So, my name is Clarissa Gonzales. I’m a Pre-Nursing major at SF State and I’m currently a freshman. I guess I can start off with saying that I am the person that I am today because of the state that the Philippine government is under. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for my parents immigrating from the P.I. to go out and find better opportunities for themselves as well as their future. I wouldn’t have had the drive I have now to establish a successful occupation for myself, and to be so focused on my future if it weren’t for the dreams that my parents had when they first stepped foot in America. My mother moved to America when she was only 18 years old and started off with a job at McDonalds, making about $5 an hour. My father was in his early twenties when he moved to America and started out in Richmond, CA, with nothing but a suitcase and the dream of making it in America.
Having parents that emigrated from a “third world country” really puts me into perspective of how it’s a responsibility of mine to create a life for myself that my parents didn’t even have the opportunity to achieve in the country that they were born in. Thinking about it too deeply, could honestly bring me to tears because that’s just a serious reality check as to how some people are so ungrateful when it comes to what their parents sacrifice for their families and for the life that they wish they could have. From literally starting off with nothing but a dream, a vision, and a suitcase in one hand, to finally having a life in America that many people wish for, is such an inspiration; in my own personal opinion. If it weren’t for the current government system of the Philippines filled with Imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism, my parents wouldn’t have been forced to emigrate from their home, to trying to make a home somewhere else.
After the first session of Internship last Saturday, my eyes opened to the realization that the Philippines, my roots, really is in such a corrupted state and people aren’t even aware of it; myself included until the time of internship. My heart hurt hearing that people don’t take pride in being Filipino due to the fact that people are ashamed of being “lower”, or to be labeled as a “minority”. Hearing that people are ashamed to say that they are Filipino because it has negative connotations for the most part, is something that needs to change not just for ourselves as a race, but for everyone everywhere. There can’t be progress in this world with equality if we, ourselves, can’t look at ourselves as equals with everyone else.
I hope that one day, I’ll live to see the day that the Philippines isn’t looked at as a naïve country and that they can finally be in a place of independence where the islanders aren’t being taken advantage of. I have a dream where the children of the Philippines can have the same educational opportunities as the children America, and aren’t automatically looked at as children that will grow up to planting rice in the fields to be sent off to other countries. Through the help of League of Filipino Students, I hope to make a change in where I’m from, and where my blood started, to leave a spark in the country that continues to ember in the hearts of Filipinos all over, with the same dream to see a country free of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism; but a country of National Democracy.
