Coming to America

Many Filipino-Americans come to the United States by the petition process, through family members already living in the U.S. The price to fill out the I-130 Petition for an Alien Relative is $535 which is then added to travel and flight expenses – this is only the monetary cost. The cost and sacrifice to come to the states require some to leave children, parents, and loved ones behind until petitions get answered, which can take a couple of months or a few decades. For many families, going through the process is worth it to ensure generations of their families grow up in the U.S.

 

Diana Altura came to the U.S. when she was 20 with her family. Seeking a better life for her family, Altura's grandmother petitioned her children to come to the state in the 70's, but it was not until 2004 when her family finally arrived in the states. 

 

“I think I can that I can speak for every Filipino; the opportunity is way better here," Altura said. "They were telling us before we got here that you can get anything that you want here, which is true. You can get it. You have to pay for it. Like I can get a car. It's so hard to get a car in the Philippines."

 

Starting Out

Finding a job is the top priority upon arrival. Many Filipinos are well connected when they get to the states because of already established connections through the petition process. Having these connections before coming to the states helps new immigrants find jobs within the community.
 

Altura's first job was at Circus Circus, a casino for adults and arcade for children. She worked in the arcade until she turned 21, then started working on the Casino floor encouraging more people to gamble and sign people up for VIP cards. Altura worked at Circus Circus for 13 years alongside other Filipino-Americans in the community.   

 

"I just kept working and working and working to take my mind off of going back home," Altura said.

 

Now, Altura works in human resources at a Home Health Care company where she works alongside other Filipinos working in the healthcare industry. The Philippines is the largest importer of nurses to the U.S. representing nearly half of the migrant nurse population in 2000. 

 

Cheryl Sather is a nurse at Renown Medical Center and moved to Northern Nevada from the Philippines in 1995. She came here on a petition from her father, who came to the U.S. when she was four. At 19, Sather was the oldest of her siblings to come to the states and was pregnant with her first child. She began working at a casino and later became a certified nurse assistant while putting herself through nursing school.

 

Dealing with Prejudice

Sather often found herself on the outside of Filipino culture in Northern Nevada. She was not raised Catholic and she preferred the American TV shows over Filipino dramas. 

 

"A lot of it has to do with what they do as Catholics and celebrations that I never really did in the Philippines," Sather said. “So I guess I also put myself out there as an outsider because I was never interested in a lot in my own culture." 

 

After living here for some time she met her husband, who is also a nurse. Before they were together, a Filipino lady they both worked with told her husband that she didn’t like Sather because she believed her to be an American born Filipino.

 

"I worked with her and she was nice to me, but she actually told Chuck, who told me later, that she didn't like me because I was an American born Filipino, which I wasn't. She just thought I was because I never really had a bad accent," Sather said.

 

Jana Sayson is a Filipino-American student at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her mother came to the states to work as a nurse and would deal with prejudices in the healthcare industry as well.  

 

"My mom, when she used to work bedside in New York and even in Vegas would sometimes come home complaining or even crying that people were really prejudiced against her because she still has her accent," Sayson said.

 

Sayson’s mom is now a professor at the College of Southern Nevada and at times experiences prejudices in her own classroom. 

 

"When she started teaching at CSN, her students would be like, she doesn't speak English, but she does. She just has an accent," Sayson said. 

 

Keeping Traditions Alive

Tagalog is the official language of the Philippines. After immigrating to the U.S., some Filipinos only speak Tagalog in the house and others chose not to speak it at all. 

 

"My grandma never talked in Tagalog. She was worried that my mom and her siblings would be judged for having an accent. She made sure their exposure to Filipino traditions was limited," Annie Graffis said. 

 

Graffis is a quarter Filipino and was exposed to her Filipino culture through her grandmother, who was married to an American sailor. After leaving her life in the Philippines behind, she chose to bring her children up in an American way. She would cook traditional Filipino dishes but would call them something familiar like egg rolls or potstickers. Graffis would later learn about her Filipino culture through these traditional recipes.

 

"My exposure to Filipino tradition was through food. That was the main tradition she passed down to my mom because it was the culture of the Philippines, but it wasn't overly 'Filipino,'" Graffis said. 

 

Loida Parker is the founder and owner of Cafe de Manila, the only restaurant serving authentic Filipino dishes in Reno, Nevada. The restaurant serves as a venue for weddings, parties and gathering for the Filipino community. 

"There are so many Filipinos in town so I was thinking of them," Parker said. "First of all, if you’re Filipino you love to eat Filipino food, and this is the only place where they could go and enjoy the food. Cafe de Manila is an introduction to the Filipino culture."

 

Now that families have settled in America and established families of their own, it's important to keep certain traditions and culture alive. The strong community within Northern Nevada indicates how strong the Filipino cultures is worldwide.