Saling-Pusa sa Amerika: Leaning Into Liminality for Our Justice Work in the Americas

• In Event: Vice-Presidential Session. Connecting Home(lands): Continuing Legacies of Pacific Islander and Asian Anti-Imperialism Across Oceans

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the following question: How do Filipinxs/Filipinx Americans/Pinxy young adults work toward and theorize their roles in the liberation of Filipinxs and other systemically marginalized communities in the Americas? Entangled in histories of American imperialism and the pursuit of the “American Dream,” Filipinxs are simultaneously a racialized, minoritized ethnic group and “settlers of color” (paperson, 2017). This implies Filipinxs’ complicity in settler colonial nation-state apparatuses but also realities and radical possibilities of interethnic solidarities.
I draw from Indigenous/Native American frameworks of Land Back (Longman et al., 2020) and decolonization (Tuck & Yang, 2012), as well as from perspectives of liminality (Anzaldúa, 2012; hooks, 1990), desire (Tuck, 2009), and refusal (Simpson, 2007). Additionally, using the Filipinx concept of saling-pusa, commonly translated as “informal member,” I propose a Filipinx theory of co-conspiratorship through relational support (Author, 2022) which frames Filipinx liminality as a strength and as its basis.
I used Indigenous methods of storytelling and research as relationships as my methodological foundations. In doing so, I foregrounded my relationships with my co-researchers (i.e., undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students who opted to be part of the research) to discuss and theorize our roles as Filipinx in decolonization, Land Back, masaganang buhay (prosperous life), and other concepts of collective liberation. This foregrounding entails a reciprocal relationship between us co-researchers that centers our sustenance as Filipinxs throughout the research process.
Stories for this study came primarily from two of my co-researchers’ (one is a teacher on Guam, another is a community organizer and educator in the Puget Sound area) and my photovoice blogs, which we utilized in the undergraduate class to foster critical reflective thinking as we moved about our physical spaces. Students and I took photos that we thought represented the weekly topic and/or related to the class materials, then captioned these photos with a short explanation. I also employed Zoom recordings from class, as well as field notes in the form of a teacher’s journal that I maintained over the quarters I was teaching.
Evidence suggests that we Filipinxs could “lean into” our liminal positionalities as settlers and justice co-conspirators to work toward collective liberation. This “leaning into” includes being in but not of settler colonial institutions (e.g. Grande, 2018) and doing work within and across communities. Evidence further indicates that teaching multiple theories of liberation and social justice is necessary in helping students consider robust actions in their continued resistance to imperialism.
This paper offers examples and theories on how Filipinxs can/are resisting ongoing US settler colonialism with Indigenous communities in the Americas as well as US imperialism in the Philippines. This could be additive to existing theories of interethnic solidarities, social justice education, and teaching of ethnic studies courses not just in higher education settings but also in K-12 institutions. This paper could be especially relevant to Pacific Islander and Asian ethnic groups in the United States in considering their roles and responsibilities in resisting imperialism across the Pacific.

Author

• Kriya Issa Anguluan Velasco, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author