#fil-am

A femme fatale in a filipiniana 

Hi, soon-to-be grads! I’m working on designs for fabric to be used on sablay, graduation malong/sash used by some Philippines schools. I still have to get the test swatch to make sure the design looks good on fabric (the little heart watermark won’t be on the final product).

Here is a a video on how sablay are used. Like tassles, they are moved to the other side once you are officially graduated.

Hopefully the fabric will be proofed by June. If you are graduating then and are interested in getting some fabric to make your own sablay/malong, please let me know (reblog, message, etc)  what color you would like (school colors would probably the norm), so then I can proof the fabric in time to allow it to be sold on Spoonflower. If you’re graduating later in the year, I might be able to sew up the malong for you and sell on Etsy. 

Please signal boost.

PS I’ll probably put up a video on how to make your own sablay without sewing, so even if you don’t buy my fabric, you can have a bit of our culture on you when you graduate.

PPS Mabuhay and congrats! You’re so close to the finish line! Believe ako sa’yo!

Hi, soon-to-be grads! I’m working on designs for fabric to be used on sablay, graduation malong/sash used by some Philippines schools. I still have to get the test swatch to make sure the design looks good on fabric (the little heart watermark won’t be on the final product).

Here is a a video on how sablay are used. Like tassles, they are moved to the other side once you are officially graduated.

Hopefully the fabric will be proofed by June. If you are graduating then and are interested in getting some fabric to make your own sablay/malong, please let me know (reblog, message, etc)  what color you would like (school colors would probably the norm), so then I can proof the fabric in time to allow it to be sold on Spoonflower. If you’re graduating later in the year, I might be able to sew up the malong for you and sell on Etsy. 

Please signal boost.

PS I’ll probably put up a video on how to make your own sablay without sewing, so even if you don’t buy my fabric, you can have a bit of our culture on you when you graduate.

PPS Mabuhay and congrats! You’re so close to the finish line! Believe ako sa’yo!

Knowledge is power, but power can corrupt. White institutions teach a select class of Asians to adopt elitism and gatekeeping in order to harm their community and deny lived experiences.

Asian Americans have the largest wealth gap of any U.S. racial group. Elitist Asians are a small percentage, yet they’re purposely given the largest AsAm platforms and resources in order to perpetuate the Model Minority myth and downplay anti-Asian racism. (for more info, see my Monomyth comic)

To be clear, higher education isn’t inherently bad. It’s like any other tool—it can enlighten and empower, or be misused. There are many Asian academics, educators and journalists who resist white supremacy and fight for their communities. But we’re talking about the ones who don’t.

These elitist tokens claim to fight for the most marginalized. In reality, they want to be the only Asian at the white table—the voice for the “voiceless.” White supremacist institutions are happy to seat them there, since tokens don’t dismantle the system but reinforce it.

Netflix’s show The Chair inadvertently captures this dynamic. It was widely touted as positive Asian rep, yet Sandra Oh’s character protected and prioritized a white male colleague/lover from accountability while treating marginalized students and her Black colleague as obstacles. When I saw prominent Asians and other POC gush about feeling seen by Sandra Oh’s The Chair character, I was disappointed—but not surprised. It speaks to their lack of self-awareness and how accustomed they are to trampling over their own people that they don’t think it’s wrong.

This is the major disconnect. We supposedly understand how structural racism works and that higher education—like every other industry in the U.S.—perpetuates white supremacy. Yet POC who get accepted to ivy leagues are not only celebrated, but viewed as automatic leaders.

The truth is, these institutions would never allow POC to matriculate if there was a real threat of them dismantling their bigoted systems. The token’s purpose is to insulate these institutions from accusations of bigotry, promote bootstrap narratives, and keep other POC out. Asian tokens know that to keep these prestigious positions of power, they must avoid being seen as a threat by white people. So, despite making outward claims of dismantling the Model Minority myth, they internalize it as fact—to the point of adopting white guilt as their own.

Tokens mask their gaslighting, bullying, and abuse by over-intellectualizing racism—the way white people taught them to. We’re seeing this with anti-Asian hate crimes, and how tokens police language and emotions while creating a hierarchy of which victims matter and which ones don’t.

This includes the thorny but necessary conversation of holding other POC accountable for anti-Asian violence—especially the Black community. Even though white people commit the majority of anti-Asian hate crimes, there’s also a significant pattern of Black people doing it too.

But according to elitist Asians tokens, that pattern isn’t relevant, and Asians shouldn’t be upset or talking about it. This is because, in internalizing the Model Minority myth, elitist Asians see themselves as above other POC and think accountability is anti-Black. It’s not.

Let’s be clear: assaulting Asians for being Asian is violent racism. The attacker’s race doesn’t change this. While we should be sensitive to the context of white supremacy when holding Black people and other POC accountable, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t discuss it at all.

Yet elitist Asian tokens sabotage efforts towards solidarity, healing, and progress because they project their class privilege onto a community that is larger and far more vulnerable than them. Meanwhile, white people are happy to let tensions between Asians and Black people remain.

The situation is frustrating and sad. How much violence could we have prevented if our communities did a better job of educating and tackling difficult conversations head-on instead of avoiding them? How much solidarity is lost because we’re at the whims of tokens who don’t care?

It’s ironic that the ones who supposedly understand the power of education the best are using it the worst. But that’s exactly what white supremacy wants: violence, division, and ignorance. That’s why it’s up to all of us to speak up and spark these conversations—so we can learn.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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Holy manananggal, Batman! Since #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth coincides with both #Batober and #Halloween, I thought it’d be fun to re-imagine Batman and Batwoman as Fil-Ams.

Bruce Waynaldo wasn’t born to extremely wealthy parents who were killed by a petty thief. Instead, his parents were struggling immigrants, who spent years laboring in inhumane working conditions in U.S. factories and were ultimately killed by the corporate thieves running them.

He dons the Batsuit to steal from corrupt elites to not only give back to Fil-Ams and other communities of color, but also finance his campaign of vengeance against his powerful enemies. He’s aided by his tito Alfred, who gathers intel on the rich as a housekeeper for hire.

Kate Kanalan enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps to make her military family proud, only to later realize she was just a pawn for the U.S. empire and its colonization of Asia and the Pacific. She retires and becomes Batwoman instead, protecting civilians from police brutality.

Openly gay, she uses her media visibility as Batwoman to campaign for equal rights and better legislative protections—striking fear in homophobes and awe in the ladies. Inspired by Bruce Waynaldo’s example, she donates her pension to homeless veterans and LGBTQ youth organizations.

While re-imagining white superheroes as people of color isn’t a perfect panacea, it’s one way to improve a lack of Fil-Am representation in comics and other media. So if DC wants a Fil-Am creator to write a Fil-Am Bat family, they know where to point those Bat-Signal lips.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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Last weekend at Diversity Comic Con, I spoke at the Countering Asian Hate panel with Enrica Jang, Wendy Chin-Tanner, and Dr. Kyunghee Pyun about anti-Asian racism, institutional barriers in comics and publishing, and how Asian American creators can confront it.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhkGXmI2CeA

This panel was a great opportunity to have difficult but necessary conversations about issues our community is facing. For me, I shared my experiences of being rejected by Image and getting harassed online for my AsAm comics, and my journey of developing racial awareness in my work.

Even though AsAms are struggling, I find hope in how we’re coming together as a community to tackle these issues, and using art & storytelling as one of our tools to do so.

Thank you Ramon Gil for inviting me and creating a space for AsAm creators to speak about our experiences.

If Garfield was Filipino. Or Furipino. Or Purripino?

Update: I’ve had quite a few people online tell me they’re interested in purchasing the ‘‘not a tabo’’ mug, so I decided to make it and offer it as merch. Stay tuned!

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agenthttps://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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Although I majored in Sequential Art (comics) in college, I also took acting classes as electives because—like many—it was a childhood dream. But what a professor said to me was a wake-up call.

Obviously, it wasn’t just one moment or individual that deterred me from pursuing acting. It ultimately wasn’t my calling—comics were. But I highlight this moment because it’s a symptom of how Asians are viewed and portrayed on a larger societal and institutional level.

SCAD was majority-white, so there were few Asians and other POC on campus. I remember being shocked seeing a Filipino guy perform in the play HAIR, and at the time, a lot of Hollywood productions were being filmed in Savannah. So this environment inspired me to try out acting.

For the most part, I realized breaking in required two things: knowing martial arts, and serving up Asianness for laughs. This isn’t to knock martial arts because it’s part of our culture and we should be proud of it. The problem is Asians are rarely depicted as full human beings.

In every kind of media, Asians have been and continue to be used as props for a non-Asian gaze, restricted from the full spectrum of the human experience. For Asian men, this means kung fu masters, nameless goons, or Ken Jeong-types whose sole purpose is to self-denigrate.

It says a lot that to this day, 42% of Americans can’t name a single famous Asian American. When asked to name one, the top response was “don’t know,” followed by actor Jackie Chan in 2nd—who is not a U.S. citizen—and deceased actor Bruce Lee in 3rd.

The worst part is Asians are blamed for our own oppression. We’re fed myths about how we lack personalities, marketability, good looks, etc. Usually, Asians are perceived as likeable only if there’s white heritage—which is why half-white Asians tend to get more opportunities.

Although I entered the comic book industry as a writer and artist, I ended up in Hollywood spaces anyway via the TV/film adaptation process. From there I learned it doesn’t matter if Asians are in front of or behind the camera—the stereotypes hold us back no matter where we are.

This is why Asians need to be in control of our own stories, and we need Asian creators who don’t cater to a non-Asian gaze. For more of my thoughts on this subject: https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1305941251393544193

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agenthttps://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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For the past few years, I’ve been learning to cook Filipino dishes I grew up eating. Along with my comics, it’s been part of my process of “relearning” my Fil-Am identity. So far, I’ve made Tinola, Sinigang, Chicken Adobo, Pancit, and now Kare-Kare!

Kare-Kare always seemed like an intimidating dish to make, especially because of the ingredients involved. My parents would eat Bagoong with it, and its strong smell and the hundreds of beady black eyes of baby crustaceans freaked me out. But I tried that too last night, and it was all delicious.

It’s important to practice self Kare-Kare

Pet owners don’t usually think about how our culture affects our pets. Seeing my dog Pogi grow up, I wonder how much of his preferences are influenced by being in a Fil-Am home.

Here’s Pogi. No matter what’s going on in life, he always makes me smile.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

I lost my publisher, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent.
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When you think of Mormons, you probably think of whiteness—and you’d be correct, since 93% are white. What you don’t think of is Filipinx.

And yet, for two years, I was a Mormon.

Before this, I grew up in a loosely Catholic upbringing and rarely went to church. But after my dad left the U.S. Navy and our family, we moved back to the U.S. and lived with cousins who were Mormons. There, we were regularly visited by missionaries, and eventually converted.

Much like being a Navy brat, converting was less of a choice and more of a package family deal. I just went along with it to make everyone happy. But what I didn’t know was that going from kind-of-Catholic to Mormon was stepping out of the kiddie pool and going in the deep end.

I learned of their living prophet and apostles, the Book of Mormon and its golden plates history, and Jesus coming to America after resurrection. I saw ostentatious temples, and heard about special underwear and polygamy. But I wasn’t taught its racist roots—that was something I felt, not knew.

Meanwhile, my art at the time was inspired by graffiti/tagging and the AZN pride era, a pan-Asian movement that cultivated a positive view of being Asian American. It was the era of tuner culture, souped up Hondas, spiky hair, TRG, Asian Avenue, and AIM screennames like aZnBbyGrL.

AZN spaces weren’t utopias by any stretch. But at its core, it represented community and herd protection in a country that didn't—and still doesn't—want AsAms here. While non-Asian spaces pressured me to assimilate, AZN spaces provided a bubble where I could be myself more.

For Asians, the pressure to assimilate and learn self-hate is universal. But for Filipinx, there’s an added pressure with religion. Everyone who hears I was once Mormon thinks it’s the strangest thing (which I get), but the concept of Filipinx being converted is far from new.

Catholicism was forcibly thrust onto the Philippines upon Magellan’s arrival, and subsequently reinforced through 333 years of violent Spanish colonization. Today, the Philippines is 1 of 2 Southeast Asian countries with a majority Christian population (the other is East Timor).

Even though I’m Fil-Am, I feel connected to my ancestors through my experience of white Mormon missionaries dunking me in their colonizing waters, washing off “sinful” mindsets or behaviors that didn’t fit their specific mold. No matter where Filipinx live, whiteness finds us.

To this day, I feel pressure to “purify” my art and make myself smaller as a Filipino man. I know I’m not alone. Every day, Asians struggle with “baptisms.” We search for an AsAm pride, but it’s something we must create ourselves—not despite anti-Asian racism but because of it.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent
https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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For Fil-Ams and other people of color, the “American Dream” often means toiling away just to obtain a small piece of the spoils that were violently ripped away from your community.

Second-gen Asian Americans like me grow up oblivious about our own histories because the U.S. education system purposely withholds information about it, and our parents try to outrun their trauma by never sharing their experiences, instead pushing their children toward an assimilation sleepwalk.

AsAms realize too late we’ve inherited a deal with the devil we never agreed to: we can keep our language, but only if we speak it privately. Our food, if we serve it. Our culture, if it upholds the illusion of America as a benevolent melting pot that saved us from ourselves.

But AsAms aren’t the only ones ignorant of this history. Few Americans know of the Philippine-American War and the atrocities the US committed. Even fewer understand how the U.S.’s ongoing legacy of war, destruction, and colonization in Asia is a major reason the AsAm diaspora exists.

Americans aren’t taught about how centuries of exploitation of the Philippines’ resources by Western powers has led to most of its workforce immigrating and becoming a global servant class called Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Instead, they’re taught that poverty is inherent to Filipinx culture.

Americans aren’t taught about how the US installs and props up puppet leaders and dictators—like how Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan fully backed Marcos as he ruled under martial law and committed human rights violations. Instead, they’re taught corruption is inherent to Filipinx culture.

Americans aren’t taught that colonization is bipartisan and Trump and Biden agree on their view of the Philippines: a de facto colony whose resources and bodies can be exploited with impunity for the US war machine. Instead, they’re taught servitude is inherent to Filipinx culture.

Americans aren’t taught about one-sided US military agreements used to keep an imperialist foothold: the Mutual Defense Treaty, Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, Visiting Forces Agreement & Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Instead, they’re told it’s for mutual benefit.

American’s aren’t taught about how many AsAms struggle with poverty, institutional racism, and violence. Instead, they’re taught the Model Minority Myth—created by white people and propagated by all races—that says Asians don’t suffer race-based oppression.

Americans aren’t taught about how Fil-Ams give earnings to family, live in multi-generational households to pool money together, and how the Philippines’ economy would collapse without OFW remittances. Instead, they’re taught Fil-Ams have a high median household income amongst AsAms.

Americans aren’t taught about how AsAm leaders are installed with white backing the same way puppet leaders are, and use their shared race to hurt their own and prevent true progress. Instead, they’re taught that privileged, out-of-touch blue-checks are the voice of our community.

So if Americans aren’t taught any of this, who will teach them? The ugly truth is that AsAms who try to speak up are often crushed into silence by non-Asians who benefit from the status quo, and by Asian puppet leaders who’ve been installed to protect their masters’ interests.

Overall, being Filipinx and Asian means constantly navigating survival between rotating oppressors.

As an ex-Navy brat who grew up overseas, I’ve struggled with my concept of home and at one point believed “home” was a US military base. But maybe that’s as Fil-Am as it gets.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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joshualunacreations:

(Please don’t repost or edit my work. Reblogs are always appreciated. Support my work here: https://www.patreon.com/joshualuna)

History has shown Filipinx are valued for our labor, not our voices. But the only thing more consistent than our exploitation and oppression is our resilience in the face of it. #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth

There are many horror stories about Filipinx being mistreated. Whether working in our home countries or as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), we’re treated as a servant class no matter where we are—suffering long hours, low wages and benefits, and intentionally dehumanizing treatment.

For example, in 2019, a Filipina maid in Saudi Arabia was tied to a tree as “punishment” by her employers. An animator in the Philippines was fired for demanding a full-time salary for his full-time work. Filipina nurses who tried to quit an abusive New York nursing home got stuck in indentured servitude. Out of 66 US allies in WWII, only Filipino vets were denied payment and benefits that the US promised. Call center employees working as outsourced low-wage labor for US corps who’ve earned promotions and higher pay are given unrealistic quotas to get them fired. The list goes on.

I even experienced this myself in May, when I lost my publisher of 10+ years for—ironically—talking about the racism and oppression Filipinx and other Asians face. They were happy to publish my stories centering non-Filipinx, but not when I decided to center myself and other Fil-Ams.

In my industry (comics), the exploitation of Filipinx is a well-kept secret. In a recently released video by DC Comics—which was meant to highlight Filipinx creators—they inadvertently admit to hiring Filipinx only to circumvent paying striking American creators better wages.

But Filipinx don’t stay silent, we fight back. From legendary Lapu-Lapu, Gabriela Silang, and the Katipunan—who resisted Spanish colonization and fought for independence—to Fil-Am labor leader Larry Itliong, Filipinx have a long tradition of organizing protests and revolutions.

Yet when we do speak up, our contributions can still be erased—sometimes by other POC. Itliong spearheaded a highly effective labor movement in the 30s and 40s when he organized the Delano grape strike and unionized laborers, but his work is often credited solely to César Chávez. A search for Itliong’s name will result in articles and books that always acknowledge his collaboration with Chávez. But if you search for Chávez’s name, Itliong is rarely mentioned. This erasure hurts even more so because the whole movement was about solidarity between Mexican-Americans and Fil-Ams.

What this means is Filipinx are seen as exploitable labor by pretty much everyone: whites, other POC, even our own. That’s why a major part of the Philippines’ economy relies on remittances from OFWs sending their earnings home—one of the country’s biggest exports is people.

So on this last day of #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth, let’s all commit to fighting racial and class injustice, uplifting Fil-Am and Filipinx voices, and recognizing Filipinx contributions all year-round.

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to Patreon or donate to Paypal. I recently lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent.

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304

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Happy Birthday to Fil-Am hero, Larry Itliong, who gave America the finger. (Three, in fact, which he lost in a cannery accident.)

joshualunacreations:

White supremacy benefits from the low voter turnout of Asian-Americans. Why? Because when we do vote, we have the potential to make up the winning margin.

This Election Day, Fil-Am Man wants you to #FlipTheHouse. Vote on Nov 6!

(Please don’t repost or edit my work. Reblogs are always appreciated)

In 2018, we flipped the House. In 2020, let’s keep the House, and flip the White House and the Senate.

It’s not a perfect solution, but voting is one way to use your voice and work towards something better than this nightmare. #Vote#VoteEarly

The reason America hates wearing a mask is because it prefers showing its true face.

For some, this spike in anti-Asian racism comes as a surprise, or seems like it’s the first time it’s happening. But that’s because the Model Minority Myth—created by white people—has tricked both white people and POC into thinking Asianness is a privilege. (For more info, see my comic “Asian American Monomyth” https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1107709119992119297)

But history shows what America really thinks. The Page Act of 1875 legally codified Asian women as immoral, disease-carrying prostitutes in order to ban them from the US and extended that ban to Asian men with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. These sentiments have never left. This is why Asian Americans are always portrayed as the perpetual foreigner—we “don’t belong here” and can be removed on a whim via ongoing deportations or mob violence, such as the 1930 lynching of Filipino men in Watsonville and the 1871 lynching of Chinese in L.A., and the current COVID-inspired attacks.

Trump calling COVID “the Chinese virus” has the same intent—to distract from his violent negligence, stump for war with China, and put a target on Asians so we’ll bear the brunt of COVID frustrations instead of him. Over 2,500 anti-Asian incidents have been reported since March. As if anti-Asian violence weren’t enough, structural racism means COVID is more deadly to POC. For example, Filipinx nurses comprise 4% of nurses in the U.S., but make up 31.5% of all nurse deaths. Also, many Fil-Ams live in multi-generational households—which increases risk.

Trump and his supporters know COVID is deadly, but sabotage efforts to stop its spread because their goal is eugenics—the same way the U.S. infected Native Americans with smallpox, or how the Reagan administration ignored HIV since it disproportionately killed LGBTQ and Black communities.

But right-wingers aren’t the only racists. If you’re wondering how a man who wants to “Free Hong Kong" hates Asians, it’s the same reason why racists claim to support Uyghurs yet don’t care about Trump’s Muslim ban, U.S. atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, or oppression of Palestinians. It’s the same reason the U.S. “supports” Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines, Hawai'i, and Japan, and why U.S. soldiers took Asian wives via the 1945 War Brides Act (a loophole to anti-immigration laws). It’s not because they like Asians and Pacific Islanders—they see us/our lands as strategic assets or spoils of war.

This shows how diasporic Asian lives are always inextricably linked to the fate of Asians abroad & vice versa. US imperialism has murdered millions of Asians via war in the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos & left a multi-generational impact. (For more info, see my comic “Detonasian” https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1181638490120957952)

So it isn’t enough to stop the spread of COVID—we have to stop the spread of anti-Asian racism too. That means rejecting the lies of the Model Minority, speaking out against anti-Asian COVID attacks, and acknowledging just how pervasive and deeply embedded anti-Asian racism is.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agenthttps://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
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joshualunacreations:

Tabo, or not tabo, that is the question.

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, you can support me here:
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HappyFilipino American History Month! This FAHM it’s important to examine taboo topics like the tabo, and how our everyday lives are affected by the legacy of colonization. (I came up with this pun four years ago and I’m still proud of it!)

joshualunacreations:

(Please don’t repost or edit my work. Reblogs are always appreciated)

Being artistic paid off in art school, but it didn’t help me do well in high school, where I usually doodled and dissociated—especially in Spanish class. I joke that the spirit of Lapu-Lapu was protecting me from being recolonized.

In class—which was taught in English—I was given a Spanish first name (Josué) to replace my Biblical birth name, which conveniently matched my Spanish surname “given” to my ancestors. So, I was taught the language of one colonizer (Spain) via the language of another (USA).

Even though I was living the legacy of colonization every day, I wasn’t taught much about this Filipino history until I was an adult, outside of the US school system. So maybe me—and others—aren’t bad students after all, we’re just in the wrong environment.

If you enjoy my comics, please consider pledging to Patreon or donating to Paypal. I recently lost my publisher of 15 years for trying to publish these strips as a book, so your support helps keep me going until I can find a new publisher and literary agent. If you’ve already pledged and/or donated, thank you so much!

https://www.patreon.com/joshualuna
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The debate about Filipinx vs Filipino seems to be a product of colonized mindsets. We didn’t choose to be named after King Philip II and have a gendered language invade our Indigenous ones, but Spanish colonization is a historical fact and no amount of arguing will change that.

I use Filipino to refer to myself and Filipinx in general because it’s more inclusive than words derived from the Spanish o/a language designation for male/female. If you don’t want to use Filipinx that’s fine, but it’s ridiculous to pretend Filipino is a gender-neutral word.

A lot of the discomfort around the word Filipinx seems to come from two sources: 1) a refusal to acknowledge how deeply Spanish colonization has fundamentally altered Filipinx culture and 2) a hatred of Fil-Ams having a say in how Filipinx identity is defined and understood.

I’m not here for either. Let’s acknowledge our past and present fully—including how colonization altered how we look, how we talk, how we worship and even how we think—so we can make decisions about our identity and culture that aren’t beholden to a dead colonizer from Europe.