Date of Award
Spring 5-18-2024
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Advisor(s)
Daisy Deomampo, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Kate Wilson, Ph.D.
Abstract
How are ethnic diasporic identities formed in host countries? How does a multiethnic setting impact diasporic identity formation? Through an analysis of “Little Manila Avenue” in Woodside, Queens, this ethnography explores how Filipinos on Little Manila Avenue manifest and enable transnational connections to the Philippines and to other members of the Filipino diaspora. It contextualizes the material culture, intangible culture, and Filipino language use that are specific to the avenue within the practices of the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora by drawing from fieldwork conducted in October 2023 and the author’s personal visits to Woodside as a Filipina-American. Guided by studies on Filipino-American communities, elements of material culture on the avenue were identified to explore the intangible Filipino diasporic practices that they index. Contextualizing Filipino products, cuisine, Christmas parols, boxes, signages, and public installations within wider Filipino diasporic practices revealed how Little Manila Avenue preserves the Filipino traditions of balikbayan, bayanihan, four month Christmas preparations, and ethnic kin networks. At the same time, it notes how those practices are shaped by historical and contemporary multiethnic encounters that occur within Philippine history and the 21st century setting of a multiethnic New York City urban streetscape. This study opens several paths to further research on urban interethnic relations, racial hierarchies, ethnic entrepreneurship, activism, and identity formation, making it a launchpad for further exploring Filipinos in New York City, other nodes of the Filipino diaspora, and urban interethnic interactions. At the same time that it opens opportunities for further research, it contributes to improving representation in Filipino American scholarship that is highly concentrated in Filipino communities on the West Coast.
Recommended Citation
Tamsi, Alexandra, "Magkita Tayo Doon, Let’s Meet up There: An Ethnography on “Little Manila Avenue” in Woodside, Queens, New York City" (2024). Senior Theses. 162.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/international_senior/162
