This Filipino American Life

  Many of us have grown up seeing women in our lives rock the duster around the house. The piece of apparel is synonymous with traditionally women’s work. But what if the duster could be updated? What would that look like?  In this episode the TFAL Crew,  sans food appreciator Ryan Carpio, have an intimate conversation with author and journalist Melissa Magsaysay about Filipino/Filipino American fashion, her family’s history with the barong, and her new brand Duster @shopduster.  Check out Melissa’s article about the barong on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/style/filipino-american-fashion-barong-history/index.html  Also here is a link to Mambo Magsaysay, a political jingle we mention in the episode.: https://youtu.be/7Xl5RQcyVYQ?si=bly3R2roLpc3AFQ4 Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Where do you wear a barong these days? Are you going to picking up a piece from Duster? Did your Lolo and Lola do the Mambo Magsaysay? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

Have you spoken to your parent(s) about estate planning?  What will happen to their financial assets when they will pass away?  Have you witnessed your family feud over family inheritance or ancestral land?  Have you thought of what legacies you’d like to pass on when you eventually transition to the other side? In this TFAL episode, we collaborate with Pilipinx in Wellness to interview Marivel Zialcita, an estate planning attorney.  Listen as we discuss the hesitancy of many Filipinos and Filipino Americans to talk about inheritance, what a trust is and why it’s so important in passing on generational wealth, and the ever important topic that causes enormous amounts of family drama – land in the Philippines.  Attorney Zialcita is an expert in dealing with Filipino American estate planning and family inheritance and we are lucky to have this conversation with her. Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Do you have any success stories or horror stories to share about family inheritance?  Let us know your thoughts! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

The South of Market, or SoMa neighborhood in San Francisco is a historical place for Filipino Americans for a century.  Throughout its history, many Filipinos have called SoMa home with its affordable apartments, neighborhood amenities, and proximity to jobs in downtown San Francisco.  Community advocates have been established cultural institutions and social services for its largely working class residents for decades, making SoMa Pilipinas, as its affectionately called, a true epicenter of Filipino Americans in the Bay Area.  In 2016, the community successfully lobbied the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to officially designate SoMa Pilipinas as a cultural heritage district. Yet, SoMa Pilipinas faces many challenges in its quest to become a cultural heritage district. San Francisco’s Filipino American population has decreased by 20% in the last 20 years due to housing prices and displacement.  Additionally, Filipinos are not necessarily tied to an ethnic economy like other Asian Americans thus opting for home ownership in suburban areas like Daly City, Union City, and Vallejo over the last 40 years, ineffectually creating geographic dispersal.  Plus, the majority of the property owners and developers in the neighborhood are not Filipino at all. The good folks in SoMa Pilipinas have nonetheless been fighting to create a cultural hub for Filipinos in the Bay. In this TFAL episode, we talk to Desi Danganan of Balay Kreative, a local Filipino arts and cultural accelerator, and founder of the wildly popular Undiscovered SF. Listen as we discuss the strategies and challenges of building SoMa Pilipinas, how the Filipino American “creative class” (to borrow Richard Florida’s famous urban planning term) is the key to their efforts, and the political growing pains of creating community. We also get a short story of young Desi as a “Krazy Klown.” =) Efforts like SoMa Pilipinas parallel many similar initiatives throughout North America – Stockton’s Little Manila, New York’ s Little Manila in Woodside Queens, Toronto’s blah, Seattle Filipinotown/International District, and TFAL ‘s home LA’s Historic Filipinotown. For anyone interested or wondering about the economics and politics of creating a Filipino district or how ethnic “towns” are key to identity and community, this episode is definitely for you. Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Are you involved in creating a Filipino district in your city?  Are you curious?  Let us know your thoughts! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

Have you ever been in constant pain and could not figure out why? Have you ever felt a knot in your back and felt like you could never break it? What happens when family trauma transcends generations and physically manifests itself in your body? In this episode of TFAL join Elaine and Producer Mike as they talk with Jen Soriano about her journey with chronic pain. The conversation dives into how somatic symptoms can manifest within our bodies. Jen chronicles her journey in her book “Nervous | Essays on Heritage and Healing.”    Pick up “Nervous | Essays on Heritage and Healing” by Jen Soriano wherever books are sold. Or if you are able, check out Jen while she’s on her book tour! Here are some upcoming dates:   Nervous: IG Live Event with Margeaux Feldman @softcore_trauma Tuesday, August 29, 2023. 12-12:30pm   Nervous: Powell’s Books Conversation with Janice Lee Thursday, August 31, 2023. 7-8pm Preorder a signed copy of NERVOUS from Powell’s   Nervous: Chicago Conversation with Barrie Jean Borich Wednesday, September 6, 2023. 7-8:30pm   Nervous: Seattle Heart-to-Heart with Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe Tuesday, September 12, 2023. 7-8pm   Nervous: Virtual Celebration with Adrienne Maree Brown Wednesday, September 13, 2023. 1-2pm   Follow Jen Soriano on Instagram (@jensorianowrites) for more events!   Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Have you had experience with chronic pain? What steps have you made towards healing?  Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com

The podcast discusses the pronunciation of Filipino last names and the act of code-switching. It explores the debates around respecting people's preferred pronunciations and shares personal experiences of name mispronunciations. The hosts also debate the combination of ketchup and rice, delve into the personality of Mr. Roxas, and discuss the influence of teachers on name mispronunciations and assimilation.

This past month an overzealous group of fans found their way to Lea Salonga’s dressing room after a performance of Here Lies Love. The interaction was then uploaded to the internet for the world to see.   SORRY, NOT SORRY. Christopher Carpila, who drew backlash for uploading the viral Lea Salonga dressing-room video, remained firm in his stance to not apologize to the Broadway star, stressing that he didn’t do anything wrong. READ: https://t.co/cSWs4Hm3uh pic.twitter.com/1sf6fW2A6n — Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) July 19, 2023 In this episode the women of TFAL talk about the do’s and don’t’s of encountering public figures. Listen as Elaine, Gerlie, and Kat share their experiences with interacting with public figures and the cringe factor of this Lea Salonga video. Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Have you had a similar experience? Did you think this Lea Salonga interaction was cringe too?  Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

Where do Filipino Americans hang out?  Where is the place where they are allowed to tambay (Tagalog slang for loitering from the English “stand by”)?  Where are can one find Filipino immigrants and Filipino Americans alike in public places? According to some sociology scholars, the third place in modern capitalist society refers to spaces that are the home (“first place”) and the workplace (“second place”). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, clubs, bookstores, stoops, porches, parks, barber shops, etc.  To many, these third places serve as locales where people come together for friendship, community, and dialogue.  They can even serve as a places where the sense of belonging and discussion they foster become essential to democratic institutions. In this TFAL episode, Joe and Ryan (united to form Bernardo Carpio) discuss places where Filipino Americans hangout.  Listen as they talk about what places they’ve seen Filipinos hang out at, what “loitering” means and the racial and class politics behind it, how to create community as public spaces become more commodified, and what physical spaces Filipino Americans need to connect and strengthen our community.  This conversation may see odd and philosophical, but we promise we weren’t high while recording this!! Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Where have you seen Filipinos hang out?  Do you have a place where you and other Filipinos hang out at?  Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com. PC: Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Most Filipino Americans today live in the suburbs – Daly City, National City, Carson, Jersey City, Skokie, Oxon Hill, and on and on.  When you think of the Filipino American community since the 1970s, we are by and large a suburban community.  There are reasons for this, of course, many of which we focus on in this TFAL episode. In the first iteration of “TFAL presents Brown Bag Baon,” Joe has a conversation with Dr. James Zarsadiaz, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Yuchengco Philippines Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, to talk about the history of Filipino American suburbanization.  What is the history of Filipinos in American suburbs?  Why are so many Filipino Americans attracted to suburban life – whether in working-class or middle-class suburbs?  What kind of racism do they face there?  What kind of politics are Filipino Americans (and Asian Americans in general) engaged in their suburban towns?  How does suburban living foster a unique style of Asian American conservatism?  Using his research on the history of the East San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles (Walnut, Diamond Bar, Hacienda Heights, Chino Hills, etc.) as an anchor of discussion, James and Joe unpack the complex and layered history, culture, and politics of Filipino American suburbanization. Make sure to grab a copy of James’s book Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.! Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Did you grow up in the suburbs?  Do you live there now?  What are your experiences living in a suburban community?  Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

Did you know April is financial awareness month? A perfect time to drop this episode with MONEY OUT LOUD author Berna Anat. Berna is your Financial Hype Woman/Manang/Ate/Tita. The moniker “Financial Hype Woman” is her made up way of saying she creates financial education media that lives at @HeyBerna all over the internet. Listen as the crew talks about their own journeys with financial planning, dealing with money, and how that applies to our Filipino American family dynamics. Get your copy of MONEY OUT LOUD at your local independent bookstore like BelCanto Books in Long Beach, CA. In fact you can get a ticket to An Evening with Berna Anat: Money Out Loud on Wednesday, May 3, 6pm at KUBO LB (3976 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA). Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. Did you grow up with financial planning? How has your financial journey been like? What are your financial tips? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.

We’re back at it again. Part 2 of the ultimate Filipino food tournament!  Listen as we decide between Sinigang and Tinola, Pancit Palabok and Pancit Bihon, and many other hard matchups. Laugh as you listen to TFAL Food Appreciator Ryan nearly gets an aneurysm from our food debates. And of course, find out what is the ultimate Filipino food! (According to us anyway). Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can take a listen to us here. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we loved recording it.  Let us know your thoughts!  Leave us a voicemail (805) 394-TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.