Simbulan 1

Ingrid Simbulan
English115 Honors
Professor Lawson
9 December 2016
Culture and Identity Essay
Word Count: 1,415
Americanized
My entire life I have lived in the valley giving me the common nickname valley girl. I
have gone on road trips to neighboring states and flown across the Pacific Ocean to the small
islands of the Philippines but through my entire existence the valley all I have ever really known,
the only place I have ever lived and call home. I am the first generation in this country, meaning
my parents were born and raised back in the Philippines. The only thing they brought to this
country was their culture. Although I have been modernized and Americanized throughout my
youth I was able to experience some of that even though I was deprived of it in certain aspects.
I remember my mother telling me that her older sister attempted to teach my cousins
Tagalog, the Filipino language, at a young age. The only problem with that was my aunt would
come to pick her kids up from school and the teacher would tell her that her kids would call a
blanket kumot which is the Tagalog translation and that is when she realized they did not know
the difference between the english words and tagalog ones. In fear that I would also speak
Taglish, a combination of using both Tagalog and English words when speaking, my mom raised
my brother and me to speak the American language. My elders were a bit disappointed I was not
learning the native language because they thought I was losing my culture. If I would not carry

Simbulan 2
on the culture then my kids would not and neither would their kids and so on. It would fade away
until it was as if it were never there to begin with. I know very well that I am Americanized, what
else would you expect from someone born and raised in California all her life? I do American
things. I eat hamburger and fries and steak. I enjoy basking in the sun on beach days with my
toes in the sand. I drink an appropriate amount of Starbucks. But despite all of that, I still have
some of my culture in me. I am 18 now and even though I did not grow up with it does not
necessarily mean it is too late for me to still try to grasp what I can.
Unlike my younger brother, I try to learn the language by picking up on words and
phrases when my parents and relatives talk to each other. I want to embrace the culture, not
neglect it. Sometimes we eat with our hands and I had no idea there was a proper way for doing
that. I thought it was as simple as picking up some food in your hand and feeding it straight into
your mouth but a good friend of mine taught me the correct way. You use your four fingers to
scoop up the food and your thumb is used to put the food in your mouth. This method is efficient
and definitely less of a mess to eat that way rather than the way I thought.
I have only visited the homeland twice when I was younger. It was hot and humid and I
hated it. The second I walked out of the airport my skin felt sticky and irritated as I was not use
to this foreign weather. I would get use to the tropical weather after a couple days but my foreign
scent attracted countless mosquitos that not even bug repellant could protect me from. I had
numerous bug bites to prove it. Aside from the humid weather there are a lot of other different
aspects that make it so different from the US. The Philippines is a poverty country and there are a
lot of people in the provinces who live on just the smallest portion of rice. If you thought traffic

Simbulan 3
on the 405 freeway during rush hour is bad try driving in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The cars hardly move at all that you might as well get out of your taxi and walk.
My dad is always telling me how lucky I am to have all these opportunities he didnt
have before such as to have access to so much information right at my fingertips. Of course I
would not know what it is like not to have it because it is all I have ever known. I used to watch
television all day long while he only watched for an hour. I would wait at school a couple of
minutes to be picked up by my mom while he took two to three hour bus rides from home to
school and back. Youve got it easy, he tells me. Maybe one day I will understand when my
kids have even more advanced technology than those of today. My dad is rather old fashioned
and more traditional. It is custom for the younger ones in the family to greet their elders by
blessing them, or mano as we call it. I only ever do that to the grandparents in our family and
my dad, of course. He says he likes the respect. My mom on the other hand dislikes it because to
her that considers a person to be old and she is forever 24.
Being the stereotypical strict filipino dad he is, my dad hardly let me go over to my
friends houses to play with the other kids. He eventually became more lenient as a grew older.
The first time I went over to my best friends house who just so happened to live right across the
street. Since I only knew my familys customs and how we went about our household tasks, I
was simply intrigued to be in a foreign household- the types of furniture and artwork displayed,
the crayon drawings that covered the upstairs hallway, and just the way it was up-kept put me in
wondering thought at this new environment. I grew up having Filipino cuisine since my
babysitter was filipino. Sometimes I reminisce the nostalgic feeling of the Tinola, Adobo, and
Kare-kare, which are all classic Filipino dishes, that filled my household with their flavorful

Simbulan 4
aroma. I have a Korean neighbor who once invited me over for a late lunch where they served
their homemade Tteokbokki in a big pot which everyone ate from. After having a seemingly
excessive amount, the dish proved to be a little too spicy for my taste buds since most Filipino
dishes are not served spicy, although the rice I must say cakes were just too delicious not to eat.
My best friends mom always served tasty finger foods served with leben, an Arabic version of
yogurt, and lunches for us while we finished our homework. I never really knew the names of
the dishes she prepared for us or what was exactly in it but I knew it was good so Id always eat
it anyways.
The valley is a mix of different races and cultures so you get a bit of everything. Im sure
a lot of places are like that now. I met a girl in 6th grade who was Salvadorian who introduced
me, as well as my family, to the classic pupusas. They are handmade with masa and the filling
varies from cheese to beans or pork. From then on, tacos werent just the only Hispanic foods we
enjoyed. I also grew into a liking of their music. I remember when her mom would bump songs
by Marc Anthony and we would dance and sing ridiculously in the car while my friend laughed
at us like we were crazy. My family and I are regulars at this Thai restaurant down the street
from us that have the best beef jerky I have ever tasted. Every bite is an explosion of flavor in
your mouth and the sauce its served with tops it all off.
I love exploring different cultures as much as my own, especially their food. Even though
I was more restricted to the boundaries of my culture I was able to explore other ones as I got
older and made friends of different ethnic backgrounds. I came to realize that while all these
other cultures were unique and different, so was mine. Through exploring and being exposed to

Simbulan 5
all these different and unique cultures, I was able to appreciate my own even more and I have
never been more proud to call myself a Filipino-American.