Jose - Migration Story

JOSE, KATE JULIANNE O.
1ST YEAR BS ARCHITECTURE

MINSTUD 1
To be frank, I vaguely know of my ancestors’ origins. Both my parents are mixed blood
Filipinos whose grandparents and great grandparents come from a long Chinese and Spanish lineage,
but the stories of their migration have not been often shared to our generation. There are only bits that
I could pick up from conversations made in reunions, family gatherings, and even wakes, but the quite
interesting ones are mostly from my father’s side. Perhaps it had helped that my great grandmother
was still around to share the very few stories she could recall to which my aunts and uncles loved to
indulge in.
From what I gather, the stories they know dated back as early as 1910. My great grandfather,
at age 12, ran away to the Philippines with what was left of his family to escape the life of insane
poverty and suffering in China. China, at the time, was apparently in crisis with the Japanese invading
them. They came by boat and because there were not any formal processes in their migration, they
were basically considered illegal immigrants. They had to avoid established societies in Luzon, so
their boat took them to Visayas, specifically in Leyte, where they casted away their family name to
completely seal off their identity. I was told that if the circumstances had been different, my father’s
family would have carried the name “Yap” instead of “Jose.” However, the details of how they
decided with “Jose” were extremely vague. One thing’s for sure is that the Jose’s in other parts of the
country were not exactly our blood relatives.
Anyway, back in Leyte, my great grandfather met my great grandmother who was working as
a “tindera” for a high store employer. They got married shortly after, and when they decided to move
to Mindanao, it was for the same reason as many Visayans. The working conditions for peasants there
were extremely poor, and my great grandparents wanted to own a permanent land they could cultivate
on their own. Besides that, they said it was no longer peaceful for them in Visayas as issues
concerning the Commonwealth and the Americans started to arise. When they heard of Mindanao and
all its unclaimed land and impenetrable mountains, they packed their bearings and ventured towards
“the Land of Promise” along with other Visayan families. I asked my father if there was an instance
where they met members of Moros or Indigenous groups, but he said that my great grandparents never
really specified. He assumed that it was probably very rare to meet them as most of Mindanao was
covered in dense forests. It is also unclear how my great grandparents ended up in Davao del Norte
among all other places. I only knew that they did not settle for Davao because the mangroves made it
impossible to.
Settling in Davao del Norte made life very peaceful for them, especially for my great
grandfather who had spent most of his running and hiding as soon as he set foot on that boat heading
towards the Philippines. Even during the second World War in 1940s, my great grandparents had not
encountered any attacks from foreign invaders nor native groups. They still had to keep hiding for
safety but the stories my great grandmother shared were more domestic than dangerous. She
mentioned to us before that for the period of war, they had to endure not eating their food with salt to
the point that even their sweats started to taste bitter. It was hard, in their own circumstances,
constantly finding ways to get resources secretly in fear of an attack but she said that she was thankful
that their family at least survived the war without even seeing or hearing a Japanese around. When the
war was over, my great grandparents continued to cultivate the land they claimed for themselves. My
father said that because there were no specific “rules” to owning a piece of land back then, the one my
great grandparents claimed was approximately a hundred hectares until the government started
intervening around 1980s or so.
Based on the narratives presented, I see how my great grandfather has remained determined to
survive throughout his journey from China to Mindanao. I feel that he had quite a strong sense of
judgement being able to quickly make a decision based on the situation, from the countless of times
they had to flee to avoid danger.

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JOSE, KATE JULIANNE O.

1ST YEAR BS ARCHITECTURE

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