"In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.” –Alex Haley. Many of us don’t appreciate what a life gives to us. At times, I am a culprit myself. But over the years I have learned to appreciate everything I have today. I am blessed to be in the situation I am in. As I was working on the family history assignment, I have discovered many things that I would never have known if I didn’t raise any of the questions I did to my parents. Some of the new things I learned about my parents and their family histories were shocking. Learning about how my father and mother grew up, makes me cherish everything I own and possessed as I could very easily been growing up in a poorer family. The people I chose to interview were my mother and my father. Previously going into this project I knew very little about my parents. The things that I knew were just the small things they told me from time to time. But finally asking them about their lives was fascinating because the generation difference is so great.

The first person I interviewed was my mom, Amy. My mom was born in the Philippines in the city of Manila. She lived in a suburban area. When she was growing up she wasn’t impacted by any wars, however she lived through many changes of Ferdinand Marcos government regime in the Philippines. Life was challenging to say the least, poverty was high and they saw it all around them. But people still found a way to thrive in their situations. She witnessed people selling different things such as bottles, metal scraps, woods, fruits, and etc. mainly for food and money for rent. In September 1972 President Marcos declared Marshall Law in the Philippines. This means that the whole county was on a lock down. All flights in or out of the country were cancelled, media was seized, lock down and military were dispersed in public places, hundred of people were arrested, people were to stay inside their home by 8pm. She always wondered why their family couldn’t go out at night.

Once her family moved from their home country to America it was exciting for them and scary at the same time. “Adaptation to the United States is a relatively new process for large groups of Korean and Vietnamese (in this case Filipinos), one that is unassisted by earlier generations of coethnic immigrants.” (Pyke pg. 93) It was on October 31, 1980 when they all transitioned from the Philippines to the States with five other siblings and her dad. The flight was 16 hours and with a stop in Korea, it was freezing to her because usually the Philippines are very humid and she was not used to it. So coming from a tropical country and never experiencing snow or much cold, to her it was it was amazing. Moving to America and not knowing the unexpected was hard for her. My mom had many questions like “how people will receive them? Will we make friends at school? Will we be different? Are they going to like us?” Many questions to wonder and what the answer will be for a 12 year old, it was daunting. They were separated from their mother for two years. My grandmother received her visa to come to America and live with her dad. Then, they came later with their paperwork being approved to reside in San Antonio, Texas. Arriving there in the 1980 was truly different from what it was in their home country. At this time they were introduced to Halloween where kids can eat just about as much candy, chocolate, and other stuff as you can. The 80’s is where different games where introduce like Pac-man, Donkey-Kong, Tetris, and other Atari games. Then the obsession of the Rubik cubes it was phenomenal, seeing people try to beat their best time. They heard on the news Mt. Saint Helen erupted and was the largest volcanic eruption close to America, which is 50 miles from Portland, Oregon. Also seen on the news about the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr., Regan was shot in his lung and it was punctured. They also watched Princess Diana and Prince Charles wedding and watched by millions of people. E.T. and Michael Jackson Thriller were released and both were a smashed, most beloved movie and most sold album. Rock bands where being introduce like Journey, Asia, Duran Duran, and others, best rock bands ever. Cabbage patch dolls were introduced, which was an ugly doll in my mom’s opinion. Sally Ride becomes the First American Woman in Space, famine in Ethiopia, witnessed in devastation as the space shuttle Challenger exploded in the air, DNA first used to convict criminals, Berlin Wall Falls, Exxon Valdez Spills 10.8 Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline, which caused so much havoc and damaged over 1,300 miles of coastline and devastated local wildlife, making it one of the most damaging environmental disasters in history.