Community Education: Student Empowerment

Assignment 1: History and Autobiography

Essay Assignment (Autobiography & History): According to sociologist C. Wright Mills, we can always discover an intersection between autobiography and history. Each person’s life unfolds within a particular historical period, and an individual can understand their own experience by locating their life within history. Each person’s life is shaped by historic events such as war, immigration, racism, oppression of women, economic recession, civil unrest, etc. As C. Wright Mills states, this discovery "in many ways is a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one." For this Essay Assignment, each student will write a three-to-five page autobiography linking their life to history. Students should provide some background information about themselves (where they were born, where they live, what are the important things in their life, what are their life aspirations, etc.). However, they should focus their essays on three main questions: 1) How does their life intersect with history? (Have certain historical events, such as war, immigration, etc. shaped their lives or influenced their life plans?) 2) Why is the discovery of the intersection of autobiography and history "in many ways a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one"? 3) Once a person has discovered this intersection, what meaning does this discovery have for that person’s life? This assignment is due by Friday, Oct. 5.

Redefining My Life Goals and Aspirations

By Melissa Hilario

Before I speak of my story, I must tell you about my mother’s and my father’s story first. Their lives are linked with history and it is these forces that have shaped their lives and the values they instill in their family. In order to understand my story, I needed to understand my parents’ stories first. My interpretation of their lives has affected my own life choices.

My mother was born in 1952, in Manila, Philippines. She graduated from Philippine Women’s University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing in 1974. During those times, few job opportunities were available to college graduates. Foreign countries, like the United States, recruited these new professionals as workers. Thus these push and pull factors caused many recent college graduates to flee the Philippines in search of better opportunities. They were nicknamed the "brain drain" generation. My mother was able to find a job at a small public clinic, but was struggling to support herself with her low wages. She decided against immigrating to America and joined the Philippine Military. This allowed her to be financially self -sufficient and enabled her to support her parents. She tells me proudly, "I was never a burden to my parents after I graduated from college."

My father was born in Pangasinan, Philippines, in 1951. He graduated in 1975, from the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Philippines’ most prestigious university. His family was poor and they emphasized higher education as way to advance their class standing. All thirteen children graduated from college, helping each other financially. My dad is proud to be one of the four siblings to have attended UP. He cites his UP experiences as key in shaping his political and nationalistic views since UP was a progressive environment with many activists. He participated in many sit ins and rallies, but the struggle of surviving martial law kept him from becoming more involved as an activist. My father graduated with a Bachelor’s in Geology, and was able to secure a high paying job as a geologist. He got his visa in the late 1970s and his family urged him to go to America and join his siblings in pursuit of "greater opportunities." My father was very reluctant to leave his home, be separated from his wife and child for at least 5 years, and a career he enjoyed. My mother also viewed immigrating to America as a good opportunity for our family in the long run and encouraged him to go. My father permanently left the Philippines in 1980. He was unable to pursue geology in the United States. Although he did end up with a well paying job here, not being able to practice his chosen profession left him with a bittersweet feeling about his immigration to America.

I was born in Manila, Philippines in 1980. I immigrated to the United States with my mother and younger brother in 1986, when my dad’s petition went through. We have been living in the West San Fernando Valley ever since. My father chose to settle there because he considered it a good place to raise a family. In the late 1980s, the San Fernando Valley did not yet face gang warfare and overcrowded schools. My father also wanted to maintain his ties with his family who predominantly lived in the valley.

As immigrants and college graduates, my parents placed a high value on education. Like their parents, my parents enforced the idea that the purpose of an education was to get a well paying job and improve our class standing. They became very active in their children’s education, researching which schools were the best in the valley and making sure my siblings and I attended them. My parents wanted to ensure my siblings and I would have the best opportunities. As a result, we participated in gifted magnet and honors programs throughout elementary, middle, and high school. My parents’ efforts were fruitful. My siblings and I were remained "tracked" in a college preparatory curriculum.

The schools I attended were in affluent areas and had plentiful resources, such as computers, new textbooks, and supplemental media and science materials. Each teacher I encountered was extremely encouraging and believed in each student’s potential. Being in such a positive environment early in life left an impression on me that learning was fun. Positive feedback from my parents and teachers motivated me further to succeed in school by getting good grades. By the time I was in high school, I considered college as a natural progression. My goal at the time was to get into UCLA, so I took many AP courses, participated in many campus organizations, and volunteered at a local hospital. I was used to doing well in school and I felt that if I didn’t get into UCLA, I would embarrass myself and my parents, and not live up to my role as the eldest child of my family. Being known as "the smart one" had become part of my identity and I judged myself based on my academic achievements or lack there of.

I struggled with the issue of my identity throughout my school years, wondering where I fit in as a Pilipina. I’ve been called a "FOB" during elementary school because of my accent and my apparently unstylish clothes and "whitewashed" in middle school because I was not part of the popular Asian clique. This paradox struck me as odd because I felt I was essentially the same person throughout those times. The high school I attended had a small Pilipino population, and of that group, many were into the "gangsta" scene. I did not fit in with them either. I observed the cohesiveness of the African American, Latino American, Chinese American, and Korean American communities in the valley, and I wondered why the Pilipino American community had to be so divided. Why didn’t we have Chinese or Korean schools? Why do our festivals have such low turnout and advertisement? Why do we stare each other down and try to make ourselves bigger than each other?

I began understanding and exploring explanations to my questions in college through my Asian American studies courses and my involvement with Samahang Pilipino. Through readings and dialoguing with other community members, I was able to expand my educational experience. I began to see that I could determine my education, redefining its purpose to fulfill my self growth as well as my self sufficiency.

Learning about historical figures and activists helped me see my role as a part of history more clearly. Learning about the history of our oppression was difficult and made me angry, but worse was realizing that as a college student, I am potentially in the position to continue the cycle of oppression. With knowledge comes accountability whether we choose to validate it or deny it. Our lives are linked to history, but also with the lives of others in our present, in our past, and in our future. Ultimately, the paths we take or do not take will ripple onto someone’s path in one way or another.

Power also accompanies knowledge and when we see the power within ourselves and others to create change, the discovery of our link to history is as C. Wright Mills states "magnificent." We do not have to struggle with systems of oppression alone. I found a community and a family through Samahang Pilipino, its retention project, SPEAR, and its outreach project, SPACE. Through my experiences, I learned the value of collectivity and sharing knowledge. I felt a deeper sense of purpose as a student, to become active in the things I believed in.

At times, it is difficult to reconcile what I want to do with my education and what my parents want me to do. As the eldest, I feel I should graduate in four years and get into medical school, so I could help pay for my sister’s education, as my father and his siblings contributed their financial earnings to support a relative’s educational endeavors. My parents’ combined income disqualifies them from financial aid, so they have to work even harder to support my siblings and I. My mother works three jobs to pay for my college expenses. Ultimately, I know my parents tell my siblings and I to do better than them because they want us to have a "better life." They want to know their struggles meant something and that it would push us forward.

My experiences at UCLA have helped me redefine my life goals and aspirations. The things I learned in college through community service and community organizing have influenced me on how I want to practice as a doctor and what community I will serve. I hope my parents consider the things I’ve done in college as part of their success. I hope they see the things they value in me, that their activism, desire to help others, and commitment to their families survived the historical forces of my time. I know I do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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