Blonde and Blue Eyes
When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the
country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white. I thought-if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I’d wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my nose!
More than four centuries under western domination does that to you. I
have sixteen cousins. In a couple of years, there will just be five of us left in the Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search of “greener pastures.” It’s not just an anomaly; it’s a trend; the Filipino diaspora. Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world.
There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Maybe this is a natural reaction of someone who was left behind, smiling for family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year. Desertion, I called it. My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice.
Or is it? I don’t think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world, where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure Filipino-a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures.
Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of different ethnicities, with national identities and individual personalities. Because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England is the world, so is my neighbourhood back home.
Seen this way, the Filipino Diaspora, or any sort of dispersal of
populations, is not as ominous as so many claim. It must be understood. I come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduate from college every year. They have skills. They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.
A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back. We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK’s National Health Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the world’s commercial ships. We are your software engineers in Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London’s West End.
Nationalism isn’t bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are. British society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a borderless world!
Leaving sometimes isn’t a matter of choice. It’s coming back that is.
The Hobbits of the shire traveled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans or the ‘returnees’-those who followed their dream, yet choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.
In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A borderless world doesn’t preclude the idea of a home. I’m a Filipino, and I’ll always be one. It isn’t about just geography; it isn’t about boundaries. It’s about giving back to the country that shaped me.
And that’s going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas morning.
Mabuhay. and Thank you.
Jun 13, 2009
Original post by Dmitri Gromov
Jun 15, 2009
You know so many interesting infomation. You might be very wise. I like such people. Don’t top writing.
Jun 16, 2009
nice piece….
Aug 10, 2009
– o’
NICE ONE.
— o’
Aug 11, 2009
ang lupet.!
pero mas astig pa rin mging pinoy!
Aug 11, 2009
JEWEL GANDA! JEWEL GANDA!
Aug 26, 2009
i love miss pat super galing and talented.
ipinagmamalaki ko ang aking pagiging Filipino.
mabuhay tayong lahat!
Sep 13, 2009
hi patricia. im planning to use this as my declamation piece for my speech subj. can i?
Sep 26, 2009
[...] Updated 3: I didn’tknow until today that Manay Evangelista has a blog. You can visit her blog at http://www.patriciaevangelista.com/blonde-and-blue-eyes/. [...]
Nov 7, 2009
your piece was really great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
don’t you know that your piece was the most used and popular oratorical speech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
more power and blessings to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nov 18, 2009
..ang gnda
Nov 28, 2009
hi pat,
i share your sentiments…
keep on writing pieces like this one…
good day.
Feb 9, 2010
Hi Patricia! May I use your speech for discussio in my English class?
I am an English teacher and interested to discuss your thoughts presented in the speech.
Feb 23, 2010
Hello Ms. Pat,
What can i say….oh right after hearing my boardmate reading your Speech i was so inspired word for word by your Blonde and Blue Eyes…..and how i really wish my kid cud be a little like you…so spantaneous, subtle, very good diction and sincere when you delivered. I ‘d like to be one of your millions of fan. You’re a Filipino pride!
Mar 20, 2010
hey pat,
your speech really has a profound content and an unusual intellect, one that’s rarely found in a human being of norm. once again, I congratulate and thank you for bringing the honor to our country in a way that could express the random impressions of all the Filipino citizens upon this borderless world in a superb speech!.
don’t mind my name, I just don’t want to expose my name…
Apr 24, 2010
as i watch her speech on the video, there was a paragraph and some lines that were not said by ms. evangelista as compared to what is written here, was that meant not to be said at all?
thank you if you’ll answer my question. (i’m a bit of curious.)