Giving Back: Filipino America and the Politics of Diaspora Giving

201 Pages·2021·2.691 MB·English

by  L. Joyce Zapanta Mariano

Giving Back
In the series Asian American History and Culture,
edited by Cathy Schlund-Vials, Shelley Sang-Hee Lee,
and Rick Bonus. Founding editor, Sucheng Chan;
editors emeriti, David Palumbo-Liu, Michael Omi,
K. Scott Wong, and Linda Trinh Võ.
Also in this series:
Manan Desai, The United States of India: Anticolonial Literature and
Transnational Refraction
Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Guy Beauregard, and Hsiu-chuan Lee, eds.,
The Subject(s) of Human Rights: Crises, Violations, and Asian/
American Critique
Malini Johar Schueller, Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of
Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan
Crystal Mun-hye Baik, Reencounters: On the Korean War and Diasporic
Memory Critique
Michael Omi, Dana Y. Nakano, and Jeffrey T. Yamashita, eds., Japanese
American Millennials: Rethinking Generation, Community, and
Diversity
Masumi Izumi, The Rise and Fall of America’s Concentration Camp Law:
Civil Liberties Debates from the Internment to McCarthyism and the
Radical 1960s
Shirley Jennifer Lim, Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern
Edward Tang, From Confinement to Containment: Japanese/American
Arts during the Early Cold War
Patricia P. Chu, Where I Have Never Been: Migration, Melancholia, and
Memory in Asian American Narratives of Return
Cynthia Wu, Sticky Rice: A Politics of Intraracial Desire
Marguerite Nguyen, America’s Vietnam: The Longue Durée of U.S.
Literature and Empire
Vanita Reddy, Fashioning Diaspora: Beauty, Femininity, and South Asian
American Culture
Audrey Wu Clark, The Asian American Avant-Garde: Universalist
Aspirations in Modernist Literature and Art
Eric Tang, Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City
Hyperghetto
Jeffrey Santa Ana, Racial Feelings: Asian America in a Capitalist Culture
of Emotion
A list of additional titles in this series appears at the back of this book.
L. Joyce Zapanta Mariano
GivinG Back
Filipino America and the Politics
of Diaspora Giving
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia  •  Rome  •  Tokyo
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
tupress.temple.edu
Copyright © 2021 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System
of Higher Education
All rights reserved
Published 2021
Chapter 1 copyright © 2017 Johns Hopkins University Press. A version of this
chapter first appeared as “Doing Good in Filipino Diaspora: Philanthropy,
Remittances, and Homeland Returns,” Journal of Asian American Studies 20, no. 2
(June 2017): 219–244. Published with permission by Johns Hopkins University
Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mariano, L. Joyce Zapanta, 1973– author.
Title: Giving back : Filipino America and the politics of diaspora giving / L. Joyce
Zapanta Mariano.
Other titles: Asian American history and culture.
Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2021. | Series: Asian
American history and culture | Includes index. | Summary: “Examines Filipino
diaspora through the complex of meanings associated with “giving back” and
explores the process of diaspora formation. Argues that giving-related institu-
tions and discourse-such as aid, development, altruism, and benevolence-are
integral to understanding diaspora formation today”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020013294 (print) | LCCN 2020013295 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781439918395 (cloth) | ISBN 9781439918401 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781439918418 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Filipino Americans—Charitable contributions. | Emigrant remit-
tances—Philippines. | Filipinos—United States—Social conditions. | Charities—
Philippines. | Filipino diaspora.
Classification: LCC E184.F4 M363 2021 (print) | LCC E184.F4 (ebook) | DDC
305.899/21073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013294
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013295
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my father, Manuel J. Mariano

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: “Charity Begins at Home” 1
1 Good Diasporic Returns: Immigrant Philanthropy,
Overseas Labor Remittances, and the American Dream 30
2 Homeland Disorientations: Toward Antidevelopmentalist
Diaspora-Giving Politics 58
3 Incorporating Dreams: Discourses of Poverty and
Responsibility in Diaspora 79
4 Philippine Environments and Critical Ecologies
of Diaspora Giving 112
Epilogue: Diasporic Love 140
Notes 145
Index 175

acknowledgments
I
t would be too much to hope that this book could match the gener-
osity of the people who have given me so much of their time. I never
took it for granted that I would finish college, much less graduate
school and this book, and I am deeply humbled by those who encour-
aged me to persevere through their example, kindness, and support.
I cannot help but reflect on those times that I felt in over my head
or dragged down by self-doubt, yet there was always someone who
helped me remember why I cared about this project and emboldened
me to finish. I use those moments to guide my acknowledgments,
which are nevertheless woefully incomplete.
I have been in interdisciplinary institutional spaces my entire ca-
reer, and the critiques facilitated by interdisciplinary self-reflexivity
continue to challenge my research, teaching, and understanding of
the academy. Roderick Ferguson and Jennifer Pierce helped me see
that an interdisciplinary cultural studies program would best serve
the questions that propelled me toward graduate school. I am grate-
ful to have learned from and with fellow graduate students in the
American Studies Department and my cross-disciplinary cohort in
the MacArthur Program at the University of Minnesota: Sonjia, Ma-
rie, Josh, Sharon, Hoku, Fernando, Amy, Kate, and many others. This