My grandparents taught me how to stand up for your rights: Apo

(Full Disclosure: Amado is my grandson – Ted Alcuitas)

Why I am proud of my grandparents

Amado Arradaza

Grade 7

My grandparents made a tough choice of raising their newborn child in the Philippines, or in a new country that they barely knew.

They chose to move to Canada. My grandparents moved to Saskatoon from the Philippines in 1968 with one child and then later moved to Winnipeg.

They were the first of both of their families to move here and were able to sponsor all of my other relatives who now mostly live in Winnipeg.

My grandparents didn’t just make me proud but also made a lot of my other family members proud. They gave a lot of the new knowledge that they learned in Canada and taught it to their friends and family members who moved here from the Philippines.

When I was younger I didn’t even know that my grandparents were the first to move here. I thought that my great grandparents moved here!

If they didn’t move here together I would be in the Philippines and would be having a completely different life with different rights so I guess this speech could also about being proud of Canada, but I thought that this topic was more interesting and I wanted to learn more about my grandparents history (and a lot of other people are doing are proud of Canada/ being Canadian.)

When I was asking my grandparents questions, I found out things that I didn’t know before, like how I didn’t know that my aunt was born in the Philippines and lived in Saskatoon for a year or how I didn’t know that they already knew a lot English when they first came to Canada, I thought that they didn’t know that much English because they use some of Filipino words when they talk and have an accent.

Another thing that I was surprised by when I found out is that my grandparents went to architect school in the Philippines for four years and when they came to Canada they wouldn’t let them be architects because they learned in a different country and if they wanted to be architects in Canada they would have to go to school for another four years!

If I was them I would be really outraged!

When my grandparents found that out I’m sure they were mad but they didn’t let it ruin their career in architecture. I can tell that it didn’t ruin their career in architecture because they got a job with the company to help the architects.

It makes me proud that they gave me a different perspective on new immigrants moving to Canada for a better life.

One way this gives me a different perspective is that my grandparents struggle of moving to Canada. Even though my grandparents knew English pretty well, I can’t imagine how hard it would be for them if they didn’t know English.

According to websites across the internet, it is harder to learn a new language if you are older than if you are younger. It was easier for my grandparents to move here but it is probably harder for new immigrants who are adults and don’t know any English. I feel really bad for them.

My grandparents also taught me how to stand up for your rights. When the Filipino dictator Marcos imposed martial law, (which is a really bad law by the way) my grandparents organized rallies and protested against it.

Even though they got hate from random people, like their house being egged at 3 in the morning, they still stood up for their rights and still had rallies. Eventually Marcos got kicked out by the Filipino people but was picked up in an American chopper by the American government because he was just a puppet and did whatever the U.S government wanted him to do.

Now when I see my grandparents at family gatherings, parties or other events, I will always be reminded of this speech and how much they have changed and how much they have gone through.

These are all reasons on why I am proud of my grandparents.

They are hard working and have been through tough times.

Hopefully this speech shows you how hard it is to be an immigrant moving to Canada. It’s even harder to move to the U.S because of all the controversy with the new President.

Thank you for listening.

My name is Amado and peace out!

2 thoughts on “My grandparents taught me how to stand up for your rights: Apo”

  1. I am so proud of you, Amado! Being able to understand the challenges new immigrants have to go through in this country in order to fit in is something that so many new generation Filipinos seem to take for granted. More power to you, Amado. Your parents and grandparents are doing a great job raising you.

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