Profile
My personal reactions' journey is my main focus
of this multicultural resume. The
spiritual values instilled in me at an early age helped me screen out the
ugliness of racism and allowed me to move on without begrudging anyone. I was born to Ursula Adriano Untalan and
Thomas Flores Fleming. Born in
Barrigada, Guam by a midwife named
Nankala'. I was born and raised in the wooden house
my Dad designed and built. I moved to
the mainland when I was 14 years old.
RACIAL EXPERIENCE
0 to 10 years old -
Barrigada, Guam - 1956
– 1966 Early on in our home, roles were assigned without question according to
one’s age and gender. For example, my Mom
did all the cooking, cleaning, and raising all 9 children. Cooking and cleaning were Mom’s work, the breadwinner was Dad.
Girls helped Mom and the boys did the yard. It is these early years too that I learned
that suicide is a sin, and death is entry to the everlasting life.
When I was ten years old I experienced my first racial
slur. The neighbor’s whispers about our family
name (Fleming) being ‘Americano’ and that we looked ‘mixed’, and known to be ‘of‘Gupalao’ race’,--- and I remember hearing an adult neighbor said it out in a
disparaging tone. I never repeated it to
my Mother as I considered her feelings.
Gupalao is a deragotory word for Micronesian. It was my own feelings of inferiority, for my
Mother, of her dark skin and my curiosity of how she kept to herself and her
family. Still I sensed her power of
having a deep sense of herself and probably never even was affected by mine and
others’ ignorance. My Mom’s mix of ¼ blood Filipino and
Chamorru and alas, born in Yap
Island, was immediately a
gossip item that increased as her art in the garden flourished. And still I find the need to defend her by
saying to myself little did they know that a book was written about her and the Untalan family in the
early 1930’s for their fashionable and refined
lifestyle when she was very young growing up in Yap supported by their hard
work in their Copra Trading business there.
11 to 13 years old - 1967 - 1969
Around this age I noticed that there was a unified sense
that we had to be perfect little respectful girls and separate from our peers
who were ‘wild’. We made sure we did not wear
any makeup or short skirts or else our elderly Aunties would indiscreetly pinch
us till our skin turned blue. These same
Aunties curse girls whom choose to break the unspoken rule of being virtuous.
When a group is criticized because of being different, my
mother would constructively mention all the positive aspects of them. For instance she’d say “the Filipinos have a great bustling
society with a lot more professionals than Guam does”, and shakes her head in disgust; she tells us of how the navigational
skills of the outer islanders are still practiced, then questions the locals, “why do they think they’re better than anyone?”
There was an ‘air’ of prejudice towards the Filipinos and
other small population of Micronesian in contrast to the high regards given to
the ‘Americanos’. The close-knit Chamorru neighborhood
in Barrigada welcomed the White contract teachers, inviting them to their
fiestas. As I now recall, there were no
Filipino or Outer-Islanders in our neighbor.
I witnessed first-hand the effect of such ramification of such
discrimination at Ypao
Beach. There was a big celebration happening in the
park and being that it was a public park, we freely entered the pavilion, only
to be attacked by a large angry crowd of young Filipinos wielding chains,
sticks and one of them had a machete, we ran like death upon us as fast as we
could back to the car. I did not feel
resentment against those young men.
Instead, I only felt an exhilarating episode in my lifetime. I did not know it then, but truly, I now can
say my parentsteachings on values of human kindness
from the time I could hear, allowed me that understanding of their rebellious
anger. “No group should be made to feel ashamed of themselves. (Sue, 2007, p. 20)
14 to 18 years old 1971 -
1974
Ethnocentrism
became ever-present during this period.
A neighborhood girl moved in from Saipan. Reflecting back on how she must have been an
object of curiosity to the community, because she was “Saipanese,” this girl made it her job to be
discriminatory first. I suppose having
caught wind of my parent's birthplace in Yap;
she would constantly tease me about it.
As a result of her clever and aggressive nature, she became quite
popular, needless to say, accepted quickly into the community.
Later into
my teens, I experienced injustice in the form of power of one’s position in the work place.
It happened on my first day into high school in Guam. I was late for my Counselor’s appointment; he outright called me a liar when I told him I couldn’t find his office. I learned
immediately not to trust despite having authority. The following year in California,
a racial antagonistic attack against me, chased off from a restaurant sitting
area, it hurt. It hurt most because it
came from a citizen whom I now reside with, In America. This came
at a worst time to experience socio-economic disparity. We had just moved to California 1971. In Guam,
my Dad was always a self-employed carpenter and when the H2 workers were
brought into the island it pushed him right out of the workforce. So being an
immigrant, and the bottom of the totem-pole, I felt the ugliness of racial
prejudice. Once again, I feel grateful
for my religious values, because I do not harbor ill-feelings against these anyone, but an awareness of that pain which I will never inflict on anyone
as what was inflicted onto me.
Education
University of Guam, Master of Arts in Counseling
Skills
Understanding
the diverse populations and being aware that for people to function better in
our society, I will recognize the heart and soul of the human being, his
societal group and the universal dimensions.
Referrals
Dr. M.
Artero
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