Chinese Connections

My eyes alone be speak of my ancestry. Even though I have the biggest eyes among my siblings, haha, yet people in the Philippines identify me as Chinese despite this my brownish complexion.

My heritage is complicated:
A. On my mother’s side:
1. I am a 5th generation Chinese, descended from Yu Sui Fon (Sui Fon Sero) who married Latipa Sapi, a Muslim royalty princess from Cotabato City.
2. From this union sired Kadidong Sero who married a rich Chinese merchant named Lu Shio Khun.
3. My maternal female forebears since then had been marrying Chinese men down to my generation.

B. On my father side,
1. I am a natural born Filipino, begotten of Francisco Ledesma; who was an illegitimate child of Jose Uy (a Chinese) and Maria Ledesma from Jaro, Iloilo.
2. My father was born of a Filipina mother in the Philippines, but he was brought to China as an infant and raised by a Chinese mother.
3. He came back to the Philippines at the age of 17.
4. He left Iloilo for Cotabato and married my mother Mary Go near the end of World War II on April 4, 1944.

C. In Cotabato, I grew up in a Chinese community. I studied at the Chinese school. I speak Fujian language at home, specifically the Xiamen dialect from where my maternal grandfather came from.

D. The maternal side of my family was rich and landed. My grandmother was modern in her outlook. She sent my mother for better English education in public high school and my aunts to the Notre Dame School for Girls in Cotabato. My mom and her siblings all speak good English, fluent Chinese and Maguindanaoun and many other dialects.

E. Regarding Chinese philosophies and ideology, from my father and maternal side of the family, they were more loyally inclined to association with mainland China, than Taiwan. Yet our schooling taught us to hate communism in its entirely by the Koumintang.

F. But I am a baptized Catholic and I practice my religion faithfully.

G.  Yet there is no conflict there from all the above complex situations. We all live in harmony, together with our community despite affiliation, ideology, education and creed. Family members quarrel only when money is involved and gets really ugly into the picture. Hahaha.

H. How do I consider myself? I am a true, and blue, and red blooded Cotabateno.

Presently I live with my husband and the Tan’s family. My husband Lucas is a second generation Chinese in the Philippines. Both his parents came from Xiamen, China. He was a naturalized Filipino citizen under the new constitution during the Marcos time. He is a law abiding citizen and teaches all his children to be so. Our children went to the same Chinese school in Cotabato. But they speak more Tagalog than Chinese. They are also more fluent in English than Chinese. My eldest son Roy lives in USA and owes his allegiance to the United States. My second son Tom looks more Filipino than Chinese, even in complexion. Emil, my third son is married to a Mexican American who resides in the Philippines. My grandchildren are totally Chinese illiterate, non Chinese speaking and no Chinese schooling. Hopefully when they grow up, they will still remember their Chinese ancestry and be proud of it.

Meantime, whatever ancestry we belong to, let’s pray for China and its people. Let us pray for our own country too. May the Wuhan corona virus be contained as soon as possible. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.