About a year ago, I wrote that the word “diaspora” may not be the right word to describe – or to appropriate – the phenomenon of Filipino migration. It’s about linguistic precision; that words like “Maafa” evoke a meaningful experience to Africans, and there’s meaning evoked when you refer to the lower Hindu caste as “Dalit.” I used the word “pakikipagsapalaran” – gamble – for the sake of some linguistic precision to the Filipino experience of migration, but somehow that begs a revisiting.
I’m not a “translator” per se (only in the sense of pop songs), but the term is actually “pandarayuhan.” A root word – “dayo” – means to “visit.” Another root word – “dayuhan” – means “foreigner.” One must make distinctions, though, between “dalaw” and “dayo;” that while the former assumes that you were invited, the second one assumes force.
I think it is in the word “dayo” where we should form that narrative of our people.
