Vagabond Multilingual Journal Spring 2014 | Page 9

Philippine Parisienne

Philippine Parisienne
Phil, le Parisien
Philip in Paris—Seine
Phil lippin’
arisen

David Russell

Philip pines par Seine

Philippine Person
Philippine
Parson
(Philippi Arson)

Philippine n’a pas raison?

Philippine ou
Paris
en

Philippi
n’opération—

Philippine

à

Paris

est

sin

Philippine

Apparition

by Jewel Pereyra, UCLA
“Philippine Parisienne” is about Filipino diaspora and cosmopolitanism. I play on words, both in English
and in French, with the meaning “Philippine Parisienne” identities, and how the sounds can be construed
into different meanings, most likely through language barriers and cultural differences. While traveling
abroad in Paris, I met few Filipinos and they didn’t identity as Filipino immigrants or Filipino-Parisian.
Many were much older and had children that moved to France, mainly for employment reasons, and so
they stayed with them after retirement. Moreover, while in the cityscapes, I saw movie posters of Metro
Manila (2013) everywhere in the metro stations, Quai Branly museum showcased a special exhibition of
“Philippines, Archipelago of Exchange,” and I read a movie review on Brillante Mendoza’s movie Lola
in the city’s international paper Le Monde. With the poems’ scattered lines, French phrases and gaps, I
contend that a culture is there, artistically, but the people there, as citizens, are rarely found. Thus, there
are “Philippine Apparitions” within the Filipino-Parisian disapora.

- Jewel Pereyra

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