Page 19 - April 16 2017 Issue For Web.pmd

THE FIL-AM COURIER • APRIL 16-30, 2017 • PAGE 15

Made in Hawaii… Filipino Chicken Soup

I was Made in Hawaii Warm Simmering Goodness
Woven of different threads Wafting Soothing Smells
Cradling My Soul
Threads of Filipinoness
Lay only in distant yet vivid memories of my grandparents
Cleaning yards in Kahala for only $5.00 each Mmmm...
The pungent smell of fresh cut grass on a Saturday morning Mmmm...
My grandma frying up bundi bundi Mmmm...
The scalding oil searing my lips and tongue
Too anxious to wait for it to cool
With One Sip of
Threads of Localness Her Chicken Marunggay
To prepare for May Day I would climb my grandma’s
Plumeria tree and pick flowers to make leis Unscathed by Modernity
The white milky sap from the flowers sticky on my fingers Untainted and untarnished
After school I would walk with my cousins and my grandma Eloquently Passed Down
To the crack seed store to buy 25 cent ice cake
The refreshing cold on my tongue made me forget Mmmm...
The Kalihi heat walking home
Mmmm...
Threads of Americanness Mmmm...
Woven together like patches of a quilt
Land of opportunity With One Bite of
Innovation Her Chicken Marunggay
Ingenuity
Leadership Plucking Tender Leaves
Democracy
Free Enterprise Together You and I
Social Justice Incandescent Love

The threads of my identity Mmmm...
My Triple Consciousness Mmmm...
I say I am all Mmmm...
But do I belong?
I was Made in Hawaii
That is why they say I’m not a true Filipino With One Bowl of
I’m a fifth generation woman Her Chicken Marunggay For
Who doesn’t speak Tagalog or Ilokano
Who has never been to the Philippines Jovial Diasporic Communities
and never wanted too Remember and Reconnect
The threads that connect me now are Taste of Home achingly
My memories, my face, and the color of my skin Advertising
Resonate
I was Made in Hawaii
That’s why I say I local Mmmm...
I grew up interwoven in Hawaii’s local cultures and traditions Mmmm...
Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese Mmmm... information,
Merrie Monarch, Bon Dances
Visits to China Town, Leonard’s Malasadas With One Pot of
Speaking Pidgin, no more one betta feeling
Like I stay home Her Chicken Marunggay
And I can be myself please call
But this land no belong to me, but to another
Am I only a settler? Shannon Cristobal is a Ph.D student in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii
at Manoa in the Educational Foundations department and currently works as a graduate
I was Made in Hawaii assistant at the Office of Research Services. Born and raised in Kalihi, she graduated with
But immersed in American and Western culture a M.A in American Studies at UH Manoa and B.A. English from University of Hawaii-West
American culture taught me to reject my Filipinoness Oahu. Her research interests include Filipino American identity, representation, feminist 595.8787
American culture silenced my Localness theory, foodways studies, material cultural & museum studies. Aside from her academic
American culture educated me to question the threads of my identity pursuits she also coaches Cross-Country & Track & Field at Mid Pacific Institute.
Which made me realize

I have the choice!
To define myself
Not one identity
encapsulates who I am!
I have the choice!
To accept or reject the status quo!
To reinvent myself
To honor my elders
To be the catalyst for my children

I was Made in Hawaii
My triple consciousness
Local, Filipino and American
I’m like a mix plate
Two scoops rice
One scoop mac salad
Spam
Chicken adobo
Garden Salad with Ranch Dressing
All different but das what makes
It so good…
Three is betta den one!