About the Author/Webmaster
This interview (part oral, part written but finally all written) was between me and my third son. It was for his culture fair project in seventh grade social studies. The interview was done around October 2002. I thought it says more about me than a straight autobio would.
Where were you born? Exact room? Who was the doctor? Midwife?
I was born in Mayoyao, Ifugao, Philippines. Ifugao is a remote, mountainous province in northern Philippines. Ifugao is known worldwide for its rice terraces. My mother was a nurse and she delivered me by instructing her niece how to pull the baby out and how to cut the umbilical cord. I was born in the middle of a stormy night so it was hard to call for help. My father then was away in college.
Describe your family when you were a child.
I have two older sisters, one younger one, and four younger brothers. There's only one or two years difference in our ages so we were a close big bunch of kids.
Did you have to share a room? Bed?
Our early houses had only two bedrooms - one for the parents and one for all the kids. We didn't sleep in beds when we were very little. There were one or two beds so most of us slept on woven mats that we roll out at night and roll up in the morning. We each had our pillows and blankets that we also had to carefully fold and put away in a corner of the room every morning we wake up and then lay out on the mat every night we go to sleep.
The Philippines is a tropical country so we didn't need a lot of thick beddings or linens. However, we had to use mosquito nets to protect us from mosquito bites. I didn't like the mosquito nets very much because we had to set it up (hang them up from their four corners) over our mats every night we go to sleep and then carefully fold them up as nicely as folding a flag each time we wake up in the morning. When we became older, our house had more rooms and had more beds but because there were many of us, we still shared rooms and beds.
What remedies did your parents use for your illnesses and cuts/scrapes?
My mother was the public health nurse of the town I grew up in so she had an array of aspirins for fevers and headaches, band-aids, gauzes, tincture of iodine (it's red and it stung!!!) to put on our cuts and scrapes. My grandmothers had their own remedies like salt-preserved chicken fat, chewed up bitter leaves, a piece of black stone, etc.
What is the naughtiest thing you ever did as a child?
I stole a peso bill from my dad's wallet and used it to buy a bag of cookies that I had all to myself. I got a good spanking for it.
Which people were the most important to your life? Why?
My mom, dad, and siblings because I felt loved and secure being a part of that unit as a whole. They also nurtured and encouraged me to excel even if that meant being away from them a lot.
How did your parents punish you?
My dad used a flat stick or his belt to spank us on our buttocks when we did wrong things like stealing, lying, hurting another kid, sassing the elders or deliberately not doing our chores. He would tell us what we did wrong and why it was wrong and then we had to obediently lay flat, face down on a bench as he spanked us on the butt.
What chores did you have to do?
Oh, lots compared to what you kids consider chores now. We had to wake up very early everyday - waken by the crowing of the rooster or by my father's singing (he was a minister and also a public school teacher so he would sing Our Father or Holy, Holy, Holy, or Amazing Grace until everyone has waken up). Fold our beddings, change into work clothes, empty the urinals, wash up, then do our assigned morning chores which could be feeding the chickens or the pigs, putting the horse, cow, carabao, or goat to pasture, sweeping the yard, cooking breakfast (yes we ate rice even for breakfast!), fetching water from the pump, etc. Any of these before we go to school! And then more chores after school! We cannot go out to play until we did our chores and completed our homework.
What was your favorite childhood game? What was your favorite toy?
Scrabble. We didn't have many games at home besides scrabble, checkers, and mancala. I was good at scrabble. We didn't have toys per se. Everything around us became toys because we had to make our own toys. My parents didn't buy us toys in boxes, not even dolls or trucks. We made pretend houses out of grass, banana leaves, and reeds. We made pretend jewelry out of buds and sticky leaves. We made cannonballs out of mud and used bamboo as our cannon. We invented games out of the sandy beach of the river where we swam a lot.
Did you have a pet? Its name?
Not necessarily mine. It was the whole family's. It was a dog and his name was Tito. He was a handsome, healthy dog. But you would be shocked if I told you that we allowed Tito to be butchered and eaten when he was crippled and about to die. You must understand that our attachment to our domestic dogs in the Philippines is not the same as your attachment to your pet dogs here. Domestic dogs there are like other domestic animals - to be raised for meat eventually. We also had our favorite horses named Queen and Princess but they had to be used for meat too when they cannot be used for horse riding anymore.
What did your pet eat? Where did it sleep?
We didn't buy dog food in bags like you do here in the US. We fed our dog leftovers which was mostly rice mixed with bits of meat and fish. Tito slept outside on the porch. He was our security guard.
What kind of music did you listen to?
My family was (still is) very religious (United Church of Christ in the Philippines) - much of our family life revolved around church so I listened a lot to hymns and other church songs (mostly in English but also in the local languages), sang by my parents or us during our family devotions, sang by the choir which practiced a lot in our house, sang on Sundays and Wednesday church meetings, etc. But we had a transistor radio and it played popular Filipino music as well as Western music.
What did you think of rock and roll and Elvis Presley and the Beatles?
I didn't know it was rock and roll then but I enjoyed listening to the music. I didn't know about Elvis Presley until one of my older sisters obsessed over a picture of this curled-lipped, grinning Americano. Philippine radio stations played the Beatles a lot and I loved listening to their songs but it was not until I read about their story while in high school that I really knew the impact they had on rock and roll and popular music as a whole.
Did you have a telephone?
No. The only telephone in town was in the municipio or town hall. You didn't dial numbers on these phones. You "dialed" by turning a handle attached to a big black box. You turned the handle either short (halfway) or long (full circle). The combination of short or long dials made up the number you called. I don't know how this was interpreted by the receiver at the other end. My first real use of a modern telephone was in my freshman year in college in the big city of Manila. I was 16 years old then.
As a child, what did you do for recreation or hobbies? What did you do for fun in the summer?
We didn't have TV or any of the video games you have today. We played outdoors a lot. We played competitive games using marbles, jacks, rubber bands, sticks, balls, etc., We had rules for winning in these games and like you these days with video games, we would get very obsessed about winning either individually or in teams. We drew squares on the ground and played hopscotch. We would run down to the river on weekends to swim and dive from a rock over the deepest part of the river. We made rafts by putting together a few banana stalks and just float down the river. We played a lot of hide and seek especially when it's full moon. We hunted for birds' nests and eggs in trees, cliffs, and river banks. (In the Philippines, the importance of protecting wildlife and forests was not emphasized, implemented, and practiced as you do here in the US).
We did all the above in the summer too although summer was when our parents sent us away to relatives in other towns. So I remember summers as spending time with cousins. I remember getting homesick though so I don't particularly have fond memories of these visits to relatives.
Describe your early education. What was school like?
My parents believe in education fiercely because education was what helped them do things other than subsistence farming which their parents (my grandparents) did. My mother was a public health nurse and my dad was a public school teacher. My mom and dad taught us our ABCs and numbers. They put up our own spelling bee contests at home and helped us with our homework at night. We used either candles, kerosene lamps, or Coleman lanterns for light so you could imagine how we studied at night.
Did you complete high school? Why or why not?
I completed high school in a school located in another town. The school, called Ifugao Academy, was founded by American missionaries after WWII. Both my parents graduated from this high school. I stayed in a dormitory and went home about once a month.
What was your favorite subject in school?
If grades were an indication of what's my favorite subject then I would say that I liked all my subjects equally well because I performed equally well in all my subjects.
What was your worst subject?
See above.
Did you ever have to stay after school?
Yes, because I was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities that required practices and rehearsals.
How were you punished if you did something wrong in school?
You were warned then expelled if you still commit the same mistake after two warnings.
Which was more important to you as a child: Books, newspapers, magazines, television or radio? Why?
Print materials are very expensive to buy in the Philippines so we were very happy for any print material that we can have. My father once brought home a pile of Hardy Boys books that were thrown out of a library and my sisters and I voraciously read them for want of anything else to read. There were several religious magazines at home, including devotionals like Our Daily Bread and The Upper Room. The only secular magazine my parents could afford to subscribe to was Reader's Digest and it was a big purchase when they bought any of the condensed books and other books that Reader's Digest published.
Books were so expensive that the "biggest" gift we received for Christmas was a set of science encyclopedia. (Note that we did not receive individual gifts at Christmas.) There are no neighborhood public libraries in the Philippines like you do here in the US. Only the big cities have public libraries but they are usually musty and used only by people looking for old information. More like archives than a place where everyone can go to find all kinds of reading or viewing materials, old and new, like you do here.
We didn't have TV while I was growing up. I only got to watch TV for real when I went to college in Manila. The radio played a big role in how we got local, national, and international news. Our local radio stations aired several "soaps" that even us kids got addicted to. We would rush home from school to listen to the latest crisis in the lives of our radio drama characters.
What values or ideas were the most important in your life and did they change?
I guess, I absorbed, by default, the absolute values placed by my parents on family, spirituality, and community. I value these things still but I think that I have a broader perspectives on these things than my parents just because I have had the opportunity to live in so many places.
What was something you ate at home as a child that you do not eat today?
Tripe or dinuguan as they call it in the Philippines. I still will eat it today but you will not eat it so I have no motivation to go shop for tripe. There are several plant foods (weedlike) that I ate as a child but cannot find here in the US, even in Asian grocery stores.
Why did your grandparents' foods differ from what you and your family and friends eat? Explain.
For sustenance, my grandparents had to rely directly on what their farms and gardens produced. Their culture did not have food preservation mechanisms beyond storing grain, and salting and drying meat. My family, though still living in a remote village, had access to canned goods and bulk foods that we purchased in the big town where we go to on weekends to shop. Still, we didn't have refrigeration while I was growing up because there was no electricity coming to our town.
When and how did you learn to drive a car?
I started to learn how to drive in Athens, Ohio where your dad went to school after we left the Philippines. He started teaching me but he would get very frustrated with me and I would get very nervous so we stopped the lessons. Plus I was pregnant with your older brother Daniel and I didn't like adjusting the driver's seat with my tummy protruding. Later in Brattleboro, Vermont, a very kind, patient fellow Filipina named Vicky taught me how to drive. She was a teacher and offered her time for free after her teaching duties at school to teach me how to drive. I was 25 years old when I got my driver's license.
What kind of car was it?
The car we used in Ohio was a tan 10-year-old Toyota Celica. We later used an old blue Oldsmobile Omega in Vermont and in California.
Did you ever have an accident?
Oh, yes. A car driven by an older lady hit my Olds on the driver's side at an intersection in Brattleboro, VT. I had the right of way but she didn't see me and I didn't see her. She was making a left turn into the lane that I was on. I was thrown onto the right side of the road then skidded onto the curb and her car was thrown off to the left and hit a slow-moving car on the opposite lane. Nobody was seriously hurt but your two older brothers, then ages 3 and 1, were in the back seat and I was pretty shaken. I had to regain composure to be able to drive home. Your dad was away on a work trip in the Midwest then.
How old were you when you used your first computer?
I guess I started entering some data into a computer way back when I was 19 or 20, in my senior year in college, but it was data-entry activity and I cannot remember anything memorable about it. I entered more data into a computer when I worked as a psychological testing technician in Vermont. I was then 25 years old. I entered answers to psychological tests into a computer program and then pressed more keys to score the tests. My first real use of the computer was in Sri Lanka when I was 33. I was still typing on a clickety manual typewriter and your dad was so frustrated about seeing me do that when we had a perfectly good computer with a perfectly working word processor program in it. Once I discovered I could edit my writing with a few keystrokes instead of using white-out or retyping a whole document, I got more curious to see what else a computer can do for me.
How has modern technology changed since you were a teenager?
Oh boy, lots. The leap is like from the stone age to the computer age. I would not have dreamt that I would be designing web pages that could be seen by people worldwide over the Internet. But deep down, I'm still that person who'd rather swim and run around in the river of my childhood than sit for hours writing code to produce web pages.
In your opinion, do Americans have a better standard of living than when you were growing up? Why or why not?
See the description of the standard of living I had when I was growing up. My standard of living now is definitely miles better in terms of material comfort than when I was growing up. But in terms of the quality of life, I am not so sure. It can be very lonely here in the US. It is easy to feel so isolated and unhappy, to feel that one is just a body eating rich food, sleeping in comfortable linens, and wallowing in a morass of entertainment and information but feeling precariously on the verge of being nothing but a pampered body. I guess, anyone, American or anybody else, deep down really longs for a sense of connectedness more than material comfort.
How did television change American life?
Oh well. I did a big paper in graduate school about TV and violence and my answer to this one would be very academic. But I think that TV changed the way families spent time together as a family and with their neighbors. I remember full-moon nights when I was growing up when the kids would be out playing hide and seek and the adults would be talking under the moon for hours. I remember hours after dinner when we would talk and sing and talk. Entertainment was provided by the little ones who could dance, sing, recite a poem and by adults who could spin the scariest stories of all. There usually was someone who could play the guitar and would lead us all to singing. During my last visit in the Philippines, I observed my parents and other family members to gather round the TV after dinner and just let the flickering images on the screen do the singing and the talking for them. Then they go to bed believing they have seen the world and that they shared a common knowledge through what they saw on the screen. At least they still watch videos as a family or with the neighbors so TV viewing for them is not completely solitary, yet.
Describe your first job. How much did it pay?
I got a student assistantship when I was in my fourth year in college. Come to think of it, I don't remember what exactly did I do except that it was with the engineering dept, (of all departments, I was a psychology major). I vaguely remember doing clerical duties at the department office and issuing lab equipment at the chemistry lab but most of all, I remember punching into a timecard then receiving a paycheck once a month. I was paid in pesos and it was just enough for pocket money. My first real job after college was as someone supposed to institutionalize modern and sustainable farming practices by organizing farmer associations and then training association officers on organizational and mechanical skills. I was very idealistic about improving society and then I met your dad.
What was the best birthday you ever had, and why was the birthday good?
You know what, it's strange but no particular birthday pops up. But I remember birthdays as the day in the year when I feel most entitled to be treated as a unique, special individual. My birthdays stand out because that was when my parents see me apart from the collective of kids they had, at least in the sense that a prayer was said for me - for God to bless this particular child on this special day that she was born into this world. Amen.
What was your best Christmas, Hanukkah, or holiday?
I have good memories of Christmas in the Philippines. Especially the caroling part where we went around houses to sing carols and were invited in for coffee and rice cakes. It's not as cold as Decembers here in the US so it was fun going around even for the whole night. Later, I don't know why caroling became a fund-raising activity where we would sing and then receive money instead of being invited in.
I remember a Christmas when I was a teenager. In one of my so-called Glenda behavior, I rounded up the neighborhood kids and assembled all kinds of pots and pans and led them around town caroling with as much noise as we can. I felt like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, only I was leading the little ones into town rather than out of town.
What other festive holidays did you observe while growing up?
Well, there really weren't many festive holidays besides Christmas but I clearly remember Town Fiestas more than holidays. Town Fiestas are kind of the equivalent of your County Fairs here in the US. There were rides, bands, and agricultural/horticulture/animal husbandry shows and competitions. I remember Fiestas as involving and energizing the whole town. Fiestas were a time of processions and beauty contests and politicians and all kinds of raffle drawings.
Where and how did you meet Dad?
I met your dad when he hand-delivered a letter from my mom to my boarding house in Baguio (the city where you were born). Your dad was a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned as a water and sanitation specialist in my town. My mom (as the public health nurse) was his local supervisor. I was in Baguio taking more pre-med courses and trying to get into medical school.
What was your wedding like?
Oh, the volumes of stories we can tell about it. I was the first one to marry in the family. My parents are by no means rich but they were active people in the community so they thought their first child to get married should have a proper wedding befitting their status in the community, which really meant that it would be embarrassing not to invite everyone near and far to the wedding. I really didn't like a big wedding but I went along anyway. Several pigs, cows, carabaos (water buffalos), and chickens were butchered for the two-day feast. Can you imagine tons of rice being cooked in big vats? Banana stalks were used as plates, bamboo for cups, and people had to use their fingers for silverware. The wedding was held in our backyard. The townspeople had a ball seeing so many Americanos at one time in their lives, not just Steve the Americano but a whole bunch of them! Your dad's fellow Peace Corps Volunteers came from all over their assigned places in the Philippines to attend the wedding.
Where did you go on your first date?
Your dad and I went for a walk up to this hill where you can view the river and the valley below and the hills joining the mountains where the sun sets in the distance. I was 21 then but I never dated anyone before your dad so even holding hands was nerve-wracking.
What customs or habits from your ancestors are still observed in your family?
When my grandmother died, my family still observed this elaborate funeral and burial custom in which the dead body was carried from one relative's house to another even if this means covering long distances. The visited relative has to butcher a pig or something that could feed a multitude. He or she cannot refuse because one has obligations to the dead and one can be assured that the honor will be returned when it is one's time to die. I wonder if my parents expect such kind of honor when they die or if this custom will die with the generation of their parents.
What clothes were worn by your ancestors? Describe what they wore.
The men wore g-strings. Think of g-strings as a scarf that the men wrap around their loins and their waist to wear like an underwear. Most of the time that's all they wore. When the weather got cold (not as cold as the winters here) the men would throw a warm blanket around their shoulders. The women are fabled to have gone topless though they did wear blouses with wrap-around, brightly-colored skirts that they wove themselves. Read more about the Ifugao people, their rice culture, and their houses.
How was entertainment different when you were a child compared to now? How often did you go to the movies?
The first movies I can remember seeing at the big town where we shopped on weekends were Bruce Lee movies. Hiyaa!!! There was a Chinese businessman who had a TV in the next village and I remember walking there with some adults (this included crossing my favorite river) over to his house so we could stand by his window and take a peek at the moving pictures on his TV screen.
How much did movie tickets cost? How much did candy bars cost?
Oh, movies were not a normal expense so they were expensive. But, thank God, candies I remember were cheap. I had my first try at entrepreneurship when I was in grade school. I bought candies in bulk at the big town and sold them at a profit piece by piece to my classmates. I ate whatever profit I gained.
How did family values and attitudes towards marriage, divorce and family differ from those of today?
My general attitude towards these kinds of questions is that I believe most generations in most countries value marriage and family and try to avoid divorce as much as possible. I think that the difference is in the amount of pressure put on couples and families because of changing lifestyles and societal organizations. For example, my parents had eight little kids to raise but the responsibility did not rest fully on their shoulders for every minute of their waking hours. There were relatives, friends, and the community to help in raising the kids, if not in financial terms, then at least in emotional, moral, social, and cultural terms. My sister still lives in the same town but the pressures on families have changed (even as simple as not being able to hire good help) as the socio-economic dynamics in the community changes. She and her husband (who also works full-time) value family and marriage but the strain is there as it is with couples here in the US faced with the challenge of balancing careers and families.
What did you think when you first saw me?
Awed the third time around. Just awed at the sight of you, a human being come out of my body. God's gift.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
A medical doctor. I thought it would solve the dilemma of wanting to save the world and also wanting to earn good income.
Is there anything you have always wanted to do but haven't?
I always have liked to draw. I wanted to become an artist but barely scratched this talent to what it potentially can become.
What famous people did you admire the most? Why?
Abraham Lincoln for his deep, soulful yet courageous, decisive character. Harriet Beecher Stowe for being able to write a powerful novel (Uncle Tom's Cabin) at her kitchen table. I also have read George Washington Carver's biography while in high school and, for some reason, I felt very confident I could turn anything into good from reading about the products he obtained from peanut shells and other stuff that were seemingly useless. Jose Rizal, the Philippines' national hero, for using the weapons of the mind, heart, and spirit to fight the injustices of the Spanish colonists in the Philippines and then to die for it.
Which historical events had the greatest influence on your life?
Ferdinand Marcos was the only president I knew from grade school to when I was in my early 20s when he was ousted by the People Power movement in the Philippines. As a child, I felt the fear of the adults around me when Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and soldiers went around homes searching and confiscating guns. I felt the frustration of adults around me when they had to pledge allegiance to a man and his ideas rather than to common ideals of justice and democracy.
What do you remember about the Kennedy assassination in 1963?
I was born in 1963. I heard about the Kennedy assassination only in school. I didn't have adults who lived through it.
What was the craziest thing you ever did?
Many things but I remember going home after the first week of my freshman year in college because I just had to have jeans rather than the brightly-colored dresses my mother packed for me. It was a 10-hour bus ride home from Manila plus more short jeepney rides from the big town to our remote town. I decided to walk the last 7 miles of the trip because I couldn't wait for another jeepney to come. I was only 16 and despite my level-headedness at that age, I was still painfully susceptible to the need to be accepted socially.
What was the funniest thing that ever happened to you?
I was 16, a college freshman from the provinces in the big city of Manila. I was staying in a girl's dormitory. I picked up the phone one day and in my nervousness, I had the receiver by my mouth and the speaker by my ear and my dormmates broke into uncontrollable laughter. I guess it was very funny to them but very mortifying to me. To this day, I use the phone only if I have to.
What do you remember about your grandparents?
My grandfathers died early so I never met them. I remember my paternal grandmother's laugh which seemed to induce her to laugh more as if she was reveling in a joke only she knew. My maternal grandmother was very quiet, very demure.
Is there anything about yourself that you would like to share?
Well, I have shared so much already, haven't I?
Do you have any advice that you would like to share with me or my friends?
Uh, excel in matters of the heart, mind, and spirit. Always go for what is noble and true because God who made us in his own image is. Grasp and live in the everyday common things in life but transcend it because you are free and you can create new things out of the ordinary.
What was a bad thing that you did that your parents still don't know about?
If my parents still don't know about it, you won't too. That would be part of your inheritance, he, he.
What was your first car?
I mentioned them earlier but they were family cars. I dream of driving a sports car of my own when I'm 65. Will you buy it for your poor mother?