Filipino American
Barbie
(Ma. Luisa Aguilar Cariño)
Maria Luisa Aguilar-Cariño
AKA Luisa A. Igloria
Filipina-American poet
September 3, 1961 (57 years old)
Born in Makati raised in Baguio City
received her undergraduate degree from
the University of the Philippines Baguio in 1980
(B.A. Humanities - Cum Laude - major in
Comparative Literature, minor in English,
cognate in Philosophy)
An active member of PINTIG (Filipino-
American cultural and theatre group) in
Chicago
Associate Professor in the MFA Creative Writing
Program and Department of English, Old Dominion
University
an eleven-time recipient of the Carlos Palanca
Memorial Award for Literature in three genres
(poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction) and its Hall of
Fame distinction; the Palanca award is the
Philippines’ highest literary prize.
Since November 2010, she has been writing (at
least) a poem a day
Famous works:
Juan Luna's revolver
Ode to the Heart Smaller Than a Pencil Eraser
The Saints of Streets
Cordillera tales
The Buddha Wonders If She Is Having a Mid-Life Crisis
Filipino-American Barbie (Ma. Luisa Aguilar Cariño)
1 Dear sister in the islands, it’s the middle of March
2 but there’s a snowstorm watch in Chicago. I need
3 to get away, to lie in the tropical sun, sign up
4 for one of those tours that promise you a blinding
5 “recovery of cultural roots”. Here, I can never
6 go anywhere and when we do it’s always to church,
7 to the mall or to parties, and there’s always chaperones
8 and a curfew. I’m tired of winter’s chocolate-and-angel-
9 white fashions, tired of being mistaken for Pocahontas
10 without the fringe. My owner’s parents bought me
11 because they thought I would help her identify
12 more closely with a model. They looked and looked
13 inside my box and seemed disappointed
14 when they couldn’t find a manual or free cassette
15 on Tagalog Made Easy, but quickly appreciated
16 the fact that among my accessories– including
17 a Gold Card, magenta fan and singkil princess’
18 costume, a beauty queen’s sash and rhinestone
19 tiara– was a birth certificate proclaiming me
20 third generation, American born, all parts
21 assembled in the USA. “See,” they said,
22 “she isn’t one of those who’d chase after Ken
23 or some other chap in a G.I. uniform
24 because she needs a green card. Look at that
25 and count your blessings”. My owner
26 doesn’t always think kindly of me– all of this
27 is never spoken, though I can read it easily.
28 After all, I’m supposed to have a Filipino core–
29 perhaps something encased in my plastic rubber
30 ribcage? Anyway, when she’s in a bad mood she pulls
31 at my face and hisses at me to point with my lips.
32 She tells her parents I smell like fish, no matter
33 how many times she washes my dark, waist-length
34 hair in lemon-scented dishwashing detergent.
35 I can understand her frustrations. Like her,
36 my English is without accent, but sometimes
37 I think both of us could use a short aggressiveness
38 training course. It must be the rule of obedience–
39 you never raise your voice to someone older,
40 someone male; you never question authority.
41 Her parents and grandparents won’t let her, but
42 she wants to join the navy and see the world.
43 She wants to put on a ‘chute and fall nearly
44 weightless through a brilliant sky, to skim
45 down the sights of a rifle and hit a target
46 from a hundred yards away. She wants
47 to dye her hair purple or wear it in dread-
48 locks. She wonders what it’s like to kiss
49 a woman, what it’s like to have a white
50 boy come inside her. She wants to invent
51 herself and escape the sticky coils of chismis.
52 My heart goes out to her, especially when
53 she comes in from a fight with her boyfriend.
54 Despite her share of forthrightness, she’s still
55 caught in a bind. She wants him to listen
56 to what she’s not saying aloud, she wants
57 him to train every cell in his body to the messages
58 she unconsciously sends with her eyes, the unspoken
59 language of her need. She flings herself upon me
60 on the bed. It crosses my mind that following
61 the American way, this is a time she needs
62 to work out her griefs in private,
63 even as her warm salt tears fall on my
64 perfected face, and my brown arms ache
65 to form the gesture for embrace.
Comprehensive Questions:
1. Why does the author choose the persona of a Barbie doll to
represent the plight of third generation American-born Filipinos?
2. Immigrant generation parents have brought to the United
States some values of Filipino family life and try to instill these in
their American born children. Contrast the diasporic experience
of Philippine-born immigrants to the United States and their
American born children.
[Link] is the role of memory in making sense of diasporic
experiences and in forging exilic identity by Filipino migrants?
What do you think is their concept of home, homeland and the
nation?
Thank you!
