Patron Saints Of Nothing By Randy Ribay

Have you ever heard of the term "assimilation"? Many children of immigrants have experienced some form of assimilation of their culture, whether it be not knowing their mother tongue or having little knowledge of their home country's history. These skills and knowledge are beneficial to understanding our own cultural identity, without it we find it difficult to grasp our self-identity. Our values and beliefs are set by our identity because it is where we find our fundamentals in societal roles. Our emotions can also impact our identity, since how we feel makes us unique to other species. In the novel, "Patron Saints of Nothing", Randy Ribay, discusses how our stance on our cultural identity can lead to a struggle on how we perceive the world

Sometimes, we don't realize how much influence our culture has on our personal identity; even something as simple as the language we speak can reflect on the way we see ourselves. The main character Jay in the "Patron Saints of Nothing" had repeated experiences where he could not relate to the issues he faced in the Philippines because he did not live there. “Jay, it's easy for us to pass judgment. But we don't live there anymore, so we can't grasp the extent to which drugs have affected the country.” (An Improvement to Society) Jay's mom explains how their small disconnection from his culture impacted their views on the issue at hand. In the next chapter, "A Narrower Country Than Expected" Jay's friend Seth tells him " I forgot you're Filipino", which connects to the idea that when we do not take responsibility for our cultural identity, others can end up making these generalizations or "forgetfulness" towards our identity. There are also many areas in the novel where Jay says that his relatives said something in Tagalog or in Bicol but he just could not understand, putting him at a major disadvantage to his surroundings. Consequently, these disadvantages turn into major issues revolving around our own identity due to the fact that we can't find connections to our culture. The history we know and the experiences we face influence our self-identities in view of the fact that the past affects the present and what we