While searching for greetings and salutations in different languages, I found an educators site regarding mother tongues that is based in the Philippines. I added it to my blog list. When I think about mother tongues, I feel a little sad. When I was a little girl growing up in Detroit, I spoke Tagalog, Ilocano and Spanish until I entered elementary school, where I was told I had to speak only English. I cannot express how devastating it was to no longer be able to speak to my family and relatives in the Philippines.
As an African American Filipina, I was able to write a little through poetry but not able to fully excavate the origin and results of the sadness until I wrote about it in grad school.
A side note:
Even as I write, there is a PBS show called the History Detectives talking about Dewey-mania, Spain and U.S. Imperialism in the Philippines. Things like this are what keeps me tied to my Filipino heritage, in addition to the photographs and stories of my family's history that were passed down to me. Later, when I have more time, I will add photos, poems and other information. Since I have written this, for my own family's history, I will add the website that my cousin Art Sulit made for my mother's first cousin, General Macario Peralta:
http://musictimeline.net/tours/Peralta/
http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/former_senators/macario_peralta_jr.htm
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