Gabrielle Nicolas

Wood

English IV

March 23, 2022

Senior Paper

I am a second-generation immigrant. And for the longest time, I had no idea what that

meant. Through my parents, I am full Filipino. Through my birthplace, I am American. When I

was little, at family gatherings, relatives I hadn’t met before shook my hands and greeted me at

the door. I’d nod and give pagmamano. Or a gesture to show respect to your elders. But

whenever they started speaking in a language I couldn’t understand, all I could offer was a smile.

Despite being completely surrounded by my own culture, I had the strongest sense of being very

Americanized and not completely belonging. I knew our special dishes, was accustomed to the

dances and the clothes, and even knew a little about certain customs. Yet, it didn’t feel enough.

What I knew wasn’t enough.

Language is one of the most important branches of a society. It differentiates groups of

people, but it also gives them a common ground. It is a means to express oneself and a way to

connect with one another. I’ve always known I am not truly American because of my Filipino

heritage. That being said, conversely, I cannot truly be Filipino because I am American. So could

I call myself a true Filipino? Could I claim this part of my identity or am I an imposter amongst

my own people? A multitude of these questions swirled in my brain whenever I was confronted

about not being able to speak Tagalog. Pangs of failure and disappointment struck my chest

when the words, ‘no, I dont know the language. I’m sorry’ left my mouth. And when they asked,

‘How come? Your parents didn’t teach you?’ I had no words to respond back.
 The truth is, my parents hadn’t taught me. My Auntie Vilma taught my siblings and I

small words here and there. Like kilikili which translates to armpit. Or she would sing us an old

nursery rhyme about the different parts of the body—similar to the song, Head, Shoulders,

Knees, and Toes. And when my mother’s head was turned the other way, my Papa would teach

me a handful of inappropriate words. That was all I had to show for my knowledge. A phrase or

two and a string of words. I began to wonder, why wasn’t my first language Tagalog instead of

English?

My parents, on the other hand, understood the language but couldn’t speak it. They were

in on all the jokes, but could never tell any of their own. At a young age, they moved from the

Philippines to America with only their memories and belongings. Both of them grew up in

households who spoke fluent Tagalog or Ilocano which is why they can understand the dialect.

Much to my surprise, neither my mother nor my father learned the actual language themselves

which is why they could not teach me. Hence, why I never learned.

As the generations went on, it seemed that my family was beginning to merge into

American culture. The Philippine language was one piece of many that’s been either removed or

modified from our daily lives. Those pieces are invaluable links to a larger community of people,

beliefs, and traditions. Without passing them down, part of our identities were being forgotten

and erased. Part of my identity. All of this led me to thinking: How does assimilation influence

the cultural identities of Asian immigrants within generations?

My first encounter with the word assimilate was on Star Trek. Seven of Nine walked

towards the Voyager crew commanding them to assimilate into the Borg. In this context, a

beloved TV show character was ordering everyone aboard a starship to integrate into a collective

alien species. It doesn’t take a person who grew up watching Star Trek to cue in on the negative
connotation surrounding the word ‘assimilate’. The word itself is not negative but, because a

form of the word is used in the term ‘forced assimilation’, people often associate negative events,

people, and feelings with it. Disregarding this term, assimilation is not inherently bad. In fact, the

most wideknown assimilation is cultural assimilation.

In a summary article of Assimilation from Encyclopedia of Global Studies, Dr. Siobhan

Holohan writes cultural assimilation as “… inolv[ing] ethnic groups taking on the cultural

signifiers of the host nation…minority groups are expected to adapt to the everyday practices of

the dominant culture” (Holohan). Cultural assimilation is the process of a differing culture

adapting to another culture. At first glance, it seems to be a natural process that is very positive

and benefical. With more research, the process is actually key to survival. It is this same cultural

assimilation that greatly affects whether or not immigrants are able to adjust to new lives in a

new country.

When a person is thrown into an unfamiliar situation, their first focus is on adapting to

that particular situation. This way, they can understand how to better fit their needs or achieve

their goals as they move on. Similarly, when people first immigrate they must also adapt—adapt

to different lifestyles, customs and societal norms.

My mom was 2 years old when my grandparents immigrated to the United States in 1973.

They immigrated separately. First, my grandpa, Enrique Mendez Camaddo on February 12,

1973. Then, my grandma, Estrella Balisacan Camaddo with my mom in November that same

year. As a kid, I would often hear my grandpa tell the story of how he traveled to America with

only $50 in his pocket. It was enthralling hearing his anecdotes about his life in the Philippines

and his early life here, in California. In order to hear more on the subject, I sat down with both of

them to hear their experiences with immigrating, assimilation, and integration.

my grandpa replied, “No, no pressure. But you kind of feel that when you’re in America, you

have to act American.” That is, to be assertive and ambitious. In Eastern culture, society places

more value on what benefits the community as opposed to the individual. In America, Western

culture is more individualistic. It stresses the importance of independence and personal gain. The

rift between the two belief systems is the cause for the stereotypically passive behaviour of Asian

Americans. Their entire lives they have been taught to set aside their personal agendas for others.

And often people mistake this for being easily manipulated.

Delta Dental was the first company that offered my grandma a management position. But

this was only after she formed a union. The company recognized her capabilities as one of the

union leaders “so they brought [her] to management and offered [her] a promotion as manager.”

She seized the opportunity and took the position. And that’s when the rumours began. The man

she was supervising started to spread false rumours of sexual harassment about her. My

gradmother told me, “He kept saying the work lunches I brought him to were sexual harassment.

People started to talk. But I treated him as I did with all my other people when they did a good

job which was to bring them out to lunch. I said it wasn’t true and that all of it wasn’t true.”

When she brought the issue to the company, about the rumours, he confessed to starting them out

of frustration. He didn’t understand why a Filipino woman was given the job of manager before

him, a caucasian male. “But they said, well, she’s doing better than you are. So I had fought back

[agianst the runours] and they believed me. That’s why you have to be assertive.” In order to

survive the competitive waters of America, my grandmother had to adopt the American-labeled

qualites of being more assertive and independently driven. This was one case where an
immigrant reaped the benefits of cultural assimilation by taking on characteristictly American or

culturally western traits. However, not everything had benefits.

Along with “acting American”, my grandpa added that they predominantly spoke English

to make others feel more comfortable. “Americans hate[d] that [ we spoke in Tagalog]. They

would say, oh, they’re talking about us, or you know, say hey, speak English. You’re already in

America.” My mom chimed in, “That’s why they didn’t teach us to speak Tagalog. They wanted

us to integrate.” My grandma agreed saying, “There was no need [to teach you].” Just like that, I

received my answer as to why I had never been taught. It made it easier for my mom to integrate

into American culture if English was her first language. The language barrier was removed for

her. It was my grandparents' way of ensuring that their kids easily flourished in American

society. And flourish they did. My mom is now able to single-handedly support four kids—one

of whom is currently in college and the other about to graduate high school—while living in the

Bay Area of California. Unfortunately, the consequence was that later down the line of

generations, the personal connection to our Filipino heritage grew thinner. By the time my nieces

or nephews grow up, they may not know any Tagolog words or have deeper cultural

understanding at all.

For her senior thesis for the Dominican University of California, Sierra Najolia wrote a

paper titled Root Causes of the Generational Disconnect Among Marin County

Vietnamese-Americans. She frequently visited their Health and Wellness Campus and it was

there where she listened to the immigration stories of the Marin County Vietnamese Community.

Being a part of the Marin County Vietnamese Oral History Project helped Najolia to notice the

“huge cultural disconnect between the original immigrants from Vietnam and their

American-born children.” And the more she interacted with these individuals, the more she
sought to explore how the cultural connections changed between generations in the community.

For her paper, Naijolia held a series of interviews with Vietnamese-Americans and asked them

their thoughts on being raised with their culture, how they personally identified, and passing

down beliefs, traditions, and customs to the next generation. One person she interviewed was

Mia Vo who is a bilingual second-generation immgirant. When asked about growing up

multiculturally, Vo stated,

It’s kinda like an outsider learning about a culture that you hear about, but don’t really

know…. I think that's the key piece, is that realizing we’re not just trying to learn

Vietnamese culture, we're trying to be bicultural. We’re trying to learn about this new

culture that we’re in and we're trying to navigate that and trying to figure out this other

culture we actually didn’t grow up in.

Reading this portion of Naijolia’s thesis, I had never resonated so fully with a statement about

being part of the second-generation of immigrants in America. I, too, felt required to balance

both the expectations and norms of a culture I had grown up in versus a culture I had to imagine

growing up in. At my grandparents house, TFC would be playing in the background while we

scarfed down Sinigang. But at home, we ordered takeout pizza while listening to Michael

Jackson. Descendants of immigrants in America feel disconnected becasue they dont feel a

belonging to a homeland they weren’t raised in (Naijolia). While a second-generation immigrant

may have grown up with one culture, America is the only country they’ve known as ‘home’.

Ultimately, they will identify and familiarize themselves more with American customs.

Furthering her point, Naijolia explains that “institutionalized barriers” are another cause

for this disconnect. Most schools teach only a handful of languages, none of which include

Vietnamese or Tagalog. In English textbooks, historians show a bias towards the American side
of history. And, there are very few educational opportunities to celebrate other cultures besides

the well-known ones. Such as, Hispanic or African American. October is Filipino heritage

month, but my school has never recognized that. Needless to say, the lack of representation of

Asian Americans enables socio-cultural dissonance and induces cultural assimilation.

To gain more insight into this new thought, I interviewed May Hanecak whose family

was forced to flee from Vietnam following the Vietnam War. In order to survive, her family

needed to immigrate to America unlike others who sought better oppurtunities. With the help of

an official at the American Embassy, May, her mom, and her two siblings escaped by hiding

under a military tarmac and hopping onto a US military plane. “We left with just the shirts on our

back[s],” she told me.

Hanecak grew up with a mother from Vietnam and a father from Hong Kong. She moved

when she was very young so she was raised, for the most part, in America. I asked her if there

was a time where she had felt distant from her own culture. She said laughing, “My kids actually

say, ‘Mom, you’re so mainstream… you’re so white.’... Maybe I could’ve had them do more

things within the culture when they were younger…[They] actually want to be more [apart] of

that culture.” When I asked why she thinks parents don’t pass down their culture to their kids as

much, she said:

Even from my dad to me, he would say, ‘You’re in America now, speak English.’He

changed his name which was very Chinese sounding to James. So did my mom. I think

the importance of fitting in… and not to bring up differences and more fitting

in…Especailly at a time where it was the Vietnam War. There were so many protests and

so many opinions of it and there’s a lot of hatred. At that time, they just don’t want you to

experience that…At the end of the day, It’s about having a better life.”
Earlier on in the interview, she had told me her parents told her to say she was Chinese to avoid

all the prejudice. Hanecak had grown up with parents who stressed the importance of

assimilating and fitting in, especially in a country that wasn’t keen on welcoming them. She

balanced three other cultures: Chinese, Vietnamese, and American. Twice, she was asked to

conceal or hide parts of her identity. So when her kids ask why she acts “like a middle-aged

white woman”, it is because she needed to belong. Assimilation occurs when social survival

supersedes maintaining cultural ties. And, it is enforced by ethnic homophily. Asian-American

identities are not only erased, but molded to fit the standard they are surrounded with.

I grew up surrounded by people who didn’t look like me. All the schools I went to were

predominantly white, including my high school. I could count the number of Filipino kids I knew

on my hands. Naturally, being surrounded by American culture, I could identify more with

American culture than I could with Filipino culture. But then my family went to the occasional

family Christmas party or Filipino celebration where I experienced tremendous distance from

everyone around me. Even when my parents enrolled me into a Filipino cultural dance program,

I felt what I could only describe as being ‘white-washed.’ It was frustrating only listening, I

wanted to finally speak. Maybe then would I feel that sense of belonging and reclaim the missing

parts of me. This dissonance was the inspiration for my question and the motivation for my

paper. Writing this piece placed me face-to-face with my racial imposter syndrome and forced

me to charge it head on. While researching, I found that amongst Asian Americans, assimilation

heavily influenced the cultural identities of inter-generational immigrants. Many factors

contribute to assimilation, but the overarching concept was this idea of adaptation and

integration. To reach past racial, social, and language barriers, immigrants had to adopt American

culture. For my grandparents, it was adopting American behaviors, for the

and for my Auntie May it was taking on new identities.

Assimilation is the one factor that takes people from the out-group to the in-group. By

assimilating into American culture, immigrants gain better economic oppurtunity and acceptance

into society. Unfortunately, it comes at the high price of losing personal connections to their

relative cultures. In order to be accepted into one culture, they had to feel disconnected with

another. And as the generations increase, the disconnect gap becomes wider as the cycle

continues. Immigrants who weren’t taught some cultural aspects were then unable to teach their

children as a result. Ultimately, cultural assimilation is incredibly beneficial. However, if one

does not actively maintain cultural ties, future generations will lose cultural understanding

completely.
 Works Cited

Abramitzky, Ran. “What History Tells Us about Assimilation of Immigrants.” Stanford Institute |

Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR),

Apr. 2017,

https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/what-history-tells-us-about-assimilatio

n-immigrants.

Holohan, and Siobhan Holohan. "Assimilation." Encyclopedia of Global Studies, edited by

Anheier , Helmut K. and Mark Juergensmeyer, Sage Publications, 2012. Credo

Reference.

Hirschman, Charles, and Elizabeth Mogford. “Immigration and the American industrial

revolution from 1880 to 1920.” Social science research vol. 38,4 (2009): 897-920.

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.04.001

McDonald, Hellen G, and Pallasanna R Balgopal. “Conflicts of American Immigrants:

Assimilate or Retain Ethnic Identity .” Migration World Magazine, 1998, pp. 1–4.

Najolia, Sierra. “Root Causes of the Generational Cultural Disconnect Among Marin County

Vietnamese-Americans .” Dominican Scholar, Dominican University of California, May

2018, https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2018.HIST.ST.03. Accessed 2022.