Inventing ourselves as Filipinos

Despite myth and ideology, the US is a multicultural society that, because of its segregationist tendencies, nurtures ‘primordial’ identity feelings. As one of the biggest Spanish-speaking countries, this is obvious enough among the Chicanos and variant Latinos, but other second and third generation descendants of original immigrants are also stimulated to keep their ethnic identity alive. Over time, such identity is increasingly rooted in group- and generation specifi c rituals and other invented traditions. Identities evolve over the years and, at the personal level, even over one’s life time.

Gonzalves, Theodore S. 2010. The Day the Dancers Stayed; Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. xii + 215 pages. ISBN 978 1 59213 729 9 pbk.

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