Blog 7: "Alienated"

The story tells of an immigrant who felt the alienation not only of his foreign home but of his own as well. The character (Filemon "Fil" Acayan) struggled to cope up with the living conditions in his new adopted home. There, he worked his ass off by taking blue-collar jobs just to stay afloat. Besides having to deal with problems at work, he also has to cope up with an environment where immigrants like Fil are treated as lesser individuals. What brought happiness to the fifty year old Filipino US Citizen however, was upon hearing that a group of Filipino dancers would visit the States. He was so ecstatic of the news that at first, he thought they were coming just for him. Having been in the States most of his life, it was his longing of that "tropical country" that made him interested on the Filipino dancers. He even volunteered on touring his countrymen around the place, invite them to eat adobo in his apartment, and show them the parks and museums around the city he lived in. He also cleaned his house, his car, and even took a day off from his job. All of this just for the Filipino dancers , which hopefully would accept Fil's invitation. Such hospitality was a display of the Filipino trademark. All he ever wanted in return was to record the dancers' conversations, voices, and singing in his recorder, a thing that would dearly remind him of the place where he grew up in. Unfortunately for him, it did not turned the way he hoped it would. Despite his efforts, he was ignored by the Filipino entertainers. He was even avoided by some. Because of this, he felt insecure, disconnected, and rejected. It was not the cold winter that caused Fil's pain, but it was the cold reception of the dancers rather that really broke his heart. Although he was able to record the performance of the dancers when he went to the theatre, he ended up on accidentally erasing the performance on his tape recorder therefore resulting to a tragic ending of the story.

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