This is the winning piece of Patricia
Evangelista during the 2004 International Public Speaking competition conducted
by the English-Speaking Union (ESU) in London. Tricia won the Best Speaker
award and bested 60 contestants representing 37 countries. The theme of the
competition was “A Borderless World”. Tricia is a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
BLONDE AND BLUE EYES
By Patricia Evangelista
WHEN I was little, I wanted what many Filipino
children all over the country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and
white.
I thought -- if I just wished hard
enough and was good enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside
my window and freckles across my nose!
More than four centuries under western
domination does that to you.
I have sixteen cousins. In a couple of
years, there will just be five of us left in the Philippines, the rest will
have gone abroad in search of “greener pastures.” It's not just an anomaly;
it's a trend; the Filipino diaspora.
