Tag: Roots

  • Filipino American History Month (FAHM): A Reflection

    Each October is Filipino American History Month and this year’s theme is “Struggle, Resistance, Solidarity, and Resilience.” I attended high school at Seisen International School in Tokyo, where I studied the International Baccalaureate (IB) Degree Program in tandem with my school’s competitive GED. My interest in the history of the Philippines formalized during this time of my studies. My final…

  • Amelanchier canadensis

    I got home from work, and my husband had foraged my favorite native tree fruit in June. Also known as the shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry (or just sarvis), juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear, the genus of Amelanchier (/æməˈlænʃɪər/ am-ə-LAN-sheer) consists of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the rose family (Rosaceae).…

  • Community Conversations

    I attended an Environmental Justice workshop, facilitated by Ayesha Qazu-Lampert and Ylanda Wilhite of Chicago Environmental Educators at the Academy for Global Citizenship at 4942 W 44th St, Chicago, IL 60638. Lupe Escárcega and Danielle Russell from Openlands is how I learned about the event. I didn’t grow up with many of the environmental career pathways that seem to be…

  • Falling Leaves

    autumn leaves falling spilling rain from cloudy skies goodbye summer Since I could never be Japanese, despite being born and raised in Tokyo, the urban forests that surrounded me throughout my childhood are my only truth that Japan is home. When my father passed, we had to move out of the house that we called our home. I realized that…

  • Lola Lolo

    In Tagalog (one of the many dialects of the Philippines), Lolo and Lola means grandfather and grandmother, respectively. These come from the Spanish abuelo (grandfather) and abuela (grandmother). Photographs are the closest representations of my origins and my most important connection to my ancestors. These pieces are the stories that make up the histories of my past. They make me…