The way we, as members of the Filipino diaspora, engage with our Filipino Christmas traditions is key to understanding our history of surviving colonial and imperial oppression as well as the current structural issues we continue to face. These customs can act as vehicles for meaningful conversations and tools for our cultural autonomy and self-determination.
Christmas is not my favorite holiday. It’s easy to play off as an idiosyncrasy of sorts, easy to play into the disbelief such a startling statement elicits. I try to turn the conversation towards my favorite holiday – Halloween – and let the offensive disregard of America’s most…