Queens, I strengthened my foundation visible the complex account of Filipino nurses in America and the forever as a cultural worker and community linking of two countries: the Philippines organizer. At Diversity Plaza, I invited and the United States. authors Gina Apostol, Mia Alvar, Hossannah Asuncion, and Queens My own family’s American crossing is writers Bino Realuyo, Paolo Javier, and intrinsically connected to this history. Ninotchka Rosca to read their work. In 1975, my aunt Consejo, my mother’s As Gina reminds me, it was the first sister, flew on a one-way flight to New time she’s shared her work in front of Jersey, where she was to work as a nurse. a busy beauty salon. This gathering led At 25, she traveled alongside many to the Pilipinx American Library, an other young highly trained Filipina itinerant collection of printed matter nurses, whose sought-after labor was and programming platform dedicated necessary to fulfill critical shortages in exclusively to Filipinx perspectives. U.S. hospitals. (Countering commonly I am thinking about care and the brown peddled narratives of immigrants taking away American jobs.) In large part body. In particular, I am thinking about owing to my aunt’s labor, my mother’s the Filipinx body, those of Filipinx American nurses (and their families) sprawling family would slowly emigrate in Elmhurst and in hospital wards and to the United States, including my own care centers the world over. When I uprooting to San Francisco in 1998 first moved to Queens, I used to laugh at 13. I could see that she was happy remembering that common refrain when we finally arrived. My ma and pa among us Filipinxs in America: where and I decided to stay with her in Los there are hospitals there are surely Angeles for some time before life in Filipinxs around. During this global the United States would officially take pandemic this refrain stings; knowing full hold of us. She took us on the requisite well that Filipnx bodies carry the brunt “newcomers” tour: Disneyland, of care and labor at the risk of their own Universal Studios, plus a quick detour lives. The stories are heartbreaking. to Las Vegas. One day she took us to Hollywood Presbytarian, the hospital “Filipino American medical workers have suffered some of the most where she worked at the time. She was staggering losses in the coronavirus proud to be a nurse. She took pride in Dear Prof. Choy,
