Benito M. Vergara, Jr. “Betrayal, Class Fantasies, and the Filipino Nation in Daly City.”

When Vergara talked about how the Filipinos that decided to stay in the Philippines were heroes and that they should be commended for their bravery to stay and contribute to the country as a whole instead of sacrifice self interest. In my opinion I think that it’s rather selfish to say that by staying in the Philippines we are contributing to the country because in my opinion the “country” should be defined as the next generation of Filipinos. Therefore, since the people who decided to leave the Philippines saw that there were better opportunities to raise the next generation they are the true heroes. Not only did they sacrifice the comfort of their own lives, leave their friends and family to take part in a new life with language barriers to give their children better opportunities, they helped preserve and spread knowledge of their culture to other countries. Heroism requires sacrifice for a better cause and that’s exactly what immigrants do when they leave their home country. They sacrifice their own comfort and their reward is that their children live a better life than the one that they could’ve had in their home country. Since I believe that the results justify the means then those immigrants are the true heroes. However I do believe that I am biased because every single asian american within America and those who’ve helped shaped me who I am today was all thanks to my parents, though not from the Philippines, sacrificed all they had so that I could live a better life here in America.