i think a follow-up question would be how/where you grew up.

while i grew up in the bay area, my mom was/still is pretty antisocial, and we weren't over in daly city, but on the far reaches of the east bay (benicia/concord). still lots of flips that way, but we were on our own as my mom preferred.

what that means for me is that only as i came into adulthoood that i began to probe into our family history as well as our filipino history. started reading and thinking about all of it. started trying to learn tagalog. started trying to cook sinigang and adobo and tocilog.

now i've reached a point where i don't have to try too hard. it's a part of my life--i try to pay attention to some news in the philippines, i try to go back when i can. but there was a time when all of it was foreign to me, and it did take quite an effort to reconnect the dots of my past.

what about you?