Stories Underfoot: Reconstructing a Filipino-American Identity from a Patchwork Rug

Rachel Morris

Between 1906 and 1946, over 6000 Filipinos immigrated to Hawaii to work the sugar plantations. In a study of Filipinos in Hawaii, Luis Teodoro suggests that third-generation Filipino Americans know little of their family history (Teodoro, Out of This Struggle: The Filipinos in Hawaii [Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1981], 66). Even with increasing scholarship in Asian American studies, Sucheng Chan observes, “[There is a] complete absence of any in-depth studies about the historical and current experiences of Filipino Americans” (Chan, “The Writing of Asian American History,” Organization of American History Magazine, v. 10, no. 4, 2). As a third-generation Filipino American and textile historian, I bring together in this project the material culture and oral history of my own family in order to contribute to a larger discussion of the Filipino American experience. At the core of my research is a small chevron-patterned patchwork rug made by my grandmother. Each textile fragment of the rug is a remnant of a household linen or garment that passed between her hands from 1946 to 1980. To better understand the significance of the cloth and its maker, I interviewed family members and friends that survive her and ask them to identify the remnants of the rug. The cloth allows the interviewees to recall personal memories of growing up as a Filipino in Hawaii. Just as my grandmother stitched together the remnants of her life into a patchwork rug, I salvage the memories of our family to present a Filipino America narrative.

 

 

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