My Life Here at THD- October is Filipino-American History Month

 

Si Malakas at Maganda- The first Pinoy couple( The Strong and the Beautiful)

In 2009, the US Congress designated October as Filipino American History Month, a month long commemoration and appreciation for the Filipino experience throughout American history stretching as far back as 1587.

Karen K( THD Activity Guru) told me the other day that my proposed talk (Residents Spotlight Series) had been postponed from September to October to coincide with the nation-wide celebration of the Filipino-American Month. Along with my proposed Talk " All you want to Know About the Philippines, But Were Afraid to Ask", I was told that Newton Restaurant is planning to feature a Filipino Dish in our Dinner menu . It appears that my suggestion in my blogs about this had been listened to, and I am very delighted. 

In my proposed talk besides Philippine history, I plan on talking about Filipino food, my life with FDA during and after retirement and other miscellaneous topics as aging gracefully. In preparation for my talk, I was reminded that an opening joke is needed to arouse attention. Thus I am reposting this blog I wrote several decades ago on the origin of the Filipino race. 

My dear readers I want to know if this joke is appropriate for an audience of 97% Caucasian Residents. Here at THD out of more than 100 senior residents only 3 are with Asian ancestral roots that I am aware of. I am the only Filipino-Amercan here at THD. However, there are a few here that had Philippines connection in their younger years. Here's my proposed joke to open my talk this October for your comment .      

This is my own English translation of the origin of the Filipino race. It is a story based on children's folklore written in the local dialect of the Philippines.

In 1972, after I received my US citizenship, I was invited by our Local Lions Club as a guest speaker during one of their monthly meetings. They requested that I talk about the Japanese-American War in the Philippines. This subject is one chapter in my autobiography, so I was confident about the content of my talk. However, I had no experience in public speaking, but had taken a speech class in college. Our speech teacher once said that before your speech, you have to put your audience at ease, so always tell a joke that is related to the subject of your talk. The following is the joke I told the group: The Origin of the Filipino Race.

Evidently, when God created mankind, he molded the human form using clay and an oven. The first time, he was doing this, God was so excited that he took what he was baking too soon. The human clay was under cooked or underdone. So it was pale and white. That was the origin of the White Race.

God was not happy, so he started to bake another human form. This time he got a telephone call from Satan. God was upset he forgot about what he was doing and the baking was over done, the human form was overcooked, and turned black. This was the origin of the Black Race. 

God then told himself, “This time it will be perfect. I will watch it very carefully and will not be distracted by any calls.” His baking was perfect. The human form was golden brown, and perfectly cooked. This was the origin of the Filipino race.

Note: The original form of the above story was from children’s folklore in the local dialect (Ilonggo or Hiligaynon) in the Philippines. The above article is my own English translation of the folklore. I hope it brightens your day! Needless to say, my talk was a success!

My Quote of the Day:   The Philippines is where the love is. The Philippines is strategically located and blessed with the greatest resource: its people, who are hard-working, very loyal, and very adaptive.