My husband is a first-generation Filipino. Since I was pregnant with my daughter, knowing the other half of her heritage has been very important to me. I am extremely cognizant of my daughter reading and seeing others that look like her or are similar to her in the media. When the new main character of the Blues Clues reboot, “Josh” came out and not only was he Asian, but Filipino American, I was so excited! My husband acknowledged it’s importance because he didn’t have anyone on TV that looked like him growing up. With over 4.1 million Filipino-Americans in the United States as of the 2018 Census and Texas having the third highest population of Filipino-Americans, I’d say it’s about time. That being said, as my daughter is nearing three, I recently went on an internet search for Filipino-American and Asian/Pacific American books.
One of the first we have read is Cora Cooks Pancit, which at the end has a recipe for pancit, one of my daughter’s favorite Filipino foods! We haven’t read them all yet, but we are slowly making our way through the list, some are too old for her right now. Depending on the book, some books explicitly speak about Filipino-Americans, others are brief references, and some the illustrations are done by a Filipino-American. While Tagalog is generally what comes to people’s minds when they think of the Philippines, my Filipino family speaks Bisaya {also called Cebuana} so that is why I included a Cebuano book. I encourage you this month to learn more about the Filipino culture and explore Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month with your family.
Filipino-American Books
Filipino-American books are still few and far in between, but this list is not exhaustive by any means. Who knows? Maybe my daughter will be inspired by these collections and write one of her own one day.
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