Juan, born and raised in Alabama, feels one hundred percent American. But other Americans don't see him as one of them. Following some experiences with exclusion, he decides he wants to be a Filipino, like his parents. He spends a lot of time in the sun to darken his coffee-with-cream complexion and learns to speak Tagalog. During Christmas break, his mother takes him on a trip to the Philippines-a place she still considers home and that has always served as a refuge-to help him become a Filipino.
But in the Philippines, Juan finds that Filipinos, even his relatives, consider him an American. They laugh at his wanting to be brown. His cousins, with whom he has expected to develop an easy camaraderie, fall off their chairs whenever he tries to speak Tagalog.
For Juan, like so many children of immigrants, the struggle to assimilate while also developing his own identity is a challenging, sometimes heartbreaking, and an ever evolving process. Set in the 1980s, Juan's story will ring true with anyone who's ever experienced the search for identity in a multicultural setting, or anyone who's ever struggled to fit in.
About the Author: Gloria Javillonar Palileo arrived in the United States from the Philippines in September, 1966 with fifty dollars (borrowed) in her pocket. Graduate assistantships got her through the master's degree program at Kansas State and the doctoral at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After over twenty years on the sociology faculty at the University of South Alabama, she is now retired but still teaches classes there online. In the early 1980s, she and her husband, Ross, adopted two boys and a girl from the Philippines. COMING HOME is inspired by the children's experiences with adaptation to their new home.
The author's multicultural experiences include living in Delhi, India as a UNESCO Fellow in the early 1960's and in Egypt on a U.S. Department of Education Group Study Abroad grant in 1982.
