Diary of a Long and Winding Trek to America
/Book Review: A Good Provider is One Who Leaves, One Family and Migration in the 21st Century by Jason De Parle (Viking, 2019)
In 1986, Jason de Parle, a reporter with the New York Times, wanted to study poverty and asked Sister Christine Tan to help him find a place to stay in Leveriza, a neighborhood in Manila. A homeowner, Tita Comodas nee Portagana, allowed him to sleep on the floor of her house, between her nephew and the rats. In the process, the writer became embedded in the Portagana family.
De Parle lived in the house in Leveriza (one with a toilet, made possible because Tita's husband, Emet, was working in Saudi Arabia) for eight months. He ended up writing this book, a study and a narrative of the migrant's life. Nine out of the 11 Portagana family members went abroad to work. Of the next generation, 24 out of 41 are migrant workers. The migrants went to work in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Qatar, Taiwan, the United States and on cruise ships.
De Parle's book is a close examination of one extended family, but it also presents the bigger picture. The migrant story is not just that of Filipinos. All over the world, migrant remittances to their home countries total $477 billion a year; it is an effective anti-poverty program raising millions from poverty. In the Philippines, it represents 10 percent of the GDP.
De Parle's book is exceptional in his access to his subjects. Over 30 years, he became a friend, and he often intervened to help the family, as he did, for example, to help Rosalie obtain her US visa in time for her flight departure. (After all, he is a Kano, he talked to the consular officer.) The close writer-subject relationship also meant the family laid bare their life to his scrutiny. He had access to their letters, diaries, bank statements, tax returns, text messages, social media accounts and even report cards.
As he put it, "We've washed dishes, watched movies, gone to church, gone swimming, shopped for groceries, played UNO, clicked selfies, and toured rooster farms from Southeast Asia to East Texas." In the process, this book is the most comprehensive account of an immigrant family as it traveled through the twists and turns of an immigrant's life.
When the writer first met Tita Comodas, her daughter Rosalie was 15. This book is mainly Rosalie's story. Her father cleaned swimming pools in Saudi Arabia, which made it possible for her to study nursing. The book details the difficulty of getting those nursing credentials. At the end of second year, the school required students to have a score of 80 percent in order to continue. Rosalie had a score of 79.5. But, the dean decided to round up her score to 80. Saved! (De Parle is a compelling writer and the book reads like a novel. I found myself wanting to stop and high-five Rosalie!) She passed the nursing boards. Her goal was America. But then she went on to fail the US nursing test three times. She also failed the English language test several times. (I lost track of the number.) She finally passed after discovering may lusot pala (a way out)! She was allowed to pair the passing score of one part in one test with the passing score of another part in another test. But America was still decades away.
“In 1986, Jason de Parle, a reporter with the New York Times, wanted to study poverty and asked Sister Christine Tan to help him find a place to stay in Leveriza, a neighborhood in Manila.”
Rosalie had passed the Saudi Arabia nursing test and at age 24, she left home to work in foreign soil in order to send money home. While she ended up in Saudi Arabia, she still had her eyes set on America. She found out that an alternate test called NCLEX was easier to pass. But it was offered only in the US. An agency sent her to Saipan, an American Commonwealth, to take the test. (Again, it wasn't a one shot deal. But she persevered.) After so many tests and failures, she finally had the credentials to go to the US. She then spent another eight years on the queue to obtain a visa. Twenty years after graduation, she finally made it to Galveston, Texas in 2012.
In the intervening years, Rosalie worked in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, got married to Chris Villanueva who was also a migrant worker, gave birth to three children she had to leave with her parents. Her sister Rowena loomed large in the book as Rosalie's children called her Mama Wena as she was the surrogate mother. A large part of the book centers on the push-and-pull children in such situations face. During all the years of working as a migrant, there were the calls for money. There were the ingrained responsibility to family and the resentment at the demands. Again, it is all laid bare. There cannot be a more honest book than this.
Over the past 30 years, communication technology has changed. The time of airmail letters, which took weeks to arrive, was suddenly replaced by AOL, “You got mail." And then there was Skype. And now all the social media access. One migrant mother watched her child's birthday party on video. But everybody was so busy, soon they all left the computer. It was Rosalie working abroad that made that party possible. It is just a sad sad tale. The technology made it easier to communicate, but it also exposed the fragility of the relationships.
The writer's decision to write this book coincided with Rosalie's move to Galveston. And over the next three years, he was in near daily calls with the family and visited frequently. He closely followed the arrival of Rosalie's husband and three children, aged 9, 7 and 6, six months after she started work. These are children they had left with Rosalie's parents to raise. The writer so closely followed the family, he not only interviewed the teachers, he was allowed access to the classrooms. Of a math teacher, he writes that she ruled her class "with a commanding mix of warmth, authority and hard candy."
De Parle shadowed Rosalie at work (a chapter called "A Good Nurse" is a very good account of nurses' work.) (As it turned out, passing or failing the nursing test does not determine whether one is a good nurse. Rosalie turned out to be very good.) At the end of the book, the Villanuevas have purchased a new house in a subdivision where there are other Filipinos. And one can assume, they are on to the next phase of their American experience, keeping up with the Santoses.
Aside from the story of Rosalie, the book also explores in depth the plight of a cousin, Tess, who worked as a nanny. And the case of Manu, a cruise ship worker, who lost a leg in an accident on the ship.
This is an exceptional book. It is doubtful that a Filipino could have written it. De Parle is a good writer paired with subjects willing to expose themselves, warts and all. In writing about Rowena, for example, another writer might have hesitated in airing family dirty laundry like that. But De Parle had no qualms, after all, he never has to go back and see the Portagana clan again! The writer not only interviewed the subjects, he lived with them. He travelled with them. Of a trip to the Statue of Liberty, he writes, "Rosalie spent as much time in the boat gift shop as she did at the statue; it was run by a Filipino!" After 30 years, De Parle has become a Filipino! Exclamation and all.
Ms. Lily Chua O'Connor, a native of Bacolod City, is a UP graduate, class of 1971. She migrated to the US in 1982 and managed her husband's medical practice for the past 30 years. She is retired and lives in Minnesota.