Daly City

Karen Nguyen

913851333

19 April 2016

Response Paper

Despite acknowledging the evolving quality of culture, the reading first explores the social construction of “distinctive identity formations” regarding Filipino communities in Daly City. This includes the social tendency to create conventional images of cultures such as that of the Filipino immigrant in the US. While the Filipino middle-class forms their own national belonging through building their communities, they are simultaneously forming identities through which they are perceived by the world. The films include a transnational language of what high class is in contrast with Filipino migrants, forming an image of what a Filipino migrant should look like. In accordance with the notion that cultures are shared and globalized, the readings highlight the concept of transnationalism in terms of how cultural consumption and capital that transcends national boundaries. Considering the globalized nature of culture, it is interesting that leaving the Philippines can be so strongly considered a betrayal of the nation. Furthermore, it is also significant that money is tied so closely to heroism in the Filipino culture.  Evidently, there is a paradox between the material-mindedness of the culture and the opposition to Filipinos who leave the Philippines, when many who “departed” to America targeted its greater material resources.