In this small foreign body / under this heavy, twisted tongue / is the fighting spirit of / three golden stars and a sun / still gleaming with pride / even if / fifty stars and thirteen stripes try to strangle it.
Justine S. Ramos'
Halo-Halo
is a poetic Pilipino treat that exchanges the traditional components of a halo-halo-munggo beans, jackfruit, leche flan, and ube jam-for culture, history, identity, revelation, and revolution. Readers of all backgrounds will enjoy traveling with Ramos on the path toward cultural rediscovery and reconnection.
Ramos had to adapt to immigrant life in the U.S. She struggled to hold on to her native tongue, juggle cultural identities, and be the fruit of her parents' labor, in a land not made for her to thrive. She writes not only about her experiences with immigration but also about the gifts of humility, knowledge, and a passion for advocacy she found along the way
Through Ramos' fiery, whip-smart, slam-style poetry, this book is a fascinating portal into the Pilipinx identity and the collective experiences of immigrants and communities of color. Above all, Ramos insists that change, revolution, and growth are possible in unity.