native tongues

Since leaving my parents house, I've bounced around the urbanized areas of philly up until my current dwelling in the white suburbia of jersey. Throughout this journey - I've never really submerged myself in a filipino community. The one exception was in college, when I joined the Temple University Filipino American Council (TUPAC). (Funny side note on that acronym: When I first transferred to Temple, a sophmore girl asked me if I heard of TUPAC, I replied, "Yeah, he got shot right?") The club was more of an excuse to hook up and party rather than a cultural bonding. I'll never forget the subject of the first meeting I attended: examples of the corniest pick up lines.

In South Jersey, pinoys are spread out and there's no Jersey City type of enclave. There is a filipino dominated church in Old City Philly but I'm not a dedicated churchgoer. Back in college, a friend brought me to her usual Sunday mass which was followed by a nice luncheon and some cultural performances. Enjoyable... until a group of titos and titas started auditioning me as a possible boyfriend for their daughters.

At work, I keep up with a couple pinoys in other departments. One girl is half pinay and half german. She grew up in the boonies of Pennsylvania and admitted that I'm probably the third filipino that she's ever met in her life. But she's well versed in filipino cuisine. Then there the half pinoy/half black kid that grew up near Trenton. We could talk about filipino food for hours and the love for his grandmother's cooking is unparalleled. He's never been to the Philippines and he's dying to visit. The three of us made a special excursion to a local filipino restaurant in NE philly called Manila Bay. Our conversations are often consumed by food or sorting out hazy memories of our childhood. In this sense, our connections with filipino culture aren't necessarily defined by us but rather by relation to our parents and families. I'd love to chop it up with them more if our schedule didn't conflict so much.

I suppose there's a cultural disconnect on some level but then again I didn't grow up in Jersey City or Stockton. Actually when I attend family reunions nowadays, there's almost a culture shock in being in a room full of filipinos. I have to readjust to their humor, remember forgotten customs or words. Even my stomach has to remember how to deal with certain food ingredients. But it doesn't take long to get reacquainted.

The other day at the gym, I was focused in on my workout when I heard utterances of tagalog behind me. My head jerked around involuntarily to see two girls conversing and stairmastering. They were young - must be 1st generation because 2nd gens are rarely taught to speak so fluently. Couldn't really catch the conversation. Growing up hearing my parents conversations, I usually picked up 70% of it through common words and filling in the blanks. I'm horribly out of practice. On the rare occurence that I come across it in public, I almost stop in my tracks. I'm almost compelled to follow the filipino family around Target to finish off the conversation. Their native toungue is a reminder of a childhood long ago.