Being Filipino: Kapwa

I remember being a kid and asking my Mama and Papa to “make me something simple, like a sandwich” for lunch because “all my friends just eat sandwiches”. I’m sure this is something most people can relate to — Filipino or not.

But I’ll never forget the look they had on their face. Not one of heartbreak or sadness, if that’s what you’re expecting. No, they were so offended. They both literally rolled their eyes at me and SCOFFED, then told me to have some pride.

I’m so glad they did. And in true Filipino fashion, the first way I reconnected with that pride was through food. I mean, have you tasted our food? How could you not?

While I did learn how to cook Filipino dishes, I also tried so many different things: learning how to find shells to eat underwater, learning how to catch fish with a pole (and failing), learning how to make chicken or lechon from scratch, and trying so many different delicacies. Trust me, I’ve tried a lot: dried fish, lots of different seafood, frog, kangaroo, crocodile, alligator, snake, chicken and pig’s blood, tamilok, ant larvae, pork brain, pork ears, pork intestines (I LOVE ISAW), balut (look it up lol), bull’s pizzle (don’t look this up), random leaves and herbs, and unfortunately whale and shark because I had no other option at the time.

In doing all this, I discovered something more important about Pinoy pride and what it means to be Filipino: KAPWA. It means a shared identity. It means to find yourself in others. When I started trying everything Filipinos do to eat, I felt so connected to them and to nature.

It taught me how varied and diverse the Philippines is. We are just a bunch of different tribes, all with different cultures and languages, pushed into one country by Spanish colonizers. There are over 180 languages in the Philippines — not dialects. Languages. We don’t all speak Tagalog. I certainly don’t, and I was born in the Philippines. I grew up speaking Bisaya.