IP Final Paper #2

Eric Dulay
IP 411
12-6-07

I was about half of a year old when I migrated to Hawaii in 1983. I guess that I wasn’t old enough to remember the sites and the smell of the Philippines. So my exile to Hawaii wasn’t so big. It isn’t till now that I realize that my exile from the Philippines left me out of what my culture really is. I agree that the diasporic Ilokano literature reveals the pain and gain of exile.
I have read the chapter that describes the Writing the dispora and writing the exile. I believe that it is personal experience in being in a land that is different in thought and ideas. It is getting accustom to the life styles. Dr Aurelio Agcaoili basically describes the uneasiness that he experienced in his writing Letter to a Firstborn. He is a teacher, a father, and a writer as well as many other points. The whole idea is having roots in a ground and then suddenly taken out and being stunned because it was in a sense violent and then put into a new unfamiliar ground that has a different flavor. He is in the modern age as a welcomed foreigner to embrace a dream and realize that he has left his land physically, but not mentally.
I would also have to say that even though he is not in this chapter he is still a very important person to look at because he is actually telling his pain and understanding of the new land. He is Carlos Bulosan. Even though he lived in a different time he still has relevance to the topic. In his Personal writing on My Education he does state the movement of his self from the Philippines to America. He describes himself looking for his roots and his goals in this land. He is a passionate man that is being oppressed and not able to express his true identity. He finds his calling as a writer and his observance of the people in this land and how they treat foreigners. I would have to say that his exile is the reference that he is not as free as he wants to be for his ideas, but still wants to stay and describe his pain to others.
Lastly, Dr. Aurelio Agcaoili wrote a piece called Metaphorman and Migrant, I it really describe the situation of a man that is putting himself in land that is unfamiliar, but is now getting accustom to the timely habits. In his third stanza he speaks of a former student asking him, “Why? Why did you leave?” and his response was that of a double whammy. In a sense to Dr. Agcaoili it sounds like, “I learned my metaphors from you and now you abandon us.” To me this is a very strong statement of pain of exile. He goes on telling of his actual tail of being in the Philippines and the struggles in the after of teaching. The worries of the domestic struggles of getting gas, getting little sleep, and getting food on the table were on the mind of Dr Agcaoili. He also worries about the outside struggle of the world.
Overall the diasporic Ilokano literature reveals the pain and gain of exile due to these writing that Dr. Agcaoili and Carlos Buloson has described in their personal account of Migrating to America. I guess for me my roots are in Hawaii, but I still believe that my roots can also grow in the Philippines where I was born. I just need my education.