Abstract
“For the first time ever, I felt like I was reading about my life,” my Filipina student told me when returning my copy of The Latinos of Asia. Her reaction highlights a major strength of Anthony Ocampo’s new book: It weaves an untold story. Though Filipinos are one of America’s longest-residing ethnic groups, academic and popular discourse provide little understanding of factors shaping their identity. Ocampo highlights the lived experiences of Filipino Americans as they navigate the multiple structures influencing their identities—legacies of colonization by both Spain and the United States, neighborhood environments, and educational institutions—structures that operate differently depending on one’s stage in the life course. On this front, The Latinos of Asia is a considerable achievement. Because of its broad accessibility, Ocampo’s book fills an important gap in our knowledge about an often-overlooked group while also providing a foundation for understanding the “unwritten rules of race.”
Ocampo’s book begins with a historical analysis of four centuries of colonial and dictatorial regimes in the Philippines. Having spent more than 300 years as a colony of Spain, today the Philippines is the only majority Roman Catholic society in Asia, Spanish words are embedded in Filipino languages, and there is a deep cultural focus on family as the center of social life. The subsequent 50 years of U.S. colonial rule resulted in continued subjection to extensive “civilization” projects for “America’s little brown brothers.” Most consequential was the complete overhaul of the educational system, which established English as the primary language of instruction. Independence from colonialism in 1946 was ultimately bittersweet, however, as it ushered in a period of poverty in the Philippines. Centuries of colonial rule had depleted the country’s rich natural resources, facilitated the underdevelopment of the national economy, and created a large pool of educated workers facing limited labor market opportunities. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos stepped in with promises of economic reform and established a labor migration program that funneled skilled Filipino workers throughout the world.
Building on this foundational historical analysis, the following chapters turn to a sociological analysis of the ways colonial and dictatorial legacies in the Philippines interact with multiple U.S. contexts—neighborhood, high school, and college—to influence Filipino American identity. Because of their high educational attainment, professional skills, and English-language ability upon migration to the United States, Filipino immigrants are more likely to live in diverse (yet still overwhelmingly nonwhite) neighborhoods. Ocampo describes the ways these distinctly “non-Asian” neighborhood and high school contexts influence Filipino identity. Without a developed Filipino neighborhood infrastructure, Ocampo’s participants describe turning to the family as the primary “classroom” for learning about what it means to be Filipino and, drawing upon their Spanish colonial legacy, many find comfort in their cultural similarities to their Mexican-origin neighbors. One particularly memorable interview was with Nelson, who asked Ocampo for dating advice with his Vietnamese girlfriend, because it was the first time he was dating someone of a “different race”; when Ocampo asked for clarification because Nelson had described two previous Mexican American girlfriends, he replied, “That doesn’t count. Mexicans are the same as Filipinos.” Despite this “colonial panethnicity” Filipinos feel with Latino neighbors, upon entering high school they often receive differential treatment from teachers who perceive their Asian “model minority” identity to be a marker of superior academic abilities. In fact, racial boundaries are strictly drawn as Filipinos who are not honors students are described by their peers as “pretending to be black” or “trying to be like a Mexican gangster.” Ocampo also considers how college offers yet another socialization context. His respondents describe the culture shock of being in a predominantly white setting for the first time and their subsequent association of Asian-origin groups with whiteness and its attendant privilege. In college, their impression of “Asian” translates to “de facto white” and results in Filipinos’ pushing away from the Asian racial identity and toward identities associated with underrepresented minorities, such as Pacific Islander.
I learned a great deal from The Latinos of Asia. Ocampo’s accessible writing style and vast knowledge of what it means to be Filipino in America make the book a page-turner. Ocampo certainly accomplishes what my student observed as the book’s major strength—he thoughtfully illuminates factors shaping the racial identity of an important, yet overlooked, ethnic group. However, Ocampo also promises to use the case of Filipino Americans to help understand the black box of racial formation more generally. Here the book comes up short. I found myself disappointed in the book’s lack of a theoretical framework and a methods section to hang my academic hat on. In the end, Ocampo’s book is inspirational for Filipino Americans trying to understand the structural and cultural factors influencing their identities. At the same time it provides fertile ground for a future research agenda that incorporates Asian Americans, with all their complexity, into the broader racial formation literature.