Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American/ Pacific Islander population in the United States and they are projected to become the largest Asian American population by 2010. With 1.37 million Filipino-born immigrants living in the US, Filipino Americans are the second largest immigrant population in the country.
As descendants of the Philippines, a country that was colonized by Spain for over three centuries and by the US for nearly 50 years, Filipino Americans are an ethnic group with a sociocultural and historical experience that is unlike any other. First, they are the only ethnic group that has been categorized as Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic. However, California state laws require that all personnel surveys or statistical tabulations classify persons of Filipino ancestry as “Filipino” rather than part of any other racial or ethnic group. Additionally, Filipino Americans have often been referred to as the “Forgotten Asian Americans,” because their presence has been invisible in psychology, education, humanities, and other social sciences.
Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice offers a comprehensive look at the psyche of Filipino Americans. By examining history, cultural values, influences of colonialism, community dynamics, and intersections with other identities, the reader will have an opportunity to understand essential information about this population. Students will gain knowledge and awareness about Filipino American identity and personality development, while practitioners will learn culturally-competent techniques to become better counselors, clinicians, and educators. This book is the first of its kind and aims to promote visibility of this invisible group, so that 2.4 million Filipino Americans will have their voices heard.
Kevin L. Nadal, Ph.D., is a professor, psychologist, performer, activist, and author who received his doctorate in counseling psychology from Columbia University in 2008. As an assistant professor of psychology and mental health counseling at John Jay College of Criminal Justice- City University of New York, he has published several works focusing on Filipino American, ethnic minority, and LGBTQ issues in the fields of psychology and education. In 2007, he led a vast international campaign against ABC Studios for the negative statements made about Filipino medical schools on the television show “Desperate Housewives.” A California-bred New Yorker, Kevin is also a stand-up comedian and spoken word artist who has performed across the US since 2000. He was named one of People Magazine's hottest bachelors in 2006, he was a guest on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” and he has been featured on The Filipino Channel, the History Channel, Philippine News, and Filipinas Magazine.
Preface
Growing up in a large Filipino American community in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was taught from an early age to be proud of my culture. My parents and extended family exposed me to an array of Filipino customs and traditions, ranging from learning to dance through tinikling bamboo sticks to eating chicken adobo, lumpia, and pancit. I also learned about Filipino values, like respecting one’s elders, always offering to help (especially when you’re not asked), and putting family first before everything else.
I always knew I came from a fairly typical Filipino American family. Both of my parents worked full-time (with my mother of course being a nurse). My parents had accents and interchanged their “P’s” and their “F’s.” My siblings and I took piano lessons. We sang karaoke at every family party. I had 18 first cousins and hundreds of second and third cousins, and somehow I felt close with all of them. We had a Santo Niño (Baby Jesus statue) shrine in the hallway near my bedroom. I referred to every Filipino adult as “Uncle,” “Auntie,” “Tito,” or “Tita” regardless of our actual blood relation. And there was always a rice cooker steaming in the kitchen. I loved being Filipino and told everyone about my ethnicity whenever I had the chance.
Despite all of these positive aspects, I also noticed many second generation Filipino Americans were not attaining levels of higher education or achieving the American Dream our parents had hoped for us, and I often wondered why. For as long as I can remember, I would see a lot of my friends not attending or finishing college, becoming teenage mothers, or getting themselves into trouble with drugs, gangs, or crime. Additionally, I always wondered why Filipinos were treated differently from other Asian groups - from the first time a police officer pulled me over for no reason to the numerous times people would speak to me in Spanish. I always felt like Filipinos were different from all other racial and ethnic groups, and I learned to develop a deep sense of pride in that.
Having lived in various cities like Fremont, California, Irvine, California, East Lansing, Michigan, and my current home in New York, New York, I started to recognize how Filipino Americans seemed to be similar everywhere. There seemed to be values that governed the ways we communicated, behaved, thought, or felt. There seemed to be common mentalities and processes people engaged in, which influenced how they made decisions. And there seemed to be common experiences with race and ethnicity that existed no matter where you lived in the United States. While Filipino Americans are all exceptional with their own individualities and personalities, I appreciated there was a culture that bound us together and connected us all as a Filipino American people.
When I first started learning about multicultural issues in psychology as an undergraduate student, I recognized Filipino Americans were often omitted from the literature - in psychology, social sciences, humanities, and across all other fields, and I never really understood why. I thought about how there were very few Filipino American professors in the country, and perhaps this was the reason why we weren’t being represented. So with great mentorship that steered me in the