I had to say straight out, that I usually don't like to talk politics or religion with anyone, unless I feel that I am close to them, or that I trust them enough to open myself up about these two topics.
I have had my share of good and bad experiences especially when it comes to politics and religion.
It has been a long process for me for both topics and the beginning of this process I would have to say started when I was 17 and went to college. That was a critical time for me because it was the first time I was out of my parent's house and the first time that I could truly develop my individuality and how I defined culture, politics, religion, identity, etc. This is of course, a constant journey, but that is the time when I remember the deep soul searching began.
When I was in college, I double majored in Sociology and Social Sciences with a concentration on Multicultural Studies. So I studied social groups, organizations, society, different cultures, mainly African and Asian American culture, because growing up in Los Angeles, where Latino/Chicano culture is prominent, I felt that I had a good grasp already with that history and culture. But most importantly, what came out of this was I tried to take every class on Philippine and Filipino American culture that was available. I took classes on religion and I took classes on politics and these were my best classes. Not only academically, but what I learned from them and how they contributed to my personal development. There was a balance of what I learned in the classroom and what I experienced from the day-to-day, comparing my past experiences growing up, being raised in a Filipino household in America, and how that made up my identity today or even when I was in college. I spent so many afternoons in the huge park in the middle of my college campus by myself on so many afternoons, meditating and writing about my life and the things I was learning about myself. Fortunately, when I started to have access to travel, it opened my mind even more and what I thought was me was transforming, my beliefs, my perspective on life, my views on things, started to expand thru conversations with others, myself, and even personal experiences. This is what contributed to the creation of how I see politics, identity, and religion today. Because this has been over a 10 year process, it is also indeed a personal one.
So where does the art come in? Because I define myself as an artist and artists are constantly creating, I too had to create what religion, politics, and identity meant to me. Asides from what we are told from the media. Asides from what my religion was because it was my parent's religion or the dominant religion of my culture. Asides from the politics that were taught to me because I was living in America. I had to ask myself on numerous occasions what does all of this mean to me and how is it that I want to live my life according to what defines me and not what is defined by an institution or another individual.
They say ignorance is bliss and it is also an easy way out because research and going deeper into yourself is not always an easy process, in fact, it was a very difficult one for me but a rewarding one in the end. It helped me define how I saw the world, what kind of job I wanted to have, what kind of people I wanted to associate myself with, on my terms by what I believed in. It brought about a lot of tremendous growth, and it still is.
Bottom line for me, if it divides and causes destruction, then I am not about it. I would rather build and connect. That is one of the sole purposes of my life and is how I want to live it.
Everything has good, everything has bad. With religion and politics, I have learned to take what I define as good and as an artist, I have created it into my own. When people ask what religion I am, I say I am spiritual and not religious. What people ask me about my political beliefs, that may envoke a longer conversation, but nevertheless, I can tell you where I am at. Whether you choose to agree or disagree is your opinion, in the long run, I hope we can connect and build from what is good between us. That is all that matters to me.
