We honor mothers today, including my mother, your mother, their mothers, and their grandmothers. Naturally, the mother of my children, and her mother as well.
It’s the endless affection of Mother’s Day.
You can’t settle for just one. There’s always a need for more cards.
You may like: How to honor Mother’s Day daily to enhance mothers’ happiness
But, of course, I want to focus on the mother I know most intimately. My own.
Mom wasn’t really a Tiger Mom. We didn’t have those in my generation. She wanted me to get an education and to work hard to improve myself. But Mom wasn’t a tiger. She was more like a lamb.
She was Lamb Mom.
She remained silent and respectful. Being a Catholic woman, she engaged in frequent prayer. However, she was also submissive. She was petite, and her physical presence required her to be wise so as not to be overpowered or confused by obvious strength.
Perhaps she learned that in the Philippines, where my mother lived in a challenging area of Manila duringWorld War IIduring the period of Japanese control in the Philippines.
She was employed at a tailor’s shop and concealed herself beneath the sewing machines to evade capture by soldiers searching for women to serve as comfort women.
They were never able to locate my mother.
Instead, she was taken by a shop customer, an older Spanish woman whom I only know as Lola Angelita.
The angel.
My mother was essentially her “valet/daughter,” accompanying her “lola” to San Francisco after the war.
There, close to the old Fillmore and St. Dominic’s Church, they discovered a group of Filipino women who had become the solution for Filipino men who had waited for many years for more Filipino women to come to the U.S. to form families.
Anti-miscegenation laws were designed to prevent interracial marriage. These laws primarily aimed to stop Black individuals from marrying white people and others, and they also affected Filipinos. However, during that time, the ratio of Filipino men to women was over 10 to 1, making it difficult for Filipino families. This explains why my father came to the United States in the 1920s, but did not bring his family until the 1950s.
Filipino baby boom
When my mother and Lola Angelita arrived in San Francisco, they became part of a group of women who marked the start of a Filipino baby boom, which fueled the expansion of the Filipino community in the city.
They got busy.
They were compensating for a generation that had been lost.
That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Mother’s Day, and all the mothers, including my own.
Happy Mother’s Day.
I discuss my mom more—more like a lamb than a tiger—and her affection for the pope, any pope, in my show “69, Emil Amok: Anchorman—The News Made Me Do It.” I will premiere another iteration of my “Amok” monologues at the San Diego International Fringe Festival this week, starting Thursday, May 14, at 6 p.m., with performances scheduled at different times through May 23. Tickets available here.
Emil Guillermo is a celebrated journalist, news commentator, and former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He contributes to the .net’s US Channel. For over three decades, he has authored a weekly “Amok” column focusing on Asian American topics, race, and social justice. Locate him onYouTube, patreon and substack.
