Monologues of a Mixed Breed By Alexis Matedne

The Life of Eating Rice You know youre Asian when you dont know what to eat so you settle on a bowl of rice with soy sauce, says my cousin jokingly. I say she speaks the truth. Both of us come from the same family; we grew up together eating rice, just like the Philippines family grew up eating rice together. I believe rice is an important dish in Filipino culture. I remember when I was little my family used to have big parties, and my relatives would serve so much Filipino food. At nine years old my aunt taught us how to make Bico, a sweet treat made with rice, with all my cousins. We would have contests on whose Bico came out the best. At ten years old I learned how to make rice too. Everyone in my family knows how to make rice, and we all say our lives would be different without it. Without rice, we would have to buy more food to make up for the lack of rice. We wouldnt be able to make our favorite foods that use rice as an ingredient. Rice is a staple food in the Filipino and Asian diet. Over 90 percent of rice in the world is consumed in Asia. We eat it with everything, either by itself or mixed in with the main food dish. Eating rice is how we balance out the sodium and fat of our diet, by evening out rice with other foods. We also make other food dishes from rice. My favorites are Puto, Bibingka, and of course Bico. I often ate these at parties when I was small, and I remember I wanted to make them too. Puto is a white rice cake that is normally served shaped like a muffin. It tastes like the rice batter its made from, only a little sweeter. The taste should not be too sweet like dessert, but enough to change the taste from normal rice. Bibingka is rice cake mixed with butter and eggs. Ive had it served like a flat cookie but thicker. Its similar to Puto, especially the spongy texture. Bico is a desert made from sticky sweet rice and sugary thick glaze holding it together. The rice is very

noticeable in this food, because it is like a Filipino rice crispy treat. Its just not hard or cooked crisped. The history of rice can go back to 2,500 B.C., when people started to farm rice. They first started to grow rice in China and it spread into other parts of the world. Europe began to spread rice to Spain, and Spain sent it to South America. Rice is able to grow in many weather conditions, so thats why people can farm it everywhere. Rice, for me, is one of the last things I can say about having some sort of culture. Ive felt rather Americanized to my own. Thats why when people ask the question What do you eat for dinner? I say it with pride when I answer rice! Im happy to eat rice, because I think it links me to my family and gives me a real reason to say Im Filipino. Eating rice comes from my family, and when I grow up Ill serve my new family rice too, that way they can be a part of their family and say with pride, Im Filipino!

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Protesting Without Violence Protesting peacefully is good right? Not all the time. When people hear peace they usually assume the outcome of that situation will be peaceful. Except even though passive resistance isnt using violence, a situation where someone is going against the law, doesnt sound like it will end well either. In this way, passive resistance is unpredictable, because it doesnt guarantee a positive outcome. Most people know it as a form of protesting, but the real name is passive resistance. Passive resistance is disobeying something, but in a peaceful sort of way. This is similar to civil disobedience. Examples of passive resistance are fasting, protesting, or straight up disobeying orders or requests. Some people use passive resistance because they feel they are highlighting certain flaws in a situation will cause them to change. I feel there are people who do well using passive resistance in a positive way that affect the American culture. These people can be used for good examples of positive examples to passive resistance. The famous Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American civil right activist who participated in the Salad Bowl strike. He was able to win higher wages for underpaid farm workers. Julia butterfly Hill is a woman who stayed and lived in a tree for 738 days in order to keep a tree from being cut down and was successful. Despite there being good success stories, theres times where people dont always get what they want. There was a recent event this year where UC Davis kids sat and refused to move because they didnt want college costs to go up. The cops couldnt move the students, so the officer pepper-sprayed them on the spot to get them to move. This incident proves that bad things still happen in peaceful protests. Its a bad example because even though they were

standing up for what they believed in, the students were standing in the way of college officials, police officers, a majority of people, and in the end students were hurt from the pepper-spray. It is part of American spirit to want to participate in creating a change to our country, after all America was a country made for change. On top of that, they are people willing to collaborate with others to achieve their goal. The famous American quotes that prove this point are We the People and Yes we can Americans are people who come together to get things done. Therefore protesting for what they believe in is part of the American culture. In history, many Americans used passive resistance in attempt to aid this country. Inside of our textbooks, theyre most likely to include only the success stories of our victories. However its important to keep an open mind that passive resistance wont always work in the way thats expected. Passive resistance can be a good solution, or a bad problem. It just depends for what cause and who and how people are using that power to defend it.

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When the Living Meet the Dead No matter where you go, honoring people who have died will be important to people. One holiday for this, is popular in Mexico. The holiday is named Dias de los Muertos. Day of the Dead is important to Mexican culture because it honors those who have died. There are several activities to celebrate this holiday. People head to the cemetery to be with deceased loved ones. They build private shrines or alters for specific people. The shrine includes the persons favorite food, photos of them, and other important objects that could hold significance for that person. Shrines arent only meant to honor the dead, but to encourage the spirits to hear the prayers of the people close to them. A part of the holiday is to dress up in costume or festival clothing. People usually paint their face or wear masks that look like skulls. Some women were multiple shells on their dresses so when they dance the sound could wake up the dead. Wearing bright flowers in their hair, clothing, or on hats is common too. In Mexico the festival can be taken into two parts. November 1st is the day to remember children. This day can be called Dia de los Innocentes. On these days, toys are brought to the shrine, along with candy to give to the children spirits. The next day November 2nd, is the day to remember the adults. Just like the day for the children, they bring gifts. While it may not be toys or candy, it can be things important to that person in their lifetime. Very popular symbols for Day of the Dead are skulls or skeletons. Pictures or sculptures have sketches with pieces of clothing, which helps identify them. A lady might be wearing a dress or holding flowers. Another symbol is the Marigold flower. The Marigolds are the

traditional flower of the festival. They are held in bouquets, left at graves, and placed for decoration. Day of the Dead is also celebrated outside of Mexico, like in Latin America, U.S., or Philippines. There are also festivals similar to them such as the Bon Festival in Japan, which also celebrates spirits. Although Day of the Dead is celebrated in other countries, I believe it is a main piece of Mexican culture because it is important to those who celebrate it. The holiday is a lot of fun for the celebrants and its a way to honor those who cant be at the festival themselves. When my mom was a young girl, she and her family celebrated Day of the Dead. She didnt pass the tradition of celebrating it because she believed it would be better for us to celebrate Halloween. However its not as though I never knew Day of the Dead because I learned it at school growing up. When I learned about it when I was young I wondered why anyone would want to celebrate the dead. Now that Im older, Day of the Dead sounds like a very honorable holiday. Even though Ive never celebrated it, I still believe its a big part of Mexican culture, and therefore is a part of me.

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The culture of our country When youre living in a country like America, the odds of each person individually belonging to only one culture isnt very high. America is a place where different people and their cultures come together as one. As a result, the people who live in the United States are mostly what I like to call mixed breeds. However, along the lines of what Jose Burciaga said, we think of ourselves not as a mix, but as something its own altogether. These mixed breeds are what makes up America and helps the world for better. Our community changes the world by being mixed breeds because we are opening the worlds eyes to change and acceptance. Many races in the world are made up of previous races. An example is Mexicans, who are s mix of Indians and Spaniards. When people were first allowed to categorize themselves on the U.S. census, almost seven million people claimed to be multi-racial. No doubt, the number has increased almost thirteen years later. My hope is that since America is home to many multi-racial people, we can move away from any stereo types or discrimination to races. Throughout the years, theres always been discrimination to races that are different to the discriminators. The Jews in the Holocaust, Blacks who were kept as slaves, Mexicans did the farm work, theres always been problems with the way one race treats another. If we are all open to other cultures and are willing to set aside out differences we can create this change. Since many of us are mixed with different flash and blood, we are closer to achieving this goal. Im a mixed breed of Filipino and Mexican, and was born and raised here in America.

The fact that Im something mixed is what Im proud of. America is just one big melting pot which is exactly what my mother calls my siblings and me. Im mixed along with the other people of this country, which gives me a better feel that Im part of this community. While I was writing my essays I reflected on myself and what I thought my culture was. At first, I thought since I am American, I didnt have any culture other than patriotic pride. Later, I thought it would be hard to understand my culture because Im a mixed race. I didnt know how to define my culture because I couldnt just choose one and leave the rest out. Now that Ive finished these essays, I feel proud of whom I am. I also feel proud of my pieces of different cultures like Mexican and Filipino. If Americans are all proud of whom they are and who others are, we can change the world.

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