Melissa Palma

Excerpts From We The Interwoven

“As an Iowa-raised daughter of Filipino immigrants, the places where I find community are varied and diverse. Despite our extensive history with the United States, Filipino-Americans often grapple with issues of erasure and colonial mentality. Inundated by messages equating assimilation with success, I witnessed how the effects of race, class, and language can twist one’s fate. It is revealing to call a place home that no one expects you to be from.”

— Artist Statement

“I first saw the son on my way through the TSA security gate. A small hand scrubbed off the fuchsia imprint of his mother’s lips from his cheek, his complexion that of the undulating Chocolate Hills from his ancestral lands. Ang galing naman! A Filipino boy of perhaps age five or six. His face stared back at me, haunted as the Visayan blood, I assumed, that flowed through his veins. Holding a papaya-orange tablet, complete with foam bumper case to guard against the enthusiasm of childhood, he was adorned with a penguin-shaped cross-body satchel and a winning smile.”

— ORD to CID