ISSUE #2: JOURNEY
APRIL 2016
a zine for and by Pilipinos engaged in the diaspora
Editor’s Letter: What is the “White Man’s Burden”? In 1899, Rudyard Kipling, novelist / famous imperialist referred to the US occupation of the Philippine Islands as the “white man’s burden.” Entailing that it was an obligatory responsibility for manifest-destiny-driven white men to “civilize” the Philippines through what we can now understand as imperialistic and capitalist ventures. The democracy and American education that was oh so g e n e r o u s l y b e s t o w e d upon the societies of the Philippines (which were already independently stable before any conquest, by the way) has become a marker of the country’s national poverty, corrupt bureaucratic government, militant police force, exploited natural resources, anti-indigenous sentiments, and on a more personal level, the normalized need for many Filipinos today to leave the country, their families, their home in order to earn a decent living. In my twenty years of adjusting to my own existence as a diasporic, 1st generation tisay (mixed-white Pilipina), of peering into my lost past and attempting to unlearn a whitewashed history enforced onto me and you and most of everyone we know, I have found out that the real prepping to take a citizenship test, when taking overtime hours constantly even if it means ORIG ITO!” while simultaneously silencing the dreams and visions brought to us by our ancestors. This may not be what it was supposed to be, but we can’t avoid what our present is. We have traveled from point A to point B. We have evolved and adjusted as individuals, as families, and as a collective people, dispersed through and across our vast ocean. This is the story we must embrace; it is one that, if we so choose to disrupt, we must actively be forging a path ual to individual. These upcoming pages attempt to deconstruct what that may look like to some of us-collectively birthing a compilation of stories that evoke JOURNEY through every sentence and line of prose. We may be divorced from the Motherland, but that does not necessarily mean we can’t rekindling in our present, kung saan kami ngayon. Where we now are.
Table of Contents page 1 page 2 - 3
page 4 - 5
page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 - 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 - 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 - 22
Ang Pag-uwi (Coming Home) Ang pag-uwi ay tulad ng pagbalik sa sinapupunan ng iyong ina Ligtas, payapa Puno ng pag-aaruga at pag-mamahal Sa halip, ang paguwi sa inang bayan Ay naging isang pagmulat Isang baga na ginatungan at muling pinagliyab Ito ay ang muling pagyakap sa masa At pakikipamuhay sa kanilang pakikibaka Ito ay ang pakikipagkamayan sa mga kasama na siyang bumubuhay sa mga pangarap Ng mga martir na nag-alay ng buhay sa bayan. Ang pag-uwi ay isang panunumpa na makibaka Para sa inang bayan, nang tayong lahat Ay makauwi sa kanyang sinapupunan Na ligtas, payapa, at malaya
Translation: Coming home is like returning to your mother’s womb Safe, peaceful But instead, going home was a reawakening It is re-embracing the masses in their struggles It is linking arms again with comrades But most importantly, For the motherland So that we can all go home in her womb Safe, peaceful, and free.
By Hiyasmin Saturay
skin
COMFORT LADY
by juvonne mcneill
contri Bea Sabino -
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Teresita Endosa.
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ibutors
Nicole Arca
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60% of proceeds of this issue will go to Salupongan International, a network of organizations, institutions & individuals dedicated to the empowerment of marginalized rural communities in southern Philippines. www.salupongan.org
This zine is a platform for ALL Pilipino voices engaged in the diaspora. email: wmbzine@gmail.com newsletter: tinyletter.com/whitemansburdenzine facebook.com/whitemansburdenzine Let’s do it together - collaborate with me! sammjcs@gmail.com
April 2016 / Los Angeles, CA
the world. and resilience.