Life Experiences of a First-Generation Mestizo (Filipino – Caucasian) “American”

About the Book

In a time of nationwide riots and protest throughout America this is a timely work by the authors that gets down to the nitty gritty of discrimination in America as experienced by his father, his mother and himself. This author a Filipino-Caucasian mestizo tells you what discrimination is really like from a historical first-person experience as he has lived it every day and been exposed to it on the streets, in the schools and in bureaucracies of America. His no holds barred story, paints a clear picture of what discrimination really looks like, feels like and how it impacts one’s outlook on life and the “American Dream”. He tells how despite his father migrating thousands of miles to experience the American dream and his mother a white American desiring for him to live and self-actualize that American dream, he experiences being a white American trapped in a brown skin and who will never be accepted by Americans universally as a “real” American. The author offers his perspective on American biases and deceit, cleverly disguised under pretenses of justice, fairness, equal opportunity, and equality under God. He challenges the reader’s analytical objectivity and conscience to first self-assess the validity of his assertions and then walk through these pages of life experiences with him in his shoes for clarity of understanding and empathy as to the denial of this first generation mestizo’s quest to be a real American and live the American Dream. The author makes a valid case that since the anti-Filipino riots in Watsonville, California in 1919 and posting of signs in businesses reading “No Dogs or Filipinos Allowed”, the multi-cultural 2020 riots for equality and justice throughout the United States graphically show that the Heart of Americans has not changed much, if any - racism is still alive and well throughout.

About the Author

In this memoir Mr. Alfonso Fillon shares memories from throughout his 70+ years of life about how his biracial bicultural Filipino-Caucasian ethnicity caused others to behave towards him, how he responded toward them and how these interactions influenced his decisions and shaped who he is. They are memories of an American with an Asian father and a mother of Northern European ancestry. Filipinos, borrowing from Spanish, call such mixed-race people Mestizos. While the Caucasian-Filipino Mestizo-American with a blonde blue-eyed mother might recognize her or his own internal qualities inherited or learned from the Caucasian parent, white supremacists only see the superficial darkness of skin, hair and eyes and aim their hate accordingly. Thus, being a Filipino-Caucasian American frequently encountering white racists was painful, generating anger, fear, and insecurity, feelings that he desires to share with the reader. By imposing their definitions on him, the racists were constantly reminding him that he could never be a “real American.” Mr. Fillon shares stories showing how some racially prejudiced Caucasian Americans tried to persecute him and his family but he also makes it clear that he bears no grudges against those perpetrators. Many of Mr. Fillon’s Caucasian friends whom he has told of those experiences felt badly for him or even apologized for the behavior of their fellow Caucasians. He appreciates the empathy but is quick to point out that no apology is necessary and that harboring hostility towards past perpetrators would only hurt himself. The author is a proud to be an American and U. S. Military Veteran. He tears up when recalling how his father crossed the world’s greatest ocean to arrive in, become a citizen of, and raise his family in his beloved America. About the Author Narrative Provided by: Richard Tenaza, PhD, Professor Emeritus University of the Pacific Stockton California