Reading your post, I say, sadly, “You’re not there yet, girl.”

Being Filipina is skin-deep. You look in all the wrong places: chinky eyes, fair skin, what country you live in, what dish you cook, what food you eat, what man you marry… That all means NOTHING. Being Filipina is that inner strength within, that certainty that wherever you go–the probinsya, the UK, the moon–you’re YOU.

Being Filipina is a badge of womanhood. Of wading through the pedestal of the Maria Clara, the romanticism of men (both foreign and Filipino), the lusty images of the GI’s, the hype of pop culture and the internet, the confusions of being a dislocated immigrant. Value your race’s past, live in your present, make high stakes for your future.

Being Filipina is knowing, within your gut, that if you were to be born again and had a chance to choose what mortal self you would assume, you would immediately answer, “Make me a Filipina!”

I hope someday, you, and many more of our beautiful Filipina sisters, will find out what it means to be Filipina. Then, instead of asking if you’re Filipina, you will be proudly saying, “I AM FILIPINA!”

Stand proud!

ProudlyFilipina