Pathos of Asian Adoptees

My Story - Special Occasion Speech for Public Speaking Class

Thank you, Salamat Po

I’ve been an active member of Filipino School also formally known as Paaralang Pilipino since 2007. If it wasn’t for my family friend, Tita Rose Tutay, I would have never stumbled upon this “Pearl of the Midwest.” I would have never known anything about my roots. And I would have never known what really defines Filipino or for myself, a Filipino American without the hyphen.

I was a white person in an Asian body, a Filipino who might have lost his way. A literal coconut as some say - Brown on the outside but white on the inside. I felt a sense of belongingness for the first time of my life attending Paaralan. However, simultaneously, I felt and experienced culture shock from being away from my pre-disposed culture, the Philippines. I did not know where “my people” or I came from and was unsure of my destiny as to what I wanted to do with my life. I was a foreigner. I could not relate to nor speak in the same tongue as everybody else. We all had the same color of skin in variants of brown. We had almond shaped eyes. And we had thick black hair. Although we looked similar, I was so different.

The madness all began when I was bombarded with questions around the time of my early adolescent years of 14-16 years old. These were simple questions of incorrectly asked “What is your nationality?” along with “Where are you from?” and correctly “What is your ethnicity or ethnic background?” Diving deeper are personal ones and incorrect terms such as “Do you know your “real” parents?” Questions I could and could not answer. The search began by immersing in music, language, and youtube videos displaying sound trips of my motherland. I reminisce of the foster family that raised me temporarily in Cebu City, the orphanage where understaffed nurses and social workers show love and care for the children staying there, and dug deeper to find out about my abandonment.

My 18th birthday was approaching. My adoptive mother didn’t want to show me but my only wish was that I get to see my adoption papers as my gift from them. I was born in a small village called Mabuli located in the district of Tabogon. Word travels fast due to gossip and it isn’t densely populated while the culture is very tightly knit. A plastic bag hanging upon a banana tree was my first crib after being newly born. Shortly after being found by a farmer, I was shortly taken to the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and was placed in the Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC), which in turn brought me to my foster family and then adopted by my white American family – The Wilsons. I experienced drastic changes of where potatoes became my rice and spaghetti became my pancit, which is similar to Chow Mein. Fast forwarding to when I was 16 years old, I met a woman by the name of Rose Tutay. She became the first Filipino that I have met upon being adopted. We had coffee and talked about Filipino culture as she tried to find distinct Filipino mannerisms since being adopted at a toddler age –unlike my Asian counterparts: Chinese and Korean. The only thing I knew about being particularly Filipino was looking in the mirror. What separated me from me from other Asians was being brown. And what separated me even more was being the only “full blooded” Filipino.

Until she introduced me to Paaralang Pilipino, I only knew bits and pieces of the puzzle and could not find my piece. I learned everything that came in my path about my heritage when being part of the Filipino History Class and Pilipino Language course. I continued to learn for three years until the director of Education at Paaralan saw my passion for Cultural identity and could contribute not only as a mentor, but as the lead mentor of the school. I thank Tita Rose Tutay for bringing me to Filipino School. I thank you all for teaching me and helping me find my place and roots. I am honored to be appointed as the lead mentor of Filipino school. My life experiences as well as everything I learned have taught me a great deal in giving back to the community as the lead mentor. As an international adoptee? I hope to help those who don’t know how to look back at where he or she came from to find themselves again.