Blog

For many of us who live in the diaspora, the word community is a healing embrace. Many of us turn to community as a refuge where the troubles of being heard are met with an open heart. Some turn to community as a means of reconnecting to one’s identity. There are those of us who create such spaces with the intention of educating and empowering folks with the knowledge and confidence to face the world carrying our Filipino identity with pride, through their craft and skills. That’s probably the reason why you’re actually part of the Pinay Collection community.  

In the Philippines, I learned to blend in with the crowd because no one wants to be that “walang hiya” who stands out and becomes the subject of everyone’s tsismis (gossip). And since the adults around me didn’t (or couldn’t) talk about what was really on their mind, despite the hardships I could see they experienced - that culture of never losing face runs deep - I got to believing that what I felt and what was on my mind didn’t really matter, either.