FILIPINOS IN AMERICA

                                                                            

 

FILIPINOS IN THE US

                     

After the US annexation of the Philippines in 1899, a large numbers of Filipinos migrated to the United States to study or to fill up the agricultural jobs, primarily in California and Hawaii. As US nationals, Filipinos were not subject to the same restrictions imposed on other non-European groups. The Filipinos living in the US, make the second largest (4 million approximately) Asian group in the country. The period of American colonisation of the Philippines was 48 years. It began with the cession of the Philippines to the U.S. by Spain in 1898 and lasted until the US recognition of Philippine independence in 1946.There are about 850,000 people in Canada with Filipino ethnic origin.

 

Filipinos are usually very warm and friendly people who enjoy conversing with those around them. I met an immigrant from the Philippines. His great grandfather came to the US as labour. The family is settled in Flushing , New York. Flushing is a new residential colony inhabited by Asians from China. India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan and many more countries. The Filipino gentleman told me this:-

 "During the 1920s, many Filipinos immigrated to the United States as unskilled labour .We are about 4 million Filipino immigrants in the US The United States and the Philippines are a  treaty allies known as 'The Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951' . The Philippines is the oldest and closest security partner of the US in the Southeast Asia.  Philippines is also one amongst treaty allies of the US in the Pacific region. Approximately 350,000 Americans are residing in the Philippines. We hold our ‘Annual Independence Day Parade’ here. We introduced our cuisine Halo-halo, the cold dessert in the Philippines made up of crushed ice, evaporated milk or coconut milk, and various ingredients is very popular here. Our population is concentrated in Hawaii ,Washington, Texas, Nevada and some more places. We also have sizeable population in New york and New Jersey. We are in every sector of the US . You can see Filipinos doing well in healthcare , films, music , IT,  the US military, police, hospitality, administration, politics, education and many more sectors . They are contributing significantly to the American economy. Pilar Valdes, the celebrity chef in the US is a Fiipino. Ronnie del Carmen is a celebrity in Hollywood . He worked with Warner Brothers and now he is with Netflix. Then you have Isabel Sandoval, the Filipino American who is a well known Hollywood director . Then i can name Jeremy Castro Baguyos, Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska. Byron Acohido ,the Pulitzer Prize winning  novelist is from Filipino ancestry .Michael Janis ,the renowned glass artist is of Filipino ancestry. Monique Lhuillier is a leading Hollywood fashion designer. The list is endless. I can name hundreds. I mean to say that Filipinos have become a part of the American system due to their hard work . As Filipino-Americans , we think of our motherland positively, it's a part of who we are even if we're not there."

 Had our great Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri visited the US, he would have immediately replaced word  ‘Hind’  and ‘Hindustan’ with word “ America” in his below mentioned couplet :-

 

' Sarzameen e hind par aqwaam e aalam ke Firaq,

Qaafile baste gaye Hindustan banta gaya. '

 

 (On the soil of Hind ( India ) , O Firaq 

Caravans from all over the world kept coming,  

And so was Hindustan ( India )  made)

 

( Avtar Mota )

 

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