Published in the HAPIT April-June 2006 Issue

By members of the League of Filipino Students and babae San Francisco Philippine Exposure Group

Intro:

In Manila, on July 14th six Filipino Americans decided to risk traveling through the dangers of tropical storm Florita so they could visit Dalupirip in Southern Benguet. Alan (25), Brian (21), Charm (24), Jun (29), Ivan (27), and Shea (30) made the decision to get to their planned destination even though six people already died in the perils of the storm. The group accepted the challenge of traveling despite closed roads, long hikes, and heavy rains.

All the members of the group were born in the U.S. except for Charm (La Union) and Ivan (Batangas) but all lived in America for more than ten years. Among them there were teachers, students, and organizers whom all planned to return to the U.S. after their month long exposure in the Philippines ended.

Each member of the group wrote a personal testimony below in response to three different questions. The questions were: 1) why would a Filipino, living in America, accept the risk of unsafe travel to visit Dalupirip, a community where you have no family? 2) What was your experience in the community and how does it connect to your life in America? 3) How has your experience in Dalupirip affected your life in America?

Question 1: Why would a Filipino, living in America, accept the risk of unsafe travel to visit Dalupirip, a community where you have no family?

As a collective we decided to visit Dalupirip to get a deeper understanding of the struggles, in the community. In America, people have no sense of what peasant life is like, so our mission was to bring those experiences and the issues of the community to the Filipino-Americans living here. We want the Filipino-American community to understand that the issues of Dalupirip directly connect to the issues that Filipino-American’s face here, so that way, we, in America and our people in the Philippines can work together to overcome horrible exploitation. – Brian Ragas

Imagine being forced off the land that your family inhabited their whole life. Imagine being pushed out of the Philippines into America and then raising your family in a foreign country. Imagine being surrounded by a culture focused on money dominated by whites. Your children no longer speak your native language and cannot understand the stories of their lola and lolo. Now imagine I am your child growing up without a strong sense of home because I grew up a foreigner in a strange land. I tell you I want to learn about my culture and my history and so I go to the Philippines. But even in many cities in the Philippines, the people have lost their culture, they no longer live off the land, and they live like white people fooled by the deception of money. So I go to the Cordilleras, one of the last places where indigenous people maintain the fight to preserve our ancestral way of life. I arrive in Dalupirip and I learn that even the culture there is being sold out to the demon of money. I realize we must fight harder or else my children may no longer have any place to find home. – Jun Cruz

Question 2: What was your experience in the community and how does it connect to your life in America?

Harvesting palay is no joke. To think us “Fil-Ams” only experienced a small part of the process has me respect farming life on another level. Hunched over, bare feet in the Philippines muddy earth, cutting down the palay, I was sweating like I never did before (and the sun wasn’t even out!) I even cut my thumb holding the sickle wrong. Thank goodness Manang Norma corrected my wrong palay practice. While on that field, I was thinking to myself, “This is seriously hard work.” The quote kept ringing in my head. “Bawat butil ng palay ay butil ng dugo, kalansay at bungo ng ating ninuno butil ng pawis ng luha at dugo, butil ng palay butil ng ginto.” I started thinking about all the food we waste in the United States. My parents always told me to eat rice even when it fell on the table and now I understand. I was left on the field with Manang Norma for a few minutes and I told her my feelings. She responded, “The farmers work the hardest yet they are the poorest and they eat the least.” To think the government makes it more difficult for farmers to survive. Water is polluted, land is grabbed, and farmers are paid unfairly for their crops. I couldn’t help but ask “Why?” I never fully understood “Land is life” but that afternoon in Dalupirip I was able to taste a piece of the concrete conditions that our people go through. – Alan David

Dalupirip is another example of why I keep coming back to the Homeland. I was once again humbled by the strength of our people through integration and stories of struggle. We witnessed the tedious process of mining on the Agno River banks and the backward means of production that is still used to gather only a few grams of gold a week. Those that we interviewed are not only mining gold as their livelihood, but are also farmers, mothers, fathers, and children. The look on their faces displayed determination and the will to do what is needed to survive. They are in competition with corporate large-scale mining companies that strip the land of its resources and dump toxins into the water. In the rain, turning over rocks and boulders with their hands, they comb each grain of sand in hopes of finding gold - gold that is eventually sold to feed the mouths of their families. Our people are strong and determined.

Dalupirip - I will not forget you and all that you taught me about the struggles for land and water. I am inspired by your will to fight for justice. Tuloy ang paglaban! – Shea Carillo

Question 3: How has your experience in Dalupirip affected your life in America?

The rich lush land of Dalupirip helped strengthen my understanding on why the Philippines suffer from three basic problems: imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. From our interviews among the people, the roots of these issues manifest through the impact of dam building and big-scale mining greatly affecting their way of life. The people depend on the land for sustenance and gold for their livelihood, which will be eliminated if these mining and expansion of dams continue to exploit sacred land. I was inspired by the people’s organizing efforts, serving as a symbol for my intrinsic motivation to struggle with our people here in the belly of the beast. – Charm Consolacion

As an educator, I always keep in mind that all genuine knowledge originates from direct experience. Our time in Dalupirip - learning the history, working the land, and witnessing first-hand the struggles of the Cordillera peoples- has definitely made me more determined to share a truer representation of our people’s history with the youth I work with in both school and the community. I have returned to the U.S. with greater purpose and a stronger commitment to educate our youth about the connections their struggles in the U.S have with those of our people back in the homeland. – Ivan Santos

As the saying goes: “All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.” This explains why this group of six Filipinos from America lived amongst the people of a Dalupirip. In order for each of them to truly understand what the reality of the Philippines is, each one of them had to go with the people to farm the fields, sing their songs, and listen to their stories. Only in taking part in the daily work of the people could they truly understand the people’ struggles. Now that they know the truth, they will spread their knowledge to all people who are willing to listen. Hopefully others will be willing to travel to the Philippines to seek the truth for themselves. #