My Home is Across the World
November 2017-December 2018
I photographed Filipino immigrants of varying ages who has moved and scattered in a diasporic movement from the Philippines. Unlike ethnic groups like Chinese and Mexicans, Filipinos do not have a set area or city like Chinatown or Pilsen that they can claim as their own. Instead, they are scattered across neighborhoods and cities. I found Filipinos, some who I knew and most who were complete strangers, within my own community. Through interviews, I explored the complexities of Filipino immigrants of different ages as they struggle with nostalgia and memories of their homeland while simultaneously sharing similar aspects of immigration experiences, stories, and creation of a hybrid identity. They kept or reconnected with their Filipino identity while struggling to adjust and create a new American identity in a new country. They struggled and had victories to get to where they are today.