Coming Home

Juan, born and raised in Alabama, feels one hundred percent American. But other Americans don't see him as one of them. Following some experiences with exclusion, he decides he wants to be a Filipino, like his parents. He spends a lot of time in the sun to darken his coffee-with-cream complexion and learns to speak Tagalog. During Christmas break, his mother takes him on a trip to the Philippines-a place she still considers home and that has always served as a refuge-to help him become a Filipino.

But in the Philippines, Juan finds that Filipinos, even his relatives, consider him an American. They laugh at his wanting to be brown. His cousins, with whom he has expected to develop an easy camaraderie, fall off their chairs whenever he tries to speak Tagalog.

For Juan, like so many children of immigrants, the struggle to assimilate while also developing his own identity is a challenging, sometimes heartbreaking, and an ever evolving process. Set in the 1980s, Juan's story will ring true with anyone who's ever experienced the search for identity in a multicultural setting, or anyone who's ever struggled to fit in.