A Pinoy's Life In America - A VOICE FROM AMERICA by Ernie D. Delfin

A Pinoy's Life In America
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A Pinoy's Life In America - A VOICE FROM AMERICA by Ernie D. Delfin


For many people around the world, America is like a giant colorful Magnet because it attracts many foreigners. Despite this great attraction, however, a Pinoy's life in the United States is not always rosy.



Like most Americans, many of us Filipinos in America have our own share of problems and struggles. Some of us live from paycheck to paycheck. We work very hard in our unending quest for our own place in the landscape of America. In my almost 30 years in America, I've met hundreds of people of Diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and I've learned a lot along the way.


We Filipinos in America have brought with us our clannishness, some degree of Spanish arrogance, our innate love for things like parties, social dinner dances, food, nice houses, designer clothes and gambling in the casinos. Living it up (pasikatan) and taking undue advantage (makaisa) seem to be in our DNA.


For each one of us who has made it here in America, there are thousands more who are still living unfulfilled lives and hoping to attain the so-called American dream.


Most Filipino-Americans in the labor force face daily struggles and insecurities. They can be laid off from work any day as many companies are currently merging and down sizing. Many employees outside the Protective umbrella of civil service employment suffer from the WWW syndrome: whining, worrying while working. It is true that even the minimum wage earner making about $6.50 per hour, ($1,100 a month) can eat relatively good food but there's more to life than the intake of calories. Of course, there are many people making much more than the minimum wage, like the registered nurses who earn between $3,000 to $5,000 a month depending on their specialty and the shifts they work on. However, by the time taxes are deducted, which is approximately 35 percent, the wage earner is left with just enough to pay for his basic living expenses plus payments for his insurance, entertainment, child-care or education expenses of their children. This leaves the family with almost no savings or investments for their retirement.


Hence, many American families, including Fil-Ams, often resort to using credit cards that enable them to live comfortably but beyond their means. Sooner or later, however, some who can no longer tackle the pressures and stress of the financial burden will file bankruptcy, where all dischargeable debts, like credit cards and other unsecured debts, are discharged and totally forgiven. The ease of getting credit aggravated by the indiscriminate use of the credit cards has created havoc in many people's lives.


An American family of four whose income is only $18,000 yearly is considered poor and in many instances can avail of some government social welfare) assistance. Even a family making $72,000 a year cannot afford to buy a house in the many affluent areas of the nation. In California, for instance, many areas like Orange County (near Disneyland) in San Jose (Silicon Valley) and expensive locations along the Pacific Coast and in the mountain areas are quite expensive. A four-bedroom home with three baths, about 2,400 sq. ft. can command $300,000 to $500,000. A mortgage loan of $300,000 for 30 years term requires an $8,000 monthly income. Less than six percent of Americans make $5,000 a month, and less than three percent make more than $100,000 a year. I do not have a scientific survey, but I believe the vast majority of Filipinos in America, except some physicians, nurses, CPAs, teachers, engineers, architects, do not earn $5,000 a month in one job. Probably only one percent or less make a six-figure income. However, many Filipinos hold more than one job or do a part-time business or work overtime to be able to afford the material things they aspire for.


Speaking of the credit/financial habits of the Filipinos in America, my mortgage lender-friends confirmed my beliefs when they shared their financial statistics that in general the Filipino credit scores (computerized programs that tract and determine the relative risks of any borrower based on his/her credit history) lag behind the Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese and the Japanese. Filipinos are in the same cluster as the Thais and Indonesians. However, in my financial services business experience (this is not scientific) I have seen that credit-wise we are much better off than the Blacks and in many ways better than the Hispanics who oftentimes have no credit. Like my American counterparts, I am also amazed and baffled about these cultural or ethnic patterns. Can any behavioral scientist explain why?


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Filipino Americans often rationalize that they are better off now than in the past. Hearing such declarations makes me sad. For the information of the uninitiated, rightly or wrongly America is not for the weak and frail but for the strong and brave. America believes in free enterprise and competition - as initiated and honed by the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) predominant culture. It is the Europeans, of course, who were the first batch of immigrants that colonized, populated, shaped and molded what America is today.


Socially, the Filipino easily becomes a lider of his own Timbuktu Town Association, composed of two dozen or more families overnight. But put him in the mainstream society and he disappears. In Southern California, there are hundreds of Filipino associations that patronize the first-class hotels for their induction dinner dance or beauty pageants every weekend. Also, the Filipinos would rather form their own Lions Club like those in Los Angeles or in San Diego, rather than integrate themselves into an already existing American club. Even in a progressive city, like Cerritos in the Los Angeles County where thousands of Filipinos reside, there are only two of us Filipino Americans who are members of the local Rotary Club. There are many organizations formed by and for Filipinos especially in California where most Filipinos reside. Filipinos are a unique and easy-going people who can be happy with just a small plot to grow their shallow roots. The Filipino is meek and submissive by nature. He is never confrontational. We find it very difficult to say no directly but instead utter euphemisms like "Pipilitin ko" (I'll try to Do my best) or "Titingnan ko" (I'll see if I can).


Filipinos are also very generous people but not to each other. A few of my Filipino Catholic priest friends have told me that dollar donations per attendee in their Masses vary by ethnic groups. Filipino Masses produce one of the lowest amounts of tithing per person.


Over the last 25 years, I have observed that the best fund-raising activities of Filipino organizations in America is the launching of a "Miss Timbuktu Town" based on "popularity" votes (spelled dollars) where the sponsors sell thousands of tickets for a buck each in addition to the solicitation of expensive "advertisement" or greetings in their souvenir programs from all their relatives across the US and Canada for that 15 minutes (or probably one weekend?) of fame evidenced by the printed association's souvenir program where greetings and family pictures abound.


This is a very popular fund-raising activity because there is some kind of a public recognition that one family is more popular and more successful or wealthier than the other candidates.


Another aspect in the social family life that I find very disturbing and serious, however, is the documented high degree of suicides/homicides and/or juvenile delinquency compared to other communities. For instance, I know a family whose son was killed by the police in an alleged home invasion robbery; another family's daughter who hanged herself and another Filipino teenager who was killed by another Filipino teenager (all in Orange County), a Filipino CPA killed by his son (in LA) and another Filipino who shot himself in the head in a shopping mall in San Diego. One of the reasons why these family tragedies occur, I believe, is the conscious or unconscious quest for more material possessions by working two or three jobs, leaving the kids with nobody at home to watch over them. The trade-off is the un-wholesome company of gangs that become the substitute family which gives the much needed love and care these troubled kids need.


Mother Teresa once said that America, despite her opulence, is becoming a spiritual desert. A fellow advocate for a balanced life, Dr. Eleanor M. Santiago, retired physician in Los Angeles who is the president/CEO Optimum Health Care Systems, Inc. based in Pasig City, agrees with Mother Teresa's profound observation. Retired from her medical practice in California and now a strong proponent of the HMO business in the Philippines and a lay leader of the Stephen Ministry and Servant Leadership Foundation in the Philippines, Dr. Santiago told a surprised American audience: "There Is deeper spirituality of the Filipino people in the Philippines amidst Their material poverty, even among the survivors of the Payatas garbage mountain that collapsed, killing hundreds of people. The Filipino people by nature are good people who deserve a better life. And we can help them by assisting and empowering them to solve their own problems."


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On the political side, the involvement of the average Filipino is still very shallow and far from ideal. Filipino-Americans become naturalized American citizens not necessarily to be able to vote but to petition other members of their families to migrate to the United States and to avoid going to the Philippine Consulates to renew their passports or secure their BIR tax clearances.


Gradually, the US has seen growing number of Filipino-Americans being elected into public office. Names like Ben Cayetano, the first Filipino governor of Hawaii, Mayor Henry Manayan in Milpitas, California, Mayor Peter Fajardo in Carson, California, David Valederrama in Maryland State Legislature come to mind in the political arena. Many more Filipino Americans are elected to other city councils, school districts and other government instrumentalities across the nation.


However, lately a couple of these elected Filipino officials have fallen out as role models from the Filipino community. The only Filipino elected city councilman in the entire San Diego County, in the City of National City (the Filipino businesses enclave in San Diego, where you can go to many Filipino restaurants like Max Chicken or Ma Mon Luk, groceries and night clubs) by the name of Fred Soto was involved in a legal lawsuit for some alleged financial improprieties and gross unprofessional conduct that resulted into his surrendering his license to practice law and now faces a possible recall of his elected position.


Last week, the first Filipino elected mayor of Carson, Peter Fajardo, was arrested and is still in prison (as of this writing) for allegedly breaking his probation resulting from his pleading guilty to a federal misdemeanor of illegally collecting a lawyer's fee. Now, the Filipinos in Carson that comprise about a quarter of the city's 60,000 population are bewildered by this sad event as their image in the entire nation is again tarnished.


My own theory is that oftentimes there is a wide chasm between the image that the politician is trying to project to the public and his core-character. Foremost American author and leadership guru Steven R. Covey calls this "living a duplicitous life," a life that is devoid of any integrity savings account. In any great inner conflict, sooner or later, the person does some wicked and foolish acts for his self-destruction as the weight of baggage in his edifice is built on a shaky foundation made of sand causes the building to collapse.


Unsuccessful and weak people purporting to be very successful and strong often wear public masks every day of their lives (epitomized by a fallen President Erap Estrada) instead of just during Halloween's trick or treat parties.


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So, dear kababayans, please do not idolize or envy us here in America as all of us are also fighting our own demons every day. Our lives here are not necessarily better than yours. Although this article is an honest depiction of a somewhat negative aspect of the Filipino life in America, I do not wish to imply that Filipinos here in America live in this negative light. The point is that we must constantly be aware of our human frailties so that we can improve ourselves in conquering the demons within each of us.