The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America

by Pati Navalta Poblete

A funny, poignant memoir of growing up in California with a house full of immigrant grandparents presents an altogether honest and engaging portrait of generational strife and the clash of values in a Filipino American household that seeks to maintain its ties to family and homeland. Original.

Genres: Asian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

125 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[geraly]

although i enjoyed the book and related to the story (being a fil-am who also lived in a multi-generational home), i didn't love it. and i really wanted to love it...

but i've read other coming of age books with a similar immigrant theme, and i didn't find this one very original. there wasn't enough there - language, characters, dialogue, the pacing - to compel me to read or feel empathy for the narrator or her grandparents. sadly, i almost felt the urge to read it just to get it over with... :(

i'm always glad to read & support the works of fil-am authors. although this wasn't a hit for me, i think this would make a good intro into the genre for my daughter when she's a little older.

[Kristin]

Pati Navalta Poblete tells the story of her four grandparents coming from the Philippines to help her parents raise her and her brother in the U.S. Through much of her childhood she resents the Oracles (her nickname for her grandparents) intrusion on her American lifestyle, as they make her wash clothes by hand, wear different clothes, and participate in other Filipino customs. As an adult she is grateful for her grandparents' influence and even wishes her grandmother could live with her again. It was interesting to read about the conflicts between first and second generation immigrants and think about the stories of my students. Poblete is a gifted storyteller and the way she describes events and emotions makes her writing fun to read. Thanks Rob for another good book recommendation.

[Stewart]

Pati Poblete's book is a fascinating story of her growing up Filipino-American in the Bay Area in the 1970s and 1980s and the influence, which was sometimes contentious, of her four grandparents on her life. It's well-written and tightly focuses on her subject. I worked with Pati on the copy desk at the Vallejo Times-Herald in the mid-1990s. She went on to work at the San Francisco Chronicle and Honolulu Advertiser.

[LeGrand]

this memoir tells the story of a young first generation
filipina/american being raised by her parents in america.
for various reasons, the authors parents bring both sets of grandparents from the philipiines to help raise their daughter.
i LOVED the way in which the author grew to understand the world of her grandparents and grew from disliking them to loving them.

[Anna]

Pati narrates her frustrations with and embarrassment by her four Filipino grandparents who live with her in America as well as a later appreciation of her heritage and her grandparents' storytelling.

[Mariel]

I was blessed with an opportunity to listen to the author read from her own memoir. Listening to her, reminded me of the deep appreciation I have for our culture and the lolas and lolos that came before us. Her stories were a true joy and listening to her added so much more.

[Jessbop]

I needed to read a Filiino memoir and this is what I read. I am also reading a couple other books with stories from a Filipino perspective for a counseling diverse populations paper due this semester.

[Bobby Roy]

It brings back great memories.

[Jennifer]

Excellent book! I enjoyed hearing about her grandparents, and I am seriously thinking about using it in my class next year!

[LonewolfMX Luna]

The book gives an insight on the Filipino-American cultural traditions as viewed from the author & the lessons she learned about her family through her visiting grandparents.

[Jennifer]

This was such a charming book that completely nailed the experience of growing up in a multigenerational immigrant family. Through Poblete's retelling of her childhood, I was able to finally appreciate everything that I remember feeling so embarrassed about as a brown kid growing up in America. Her close relationships with her grandparents shed a lot of light on traditions and superstitions that had just seemed weird and stupid to me growing up. And I love how this memoir gives another option of what grandparents can be like in America apart from the standard Apple Pie & Apron Granny children of the 80s grew up with as standard.

[Iz]

I found this at a used bookstore and I was drawn to it because I'm always trying to think about what being Filipino-American means to me... I think the book could've ended without the last 2-3 chapters but I also see value in wrapping up one's personal story (and how the author intended this to be for her kids to remember their history and her own identity exploration). I'll be passing this forward to my students.

[Mandira Srivastava]

You get a glance into the life of a first-generation American and growing up trying to balance your culture of origin and the culture you live in; finding relatable aspects in both but not truly belonging to either. It was a short memoir and I wanted to know more, but I appreciate the author sharing her experience in whatever capacity she could.

[pia]

I screamed i cried i had multiple revelations

[Melissa Fondakowski]

The Oracles is a gripping, funny, human story of a young girl growing up in two worlds simultaneously: one, as an American teen in the 80s being raised by her immigrant parents in Northern California. And another, as the granddaughter of two sets of Filipino grandparents whose home is in the Philippines--but who come to the States to help their children raise take care of their children. The book invites every reader in to relate to what it's like to be raised by more than one set of parents, to be raised in an inter-generational family, to be raised amidst two or more often conflicting cultures - and to be a teenager in the wild and weird 1980s. Highly recommend!

[Rachielle Sheffler]

I found the book while doing research on Filipino Americans, and was delighted that the author’s grandparents were Ilocanos, from the same region of my own ancestry.

I read it in one sitting. It is a short book told with a journalist’s eye rather than a novelist’s. Thus, the story is told, not shown nor developed slowly to reveal the characters.

This does not take away the beauty nor the value of the book. I liked the book for its tenderness and sentimentality that only hindsight can offer.

[julianne]

3.5

[Lizelle]

omg I am filipino!

[Paul]

Review at asianamlitfans.