Essay: The Manila Sound

The Manila Sound was a 1970s era of music from the Philippines that my family brought with them when they immigrated to America. A continuation of the positive post World War II relationship with the United States, the Manila Sound celebrated both new Tagalog singer-songwriters, as well as the English and Spanish artists who inspired them. Tagalog, especially now in its more modern form of Filipino, draws a significant amount of vocabulary from Latin if not directly from Spanish itself.

I was six when I heard Ana Gabriel’s and Vikki Carr’s voices for the first time in their duet of Cosas del Amor. Even before a relative told me an idea of what the song was about, I could feel the difference between Ana and Vikki’s voice. For years I remembered the exchange between The Amigas, and imagined the conversation in different contexts aside from the fears of losing a lover. Often to my own self when frustrated, I borrow from Ana and exclaim “No es posible que se pueda querer más.” (It is not possible for one to love any harder.) It may be many times that I repeat Ana’s words before I welcome Vikki’s reply: “Pensando así lo perderás.” (Thinking that way you’ll lose.)

Louder and louder I hear Ana’s voice in the students who cry for social justice. I wish to be part of the educational reform, and the genuine renewal of all educators that commit to the growth of their students. I hear in Ana’s voice the voice of a new generation that again faces adversity, resonating with the cumulative iniquities big and small that have visited me in my own educational and professional life. I move from bewilderment and despair of Ana, until the eustress and resolve of Vikki's return. Holding the sentiment space of both the Amigas, I hope to not only support those suffering, but also inspire others and create more Vikkis through the continuation and elevation of Ana’s call however it may manifest.

Today I bring a heart and mind ready to write new verses for the despairing Ana Gabirels I meet who may not yet know they are just as legendary in their own lives. Possibly not in Spanish or any spoken word at all, I await every new version of Ana that may be waiting for me beyond the proverbial door, just as in the original music video. As steadfast as the theorems in my course content, the tenderness of Vikki will never dissipate from my classroom.

As of now I have visited my Ancestral Islands only once. I left my undergraduate ID card with an uncle I stayed with during my visit. He spoke of a cousin of mine I never met, his child, who lived on another part of the Archipelago while his dad worked. He too dreamed of sending his son to the States one day to study. I have wrestled with my own privilege, and wish to express my teaching career as an infinite series, of whose terms summate the success of my students, such that as time approaches infinity, the series evaluates to the quantity of my gratitude for all gifts bestowed upon me. I have been specifically and irrefutably chosen, and no longer is doubt an element of my working set. The new Manila Sound of my present day will be built within my math classroom through everyone that would call me Amiga.