Very Bold Words

    In tonights reading in Bold Worlds I had a revelation when reading Beetle on a String by Vince Gotera. I found that this short story about a boy who learned from his father about catching beetles and tying a string around them to watch them fly was a perfect way to describe the entire Filipino experience in America. Especially the experience Takaki wrote about in the reading this evening. In Takaki it talked about how Filipinos in America came there with degrees in engineering and medicine and so forth; and in the end they were unable to use the degrees because there weren't jobs available, they couldn't pass the education exam to certify their degree, or they were unable to be hired because they were Filipino.

     The beetles in the short story describe Filipinos perfectly they had so much potential to fly because they had these degrees to succeed yet because America (as the boy) discriminated against them and pushed them off, they were tied to a string and were unable to use what they had. In the end of the story Vince Gotera talks about the boy tying the beetles to his dresser and using them to fall asleep and they would be dead by morning. Understanding this and the work that Filipinos ended up going into coincide perfectly. When employers in America needed the Filipinos (beetles) they would use them but only short term because they were migrant workers, very temporary occupations. And then Filipinos would be pushed into another line of very low waged work or out of work completely, "the beetles die."