This interview was done by David Alfonso Castro, my son, with my mom, Fely Bation in Cebu, Philippines. The recording was supposedly for StoryCorps but reviving it here on the podcast as one of our Wicked Thoughts special episodes.
We interviewed her days before the pandemic quarantine and travel lockdown. This was when we realized that her trip back to Los Angeles was not going to happen anymore. She had to stay in our tiny unit in Cebu City, Philippines together with my aunt for three months after this interview.
My mother is a senior residing in LA and working as a nursing assistant to elders. She left the Philippines around 2001 leaving her husband and four young children to look for work and greener pastures in America.
Here she shares her story on how she survived being an immigrant and eventually a resident in the USA away from home and family.
She was able to go home to Los Angeles, USA after the March 2020 lockdown in the PH. She plans to retire and travel soon.
Episode 22 - A Filipino Immigrant Working Mom's Untold Story