by VFM
On a day where COVID-19 positive Donald Trump disregards medical caution to quarantine at a hospital for a motorcade to “show strength”, I can only think of how selfish and barbaric he is to do so. When thousands of Filipino nurses who have worked on COVID-19 frontlines since the beginning of this year have lost their lives by working so hard to fight this … Read More Filipino Frontliners and the Cost of COVID-19
by VFM
Research has always been a creative project for me. A site and process where I could blend my commitments to activism, collaboration and passions. Community members, activists and students in the Filipino American communities become collaborators in my projects’ directions and designs instead of objects of study. It has been such meaningful work teaching me more than the findings that end up published. More … Read More A Right to Research
by VFM
On Saturday, join Filipino migrant workers and organizers for coffee or kapehan! PAWIS in San Jose hosts these biweekly events for caregivers to learn about the most up to date changes in laws and work conditions. But they also host a discussion on different topics. This week they’ve asked me to join them to talk through caregiving under COVID-19 and what implications it might … Read More Kapehan with Caregivers
by VFM
I created this infographic to make sense of the various articles that have been circulating about Filipino caregivers under the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the data I’ve included here is from a pilot study I conducted at SFSU from 2017-2019 on the impacts of caregiving on the physical and mental health outcomes of migrant workers. I recently shared this with PAWIS (Pilipino Association of … Read More Caregivers in the time of Corona
by VFM
In 2018, I had the great privilege attending and participating in a National University of Singapore, Asian Research Institute workshop on Multinational Migrations hosted by brilliant Anju Paul and Brenda Yeoh. Both of whom are scholars who I have read, cited and looked up to for a long time. At the workshop, I presented a paper looking back at the research I collected when … Read More Transnational Families and Multinational Migrations
by VFM
In a report I co-wrote with Bulosan Center Executive Director, Robyn Rodriguez, and Policy Director, Katherine Nasol, we wrote that the conditions of Filipino caregivers is doubly precarious. The dual crisis of the unregulated caregiving industry and the lack of proper resources towards the fight against COVID-19 put Filipino migrants under great stress and risk. But the ethic of care that Filipinos in the … Read More Filipino Caregivers and the Fight against COVID-19
by VFM
The CA Domestic Workers Rights Coalition has heard that SB 1257, The Health and Safety for All Workers Act, will be heard in the Labor Committee on this coming Thursday, May 14! Help us build visibility and lift your voices in the creative ways to make sure that the Labor Committee sees and feels the domestic worker movement – even if we can’t mobilize … Read More A Mother’s Day Call to Action
by VFM
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about some awards I received from the Association for Asian American Studies. I couldn’t thank everyone I wanted to but here’s a list of folks who stood behind my nomination. And I want to thank you all here: Michael J. Viola, Associate Professor of Justice, Community, & Leadership, Saint Mary’s College of California Faith R. Kares, … Read More Let the music play me off the stage
by VFM
Ethel Tungohan and I wrote an article on PAR and building migrant worker power and it is out now in the link below and downloads are free until the end of April! Our article “Mula Sa Masa, Tungo Sa Masa, From the People, To the People: Building Migrant Worker Power through Participatory Action Research” would be great to assign to an Intro to Methods class … Read More The Power (or PAR) of Migrant Workers
by VFM
In Filipino, kapwa refers to a cultural value of a collective well-being or togetherness in which Filipinos construct their selfhood, families and communities. In my work with conducting research about Filipino American lives with Filipino American undergraduate students at San Francisco State University, kapwa has been a driving force in uncovering Filipino immigrant and Fil-Am stories as intellectual resources towards producing knowledge. Together with … Read More Filipino San Francisco
by VFM
The basis for organizing Filipino caregivers in the US is so astoundingly apparent. Stories about caregivers being overworked and underpaid are commonplace in Filipino communities. Many family members, community organizers, even popular films, understand that even if care homes are ways to get work, people gamble with the work being hard and the pay might not come through. A recent LA Times article called, … Read More The Need for Caregivers Collective Resistance
