Faith, Family, and Filipino American Community Life

Methodological Appendix

165 This methodological appendix details the varied ways in which I studied the first-generation Filipino American community in Houston, Texas. In addition to describing the rationale behind the various methodological choices I made throughout the study, it addresses the key concerns that often arise when selecting cases for study and outlines more broadly the advantages these data present for studying the intersection of civic and religious life for first-generation immigrants. Why Study First-Generation Filipino Americans in Houston? As was highlighted in the introduction, Filipino American immigrants are not simply one of several groups we should be studying today, but a group we must study if we are going to fully understand how the nation’s growing foreign-born populations are changing and challenging the religious and civic landscape of the United States. Reiterating some of these key points: Filipino Americans are one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation, and the Philippines is the second largest source of Catholic immigration to the United States. Filipinos are surpassed only by Mexican immigrants in size and scope. While the Mexican case has received a great deal of academic attention, and perhaps rightfully so, the Filipino case has been sorely understudied despite their long historical relationship to the nation and their continued numeric growth. The Filipino American community today is still largely first generation, 53 percent, and thus while studying the second generation is important and will be increasingly so in years to come, given the paucity of academic work on the first generation, I felt it was important to tell their story first. In terms of location, Houston has a fairly new but steadily growing Filipino American community.As an emerging community, Houston serves an excellent location for studying how recent Filipino American immigrants, post-1965, are not only reshaping American Catholicism but engaging American civil society through communities built on faith and family. The M E T H O D O L O G I C A L A P P E N D I X 166 Methodological Appendix selection of Houston also allows for a comparative case outside of the typical studies of Filipinos’ large presence on the West Coast. Beyond the clear academic reasons for studying first-generation Filipino American immigrants, the selection of this particular group and the Houston locale was also personal. During the time of my graduate studies at the University of Texas (2004), I was fortunate to attend a guest brown-bag lecture given by Stephen Warner on the impact of new immigrants on the nation. To my surprise, in the midst of discussing the potential various populations hold for reshaping the American racial and religious landscape, he stated that we know very little about Filipino immigrants specifically and the impact of Catholicism on their lives and communities. Somewhat overzealously, I raised my hand during the question and answer period and announced that I knew a great deal about the Filipino American community. Dr.Warner suggested if that was truly the case we needed to talk more after the session. During the conversation that followed, I explained to Dr. Warner that I had lived in the Filipino American community in Houston during high school, had learned some of the basics of Tagalog—the national language of the Philippines—from friends and adopted families, was currently married to a firstgeneration Filipina from this same area––as I still am––and was raising our two children with at least one foot in the Filipino American community, metaphorically speaking. Continuing, I explained I was exploring the 1903 United States census of the Philippines for a possible dissertation topic; but given my twenty plus years of experience and unique connections to the Filipino American community , Dr. Warner suggested that I should look at the present context and read a bit more before making my final decision. After a few weeks of researching, I discovered that there was not a single study that had been written about the intersection of religious and civic life in the Filipino American community.1 The next step was obvious to me. When I told my wife about my plans, she cautioned that my particular interest in religion and politics/civic life might not be something people in the community would want to talk about or necessarily would be willing to talk about. She feared I would become frustrated. However, given the seeming importance of the work, I decided to contact people and at least gauge the community’s initial...