“God dictates”
Immigration Blues by Bienvenido Santos takes us on the Filipino side of things. It was a nice easy read and I felt rather comfortable in reading it. As a summary it takes place on the west coast of America where a old pinoy named Alipio has been living after losing his wife and getting into a car accident. Then two women visit him. One of them is the wife of one of his friends and the other her sister. They end up talking a lot about how they came here and how they got married in order to stay in the United States. After a long talk the sisters confess that they came here because they needed to get the younger sister married before she get’s deported which brings the story back to the first points of their conversation. Alipio never comes out and says it but I believe that he agreed to their terms.
The entire seen is quite humerous to me because it reminds me of my home actually. Not the old man living all alone peacefully part, but the concepts of eating. It’s a very big deal to be a good host to Alipio and he offers practically everything to his guests for lunch. My own parents do the same thing and it oftens frightens my friends when they cannot escape eating upon entering my house. Other concepts are the mentioning of sending things back home. Balikbayan boxes are boxes we fill will all sorts of things to send back to our relatives back in the Philippines. It’s the same concept but I just wanted to share that little tid bit with you all this time because it is funny when you go to an airport with 4-5 giant cardboard boxes.
I titled this post “God dictates” because that is Alipio’s most used quote. Now what does it mean? Basically it means an act of providence, it is going to happen, or one might call it fate. If there is one thing I’ve learned about Filipinos, it is that they are very religious. For the most part it is prodominatly catholic so their is a big emphasis on the big honcho God. There are even extremes when people crucify themselves.
To bring this full circle Alipio stays true to this concept. Despite that God has taken away his wife and broke his leg he still has faith in him. I think it’s because of this that such a strong character is built so even he can overcome the monumental task of moving on after a loved one’s death, but God Dictates.
This post sorta feels odd to me. I guess it’s because I put a bit of my own personal info on it. Slightly odd to me but whatever, I won’t do this often and this is probably one of the few times i’ll do it. So to break it down
1.) Food and hospitality are important
2.) Balikbayan boxes are used to carry goods to relatives back home
3.) Religion is highly valued
I think its interesting what you said about Alipio’s faith in God. I didn’t even think about it like that, but it is true that his faith is unshakable.If God really does dictate then Alipio is very forgiving for God taking his wife from him and crippling him in a car accident. I think the fact that Monica was sent into his life proves to Alipio that God really is on his side, and since he endured the bad, he now deserves the good.